The WordsManShip

Author: The WMS CEO

The Best Article Directories Analysis Series XVI: A Difficult Mistress, Helium.com

Page views be damned, it is literally the respect of your peers that will get you far in this site

Update: Helium has shutdown its revenue sharing arm which various content services used to use to supplement their revenue.

After its inception in 2006, Helium.com was pitched as an alternative to Wikipedia. In its six year run, the site has barely achieved the global popularity that Wikipedia has. While the latter has become a part of internet lexicon, Helium took a tangential detour in the kind of content it provided. But mind you, we state this not to belittle the site.

Helium.com had the sense to provide content services the liberty to post personal content. The site is not just an online information database but rather a conducive platform for business marketing and SEO, and a very popular one at that.

Strengths of Helium

Helium.com has a peer review system which every contributor relies on. The number of views your page gets will hardly be a criteria to judge the quality of your articles. If it doesn’t pass the benchmark set by your peers, your page simply won’t prosper. This may sound unappealing, but we, at The WordsManShip, believe such system in fact filters all the poppycock content out of the site. Those who aren’t convinced should contemplate buying SEO content.

It was only through stringent systems like these that article directories were saved from turning into article farms in the past and the strength and quality of contributors proves this fact.

Furthermore, this, we believe, would push content services to provide great content rather than key word filled drivel. Users should also note that, being contributors, they wield equal powers in content assessment.

Writers are also encouraged to promote their work by writing blogs linking to Helium, or posting links on MySpace, Facebook, forums, social bookmarking sites etc.

The site is also useful for writers who are merely intent on earning passive income. One can also sell the article they’ve posted on the site. Helium.com is a difficult mistress, but provides some liberties that few other websites offer.

Weaknesses of Helium for Owners of Content Services

The various measures that are meant to maintain strict standards in writing sometimes can be of great inconvenience for content services. For one, each article posted is reviewed individually. This can often cut short the popularity and loyalty an author might have amassed. In fact, it almost makes it a necessity to engage article writing and article marketing services to sustain here.

The site has limited titles and the creation of new titles requires the approval of the board of the website. This might be of inconvenience for people offering unique content.

The site does not pay very well either in manner number of page visits. 1.25-2.00 USD per 1000 page views is a simple case of reaping too little for a achieving a whole lot. All things considered, an average article earns about 5-10 cents a month, which is either less, or just enough, depending on how you choose to see it.

This rule might have been bit more justifiable, had the minimum word limit of an article not been 400 words. Not that 400 words are significant by any count, but the average remuneration is rather disillusioning. The minimum word limit on the other hand is an aspect we would label as strength.

Opportunities with Helium

It is worth mentioning that Helium.com has over 100,000 users worldwide, many hailing from professional content services. So if you happen to jump through all the hoops that the site puts forth, you are likely to have a respectable page and a veritable list of clients. Clients, who may include readers as well as contributors.

The site has also been improving its interface, which means the number of features on the site is likely to provide more scope for your business and content promotion.

One must also keep in mind the opportunity to have your article purchased by other users, websites and content services.

Threats with Helium

Helium.com, due to the peer review system sets a benchmark which can be hard to measure up to, leave alone acing it. It will be required of content services and writers to not only optimize the content accordingly, but also fashion it coherently. To reiterate, it almost becomes a necessity to procure SEO content and hire the services of article writing as well as article management services.

October 3, 2012
The Best Article Directories Analysis Series XV: A Facade of Mediocrity; Ideamarketers.com

The site conflates a sea of humble aspects to get a superior and popular whole

Update: Ideamarketers.com has been shutdown because of the changing trends of content marketing on the internet and possibly to preempt future Google algorithm updates.

Ideamarketers.com is a stalwart in the article directory game which hardly goes to say it’s an industry leader; it just says that it’s been in the game longer than most have. The site’s SEO stats are veritable but not enough to solicit any envy. In fact, the same goes for most other aspects related to the site. One can only surmise, that the confluence of these elements have contributed to the site’s moderately high page rank.

Strengths of Ideamarketers in Terms of Ghost Writing

Ideamarketers offers many services that ideally should be provided with an article directory. These services are not obligatory but the people behind Ideamarketers had the perceptive business sense to integrate them in the site. The site offers tools like ghost writers, Expert opinions, Newsletter builder etc. which can help you package your content better.

