Ramon Greenwood writes:

I was astounded to read a recent two-part Ezine article in which the author declared that he had never gotten any notable results from writing EzineArticles. Therefore, he said, the whole exercise is not worthwhile.

Chris, I hope you will respond to that opinion.

Ramon Greenwood

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

80-88% of most authors never produce more than 3-9 articles… and then they wonder why their article marketing campaign failed? Sheesh…

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Pamela Beers writes:

When I need an article for my website, I am looking for something specific that is well-written, not how many articles someone has written. When I use that article, I thank the person responsible for writing it and put their link on my site. EzineArticles provides a valuable service and I am happy to be part of the writing family. I believe I’ve mentioned this before…I believe we are all in this to promote one another…that’s why I signed on. AND if you stuff enough stuff into a tube something is bound to come out the other end…it’s called success!

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Cynthia Pinsonnault writes:

Perhaps if you said top producers rather than top authors, it would get across that you are recognizing quantity rather than quality. Or, simply add a disclaimer that top status reflects quantity and is should not be considered an evaluation of quality.

If you are considering adding a quality ranking, that quality designation would also help differentiate between quantity and quality.

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Ed Howes writes:

Hey Chris,

First the Wording: Top 10 contributors to this category by artcle count:

Subjective top ten categories should make it clear it is a subjective chouice made by: We could have Editor;s picks, reviewr’s picks, author;s picks, publisher picks and visitor picks so a lot of different authors would get some attention and the ones who show up on more than one list are must reads, no?

The numbers of authors who are not motivated by attaining expert author status tells me the title is insufficient motivation for a far too huge majority. I would choose one of the best articles about the value of continuous submission to help the unmotivated SEE the error in their approach, and Email it. “We have noticed you are well on your way to expert author status which is a valuable marketing tool. Please read this excellent article about aggressive marketing to improve your public image.”

Pamela understands and if 90% of our fellow members do not, we are 2500 strong as 10% and we can constantly work to increase our numbers and our percentage. Not all day, every day, but as we go along, rating, commenting and somehow driving more people to this blog itself. It all comes down to public education and there is not a member incapable of educating the pubic, just those who are unwilling. We will carry them along as we go, like a ship carries its anchor at sea.

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Edward Weiss writes:

I think it’s funny that Kevin used his top 10 status to write a press release. Just goes to show that anything can be news. It may not be newsworthy but simply another promo opportunity. I’m number one in my category of music, but I don’t think that will stop the presses.

As far as wording goes, Ed got it right. Very simple and easy to understand. Although I would say by “number of articles” instead of “article count.” A little clearer maybe.

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Louie Latour writes:

In defense of article marketing, I have over 150 articles posted in my category and just under 50% of my website’s traffic is referred from EzineArticles.com.

I’d say that makes it worth the effort…

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sara writes:

In defense of article marketing, I have over 150 articles posted in my category and just under 50% of my website’s traffic is referred from EzineArticles.com.

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Lance@carwashguys.com writes:

Well this is an interesting conversation indeed. I can say that article marketing works for me. My traffic is leaving the solar system and speeding up. Quality is important, however if traffic is your goal you are going to need quantity too. As far as Kevin’s “PR” release, I wouldn’t worry about it much. He has good articles and he seems to be a good guy. And he is on the top 10 number of marketing article contributors, by the way you shouldn’t show me stuff like that other wise I would write 16 articles tonight just to be on top. Driven.

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Kevin Stirtz writes:

Thanks to those who have commented about their results using EzineArticles. For the first few months I only had 9 articles and so I didn’t get much traffic. Then I noticed Lance Winslow had written A LOT of articles. And since he seems like a bright guy I figured he knew something I didn’t. Namely this: write a lot of articles, put them in EzineArticles.com and you’ll probably get a lot of traffic. So, I’m working on that. It’s helpful and inspiring to know it’s working for others.

Anyway, thanks again for the helpful comments and thanks (many thanks) to Chris for this great service.

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Ugur writes:

How about

TOP 10 MOST PRODUCTIVE AUTHORS IN … CATEGORY ?

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Pamela Beers writes:

When people read quickly they mistake the words “quality” and “quantity”.

Suggestion: 10 authors with the largest amount of articles. (You can even leave out the 10.) “Largest amount” can even be replaced with “Most”.

Authors with the most articles.

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Lance Winslow writes:

Prolific is an interesting word; The Most Prolific Writers in this category.

