Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this may be the most shocking article anybody ever read coming from me, a die hard article marketer. Well, one thing I’m not is a dreamer. I look at things quite realistically and call them for what they are. So that’s what I’m doing here. If you want to know the real truth about article marketing in 2010, read this. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Let me start off by saying no, article marketing isn’t dead. But it is certainly on life support. Shocked to hear me say that? Well, it gets worse. But in order to understand why, you need to get a little history on article marketing.

Up until about 2007 or so, very few marketers knew about article marketing. It wasn’t considered a really big way to get traffic. But the smart folks knew that content was, and always will be king on the Internet. So they wrote articles, put them on their sites and also started submitting to directories, like the one you’re at right now reading this.

Then Travis Sago came out with Bum Marketing, which is essentially a simple method for writing articles and making money from affiliate marketing…and the sky fell down…literally. Every marketer and their grandmother started doing Bum Marketing. Suddenly, article directory traffic started to skyrocket, which was great for the directories. Not so great for the other marketers.

See, one problem with Bum Marketing, no offense to Travis who is a great guy, is that it leaves a lot of room for abuse. What kind of abuse? Well, crappy articles to say the least. You should see some of the dreck that so called article marketers put out. It got to the point where the article directories with any standards at all had to change minimum word counts, ban certain categories and even get rid of many writers.

But the damage had been done. Look up just about any topic at all these days and you’ll find more articles on that topic than you can shake a stick at. The competition has gone through the roof. The days of writing an article, submitting it, and getting 300 quick views are gone. That same article, today, gets maybe 30 views before it dies a quick death.

Therefore, in order to get more traffic from their articles, ironically, article marketers have to generate traffic TO their articles. So all kinds of shady things go on that I won’t mention in this article because I don’t want to give anybody any ideas. Point is, the “by the book” article marketer is behind the 8 ball. He’s competing with countless of marketers doing whatever they can to increase those views.

If I had to start all over today, and didn’t want to stoop down to the level of some of these people, I’d probably be a total failure as an article marketer. Fortunately for me, many of my old articles still bring in a good number of views each month and account for my 10 to 20 opt ins each day.

I told you this article was going to shock the hell out of you. But that is the state of article marketing today.

Having said that, if you pick good niches, do your keyword research, write quality articles, construct killer resource boxes and have an offer that is close to impossible to pass up, you can still make some money as an article marketer.

As much as 4 years ago?

In my opinion, no.

The golden age of article marketing is gone.

But it was fun while it lasted.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Sick of not getting your articles read? Fed up with resource boxes that don’t get the job done? Want to write articles that will turn you into a killer article marketer? Get my book on article writing and marketing located at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html - This is my own book written from over 30 years of writing experience.

There is no doubt about it. It’s not 2006 anymore and the glory days of article marketing are long dead and gone. Long live article marketing. I know this article is going to ruffle a lot of feathers, but somebody has got to let you in on the real deal or you’re going to be working under a premise that simply doesn’t exist anymore. While I can’t possibly cover everything in this article, I will cover the main areas where things have changed…drastically.

For one thing, if you’re submitting articles to article directories, the standards have changed. Directories are a lot stricter today than they were years ago. For example, I just recently edited an article from a few years back by changing the resource box. When I went to resubmit, even though the article itself didn’t change, it was initially rejected because the keyword percentage was 2.8%. Years ago, this was fine. But now, with Google cracking down on keyword saturation, anything above 2% is toast. So I had to do some keyword cutting to get the article approved. So standards themselves have gone up.

In addition to that, the niches themselves have become more saturated. There are more article marketers out there than ever before. So you have more people fighting for the same piece of the pie, or in some cases, even less of the pie where markets have actually decreased in demand.

Then of course you have competition from other sources of promotion. You have things like Facebook, Twitter, Squidoo and other web 2.0 platforms that are making it harder for article directories to rank. Years ago, if you found an article on a particular subject, it was most likely from an article directory. Today, that isn’t necessarily the case. You have a lot of niches where your top results are now video and NOT articles at all. YouTube has become a powerhouse for the SERPs for many niches that used to be dominated by articles.

And the above is just the tip of the iceberg. In short, article marketing is no longer just that. It has now become content marketing where you need to take your articles and re-purpose them in many ways, including turning them into free PDF downloads and even videos.

If you’re going to play the old article marketing game the way it used to be played back in 2006, you are going to lose that game. You’re going to need to step things up and ramp things up.