The site also provides users the opportunity to get listed as experts, if you justify your expertise. This qualifies as an excellent form of authorship recognition as well. Furthermore, the site provides additional authorship recognition by employing different (read fun) forms of author rating systems, which we’ll let you discover yourself. In addition to this, it is useful for people affiliated with the media industry, as it allows access to various press releases and various media news.

Incidentally, have we mentioned the vastness of Ideamarketers’ subject categories? The site’s list of topics in each and every subject is expansive. You are presented with topics which you never knew even existed. This should be indicative of the site’s accommodation of unique subjects. Maybe the list is not as exhaustive as we claim it to be. But the fact is; the number of sub-topics you can explore is overwhelming.

Weaknesses of Ideamarketers

Ideamarketers’ homepage can encourage no potential user to explore it. The page itself is a vast assortment of article from random topics just strewn about, in no general order. The list of categories is inconspicuous at the bottom of the page and the page epitomizes ‘haphazard’. The organization of the page makes you wonder, however will any reader notice any article?

All things considered, Ideamarketers’ has an inferior SEO static. It has an Alexa page rank close to 4,400 and a Google page rank of 4. The popularity of the site is a different aspect altogether, but when it comes to influencing the SERP of your content, chances are that you might get trounced pretty quickly.

Opportunities with Ideamrketers

Given the ghost writing feature as well as other content building services that you can avail from the site, your content can be fashioned more coherently. You can design and model your articles according to the needs of your business and the appeal and reach of your target audience. Ideamarketers has its own article management services which it offers to potential internet marketers. However, it is important to note that we, still, recommend that potential clients compare multiple other SEO article writing services so as to find the best solution possible.

The authorship recognition of the site can be its most propitious aspect. If you manage to get yourself enlisted as an expert and are further reviewed by your users, your following is bound to expand exponentially. As we keep repeating, nothing is better for your business than the respect of your peers.

Threats (Issues) With Ideamarketers

Due to the site’s rather inconvenient homepage, one will have to take great pains to be featured in a convenient location, which is usually nearer to the top of the page. You will also have to ensure that you are reviewed by as many users as possible which of course circles back to the same problem of getting noticed. It is advised that you seek out content services and SEO article writing services, not just recommended by the site, but the ones you trust.

October 1, 2012
The Best Article Directories Analysis Series XIV: Apsense.com; It’s So Much More

Apsense Rises Above Being A Social Media and Article Directory Hybrid and Provides A Melange of Business Opportunities

In our previous entry, we conducted an analysis of Gather.com, and praised it for its Social media feature. Apsense too is an article directory that offers social networking features, but only describing it as an article directory would be giving it the proverbial short shrift. In fact, it is as erroneous as calling a Swiss knife, just another razor. While Gather.com particularly dealt with social networking, Apsense is an internet Hydra which branches out to various facets of business networking, one of which is an article directory designed for article writing for SEO. Of course, Apsense’s guiding tool is the social media feature.

Strengths of Apsense Article Writing for SEO

For an online business venture, Apsense is pretty much like CostCo. Members will get everything under one roof.

Setting up an account in Apsense will save you a lot of work with regard to business networking. Articles should be fairly easy to circulate within the site given its social media feature. You can further scour for business associations and clients with the various members and groups that you’ll find with the help of the tabs ‘Revpages’, ‘Groups’, ‘Brandpages’ etc.

Such features also help you construct your profile more coherently and spread your reach amongst the members. You can firmly establish your standing and attain business attention with your brand alone, whatever your business maybe. By establishing your brand, we are referring to the site’s brand creation feature that lets you customize your own brand.

The article category page is rather elaborate and provides a plethora of topics to suitably categorise yourself in with article writing for SEO. If you happen to deliver unique content sourced from article writing services, you have the scope to be a Leader yourself. This would be predicated on the kind of content you are able to bring to the site.

Since you are functioning in a site that has social networking as one if its features, your adroitness and penchant for networking can gather you the requisite popularity. Moreover, the site enjoys a Google page rank of 4 and Alexa page rank of 2,997. This ought to increase your odds.

Weaknesses of Apsense

You might think we couldn’t find any other significant flaw in the site to specify authorship as a weakness, but the fact is authorship is crucial in every site and absolutely vital in a social networking site. Apsense has a tab that displays recent users, but not their profile or article they’ve contributed. The article section is even worse with a section in the corner, which barely draws any attention, being devoted to the author behind article writing for SEO.

