Not so long ago, article directory scripts were sprouting up all over the Internet marketing scene along with promises of AdSense riches using nothing but other people’s content. Adopters had seen the success of the likes of EzineArticles, ArticleCity and GoArticles to name just a few and now was their chance to sit back for an easy ride on semi-autopilot.
What these adopters didn’t realise was that maintaining the type of article directory that authors and publishers would visit again and again took hard work.
First there was the set-up. Unless the directory was customised, it would look and function just like any of the hundreds of other directory based upon the same script.
Then there were the bugs. The people who had sold them their article directory systems were marketers and not programmers who appreciated the importance of concepts such as testing and maintenance. Their primary concern was to get their scripts developed as cheap as possible and ready to market as soon as possible. The signs were that the pent-up demand was about to be met by a wave of similar scripts so time was of the essence. Thorough testing would have only slowed things down and the rush was about to begin.
Of course, this eventually led to the inevitable; exploits. Like dominoes, the directories succumbed to the will of the web hosts who pulled down directory after directory as they were being compromised through the same weaknesses. Instead of distributing syndicated content they were sending out masses of spam and consuming large amounts of server resources in a runaway fashion. The fact that so many directories hadn’t been customised and so could be searched for by the default text made it almost too easy for the crackers.
Those who were determined enough to get their systems fixed or to seek out better supported systems were then faced with another hurdle; the articles! With so many people wanting to syndicate their content, owners of directories with even a whisker of PageRank would quickly become swamped with an endless number of submissions.
At first, the novelty of reviewing articles was enough to keep them going. Once this had worn off, the process of reviewing would become a chore that would ultimately culminate in a number of choices:
- Open the flood gates and accept articles without a thorough review.
- Abandon the directory for something less time consuming.
- Stick with it. Perhaps even hire some people to carry out the review process.
It’s my opinion that most people who rushed into the directory business settled for the first two options. Those were the easiest choices, but also the ones that would sound the death knell for the directory. Publishers weren’t interested in empty directories or those filled with articles spun so many times over that they read like they were composed by soul-less machines. And genuine authors didn’t want to submit content to sites which wouldn’t result in their work being read and so all that was left was the automated, spun content submissions.
So, if you ever feel like complaining about article directories having quality requirements that are draconian, remember that maintaining an article directory isn’t easy and that maintaining a directory where people will keep coming back is even harder.
If the review processes are keeping your articles out then perhaps they’re doing their job as they were meant to!
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Great article, with great points. Their are thousands of article directories out their that all have the same crap content.
I run an article directory at, informativepost.com that actually reviews articles, and the review process is a bit daunting, but fortunately we have a few people reviewing articles and it isn’t just me.
It is amazing at the number of submissions that we get from people that can’t write in English well, and the other people that submit crap that has already been submitted to hundreds of other locations.
It is truly amazing.
Hi Douglas,
Thanks for stopping by. I’ve dabbled with running article directories in the past so I can appreciate just how much work they can be.
Do you only accept submissions via your website or is your directory fed by any distributors e.g. iSnare?
Do you have any stats on how many submissions you receive daily and how many are accepted/declined?
Way to keep me coming back!
My directory only accepts articles via the website, and we get many per day. But we also decline a lot per day.
I don’t have the stats in front of me right now however. The main reason for the success is that we pay people to submit the articles, as well as the traffic the authors can bring to the articles that get published.
So there are a lot of incentives for authors to write and submit content to our site.
Hiya,
I have a pretty comprehensive free resource page of over 200 article directories, and the ones categorized with the highest Google PR rank usually follow the system you mention here (ie. quality requirements).
And along with some new ‘up and comers’ (recently established directories that have a good formula and will probably rank high soon) there are also some gold nuggets in the Niche directory section…
Even if their Google PR isn’t high (yet), getting an inbound link - and targeted eyeballs - from a similarly themed article you submit there is probably considered quite favorably by Google etc - if the website you link to from it is also about the same topic, that is.
ie. you submit an article about dogs to a ‘dog’ or ‘animal’ themed niche article directory, and in your article there’s a link to your website about dogs.
I linked my name here to the resource page, so check it out if you’re looking for articles or want to submit your own articles (or article directories).
- Steve Gerard
Hi Steve,
That’s a pretty good list you’ve got there.
Thanks for the heads up on it!
Douglas,
Do you have any ballpark percentages of total accepts and declines of article submissions?
I’ve never seen that type of monetary award system for authors before although I have seen systems base upon sharing AdSense revenue i.e. an article author gets their publisher ID assigned to the ads that appear on their articles when displayed through the directory.
How do you think your reward system compares to one based upon Google AdSense?
A ballpark estimate I would presume to be around 60% accepted, and 40% declined.
Comparing the reward to adsense, well, I have a few authors making around $30 per month writing articles and bringing traffic to their articles.
I have never seen authors get paid over $30 a month from the adsense earning on their articles.
I own an article directory and it is true that they are hard to maintain if you want a good reader base. I once had the site achieving around $100 per day, though those days are long gone due to the hundreds of article directories now existing with all the same articles. Unless you have a great amount of links and a lot of unique content, I think it’s very difficult to make a lot of money with a new article directory nowadays.
Douglas: Thanks for the insight!
Jon: Do you review all of the submitted articles yourself or do you have hired help?
No hired help, just a few other people willing to help. All of whom have college educations.