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Each Ezine article database has its own terms of service (tos). They are
generally uniform and mostly based on common sense. Most of them want well
written articles that have had spell checking. They allow only so much html
within an article and they don’t want hate material and a short list of
other things that most readers don’t want to see either. What if we the
authors could ask the publishers if they would comply with our terms of
service? What would that look like? Here is what mine would look like and I
believe that anyone who has been submitting articles for a while might concur.
Things authors would require if we had terms of service:
A timely review. Three months is not a timely review, yes some sites actually
take that long. It makes you feel that whatever else they may be doing that
publishing articles is not at the top of their list. If the article subject is
time sensitive like current events or recent movie reviews where does that
leave the author? Most authors don’t like to be late for dinner because the
publisher is out to lunch.
A large and useful category list: Publishers insist that the authors choose
the right category and some will delete submissions out of hand that are not
put in the right category. So give us some choices! If my article is about
politics and current events with religious overtones and some general advice
to wrap it up can I put that under society and forget it? Not likely. Instead
of one category for politics how about, conservative, liberal, commentary,
world, state, local, gee maybe even a category for bad politics, there’s
plenty of that around.
Real reasons for an article being denied: If an article is poorly written or
is full of avarice then we should expect it to be denied. Or if the database
is only for a specific kind of reader this is perfectly reasonable. Reasons
like, it is not politically correct shows us that you need some unbiased
reviewers who can respect good journalism without getting personal. Or the
article doesn’t flow, which without further clarification is like telling an
author he may have Alzheimer’s and doesn’t know it. If we are writing for
a particular kind of reader we don’t care if your reviewers are part of that
group. We do care that the reviewer has two feet on the ground and is over
twelve years old.
An active hyperlink in the bio box: The readers are far more likely to go to
the author’s site if it is only a click away. Most authors are counting on
that as much as you are counting on us to give you the very best of our
material to compliment your site and its underlying purpose. I’ll scratch
your back…
Things authors would like to see:
Only one article database is known to have features on their authors in their
opening page. Of course some publishers have thousands of authors so this idea
would be hard to float unless it was slightly modified. Say, the twenty
feature articles for the week. Yes a whole week that would cover 1040 authors
a year. Those chosen should be both newbie’s as well as those with hundreds
of articles.
Editing improvements that would allow authors to change misspelled words or
add simple changes without re-submitting the article all over again. Your time
is valuable, hey, so is ours.
A few pointers for publishers and authors:
Sometimes publishers create conflicts for the authors that they seem to be
unaware of. Authors always appreciate tips and advice from publishers but they
do not always seem to be on the same page. One publisher advises that we
should find a niche that we are known for, like family matters or arts and
crafts. Other publishers seem to frown on getting all one kind of subject
matter. Some people can just blab without saying anything and such people are
not taken too seriously. It is not that different for writers. Because we can
write doesn’t mean we should write about everything. The term, author,
implies that we are authorities. Who has ever met an authority on everything?
Writers must have the literary freedom to write about what they know best. We
don’t ask football players to compete in pole vaulting, eh?
Authors will be approached by the owners or webmasters of the publishing site
from time to time about getting in on a new marketing endeavor. There is
nothing wrong with this but don’t suspend your judgment because it is your
publisher. Give such offers the same scrutiny you would if you were approached
by a complete stranger. Unknown to one publisher recently was the fact that in
his call to join the new marketing enterprise he inadvertently mentioned that
we should forget ad blasters, mlm schemes and articles. Forget articles? Hey
you’re not going to forget our articles, huh?
Using article submission software is another issue for writers. They are
helpful for reaching a lot of publishers in the shortest amount of time. They
require a bit of time to set up. After you have signed in to each article base
and confirmed each account the rest is fairly streamlined. Beware of article
spam. If your articles are largely to promote sales or some other enterprise
on your site you will find that the publisher knows an ad from an article. And
give your readers a little credit because they know that too. If your stuff
does float over the transom you have one more hurdle yet to face, the search
engines. If they think you are article spamming you will not recover from the
result.
Some writers look only for publishers that have search engine rankings. Now
most article submission software provides lists with each sites ranking. You
will see more of your articles showing up on websites and searches by sticking
to only publishers with rankings but there is a downside to this. First it may
encourage you to be disloyal to the publishers you started with and who gave
you your initial platform. Your readership will see this and if you’re worth
anything as a writer the readers are why you started writing in the first
place. Remember the publisher that is just starting a new database can become
the premiere publishing site before you can write your next piece. It happens.
Many online publishers have plenty to offer. Letters of encouragement, fast
reviews, readily available stats on your articles and sometimes they even host
seminars and conferences. I have about ten favorite sites I like more than all
the rest but my very best site is Ezine Articles. About a year ago when I
reached platinum level they sent me a coffee mug with their logo on it. Sure
it’s no big thing, but wasn’t that a real big thing? Put that under using
incongruity as a literary device.
Talk about paying attention to your writers.
Good Writing.
Rev Bresciani is the author of two Christian books and has many articles both
online and in print. He is a regular contributing author for several online
news sites. Visit http://www.americanprophet.org
Article Source: Article Search Engine Directory at http://www.ArticleSphere.com
