What an incredible thread this is. I’ve just managed to skim it and gotten some great insights.

I’d like to add on a somewhat related tangent, that I really look at my blog as the venue for me to explore ideas without as much concern for quality. Sure I want my posts to be good – and I think most of them are pretty decent – but I don’t put nearly the amount of time and effort into polishing them that I put into my ezine articles.

There is a sense of freedom in being able to blog without such a heavy weight of perfectionism bearing down on me. There is a sense of free-flowing creativity that comes when I’m writing a blog article.

I wonder how those of you with blogs feel.

Thanks again, and happy holidays!
Ed

Me, me, me. My hand is certainly raised at any possibility of being mentored.

Creating fresh art and marketing it myself is often overwhelming. I am not only trying to jump through the hoops but trying to figure what and where those hoops are.

I am convinced that artists who still rely on galleries are going to be left in the dust. This is what prompted me to write articles. At first I wrote about unrelated things because I just didn’t get it. I still did it though because my web-master said it was a good idea. When I started, Google showed maybe 300 entries as I typed in my name. Now it is at about 1,400, I attribute much of that to posting my articles on Ezine Articles and one other one. 1,400 is not near enough though so of course I plot on.

A footnote in this conversation on quality verses quantity; I had a souvenir pottery business for 20 years. I shipped 300- 500 wheel thrown, hand sculpted mugs and steins a day to National Parks, Disney World, J C Penny and mom and pop stores. I had 8 contracted workers. My prerequisite for hiring and training them was not their quality of work, it was their reliability. Quality I knew would indeed come in time… after quantity.

I have appointments to meet today. I will read what all you lovely people write later.

Thank you all for provoking thought, it may bristle up but in the end solutions are found.

Kathy

Thank you for your very gracious comment about my art and taking the time to review it. What a lovely man.

Kathy

You make a really great comment about “The New Article Marketers” and how they are super-motivated and fast movers. Indeed, I feel the same way and think it would be great to have a “Mentoring Club” where many article authors who have accomplished so much could assist “The New Article Marketers” to reach their goals and dreams too.

I know you have done so much with your eBook on article marketing and even created a “Web Content Day” and maybe we should expand this to include an “Article Author Mentoring Program?”

Thus helping article authors steadily improve their quality, while boosting their confidence and ability to promote production and quantity simultaneously?

Audrey is a great example of someone who is “highly motivated” and working to make her articles better and better with each one, while still maintaining an unbelievable pace. I can attest it is not easy to both. It is very difficult to put out quantity and keep the quality high at the same time. And again in life it is much about balance too, as Kathy, Thad and Ed all seem to be pointing too.

I suppose as a top editor of content and a top online article writer that you Dina, are leaning really hard on the quality side, yet you have mastered the output, which is a testament to your strong will and personal character. Your “next to perfect articles” do humble an article author like me and give me a heck of a challenge. You have set that bar pretty high.

What if we take the best quality (your strategies) and the best production techniques (my strategies) and merge them into a “hypersonic article author strategy” for the up and coming superstars. Like taking a Kathy, Thad and Audrey and combining the best of both and then helping all the next article authors? You know take the individuality of each author with their unique passion for what they are writing about and show them all simple strategies to help them achieve more. Let them set the goals, subjects and where they wish to be within the borders of the balance between great Quality and higher output?

Not suggesting re-inventing the wheel, more adding on a set of wings and propeller to their efforts? It might be a fun project? And everyone wins, because higher quality articles, means more status in the online article marketing venue and thus more qualified traffic and better syndication. Thinking out loud here as always? Perhaps of interest?

Like I said, at the time I was very curious about article marketing and really examining who was doing what and how it was working for them, output, link proliferation, and such. I guess I was a bit shocked at what I had found with that one plagiarizing fellow.

And in noticing Lance’s name at the top, I most certainly learned all about him and what he knew! I think you can honestly tell a lot about people, just from reading their articles. I could tell immediately that Winslow was an “honest” article marketer, meaning he wasn’t plagiarizing or doing anything sleazy. But it was true that he made me *look at him* because he rose up so quickly.

It is interested for me now, watching other “newish” article marketers go through the same cycles of discovery that I went through when I was in my exploratory and learning phase. Not that I ever stop exploring or learning, but it’s a different perspective now. I identify with a lot of what Audrey says on this blog, although she’s producing at a much faster rate than I ever did.

I watch authors catching “article fever” and becoming super-motivated, or amazed at the increase in traffic, and I relive my intense fascination all over again!