It would also be quite normal to assume that a site this professional will somehow barter in good content. The trend coasts somewhere above risible but the content is hardly on par with the best the SEO industry has to offer in terms of SEO content.

Opportunities with Apsense

Apsense, due to its sections like Talent, Revpages, Brandpages etc. provides opportunities to gain popularity in multiple forums and sections. You can post content in different categories in all these forums for a wider dissemination of your links. Technical writers and content writers should be able to juggle the primary three topics with ease.

Threats (issues) with Apsense.com

Given the three different platforms in one site, care has to be taken that the content you provide is apt and caters to the readers of the forums. The articles have to be fashioned in accordance and disseminated, regardless of your specific article writing for SEO metrics. Then only shall your name grow in all fronts. The focus should be to hit the mark with every article, lest you end up losing out in all the sections.

To provide consistent content periodically in all primary sections (we don’t mean categories), it is advised that one seek the help of article management services. It would be of additional help if these content services specialised in SEO article writing as this means greater visibility.

September 26, 2012
The Best Article Directories Analysis Series XIII: Gather.com, a Juggernaut of an Idea

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?

September 24, 2012
The Ever Increasing Significance of Guest Blogging

How an Important Concept of Internet Marketing Like Guest Blogging Can Come To Embody the Industry Itself

Since the penny was dropped by Google in the form of Panda and Penguin updates, the concept of guest blogging has gained even more importance in the marble halls of internet marketing. In pre animal update days, people valued guest blogging as one of those aristocratic forms of article marketing which were used only by highly principled online entrepreneurs and affiliate marketers. However, nowadays, guest blogging is being adopted by virtually every internet marketer, online entrepreneur, affiliate marketer and article marketing service.

Panda and Penguin Updates, Resounding Successes

Looking at the trends, it is more than evident that Panda and Penguin updates from Google managed to do exactly what Google wanted them to do i.e. encourage webmasters, online entrepreneurs, affiliate marketers, internet marketers and SEO content providers to focus more on high quality content. As mentioned earlier, there is a higher level of circulation of guest posts since the updates. There is an increase in coordination between various blogs in exchange of content and hyperlinks.

A Higher Number of Clients Asking For Guest Blogs

From our own article writing service perspective, we have noted a significant change in the behavior of clients. More and more of our clients are categorically asking for content to be written with the view for guest blogging use. While, for us, this does not influence much in terms of operational change because we always maintained the quality of our content at those levels, it is still a significant specification from clients who, earlier, would generally ask for just SEO articles or SEO content.

Even though we do not have highly trained behavioral experts, this simply shows us that clients, themselves, are becoming more conscious of how to use the content. Therefore, in our humble opinion, Penguin and Panda have not only affected established methods but are also affecting ingrained and usually hard to dislodge mindsets.

Increased Requests for Posting Guest Blogs on Our CEO Blog

Another crucial trend since these Google updates which were quite divisive in the internet marketing community is an increased request from all kinds of sources for guest posts on our own CEO Blog. There is, at least, a 30 to 40 percent increase in the requests that we have received for guest posts on our blog. While it is true that these numbers are more ball park than inch perfect, they can still reveal a trend.

You may state that you have not seen a rise in the number of guest posts on our blog but that is only because increased number of requests does not mean that the quality has improved. [Update] On the contrary, as guest blogging becomes more popular, its quality is steadily declining. In fact, it has come to a point where many established experts are even calling time on the entire concept of guest blogging [Update End]. It has As a content writing and article marketing service, it is imperative for us to maintain a certain level of content quality. After all, nobody wants to be a moron or, for that matter, an oxymoron. A content writing service that posts poor content on its blog is just that, an oxymoron.

Will There Be More Updates Rolled Out By Google that will Affect Guest Blogging?

The month in which Google is most likely to roll out paradigm changing updates is just past i.e. August. There were three major changes in this period. These were penalties for repeated copyright violators by Google praised by most article writers, changing search results to seven per page for certain keywords and an update for Panda which did not result in groundbreaking changes.

The window for such changes is till September and since the month is half gone, we believe that the changes are done for now. Still, we believe a disclaimer pointing to Google’s inherently unpredictable nature is in order.

