Ezine Articles is Banning People Like Crazy, Are YOU Next?
Ezine Articles is firing Premium Members as not being a good fit. Will you be next? If you're not delivering real value in your articles--i.e., useful information that people can actually benefit from--then you're likely to be targeted. Why risk having your account downgraded or have your articles rejected or banned from Ezine's site?
Prepare for my rant--not against Ezine Articles, but against the junksters who waste my, and your, valuable time.
I'm going to provide the source of the controversy that's raging over this, and I'll weigh in right now with my own firm position on the matter: If you're a junk marketer/spammer or completely clueless newbie who's trying to sell the crap that we all see in our spam folders every day, or, you use "articles" you got from some free "15000 niche articles mega-pack" without working them over and making them truly useful (yes, it's OK to use them, just turn them into something useful and don't copy them verbatim), you deserve to be banned from Ezine Articles.
I'm all for what Ezine Articles is doing. Hell, I'll even volunteer to help! I'm tired of wasting my time on junk: yes, junk from newbie marketers or just completely clueless, greedy idiots who jump on every offer they see on Twitter, Facebook, etc. and then spam everyone about them; junk from Squidoo and Hubpages spammers who think they can write bogus "reviews" and somehow get me to buy some useless product; and, junk in my email from spammers who think I'm stupid enough to believe that I can actually lose 100 pounds by eating berries or drinking the juice from same.
Mind you, I don't fall for any of this junk, but it takes a click to delete it. One click takes one second. If I have to deal with 1000 of these things, that's almost 20 minutes of my life that has been wasted. And I don't appreciate that. I'm a busy guy and can spend my time doing much more valuable things.
Read and heed what Chris Knight had to say in the blog just a few days ago:
"We’ve been firing an average of 2 Premium members every day now as not being a good match. In some cases, we’ve had to fire members who were Premium, got fired, bought again and then had to be banned from Premium membership. We’ve had members plead to pay any price for speed or to be unbanned. One guy yesterday offered us $36k to accept his articles on top of our Premium membership fee with one exception: He wanted us to accept derivative content. No way!
"Key Issue: Our team has been at great odds with ourselves because we want to deliver excellent service to our Premium members, yet a high percentage of our Premium members are not ideal EzineArticles members. We’ve essentially accelerated the speed at which our worst members can submit low value, thin content [emphasis added] into our system."
Later in the post, he explains further:
"Our next big pass at curbing low-value content submissions will come in the form of banning certain types of content that are currently in too high of market supply (think “Acai berry” type articles) and other commonly spammed articles with highly derivative content (think penis enlargement, get your ex back, dating articles, some types of finance articles). We’ve been slow to reach this point because we’re looking for ways to allow legitimate good ideal members to submit content on these topics while singling out the gamers who only want to submit really thin low value content [emphasis added]."
What do YOU think?
Cheers!
Ken "The IM Geek" Harthun
Prepare for my rant--not against Ezine Articles, but against the junksters who waste my, and your, valuable time.
I'm going to provide the source of the controversy that's raging over this, and I'll weigh in right now with my own firm position on the matter: If you're a junk marketer/spammer or completely clueless newbie who's trying to sell the crap that we all see in our spam folders every day, or, you use "articles" you got from some free "15000 niche articles mega-pack" without working them over and making them truly useful (yes, it's OK to use them, just turn them into something useful and don't copy them verbatim), you deserve to be banned from Ezine Articles.
I'm all for what Ezine Articles is doing. Hell, I'll even volunteer to help! I'm tired of wasting my time on junk: yes, junk from newbie marketers or just completely clueless, greedy idiots who jump on every offer they see on Twitter, Facebook, etc. and then spam everyone about them; junk from Squidoo and Hubpages spammers who think they can write bogus "reviews" and somehow get me to buy some useless product; and, junk in my email from spammers who think I'm stupid enough to believe that I can actually lose 100 pounds by eating berries or drinking the juice from same.
Mind you, I don't fall for any of this junk, but it takes a click to delete it. One click takes one second. If I have to deal with 1000 of these things, that's almost 20 minutes of my life that has been wasted. And I don't appreciate that. I'm a busy guy and can spend my time doing much more valuable things.
