There are enough content service providers who recommend instructional articles; there is a reason for it
Entrepreneurs have a hard time finding the optimal market for their product. More difficult yet, is getting the word around for their products. This is why one has to be aware of the proper platforms to market their product. The internet being the gargantuan labyrinth that it is can a bit tricky to navigate.
Sure Search Engine Optimization helps, but that needs certain acumen to get right. Finding the right avenues for SEO is crucial in many ways, especially for entrepreneurs with businesses that may cater to a “niche audience”. (For the rest, the world is possibly their oyster)
The New Best Article Directories Analysis Series
In a continuing series of entries, we, at the WordManShip.com, will review the top most article directories and our intention is to provide you with a detailed SWOT analysis from the perspective of content and SEO writers. We do not claim to be connoisseurs or critics of how to administer a website since it is a fickle and an ever evolving process that few seem to have the reins on.
The following will merely be helpful points of assessment to help you make an informed decision on which article directory to tell your content service provider to write for how easy or difficult it will be for you to leverage its page rank.
As to the question of how we select the article directory to analyze, it’s a simple confluence of high traffic, possible incentives and a good amount of randomness so as to ensure fairness since there are a whole lot of websites out there. But be assured, the entire collection of websites that have caught our fancy attract quite a lot of traffic and, therefore, are filled with promises of a good business opportunity. We begin with the How-to master – ehow.com.
The Strengths Of eHow.com for SEO Writers
Garnering a formidable Alexa rating of 128 and Google Page Rank of 7, eHow.com is not conventionally an article directory but a content website. In fact, if you go to any third party website on the internet that ranks generic content websites on the basis of their usefulness, you would see eHow at the summit of the pile or thereabouts. The website offers user based entries on a vast collection of topics which are arranged categorically based on the subject.
Moreover, it is crucial to note that eHow also accepts how-to videos along with articles. The biggest usefulness of eHow comes in the form of the structure of its content. The very basic how-to format is very useful to get through to any customer owing to its instructional nature as there is a lot of demand for how-to articles in the online community. SEO writers will cherish this avenue of marketing.
The Weaknesses Of eHow.com
While eHow.com is a wellspring of online information, it has one flaw and that is the unholy No follow feature of its site. What this means is that any backlink that you create through this website would have with it the dastardly No Follow link that would prevent your website from getting any SEO related juice from your posted content.
In addition to this, eHow.com is said to be one of the websites that took a major hit due to the recent updates from Google. However, as you can see from the page rank of seven, the website seems to be doing fine.
The Opportunities With eHow.com
eHow.com boasts of a very high traffic simply because of the type and quality of its content. This can be highly beneficial for online entrepreneurs and SEO writers. Let us explain with an example. Imagine posting a how-to article on how to paint a glass window on eHow.com with a link in the resources section to your website that sells painting kits.
Any visitor interested in your article would be planning to paint some glass windows and, hence, may use the link at the bottom to purchase the painting kit from you. Even though this is a crude and basic example, it captures the idea of opportunities with eHow.com perfectly i.e. you get a chance to convert already targeted audience.
The Threats (Difficulties) With eHow.com
Now, barring the painful No Follow attribute which will prevent the link juice to flow from eHow.com to your website, the above mentioned information on eHow.com must have made an impact on you. Furthermore, when you see eHow.com sitting pretty on top of most article directory ranking tables, it is likely that you would want in on the action along with other SEO writers as well. Herein rests the biggest problem with eHow.
eHow is not like other article directories in that it allows all SEO writers to post articles. Instead, eHow has dedicated content writing professionals that it hires on an individual basis. In order to have an article posted at eHow, you either need to join its ranks of authors or find a content writer who is already a part of eHow.
If you choose the first option then you would need to apply to the company managing eHow.com i.e. Demand Media Studios. Their requirements are not very difficult for a good writer. They need an online form submitted, a content sample and the most recent resume. The resume needs to show that you either have educational qualification in journalism or an associated field or have experience in the content industry. Your writing sample will need to show your ability to simplify complex concepts, your grammar skills and your encyclopedic style of writing.
Finding SEO writers who already have an approved account with eHow can be a little difficult and you would have to trawl through various digital products marketplaces to look for them. Alternatively, you can hire a professional content writing service capable of writing the how-to article for you, but it is unlikely that you will find any content writing service that already has access to eHow.com and would be able to post the article.
With the above SWOT analysis, we hope to help you make a choice on whether you want to put in the hard work to leverage the traffic generated by eHow or not. In the following installment, we will take a closer look at ezinearticles.com, an article directory that is particularly friendly for online entrepreneurs looking to hire content writing service providers.
About Author