Those who don’t are going to be left behind.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Sick of not getting your articles read? Fed up with resource boxes that don’t get the job done? Want to write articles that will turn you into a killer article marketer? Get my book on article writing and marketing located at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html - This is my own book written from over 30 years of writing experience.

I am going to refrain my mentioning any names or sites in this article because I don’t want to take the risk that it won’t get published. But what I have to say needs to be heard and it needs to be understood by every article marketer out there. What you are about to read is a true story. The names have been left out to protect the guilty and the criminally stupid. Let’s begin.

Just today, I was reading a thread at a favorite forum of mine. It seems that the person who started the thread was complaining about submitting an article to an article directory and having the article rejected, not because of the content of the article itself, but because the site pointed to in the resource box had content that the article directory objected to. I hope I made that clear enough.

Now, before I go on any further, if you read the TOS of any article directory, it will state that they have the right to reject any article for any reason at all. The reason they don’t publish a complete list of reasons is because if they do that, any wannabe lawyer could argue that the reason the article was rejected is NOT in the list. So they make this pretty vague. Bottom line is simple. Any article directory can reject your article for any reason…like it or not.

Well, this person, who had their article rejected, went on to say that this was censorship…that they were censoring their site. Okay, obviously this person needs to look up the definition of censorship in the dictionary because they don’t have a clue. Their site was not removed from the Internet. Heck, it wasn’t even removed from the search engines. The article directory simply doesn’t want to be associated with the site in question. That is not censorship. It is simply policy. But of course the Internet wannabe lawyers will make it into something it’s not.

So here is your tip. Take it for what it’s worth to you. If you want to do article marketing and want to submit your articles to article directories, read the TOS of that directory BEFORE you submit your article to them. You will most likely find a section that says that they can reject your article for ANY reason they see fit. Any reason means just that…ANY reason. This is not censorship. It is simply directory policy. If you don’t like the policy, submit your article someplace else. It’s that simple.

Article marketing through another person’s site is not a right. It’s a privilege.

Some people have a problem with that concept.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Sick of not getting your articles read? Fed up with resource boxes that don’t get the job done? Want to write articles that will turn you into a killer article marketer? Get my book on article writing and marketing located at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html – This is my own book written from over 30 years of writing experience.

If you’re an article marketer, you’ve probably heard all the stories about click through rate (CTR) and wonder why, when people are reporting CTR of 50%, you’re lucky to get one that’s 20%. Well, there are several reasons for that. But the biggest one is that these people claiming rates of 50% are simply full of it. What you just heard is the sound of about a dozen article marketers getting ready to send me some nasty emails. So be it. But the truth needs to be told.

Article marketers, especially the ones who are trying to sell you their hottest article marketing “how to” are out to do just that…sell you something. And they think that in order to do that, they have to jack up their click through rates. Well, I have a news flash for you. Most of these rates are bogus. The ones that aren’t, well…there are reasons.

One of the biggest reasons for initial high CTR is your competitors. That’s right. You come up with a new article and maybe a new resource box and your competitors will want to know what it is that you’re selling so that they can maybe take your idea and create their own product from it or, if it’s an affiliate product, sell it themselves. This explains the initial high rate. After a while though, when you start to get more REAL visitors, you will notice your rates go down.

Another reason for high rate reports is that many articles just don’t get a lot of views. Think about it. If you have an article with just five views, three clicks gives you a CTR of 60%. But the percent means nothing because the number of clicks themselves are meaningless. Remember the old saying…lies, damn lies and statistics. Anybody can skew numbers to make it look like something more than what it is.

So what does this all mean? Essentially, this. Don’t worry about CTR so much. If you can get a 10 to 15% click through on your articles that is real, you’re doing well. What matters more is how those clicks translate into income. I’d rather have a rate of 10% in a niche that makes me a good income than a rate of 40% that hardly brings me any real visitors at all.

At the end of the day, it’s how many real prospects you’ve gotten to your opt in page, sales page or autoresponder…whatever you may be using. So the next time you hear big claims about 50% CTR, take it with a grain of salt. Because more likely than not, those claims are more fantasy than fact.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to really increase your income through article marketing? Check out my book at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html and turn yourself into a real article marketing pro like me.

For the sake of protecting the innocent, and the guilty, no names will be mentioned in this article. However, just recently, a fairly well known and successful Internet marketer painted article marketers with a very broad stroke of the brush, essentially calling them all a bunch of spammers and a lot worse. Well, it’s time to set the record straight on this in defense of legitimate article marketers.

