Article directories host a number of varied articles, though some directories narrow their niche by only hosting content that is of a specific topic, limiting ezine article submissions. Other directories are more general, and behave more like a database system in which publishers and writers participate—typically at a monthly or yearly premium. Yet other directories conjure up the feeling of a market, like eBay, and update users in real time (on article statistics, link statistics, usage and download statistics, keyword statistics, etc.).
Ezinearticles.com is a popular and highly active example of an article directory. Here, writers can start up a basic account and submit their first 10 articles for free. Before doing so, however, the site and its other writers encourage you to read its terms of service and its rather explicit writer guidelines for ezine article submissions. The popularity of the article on the directory typically corresponds to an amount of traffic to the article’s cited URL. The writer’s ultimate objective may be to increase a blogs readership (and increase revenue from advertising) or to increase sales of a particular product (typically digital products, such as ebooks; but can also include hard products such as power tools). The general rule is: the bigger the user base of a directory, the more closely your article’s popularity will correspond to actual traffic.
The ezine article submission process is easy enough. The only snag that there might be for you is with punctuation. Each directory runs on unique software that treats punctuation in its own way, so check with the site’s editorial and ezine article submission guidelines before you actually write the piece; this way you can incorporate these rules into your document. When you’re prepared to submit your first article, there’ll be 6 basic parts to the submission form: the article’s category dropdown, the title text field, the summary or abstract textbox, the article textbox (article-proper or body), the keyword association textbox (you’re typically allowed 3 associated keywords per article; sometimes this works like a tags form), and most importantly the resource and signature page.
If you’ve missed a few of the guidelines (regarding punctuation for example), the form or webpage will return an error message when you attempt to submit. No error doesn’t mean that your article’s passed muster. Your article will be reviewed, typically by a human proof reader or editor. Some directories take a lot longer than others. A short turnaround time is what the more competitive directories use to lure in new customers and writers.
If ever your article’s approved, the writing goes live on the directory and is then available to its registered publishers. If your article isn’t approved, you’ll be notified by the human editor that caught errors or quality issues with your article. A directory will have particular rules about how often you can violate guidelines and terms of use before your account is terminated. If you’ve been notified by an editor or rejected more than twice in a row, then there’s something fundamentally wrong in the way that you’re understanding and following the ezine article submission process that we’ve described here.
