Already a very popular method of achieving a high search engine ranking, article PR (aka article submission) has now entered the mainstream. As such, its popularity is increasing at a dramatic rate. While this is great for SEO copywriters like myself, there are some side-effects that need to be addressed if article PR is going to remain a viable search engine ranking technique. This article discusses some of those side-effects, along with how they might be addressed.
BUT FIRST, A LITTLE ON ARTICLE PR
Article PR is the process of writing 'free reprint articles' and submitting them to the 250+ established article submission sites on the Internet. An article submission site is simply a repository of free reprint articles - a place where authors can submit their articles free of charge, and where webmasters can find articles to use on their websites free of charge. In return for free use of your article, the webmaster includes your author bio and its links to your site. Every time your article is published, you get another link to your site and a boost to your ranking. If the quality of your article is high, it can be published hundreds of times.
THE RISE AND RISE OF ARTICLE PR
Because article PR is such an effective way of generating a high search engine ranking, it has now entered the mainstream. As an SEO copywriter, I get several requests each week for quotes to write articles. These requests come almost exclusively from business owners and marketing managers who know little (if anything) about SEO. They obviously didn't go looking for article PR; article PR found them...
As a result of its newfound mainstream popularity, the number of articles being written and submitted has increased by between 100% - 600% in the past year! Christopher Knight, owner of the biggest article submission site, EzineArticles, tells me that the number of article submissions to his site increased by a staggering 600% from 2004 to 2005. In 2004, EzineArticles was averaging only 1416 article submissions per month. In 2005, it was averaging 8482 article submissions per month!
Similarly, at the end of 2005, when I spoke with Mel Strocen, owner of GoArticles, he reported a doubling of article submissions in the second half of the year. "In the last 6 months article submissions have increased by 100%, going from about 1,000 submissions per week to 2,000+ per week," he said.
Jason Lynch, owner of ArticleBlast, reported similar increases; between April '05 and January '06, submissions to ArticleBlast increased by over 300%.
The web traffic to these sites tells the same story. According to Alexa statistics, at the end of 2004, EzineArticles had a reach of approx 100 users per million Internet users per day. Just over a year later, the site is reaching over ten times that many Internet users. (If we take the total number of Internet users worldwide to be 964 million, EzineArticles traffic has increased from around 96,000 per day to over 1 million visitors per day.)
Alexa stats for GoArticles report similar increases in traffic. At the end of 2004, it had a reach of approx 50 users per million Internet users per day. Just over a year later, it's reaching approx 10 times that number of users. (Again assuming 964 million Internet users worldwide, GoArticles traffic has increased from around 48,000 per day to around half a million visitors per day.)
Figures for ArticleBlast are more difficult to ascertain as the site is younger and has lower overall traffic.
Even if Alexa's figures are a little inflated (as I think they tend to be), they still provide a consistent measure for the period. As such, the percentage increases should be relatively accurate.
THE SIDE-EFFECTS OF THE RISE OF ARTICLE PR
A number of writers have voiced the fear that article PR will die through 'over-use', just as keyword stuffing and link farms died. But I don't agree. Why? Because article PR isn't just useful to authors and SEO copywriters. The success of article PR is based on the premise that our articles are also useful to READERS. So long as the majority of articles remain useful (i.e. helpful, informative, and easy to read), readers will still want to read them, publishers will still want to publish them, and article PR will remain a viable link building method.
This is true no matter how many people are writing and publishing free reprint articles. Frequent use of a tool doesn't make the tool ineffective. (Just look at traditional forms of advertising - millions of businesses engage in radio, print, and TV advertising, and those methods remain very effective. The fierce competition simply encourages advertisers to improve the quality of their ads in order to stand out.)
No, in my opinion, there's no such thing as too many articles. However, there is such a thing as too many BAD articles. Readers want helpful, credible information; they don't want badly written articles or empty words ('article spam') which simply carry a link.
Just as importantly, webmasters don't want to spend hours trying to find the right article to publish. At the moment, there are literally hundreds of article submission sites out there. Most of them are generic, fully automated affairs that involve no human moderation. They don't distinguish between good writing and bad, they don't cull article spam, and they don't categorize their articles very well. As a result, publishers have to wade through a sea of poor quality to find a handful of useful articles.