Read and heed what Chris Knight had to say in the blog just a few days ago:
"We’ve been firing an average of 2 Premium members every day now as not being a good match. In some cases, we’ve had to fire members who were Premium, got fired, bought again and then had to be banned from Premium membership. We’ve had members plead to pay any price for speed or to be unbanned. One guy yesterday offered us $36k to accept his articles on top of our Premium membership fee with one exception: He wanted us to accept derivative content. No way!
"Key Issue: Our team has been at great odds with ourselves because we want to deliver excellent service to our Premium members, yet a high percentage of our Premium members are not ideal EzineArticles members. We’ve essentially accelerated the speed at which our worst members can submit low value, thin content [emphasis added] into our system."
Later in the post, he explains further:
"Our next big pass at curbing low-value content submissions will come in the form of banning certain types of content that are currently in too high of market supply (think “Acai berry” type articles) and other commonly spammed articles with highly derivative content (think penis enlargement, get your ex back, dating articles, some types of finance articles). We’ve been slow to reach this point because we’re looking for ways to allow legitimate good ideal members to submit content on these topics while singling out the gamers who only want to submit really thin low value content [emphasis added]."
What do YOU think?
Cheers!
Ken "The IM Geek" Harthun
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Vaughan Jones on -
Ken. Thank you for addressing this sore point, you have hit the nail squarely on the head.
This matter has been a burning issue in my heart of hearts for a long time. In my ONE Scribe site I started a discussion about writing unique content and my opposition to, or revulsion at using PLR source; or any other source which may well lead to plagiarism. I agree that PLR sources can be used as a basis, or to enhance one's writing, as long as it is used minimally.
Content quality and usefulness are the most important criteria. Yes, I get very tired of seeing the same c.r.a.p being sent to me "FOR FREE" by various Inet-cons, ground-breaking pieces of literature which are exactly the same, or 99.99% the same, as the previous c.r.a.p which was sent to me by some other Inet-con.
OH YEAH, I'm real tired of it. I support you 100%, as I have eighteen articles registered with Ezine Articles, articles which are 100% originals, written by me without any PLR source or restructured PLR source.
To good writing.
Kind regards,
Vaughan Jones.
Author of ONE Life-Love-Energy
Founder of the ONE Life-Love-Energy Foundation
ONE Scribe - Writers, editors & mentors.
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Permalink Reply by Ken Harthun on -
Glad you agree, Vaughn. I have more PLR articles than I care to count. I DO occasionally refer to them for article ideas, but if I ever use any of the text, I work it over so thoroughly that it's virtually recreated anyway. It' so much easier to write my own articles. And you're right, most of the stuff is c.r.a.p, often loaded with atrocious grammar, poor spelling and elementary school level vocabulary.
BTW, Chris Knight just posted a 4 minute video on the eZine Articles blog explaining in detail what they're doing.
Cheers!
Ken "The IM Geek" Harthun
P.S. There is something wrong with the link to your ONE Scribe site. I get "Page not found."
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Permalink Reply by Showtyme Jazz Duo on -
Ken - I'm with you on this one. I have on occasion read an article on ezine articles and wondered "why is this piece of crap even here." My articles are 100% original, take thought, time and polishing. Some of that other stuff you see has been recycled and reworked and reworded until it's so threadbare you can see right through it.
I say "good on ezine articles."
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Permalink Reply by Vaughan Jones on
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Ken.. Anotther truth also becomes clear, that blogging and article writing were the rage at one stage, and still are to a large degree. Gurus are continually advising Internet newbies to submit tons of PLR & MRR material, in addition to their own written material, to the ezine articles sites and the blogging sites, simply to flood the market & get their names known. Which would hopefully attract buyers and visitors to their sites.
The problem is that ninety percent of these people who flood the market with their writings(mainly PLR and MRR c.r.a.p) are not writers at all. What ultimately happens is that true writers end up with a black mark against their names because of this.
Is this not unfair? What is being done by Ezine Articles is a very good thing. I take my hat off to them.