September 19, 2012
The Best Article Directories Analysis Series XII: Geek Utopia; Articlesnatch

Articlesnatch Has Very Little Crowd Pleasing Elements. Heck, It Doesn’t Even Try. So What Is The Reason Behind Its Enduring Success?

Although a plethora of websites trump Articlesnatch in SEO stats, the website somehow manages to win our respect. The site, true to its motto, is simple, free, fast. It eschews pandering to a generic audience and opts for presenting professional content and that too in a manner so plain that it borders on the unattractive. Perhaps it is with these qualities that the site found its legion of followers of countless web writing services (whose numbers are north of 350,000) in its 7 year run.

Strengths of Articlesnatch For Web Writing Services to Use

Articlesnatch is platform optimised to help you procure business. An article can contain more than three links in its resource page. You can also post a link in the article for every 100 words. Few other website offer similar prospects for posting links and procuring back-links.

Articlesnatch also happens to be a strictly no-nonsense site which doesn’t imply its plainly business oriented or its visitors will not appreciate fun, off-kilter content. It’s that, the site emphasizes on quality of content and relies on dependable web writing services. Not that other websites don’t, but the fact is you are less likely to come across articles that are SEO rigged but offer little in the way of content.

The site also has an assortment of topic that is larger than few other databases. The site seems to take popularity into account. Therefore, any topic that might have been relegated to a sub-category in any other site irrespective of its demand and popularity will find a well deserved promotion as a major category here. Think about it, where else will you find ‘Cancer’ or ‘Press releases’ being prominently advertised as popular categories?

Weaknesses of Articlesnatch

The site has an Alexa rating of 6275 and a Google page rank of 5 making this the first site in our reviews, apart from goarticles.com, to have a page rank below 6. This happens to be a strength and a weakness. Strength, because attaining such SEO stats is no mean feat and a weakness because one can do much better. In fact, there are at least ten odd article directories which rate above articlesnatch in popularity.

Articlesnatch doesn’t give due consideration to making its pages easier to navigate. New visitors willing to explore the site will be put off by the cluttered congested mess that is its homepage.

The page advertises no content in particular and doles out an unwieldy list of articles to visit. The articles may be arranged in accordance to popularity, but the disregard for specifying the category may discourage viewers and web writing services from exploring them. But then again, as we said, the site doesn’t stoop to pandering.

Opportunities with Articlesnatch

If professional content is what you deliver and a professional clientele is what you are seeking, then Articlesnatch is worth tapping into. This accompanied with the fact that you can post multiple links in a single article increases the probability of visitors converting into clients.

Soliciting the help of article writing and article marketing services will easily help you to reach out to the content obsessed audience that this site boasts of.

Weaknesses (Issues) with Articlesnatch

Since the site has restricted features to advertise your content, you’ll have to solely rely on quality content drawn from quality web writing services to gain visitors. Furthermore, the site has limited features to popularize authorship which means that it becomes imperative for every article to hit the mark.

Unless you are confident that you’ll deliver a steady stream of high quality content, it would be wise to recruit respected web writing services and maybe even engage in article marketing SEO with their help.

September 17, 2012
The Best Article Directories Analysis Series XI: Articlebase; The Article Directory Next Door

With loads of pleasing elements and special emphasis on authorship, Articlebase seems to offer something for everyone

Established in 2005, Articlebase presents itself as a site which aims to please. From actively offering gateways to social media to dynamically highlighting its contributors, Articlebase seems to reach out to a wide audience. The site since its inception in 2005, has expanded its lingual reach to Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, French and Hebrew readers. Why Hebrew? you may think.

This may be owing to the fact that the article syndicate is based in Israel. Towering well above most article directories, here are some of the reasons behind its quick and staggering success with SEO writing companies, and some reasons that’ll diminish your opinion about it.

Strengths of Articlebase Ideal for SEO Writing Companies

Articlebase, apart from its various merits, perhaps benefits most from the fact that it is one of the top ten article directories in the world in terms of popularity. The traffic is decent enough to help it procure a Google page rank of 6 [Update: its now 5] and an Alexa rating of 1,699. All of this in spite of the no follow tag, which many a times can be a death knell for an article directory from the perspective of SEO writing companies.