It should probably come as no surprise that these comments are made. After all, there are a number of article marketers who, unfortunately, do break quite a few rules in the process. Forget about the fact that they can’t write their way out of a paper bag. Add that to the mass submissions of poorly spun articles and you end up with the mess that the marketer in question was referring to. But to paint all marketers with that same brush is quite unfair.

Even more unfair is what the person said about article marketing in particular, that it was an inefficient way of getting traffic. So let me address that point right here and now.

Are there quicker ways to get traffic to your site? Of course there are. I can name three off the top of my head…pay per click, ad buys and joint ventures. However, these have their drawbacks…especially for those who are either just starting out, short on cash, or both.

Pay per click and ad buys cost money…lots of money. To make any decent return on investment, you need to spend at least $100 per day. Tell that to somebody who is just about able to afford their rent when suggesting that they use pay per click. But it’s even more than just the cost that’s a problem.

With pay per click, you have an incredible learning curve that even some seasoned vets have trouble with. You have keyword selection, geographical targeting, ad writing itself and the quality of the landing page you’re sending people to. Any of these things can turn you pay per click campaign into a total disaster. Ad buys are just flat out expensive…period.

What about joint ventures? Well, try getting one when you have no name and no product. Affiliate marketers have very little to offer when seeking a joint venture. And even product creators, unless they already have a reputation, will have a hard time getting somebody to promote their product for them to their mega list.

Article marketing takes time. There is no question about that. It’s not an overnight thing…especially when done legitimately and not like the marketer in question alluded to in his rant. Yes, the mass submitters and garbage writers give us all a bad name. But that’s true with any type of marketing.

Bottom line is simple though. There is no cheaper way to build traffic to your site than through writing articles. But you should be doing more than just writing articles and submitting them to article directories. You should do these, among other things.

Put articles on your own blog.

Write articles for other blogs as a guest author.

Package articles together as a free report and give it away.

Turn your articles into an autoresponder series for your list.

And there is a lot more that you can do with your articles. The above list is just the tip of the iceberg. However, you do not have to resort to spam and writing garbage.

I took offense at the broad strokes but I also saw the point. Yes, this industry needs a lot of cleaning up.

How about doing YOUR part?

To YOUR Success,
Steven Wagenheim

Sick of not getting your articles read? Fed up with resource boxes that don’t get the job done? Want to write articles that will turn you into a killer article marketer? Get my book on article writing and marketing located at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html – This is my own book written from over 30 years of writing experience.

If you’re thinking of getting into article marketing, there are two kinds of article marketers. Before you start, you will probably want to decide which kind you want to be, not that you can’t be both. But it’s important that you know the difference. This article is going to discuss the differences between the two.

You’re probably wondering what brought this subject up in my mind. Well, over at the Warrior Forum, the question came up, “When you think of article marketing, who do you think of?” My name was one of the ones mentioned. But this got me thinking. See, I’m one type of article marketer. But there is another type that is probably just as effective…if not more so.

Your first type of article marketer is the guy who puts his personal signature on each article he submits. In other words, he writes these articles himself. The reason is simple. He’s trying to establish himself as a brand and as an authority in his niche. He is looking to make a name for himself. On the plus side, this certainly does get him noticed. On the minus side, it’s very time consuming as he’s writing every article personally. Try doing this if you want to dominate 100 different niches. It’s close to impossible.

Then you have your other type of article marketer. This is the guy who hires a team of writers. He probably never even wrote an article a day in his life, or very few of them. He’ll, at most, proof the articles that he has written for him. On the plus side, by hiring writers, you can get a ton of articles written for many niches. On the minus side, this is very expensive and if you’re thinking of making a name for yourself, forget it.

So, which one is better? Well, I guess that depends on who you ask. For the person who is looking for quantity, the latter is probably going to be his choice. However, for the person who wants to be known (and let’s face it, there are a lot of us out there) the personal touch is probably the method of choice. The only person who can decide what’s best for YOU is YOU. Make no mistake about it. You can make just as much money with either method.

When you think of article marketing, who do YOU think of? That’s probably the person you want to copy.

To YOUR Success

Steven Wagenheim

Sick of not getting your articles read? Fed up with resource boxes that don’t get the job done? Want to write articles that will turn you into a killer article marketer? Get my book on article writing and marketing located at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html – This is my own book written from over 30 years of writing experience.

