Why Only 3 URLs?
Ralph writes, “I am curious as to why there is a limit of 3 URL’s in a Resource box. This is not a complaint, but purely curiosity. What is the basis for it? is it a problem with email, or ftp, or what? Some directories enforce it, others do not. What’s behind it all?”
Answer: The reason our editorial guidelines only allow 3 URL’s in the entire article that are self-serving is purely a quality control issue designed to keep the self-promotion to a minimum.
There is no technical reason why we couldn’t allow more active links, but the future is heading to even less than (3) active self-serving links. This is due to the fact that an article stuffed with self-serving active links looks spammy or closer to articlevomit than a clean article with a single or double URL in the Resource Box.
It’s also well established that ezine publishers and webmasters value articles with LESS links, not MORE when it comes to their decision as to which articles they are going to reprint. MORE links creates more metaphorical link payments that have to be made to the author to use his or her article… thus articles with fewer links get higher distribution.
This issue is ripe for abuse and every single day we turn away dozens of articles (more than ten thousand articles a year) that are sent in with more than 3 active self serving links.
If you want more outbound links from us, send in more articles. Last I checked, we don’t have any upper limits on the number of quality original articles you can submit. :-)
Thanks, Chris. Just a point of clarification while on this topic, what about urls in the body of the article? I know I should go look this up, but I’m lazy! A url to a non-self-serving source is of course a requirement when citing resources, okay, but is there a limit on these, and what is considered ideal? Also, when is is okay to refer to your own previous article or research on a topic in which case the url is a referral source, AND self-serving.
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