These issues are the real hurdles that need to be overcome if article PR is to survive.
OVERCOMING THE PROBLEMS
The article submission sites will overcome the problems. Here's how...
As mentioned above, readers aren't interested in bad articles or article spam. This means that, in the long run, there's no real value in publishing such articles (either for webmasters or article submission sites); readers will frequent the sites that publish useful articles and ignore those that don't. Likewise, publishers will frequent the article submission sites that post useful, easy-to-find articles and ignore those that don't.
This means we'll see an increase in the number of human-moderated article submission sites. And once this happens, the article PR landscape will change forever:
1) Human moderated article submission sites will offer a higher percentage of quality articles, and those articles will be easier to find;
2) Human moderated article submission sites will attract more publishing webmasters, and, as a result, more authors;
3) We'll see a decrease in the number of un-moderated article submission sites because they won't generate enough traffic to make AdSense profitable;
4) We'll see a decrease in the overall number of article submission sites (anyone can launch an automated article submission site, but it takes real commitment, business sense, and a dedicated budget to run a human-moderated article submission site);
5) The spoils will be greater for the surviving article submission sites, so they'll go to greater lengths to ensure the high quality of their articles; and
6) We'll witness the decline of article spam and poor quality articles simply because they won't be accepted at the good article submission sites.
All in all, it's a positive outlook for authors and publishers of quality articles.
Happy writing, publishing, and posting!
Rise & Rise Of Shahrukh Khan
The immense diversion of the gambling and betting industry over the last ten years has without question changed forever. The likes of football betting, online casinos and, of course, poker hardly existed on the betting landscape as horse racing was in a market of one. The internet coupled with the Lottery have transformed the industry permanently and it's all the better for it.
The National Lottery place a crucial role in all this despite being hailed by bookmakers at the time as being the deathnel of the ff-course betting shop. The reality, and to be fair nobody, saw it coming, was that The Lottery sanitized the whole notion of betting ? it was now seen as OK to have a small flutter for a bit of fun. The internet arrived simply as the rocket fuel to pour on the naked flame.
Nevertheless, the real product winner is without question poker. The exchanges have a case but they are still, at present, seen as only for the sophisticated gambler. No doubt as the rest of the world catches up with the UK the likes of Betfair will flourish more globally but perversely they almost need the traditional bookmaker to be established before them.
Poker however seems to have swept all before it and unlike Betfair it's a multitude of companies that are seeing the benefit from online bookmakers to bespoke poker sites. But why has a game that has been around for hundreds of years suddenly exploded so much?
The reality is because it is, in fact, very easy to play, if you want to see exactly how easy then check out the rules of poker. True it does take longer to master as much of the marketing will tell you but, especially online, where your face doesn't give you away those with the basics can still beat the best and the David and Goliath factor is what drives most people, especially when gambling. Whether it's you versus the bookie, other poker players or other exchange users, the drive is the winning. Not necessarily the amount ? watch a new gambler winning a long odds-on bet with ?5 wagered ? still delighted despite only collecting a matter of pence.
Now that so many people play can there ever be a true World Number 1? It is surely very unlikely from now that any single player will win the WSOP twice ? ever! This is because te sport is now completely swamped with new players many of whom are very good at their craft but elements of luck will always play a part. Some will argue this is true of any sport but in most traditional sports the best players are there or thereabouts.
Nevertheless, the figures show the game to be in rude health and seemingly not showing sings of reaching a plateau which it must at some point but the figures coming out of Party Poker and 888.com show nothing but the rise and rise of poker. Nobody should be talking of flushing or folding just yet, just wait for the Chinese to get online and the sky will be small fry as far as limits are concerned.
The above article was brought to you by the The Sportsman.
Both Glenn Murray & Ed Pownall are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Ed Pownall has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet, Recreation and Sports. Ed Pownall started working in the betting shops of Ladbrokes and then moved on to The Sporting Life before launching Blue Square until their ?65m sale to the Rank Group before joining The Sportsman in 2006.Ed Pownall has been the resident. Ed Pownall's top article generates over 880 views. Bookmark Ed Pownall to your Favourites.