A question I get asked a lot, as a fellow article marketer, is how many articles you should write per day. It’s funny how people actually expect a hard and fast number for this question. Truth is, there are no hard and fast numbers due to all the variables involved. This article is going to tackle some of those variables so you can see why this is a tough question to give a general answer to.

Let’s first start with the niche itself. I can tell you from personal experience that a niche as competitive as making money online is going to require quite a few articles written daily if you’re going to put any kind of a dent in the niche itself. I probably get about 500 article views per day from well over 1,000 articles in that niche. Not very many when you consider how many articles are out there.

And yet, I have articles that get me over 1,000 views a month or over 30 views per day. And that’s just from one article. Naturally, these articles are not in a niche that’s so competitive like making money online. So the actual niche you target is going to have a big influence on how many articles you’re going to need to write in order to get the amount of traffic you’re looking for.

Another variable, regardless of how many articles you SHOULD write is how many articles you CAN write. We only have so many hours in the day and can only write so much. Some people take 30 minutes to an hour or more to write an article. Some can write an article in 15 minutes or less if they use dictation software. So regardless of how many articles you SHOULD write, you are limited by what you CAN write. Of course there is the option of hiring people to write for you. But then you are limited to how much money you have to spend on outsourcing.

Finally, there is only so much you can write about certain subjects. You may want to write two or three articles a day about a certain subject only to find that the amount of info ON that subject can be written in two or three articles tops and then there is nothing left to write. So there is another limitation.

Ideally, the more you write, the more traffic you can get. But if you’re looking for a hard and fast number, it doesn’t exist.

To YOUR Success,
Steven Wagenheim

Sick of not getting your articles read? Fed up with resource boxes that don’t get the job done? Want to write articles that will turn you into a killer article marketer? Get my book on article writing and marketing located at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html – This is my own book written from over 30 years of writing experience.

One of the most important parts of article marketing is targeting keywords. Essentially, you want to target keywords that people are searching. However, searching is a relative term. There are keywords that get tens of thousands of searches daily. There are others that get a few hundred a month…if that. While both can be considered “searches” there is obviously a BIG difference between the two. So the question is, which ones do you go after…the massively searched ones or the low hanging fruit, as it is called? This article is going to give you this author’s opinion on this issue.

There are pros and cons to both ends of the spectrum and everything in between, so if you are looking for perfection, you have a long wait. With keywords that get a massive number of searches each month, you also have a ton of competition to go along with it. With the keywords that aren’t searched for as much, well you have the problem of limited traffic. After all, you can’t get 10,000 clicks a month out of a keyword that gets half that number of searches, if that’s your target goal. So what do you do?

Well, I tackle both ends. I look at the keywords that are getting the most searches and go after them. The reason is because I don’t worry about competition. By submitting my articles to the top directories AND by making sure I do other things to get people to see those articles, I’ll still get my share of a massive search market…in some cases, more than I’d get out of a long tail keyword.

But I do go after those long tail keywords as well IF there are enough of them. And that’s the key. If there are only a couple, it may not be worth doing a lot of writing for just a few hundred potential visitors. However, if you run into a niche where there are 50 or more long tail keywords, it may not be such a bad idea to tackle them all. The amount of traffic that you can get from all of them combined CAN add up to a considerable amount. And certainly, if there isn’t much competition for these keywords, you can easily dominate the search engines.

Finally, I look at how many articles I can write for these keywords. If they are generic enough, I can write many articles. If they’re not, then I rely solely on how many keywords there are and IF between them all, I can write enough articles to make it worth while, I’ll do it.

It’s not an exact science, picking keywords, but I feel that if you follow my method, you should find that you get some decent results from your efforts.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Sick of not getting your articles read? Fed up with resource boxes that don’t get the job done? Want to write articles that will turn you into a killer article marketer? Get my book on article writing and marketing located at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html – This is my own book written from over 30 years of writing experience.

I wish you could see the big smile on my face right now. Why is that? Because pretty soon, my competition in the article marketing arena is going to drop to a fraction of what it is…and it couldn’t come any sooner. Yes, the days of submitting trash to article directories is over. Reports are coming to me from many marketers that articles that were once accepted with no problem are now being rejected. They can’t help but ask why. Well, I don’t have a definitive answer to this as I am not a mind reader, but I’m going to take a stab at the reason. I think you’ll agree with my logic here.