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Lance Winslow writes:

I have read all Kevin’s artricles in the Marketing Category and although Marketing is the; Planning, pricing, promotion, packaging, advertising and sales of any product or service by MBA Textbook definitions; I have a problem with his placement of all these articles he has written in this category of marketing to get to a 1-10 position. Although he is way down on the list with only 37 articles. About half these articles really belong in Telemarketing or rather “Tele-selling” category or in “Sales” categories not Marketing. I believe they are misplaced purposely in order to get on the 1-10 list I believe number 6 or 7 there. So I find this practice a little unfortunate and less than ethical? I would like clarification if it is acceptable to purposely misplace articles in categories in order to get on the top ten list of a category and then use it in Press Releases to market your “Marketing” abilities? The reason I ask is if I re-place all my Small Business articles or general business articles, I can fill up every Business Category tomorrow and then place “Self Aggrandizing kudos around the internet like a shameless self-promoter? Can I do it if he is? Should everyone do this? Are you at EzineArticles.com promoting this as acceptable behavior? How about addressing this issue?

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Pamela Beers writes:

Who cares! You all need to volunteer some time in a hospice for children. Try getting ouside of your own heads for a while and read a book to these dying children.

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Lance Winslow writes:

Pamela, I have done more to help the common good in my life than anyone I have ever known. Now then.

Kevin, indeed, however I still think it is a huge point of contention and the issue should be addressed. Miss Matched articles in inappropriate categories may help ranking for a writer in a category, however do not help the user of the system and undermine its usability in that the user is not finding what he/she was looking for and then gets bored and with this click-happy society and attention span of 1-2 min. max per page, they are gone from the inappropriate category article and the site as well. Who does this serve? Only the author who miss places the articles and only temporarily? I would say that is neither good marketing or good brand building, but rather trickery based on BS? Is that what writers should see at EzineArticles.com?

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Jim Nugent writes:

A little ni-pickin’ here:

Pam Beers writes (3):

“…I believe we are all here to promote one another…”

I hope not Pam. But maybe help one another. .

and “…if you stuff enough stuff into a tube something is bound to come out the other end…”

Ain’t necessarily so. The tube caould get stuffed and nothing will come through.

Pam Beers writes (12)

“…the largest amount of articles…”

Uh uh. How about “largest number.” Amount and number do not equate, i.e. they don’t mean the same.

Jim Nugent

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

More than 50% of our authors (my rough guess) are “marketing smart” …meaning, they naturally want to put their article in the category THEY think is in THEIR best interest…not the best interest of the READER.

I don’t think they do it to ‘spite’ the reader (or us), but rather it’s a marketing business decision. In fact, I noticed this phenom back in 2004 when I recorded an audio tip to help encourage authors to choose the best category for their article rather than in the category they want to be found in.

Example: A Yoga expert might write an article about how to build a Podcast for their Yoga business. Which category does that belong in? YOGA or PODCASTING? The Author would most likely want it to be in the YOGA category because they don’t sell PODCASTING services or products and they only sell YOGA related products or services. … but our readership could be better served by putting this example article in the PODCASTING section. It’s not black and white; I get that. Judgement calls are made daily by our editors with the goal to keep the peace and keep the same relevant articles in the same categories.

It should be noted that this is not hyper-critical because more than 80% of our traffic DOES NOT surf the site, but rather lands on a specific article thanks to a SERPS handoff, RSS feed, Email Alert, Forward to a Friend, etc.

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Creating Press Releases requires something be “newsworthy” and that can be difficult to create. In Kevin’s case, he found a creative way to showcase his articles & expertise. I don’t fault him for it.

His actions showed us that we have some additional action needed to clarify that the top authors in each category are really the top authors by quantity and there is no quality rating going with that designation.

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Lastly, let’s end this thread.
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A few comments were deleted by request and a few comments were deleted because I thought they were better said PRIVATELY.

This thread reminded me of the Soccer game I coached last night. The boys were elbowing each other (sometimes their own team mates) as they were fighting their way to the goal. There is a fine line between rough competitive play and a technical warning… but as a Soccer coach, I will never tolerate any of my teammates elbowing each other because we’re on the same team! :)

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Pamela Beers writes:

Jim Nugent, regarding #3:

The word “promote” is synonomous with the word “help” and is much stronger than the word “help”, which is why I chose to use it. As an educator, I promote.

As far as “stuffing”, it has to be quality material as well as quantity. It works for me.

Regarding #12:
“Amount” means “total number” or “quantity”. What are you talking about?

I noticed you didn’t include an email address. Why is that? Keep picking those nits.

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