When Authors HREF It

Permit me an article marketing rant :)

Why is it that whenever an experienced or inexperienced author learns how to do an HREF statement for the first time, they almost always over do it?

Meaning: Keep your active URL’s to 3 or less per article and always only in the RESOURCE BOX. That’s why it’s called a RESOURCE BOX…because it has RESOURCES in it. :) Namely, your URL.

For EzineArticles.com:

If you put an active link in the first sentence, your article will be rejected for selling too hard and removed from our queue without notice.

If you put a link in the first half of your article, it will be frowned upon and potentially rejected without notice.

If you put more than 3 active self-serving links in your articles, we’ll problem status your article for being too self-promotional.

Self-serving active links means any link that you own or control.

Trust me, this is not personal at all. We’re just setting the mechanics of the standards by which we accept or reject article submissions.

If you want to improve the speed and chances we will accept your article, be certain to keep your active links out of the body of the article and no more than 3 in the resource box.

The way we look at it is that we are even economically when you get one active link back to your website in exchange for your article. Therefore, any more than 1 active link and we believe the scales are tilted in your favor… until you send in 250-500+ articles in which case the relationship tilts back into an equal give and take. :)

Posted by on April 28, 2005 at 12:14 pm | 3,820 views

2 Comments »


1
Jim Prescott writes:

I don’t think you’re ranting..Just sounds like good advice. Even if you limit the links to 2 it would still be a good exchange.

Comment provided April 28, 2005 at 3:13 PM

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2
Lance Winslow writes:

Well if someone is writing a research type article and is not really trying to sell anything, often an article will need to point to a few references so the reader can follow the discussion, topic or paper. If you put the links to online research sites, research papers in the resource box, that may appear proper but if those who pick up the article cut them, as they most likely will do, then a disservice to the end-reader is made and the article will make less since.

Additionally with regards to the changing internet clicking attention spans of the average human, this idea of keeping all resources at the end is changing. The world is changing and readers would rather have the resources in the article if they are not part of the authors sales MO. I think those who pick up articles obviously hate to see a sales link near the top or anywhere in the article for that matter, so I see this side of the argument. The way people take in information is changing in the world, we should not fight it too hard. Any article on the other hand that is too salesy is often considered trashy and will not get picked up unless it is exceptional information.

All this is my opinion. But if you are giving out pure information the reader really does want the information as they are reading and thinking about it. If the links are merely pointing them to hook, line and sinker trial closes you have a good point and this advice is highly relevant.

Comment provided April 28, 2005 at 8:48 PM

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