Back in the early days of article marketing, when directories were first getting started, there were really no guidelines or rules. Nobody knew what to expect from the search engines, especially Google. In fact, some directories were so desperate for content that if they saw your article online and liked it, they’d add it to their directory and invite you to become a member. They were literally starved for content. But then something happened on the way to the prom.

Some rocket scientist decided to tell the whole world about article marketing. I actually wrote my first book on the subject about three years ago when things weren’t quite so crazy. Suddenly, everybody and their grandmother jumped on the bandwagon. And when Bum Marketing came out, that was it…bedlam ensued. Articles were being pumped by the hundreds of thousands. It was an avalanche of content. And unfortunately, much of that content was just pure garbage.

Now, imagine a prospect for information looking for articles on a subject and that prospect finds nothing but trash. What do you think that person is going to do? They’re going to complain. And I don’t know how, but somehow, the search engines find out about it. I am sure Google has a way of knowing what people do and don’t like. So now, we have all this junk online and Google is not happy. So, they contact these article directories and say, “Hey, the stuff that you’re accepting is NOT acceptable to us. Clean up your directory or we’re going to slap you into the next galaxy.” Again, I am just speculating here.

Well, the directories have no choice but to clamp down on submissions, even going as far as removing old articles from their directory that don’t stack up. It’s either that, or they lose their PR and everything else that they worked so hard for. Let’s face it, the article directory gets hit in the rankings and people will stop using it so much. That in turn means less articles which in turn means less AdSense revenue.

News flash folks…this is a business. And this business isn’t there so YOU can make a few bucks Bum Marketing some crappy content all over the Internet.

And what kills me is that as this is happening, people are bitching and complaining about it, as if they’re owed something from these article directories.

Anyway, there you have it. So you’ve got two choices. Either shape up and start writing content that you’d actually let your kid read or put it up on your own blog. Hey, if you don’t mind graffiti on your own VRE that’s fine.

Just don’t put it on somebody else’s site.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to write articles that get people’s attention and can earn you up to $200 per article written? Then check out my Complete Article Writing And Marketing Guide that you can find at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html – This is my own book that I wrote from over 30 years of writing experience.

I sometimes wonder how Chris Knight is able to sleep at night with all the headaches this man must have. I for one wouldn’t want his business for all the tea in China. Thanks, but I’m very content with my no hassle small home based business that provides very nicely for me and my family. But that’s not the topic of this article. No, this one is all about Chris Knight’s fight for sanity in what has become quite an insane world…at least when it comes to article marketing.

In case you’ve been living in a cave for the past few weeks, it’s quite clear that the status quo over at Ezine Articles is about to be turned into “What happened to my articles and what did you do with Jimmy Hoffa?” Word has it that Chris is actually turning away people who are offering to pay thousands of dollars a year (one report has it at $36,000) to take them as a premium author.

Chris just doesn’t want their business.

One has to wonder why.

Now mind you, I do not have an inside track on the situation, but my gut tells me that I may have a pretty good idea of what’s going on. But first, before I spill my guts, you need to have a little more info.

Seems as if EZA is really cracking the whip on writers. They are now being told to write longer and better articles. The 250 word minimum is about to be thrown out the window. Officially, the TOS of the site hasn’t been changed yet, but I’m sure it’s coming. Any articles that aren’t up to snuff are going to be rejected…no ifs ands or buts.

But it doesn’t stop there. Any old articles that you have out there that no longer conform to the new stricter standards, if reviewed and found substandard, will be put back into “fix it or die” status and become unpublished. Boy, is this gonna put a crimp in a lot of Bum Marketer’s holiday plans.

In addition to that, some topics, like Acai Berry, are going to be off limits. Don’t even try writing for that stuff. The days of the scam products have come to an end.

So what we essentially have is a mass cleanup. Unless you’re certain that your article is going to be good enough to be accepted by a major magazine, don’t hold your breath on your articles getting accepted any time soon.

Okay, what happened? Why the sudden crack down? Did Chris wake up in a bad mood one morning? Well, he might have if it has anything to do with what I think is the culprit. In order to understand my rationale on this, you need to understand something about business. Sadly, this is where a lot of people are lacking…business sense.

I know that to many of us marketers out here, Google and EZA are just playgrounds for us to play in and get dirty. We feel that we can put anything we like online and that’s fine. To an extent, that’s true…as long as we’re talking about putting things on our own sites. We can put anything there we want as long as we’re not breaking any laws.

But Google doesn’t have to index it. That’s THEIR company and they can do whatever THEY want. So if they don’t like your site, for WHATEVER reason…you’re toast.