The site in its homepage itself shows all the telltale signs of an audience oriented website; the accessible social networking links, the prominent advertising of authors and contributors, editor’s picks of top article pieces in the site. In fact, the site is molded adequately enough to emphasize the fact that articles will find greater visibility and accessibility here.

The site also allows for web analytics tools which users can avail so as to track visitor traffic and ascertain the popularity of their articles. In fact the tools are so extensive that the users can chart the number of visitors in different timelines. This will be particularly helpful for business administrators who hire content writers and SEO article writing services to keep a tab on the efficacy and output of their services.

And, not to repeat ourselves, the site offers a lot of options in the way of Authorship recognition for SEO writing companies to leverage. Since ours is a website that deals with content writing and SEO, authorship to us and our subscribers offers a lot in manner of brand and business.

Weaknesses of Articlebase

Articlebase, truly if one notices, doesn’t exactly give due consideration to its content and categories. It highlights it’s most popular articles along with its latest free articles and shines a spotlight on prominent contributors. But the site provides little in the way of advertising the top news of every section. This indiscriminate and impartial nature of pushing popular articles to the audience differs wildly from other article directories; which prominently advertise top articles from most categories.

As this feature manages to streamline audience, it may sound like a positive but the fact that contributor’s article may lose out on viewership because some other piece in a tangentially different subject overtook it in popularity sounds a little disconcerting, especially for SEO writing companies looking for quick results.

The no follow tag is another significant undoing of the site. For a website which wonderfully advocates authorship, the no follow tag stands as a bit of a loss. Brand establishment and identity just isn’t as efficient if the business is not able to acquire the needed backlinks.

Opportunities with Articlebase

The site, due to its wide access to social media, can really assist you in disseminating your articles through various channels and engaging more audience.

Since the site has at least three tabs where your articles can be advertised in, your articles are bound to get more easily noticed. This, along with the popularity of the site can jointly help in the dissemination of the content.

Threats (issues) with Articlebase

Considering the popularity of the site, as well as the remarkable number of contributors, SEO writing companies, no matter how lucrative their content (or business), shall have to deal with stiff competition to get noticed. The articles will need to be fashioned in accordance.

You can notice from the content available in the site that, the administrators truly believe in “brevity’ being the soul of wit. The content should be crisp, yet written in a manner which achieves maximum SEO.

Article writing for SEO and article submission for SEO also has clearly stated strategies behind it. A web administrator can easily access the strategies behind it. Much easier, also, is the option of availing SEO article writing services. All these would be predicated on the urgency of the goals.

September 12, 2012
The Best Article Directories Analysis Series X: The Tortoise That Almost Won the Race; Suite101.com

A stalwart among article directories, Suite101 may not head the pack but has a following that just won’t quit

Started in 1996, Suite101 would seem like the grand-old daddy of article directories. The site took almost a decade to hit it big and through slow perseverance, has amassed a wide and expansive following amongst web copy writers. Perseverance we say, because few other sites could survive a staggering 60% loss in readership after the infamous Panda update. The site soon wised up and sprung back on its feet. At present it boasts of over 8 million unique visitors per month and has expanded its lingual reach to German, French as well as Spanish. Of course, in spite of its popularity, the site has its infirmities. Why else do you think it’s still not at the top yet?

The Strengths of Suite101 That Web Copy Writers Can Use

Suite101 is a collaborative publishing site which means that a contributor will be paid in proportion to the advertisement revenue that the article generates.

The site has a stringent applicant approval process which may sound like a weakness but guarantees the coherence of language and content in its articles. While users have the liberty to contribute articles, it is regularly monitored by editors who will help in ameliorating the quality of the content. The retention of quality in its articles is one of the prime reasons behind the site’s success; and users will learn that it’s by riding on this reputation that their articles will also gain great popularity. Added to this, the site has a Google page rank of 6 and an Alexa rating of 2,584, which has is should provide reasonably high SEO leverage.

The site’s page is pretty immaculate and boasts of a wide plethora of topics for web copy writers to make use of. These topics are standard and not off-kilter like what other directories tend to offer. We, at the WordsManShip, may advocate innovation but we also commend elegance in simplicity when we see it.

The page is also easy on the eyes and the content is simple to chart through. If you follow our blogs, ‘Uncluttered’ was again a characteristic we appreciated in an otherwise deigning review of Buzzle.com.

