The Unlikely Mixture of Social Media and Article Directory Attracts a Staggering 4.4 Million Monthly Visitors
Perhaps the first in our Best Article Directories Analysis Series, Gather.com is an article directory that also doubles as a social networking site. This is not one of a kind concept as one would think it is since there is a myriad of websites that offer similar services, but none have achieved the astounding success of Gather.com, whether you consider article writing SEO or SEO related social networking. Established in 2005, the site has become a strong media figure for great many article writing services owing to its social networking aspect.
Strengths of Gather for Article Writing SEO
Gather.com greatly simplifies the concept of article writing SEO in terms of article directories. The social networking aspect can greatly help in propagating your content through primary and secondary contacts that you will establish with different users.
Given that you can interact with other users, there is a surety that your articles will not fade unread into obscurity. Depending on how active you are, you could get your content read and further disseminated with varying degrees of success.
The issue of author recognition doesn’t spring up since you are pushing your content and business on the virtue of your name. Plus, each of your article updates will instantly be sent to your followers. Unlike other article directories, neither will you have to make an effort to get noticed nor will your visitors forget your existence.
The ease in procuring feedback should be an added advantage. Since the site is also, part social media, it should also make it much easier to interact with prospective clients. Gone are the days when you had to choose between links to post in an article. Here, you just have to seek your target audience out and prospective business association. Of course, they can seek you out as well.
Weaknesses of Gather
Gather.com’s complacency in its concept leads it to provide very few article categories. In fact, the categories are so generic and few that the site could pass for a nascent article directory. People seeking niche subjects will exit unfulfilled and businesses seeking to sell unique ideas will find that they fit nowhere. Members can create groups pertaining to their own ideas and subjects but this is a site that primarily looks to break news about important subjects.
This also makes one wonder about the standard of article writing SEO that one can find here and the low benchmark that contributors can coast by. Niche target audience usually tends to be pedantic about the content that it looks for. One will have to provide a steady stream of constant content to retain its reputation and social standing.
Lastly, or not, would it kill the site owners to expand their article sections and advertise its top contents more?
Opportunities with Gather
Other than what you may have inferred from the strengths section, you can surmise that personal interaction with readers and clients is an aspect that actually adds to the entire concept of article writing SEO. Due to the social media aspect, there is a distinct possibility of your content gaining rapid popularity within the site if it manages to impress those few vastly connected contacts.
The word of peers always helps one travel far. This could later travel across different sites as well. To reiterate, you can also befriend contemporaries in your business and work for your mutual benefit.
Threats (issues) with Gather
Gather.com has the trappings of Social networking sites. Since, the audience receives a barrage of articles and content from the various sources it subscribes to, there is a distinct possibility that unless your article doesn’t instantly catch the reader’s fancy, it will most probably go unnoticed. Therefore, it becomes imperative that you appropriately title and fashion your articles.
The lack of advertising adds to the need of fine-tuning your articles. With adequate help from article marketing services, you might be able to get your content prominently visible in the homepage of the site. Nothing like a little article writing SEO to boost your business, eh?
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