What does this have to do with EZA?

Well, Chris can put anything on HIS site that he likes as well. However, just as with OUR sites, Google doesn’t have to like it. And judging by some of the crappy articles I have seen up there, my gut tells me that Google has had an earful to say to Chris and his company.

In short, “Clean up your directory or go find another playground to play in.”

See, Chris may be bigger than you and me, but he’s not bigger than a search engine that provides 50% of the traffic that he gets. Thus, the cleanup begins.

But at what cost?

See, the genie has already been let out of the bottle. Frankenstein has made his monster and now we’re trying to find a way to get him back in his cage. Article marketing books all over blatantly recommend to write the shortest, least informative article that you can write and get people to click on your resource box. It’s essentially article marketing 101. And that’s what the herd has been doing.

And it shows.

Go to any keyword phrase you can think of and type it into Google. Search for the first EZA article and read it.

Need I say more?

So now, after abusing the system for so long, and so used to doing it with no repercussions, suddenly, everybody looks up in utter amazement when Chris Knight screams…

“I have had enough of this!”

It’s like a bad Cosby standup routine.

And it gets worse.

See, Chris let this happen in the first place by allowing this garbage into his home. Now that he’s trying to clean it up he’s got people asking, “But why now when this stuff was okay just 3 months ago?”

Good question. For the answer, look to that other big bad boy named Google. See, Chris didn’t so much mind a dirty home as long as the inspectors stayed out of it. But now that the board of health has made its call…well, it’s clean up or close your doors.

In other words folks, it’s Chris or us. And as much as he may like some of us, I don’t think he likes any of us more than he likes to eat.

This isn’t personal. He didn’t wake up one day with a hangnail and decide to take it out on article marketers. He’s simply got no choice in the matter.

What does that mean to us?

Well, it means several things and we have several options.

For starters, it means that if we want to still play in Chris Knight’s home, we have to start writing articles that we wouldn’t be ashamed to let our kids read. Think I’m kidding? Take a look at some of the crap out there.

Or, if we don’t want to put any actual brain power into our writing we can submit those articles to other directories. Or, here’s a novel idea. Why not put those articles on your own blog? My blog has close to 1,300 articles already on it. If Chris decided he no longer wanted my business, I’d survive. There are many other options.

Please understand. This is not personal. This is strictly business. And understand something else. Not having EZA to submit articles to is NOT the end of the world.

Contrary to popular opinion, there is not one site out there, not EZA, not Google, not Twitter, not WordPress, NOBODY…that IF they closed up shop tomorrow, we’d be out of business. There are MANY ways to make money online that do NOT depend on ANY ONE AUTHORITY.

If you don’t understand that, and don’t understand that Chris Knight’s decisions are solely business based then you have no business BEING in business because you obviously have no understanding ABOUT business.

Bottom line: This is what it is. You can adapt or die.

Me? I’m done trying to figure out how to put the genie back in the bottle.

** 11TH Hour Edit **

Chris has allowed me to share this statement with my readers. This is NOT to be reprinted anywhere under any circumstances. Understood?

Good…here it is.

The decision to accelerate our quality standards faster than we normally do have come from pressures I’ve been feeling that we’re letting down our million daily visitors with substandard articles that just don’t cut it any more.

Imagine for a moment that you work hard for a decade to get a million people to come to your party every day, every month with hopes to grow the size of the party… but if the quality of your content isn’t up to par or above par, those millions slowly bleed away to other sites.

We feel immense pressure to protect all of the efforts 200k+ members have invested with us for the benefit of those million daily visitors, and we can’t do it over the long-term if we don’t significantly raise quite a few very specific standards that will be shared in our blog as we work through the data to guide us as to highest perceived return for lowest disruption to ideal members.

Lastly, I may have chosen my words wrong as we’re not in a war with marketers. We’re marketers too and I love sales & marketing personally. The fight is with thin content / derivative article plr rehashed producers who pump us thousands of garbage articles a day and burn up a thousand+ labor hours weekly to sift through what our AI can’t as efficiently yet. In the short-term we’re prepared to take whatever hit we must in order to ensure a happier long-term for our end users. If the end user is happy, all other needs works itself out.

Sincerely,
Chris Knight, CEO

http://EzineArticles.com/

http://AskChristopherKnight.com/

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
Want to know what the 7 Deadly Sins of Internet Marketing are? Get my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/7deadlysins/7deadlysins.html and save your business from going down the tubes before it even has a chance.