Suite101 has also has a quality rare to find on the web these days. The site steers clear of the bane that is internet trolls. Since the site is constantly monitored and edited, the forums and discussions are mostly clean and devoid of unpleasant banter from trolls.

The Weaknesses of Suite101

Even if your articles do become wildly popular in Suite101, the page will not accrue the same popularity in here as compared to posting the same article on leading platforms. The difference will actually be quite apparent to seasoned web copy writers. The same is the case with the revenue generated through ads. The articles posted in Suite101 do not earn the same revenue as the same content posted in a different website, in spite of having similar number of hits.

The site will also try to limit your content to 400-500 words. This is the limit usually prescribed by the editors of the site. While one may appreciate their emphasis on brevity, one has to consider the fact that advertising your business through limited content space is rather restrictive.

To provide a more holistic perspective on things, being constantly overseen by an editor can at times be a pest. Catering to the editor’s whims and demands might, at times, take a chunk out of your productivity.

The site also provides little recognition to contributors, web copy writers, and editors. This is again restrictive if you want to promote your business because authorship is really imperative for such goals.

The Opportunities with Suite101

The site provides wonderful opportunities for Search Engine Optimization. In fact Suite101 encourages it. Contributors have the liberty to attach three or four links in a single entry itself.

Since the links are “do follow” in nature, the user should have no trouble procuring a decent number of back-links. This is particularly useful for aspiring web copy writers.

By soliciting the help of appropriate article marketing services and SEO article writing services, you can quickly capture the audience’s attention without having to go through the motions of gaining the site’s slowly accrued approval and popularity.

The Threats (Issues) With Suite101

The authorship issues with Suite101 may be one of its primary undoing. As we maintain, lack of authorship recognition is simply unacceptable for any internet marketing professional. There is little else that a user would crave (except for increased revenue). This would particularly be a problem for budding online entrepreneurs. However, soliciting help from article marketing companies can help such people.

A web copy writer would also find the limited content space an impediment to work with. One has to surmise that the site became more stringent after the ‘Panda punch’ that it had to weather after the update kicked in. Crisp and polished content is what a user would require.

September 10, 2012
The Best Article Directories Analysis Series IX: an Article Directory down the Lines of Ezinearticles; Ezinemark

While Not Considered In the Top Ten Article Directories, Ezinemark Is Well On Its Way There

We, at the WordsManShip, have been doing SWOT analyses of article directories for unique article writers with this being the ninth edition of the ongoing series. In the previous edition, we did a review of Buzzle.com, an article directory that is on the decline with respect to internet marketing and the use of SEO articles to create backlinks. Now, we have set our scope on Ezinemark.com, an article directory which is on the up. Here is what we think of it.

The Strengths of Ezinemark for Unique Article Writers

Ezinemark is an article directory that boasts of, according to our humble opinion, one of the cleanest home pages in the article directory segment. Its home page is clean, uncluttered and contains clear instructions and directions to article writing service providers and internet marketing experts on how to upload SEO articles.

The website, in addition to this, boasts of a decent Google page rank of 4 and an Alexa rating of 4,934. These numbers, as on the time of this review, easily put Ezinemark in the top 15 article directories active on the internet right now.

It is also worth mentioning that the turnaround time of Ezinemark is fairly small as articles get reviewed and published well before 48 hours from the point of their submission. This is something that unique article writers will really enjoy.

The Weaknesses of Ezinemark

While there are not many weaknesses of Ezinemark, there is one very glaring anomaly that needs to be given due attention. Even though we have not come across this problem personally, there are reports on the internet amongst unique article writers, internet marketers, and content or article writing companies that Ezinemark has a tendency to take articles on the internet and post it, itself.

However, the website plays it safe by opening an account in the name of the unique article writer if there are any formal complaints or notice of infringements. After the new user account is opened and turned over to the actual author of the articles, it is up to him to delete it or keep it.

A certain type of shifty behavior to say the least but, at least, it is few and far between and they try to abide by the laws. Do not be surprised if you suddenly become an Ezinemark author without your volition.

The Opportunities with Ezinemark

As mentioned above, the website is one of the better designed article directories on the internet, which brings its own indirect benefits.

Additionally, the SEO articles that you will be publishing on Ezinemark can contain one link within the body of the text. Furthermore, this can be further augmented by unique article writers with two links in the author bio section.