The ONE Scribe site is http://onescribe.webs.com
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Permalink Reply by Avil Beckford on -
I have been reading this thread and one thing that came to mind that bothered me, is that experts are always saying how you can write an article in 15 minutes. And some of the articles on the article submission websites sound like they were written in 15 minutes. I have asked myself what kind of article can be written in 15 minutes. These experts say that you should only write about what you know. I have over 15 years research experience and if you only write about what you know, how can you innovate? How can you grow? What are your thoughts?
And try as I might, I have never written a well researched article in 15 minutes, have you?
I have also tried to use one of those software to re-purpose some white papers into articles and couldn't figure out how to use it.
A lot of people are article marketing because all the big names are saying that it's one of the most successful ways to sell products. As a result there are so many people writing articles and submitting them even though they are not up to snuff. Ezine Articles is one of the few article submission sites that have an editorial board.
Avil Beckford
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Permalink Reply by Ken Harthun on
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Avil, thanks for the feedback. Quotes from your comment are in italics.
"And try as I might, I have never written a well researched article in 15 minutes, have you?"
No, not one that was worth reading. I've sometimes been able to get a first draft together in that short a time, but that's when the real work begins.
"A lot of people are article marketing because all the big names are saying that it's one of the most successful ways to sell products."
Yes, and the big names are right--it is one of the most successful free ways to sell products. That's why everyone jumps on the bandwagon. But very few people can write well and you end up with very poorly written articles jamming up the pipes. That's what EzineArticles is trying to fix. And I'm glad they are doing it.
Cheers!
Ken "The Internet Marketing Geek" Harthun
ken@kenharthun.biz
859.652.3596
P.S. My new site, "Ask the Internet Marketing Geek" will be launching soon. Check my profile for details.
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Permalink Reply by Myke McCormick on -
Not only are these junk article writers burning up time and energy, they muddy up the water so much, finding genuine content is harder and harder but being found is harder and harder as well.
It is tough enough for beginners like myself to compete with writers who are much more experienced and already very good. Now more than ever we have to wade through a lot of mud as well.
Kill them all! Their accounts that is. (I have to be PC you know) In the end it is only the junksters who will be hurt by this.
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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Bennett on -
Hi, thanks so much for posting this. I had no idea Ezine Articles had started banning people. I know in the past, I had written a couple of articles that they did not accept. However, I have still been able to write on there. I write about bullying/Peer Abuse on there and its my own stuff based upon what has been written. Something in the news......stuff like that. I am considered an expert in my field but do not have premium status or anything like that.
I am glad also that they are weeding out the junk on there and doing away with spammers and others on there doing nothing in particular. Thanks Ken for sharing this information. Have a good day....
Regards,
Elizabeth
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Permalink Reply by Eugene Harnett on
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Thanks for the heads up, Ken.
What it does tell me, correct me if I'm wrong, is that if you write well and pique interest, you will easily be spotted from all the meaningless jabber out there.
More power to the story tellers with a message.
Less to the others.
Eugene Harnett
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Permalink Reply by Lynne Gordon on -
I think this is EXCELLENT! For years I have been pouring my soul into articles for ezines and I have noticed that I am competing against millions of 250-word 'articles' that can barely be classified as such.
At one point, I thought, "Hey why not"? "If they can get away with it, why shouldn't I"?
Today I'm glad I didn't fall into that trap.
I suspect that Ezine Articles will probably ban me anyway...but at least it won't be because of thin, useless content - which fills this writers heart with joy.
Of course, If they do then I will ignore them if they come up in searches and NEVER read another Ezine article again.
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Permalink Reply by Ken Harthun on
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Thanks for your reply, Lynne. Glad you didn't fall into the trap. Heck, I'm glad I didn't either. Why would Ezine ban you if you didn't play the thin content game?
Cheers!
Ken "The Internet Marketing Geek" Harthun
ken@kenharthun.biz
859.652.3596
P.S. My new site, "Ask the Internet Marketing Geek" will be launching soon. Check my profile for details.
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Permalink Reply by Lynne Gordon on
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I think they may ban me because all of the articles I have on their site are concerned with my business, The Oxygen Therapy Program.
They are probably trying to upgrade their articles to serve content only with no product endorsements.
Who knows?
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