Once the SEO articles are uploaded, you can, of course, get the benefit of the websites decent Google page rank. Its Alexa ratings reveal a decent amount of traffic as well, so you can expect significant click through traffic as well. Ezinemark also requires authors to provide a summary.

The Threats (Catch) With Ezinemark

There are barely any threats or catches pertaining to posting SEO articles on Ezinemark or hiring an article marketing company to do it for you, apart from the above mentioned fact that Ezinemark tends to be a little too proactive about gathering authors.

The Google page rank of Ezinemark is not smashing and can only be described as ‘decent’. What this means is that if the projects that you hire unique article writers for are small in size and number then you may do better by focusing on article directories with better page ranks.

On the other hand, if you are interested in hiring an article marketing company, like us, for a bulk project, then you should indeed consider Ezinemark as one of the twenty or thirty or so article directories that you are targeting.

September 5, 2012
The Best Article Directories Analysis Series VIII: The Dead Behemoth; Buzzle

Once there was a coveted land of plenty, now there is nothing but ashes and dust

Are there any web copy writers on the internet who have not heard of the name Buzzle? Can any of you claim to be more than 15 and below 60 and not know of Buzzle? Highly unlikely. We, at the WordsManShip, thought long and hard whether we should review Buzzle.com in our ongoing Best Article Directories Analysis Series which last saw examiner.com being tested.

The reason why we were so unsure about doing a SWOT analysis of Buzzle was how far it has come from being one of the article directory behemoths for internet marketing professionals, article marketing companies and article writing services. However, we came to the conclusion that the good and the bad of the article directory world needs to be reviewed, especially if its page rank is 6 [Update: 5]. So, here we go.

The Strengths of Buzzle for Web Copy Writers

If you run an article writing company or are one of the many web copy writers online then you may have come across clients who came with an explicit request to use Buzzle in their internet marketing strategies. There are two reasons why clients are so big on Buzzle and these are its rankings and its already well established reputation. Buzzle has a Google page rank of 6 and its pedigree is further augmented by an Alexa rating of 2,001.

However, more than all these ratings and ranks, the main reason why many clients categorically ask for Buzzle to have some of their SEO articles is the kind of reputation that Buzzle had only an year or so ago when it was the gloried child of the article marketing golden age.

The Weaknesses of Buzzle

Buzzle was huge before the Panda update rolled out. Unfortunately, like a lot of article marketing directories, the Panda update ended up killing Buzzle standings as well. [update: Buzzle has since recovered, more or less]What followed was one of the biggest faux pas, at least from the internet marketing viewpoint, known in the world of web copy writers ever. Buzzle implemented a large scale review of its content and ended up removing all marketing based articles while, at the same time, bringing about a policy change where it now allows no hyperlinks anywhere on its website.

That’s right folks, no links anywhere in the article, in a resource box or even the author bio. Zip links, zip page ranking potential and zip click through traffic. This is the biggest weakness of Buzzle, especially for web copy writers. It is no longer useful for article marketers and, in fact, since its reviews has seen a mass exodus of internet marketing experts and SEO articles writers from its database. If you are not getting either link juice or click through traffic then why would you bother with an article directory like Buzzle?

The Opportunities with Buzzle

The only thing Buzzle can be vaguely good for is writing for fun or writing for practice. If you one of those web copy writers who don’t have enough work and are so downtrodden that they need to spend some recreational time writing then Buzzle is for you. All this amounts to one thing.

There are virtually no opportunities for any article marketing company, article writing service provider, internet marketing professional, affiliate marketer or online entrepreneur when it comes to Buzzle. Turn away, turn about and go home, there is nothing so see here.

The Threats (Problems) Related To Buzzle

The threats section of the SWOT analysis of Buzzle would be quite redundant for SEO articles writers, web copy writers, and internet marketing experts. Even so, just in case, we have managed to gather followers who are not from the internet marketing world (pigs will fly), here it is. When you create an account with Buzzle and apply to become an author, you will have to wait around two to three days. Subsequently, when you start posting content, you would have to wait a day or two for approval.

The content is well segregated but, as mentioned earlier, they do not allow a single hyperlink anywhere. We think your time and money towards internet marketing can be spent on anything else except paying to get SEO articles uploaded on Buzzle or doing it yourself.

September 3, 2012