Yes, I know we are a lot alike than it sometimes appears. In fact I appreciate your integrity, talent and work ethic. Also, you are tough in debate topics too and do not back down to a challenge. Perhaps this is why I truly enjoy debating subjects with you, as it is fun to do a little intellectual sparing with someone who “gets it” and is not oblivious to what is really going on out there. HA!

Meanwhile, indeed I know the person who you are referring too and I totally agree that he was abusing the system and thankfully Chris and Company had the integrity to look into it. The person in question was a problem and destroying the hard fought status and over all integrity of the online article marketing venue. I suppose EzineArticles Team now can spot such culprits and perpetrators very easily as red flags go flying. That is why I like this site and use it for my articles.

Still, at the time of the comment, as you know, I saw this as a “blanket statement” that those who were prolific article authors were to be questioned. Now you too can be considered a high-quantity article writer yourself, so I say Touche! Indeed, I understand your comments better now and thank you for explaining them here and see your point and agree the person you directed your comment too was not me, but rather the gentleman abusing the system, who was violating the spirit of what article marketing really is.

Now today and as we speak, I see other issues on the horizon, namely; I see some of my articles with other peoples names on them around the Internet. Obviously stolen, plagiarized and I see some folks using my real name, as their “pen names” writing stuff, I never wrote and although they say imitation is to be considered “Flattery” you have to wonder sometimes.

Your Friend, Lance

and I may even investigate a bit. I suppose some may really and truly have chronicles of articles of merit. If you do, all I have to say is WOW- but the truth is, as your numbers go up, so do my eyebrows.

Yes, everything I say in that entire blurb is true if you take it for face value. You for some reason have chosen to insert yourself as the person to whom the remark was “aimed at.”

At the time of this writing, article marketing was relatively new for me, so yes, I was in fact investigating and exploring. I don’t try things out without thoroughly examining first.

And at the time when I wrote that particular statement, an author WHO WAS NOT YOU caught my eye as his submissions were rapidly rising. I looked very closely at his work and noticed he was plagiarizing other people’s articles (!). And at that time, I spoke to Chris, who as it turns out, was already investigating the matter himself.

The author had his membership discontinued. I’m guessing he found other ways to promote himself.

So yes, I said those exact words, and yes, I still stand by my original remark in this thread that no, I never accused you of anything, not outright, and not even subtly.

And also, the quote from me that you have pasted here doesn’t say anything about multiple authors.

One thing that I have learned in my own life is that “reading into other people’s meanings” often gets me in hot water. And that was why I asked you if you were in fact talking about me here – because althought I “suspected” that you were, I wanted the *real truth* from you, and not what could have been me imagining things.

Lance, you and I are alike in more ways that it sometimes seems. :) Keep writing and sharing your info with the world, and no I never doubted your sincerity or the originality of your ideas. Not once. Not EVER.

At the time I had around 700 or so articles; Did you not say this on May 10, 2005?

“I agree with Ivy’s sentiments that familiarity breeds credibility to some extent. But I also worry that in their haste to quickly throw content up all over the web, some folks are not paying close enough attention to the quality of the articles themselves. I’d like to think that the best authors are being recognized and rewarded in some way (when I come across fantastic articles, I put them in my website newsletter – and I hope others are doing the same). But is there a ‘ceiling?’- Maybe not on the web, but in one place at one brief time, yes, I think the article cup may runneth over. To me, it’s a bit odd when a new author suddenly appears and starts posting hundreds of articles at a very rapid pace. It makes me wonder where the articles *really* came from (!) and I may even investigate a bit. I suppose some may really and truly have chronicles of articles of merit. If you do, all I have to say is WOW- but the truth is, as your numbers go up, so do my eyebrows. :) Comment provided May 10, 2005 at 9:40 pm”

At this same time the number 2 person had 200 articles and no one was very close to him. And you indicated that you wanted to “Investigate” those who were high quantity authors. Next here you describe writing under multiple versions of one’s name. The reason I stated to do this, 8 versions of my name was because of the people who attacked the prolific nature of high quantity writers. 2-weeks later that month I posted this;

“Today I now have over 1000 articles and I see that 1000 is not the upper limit and for all those who said it could not be done, “I TOLD YOU SO!” We should never under estimate or set limits. A quote I quite like is: “Those who say it cannot be done, are usually about to be passed by someone who is.” That some today was me as I passed the 1000 mark. Today it could be you. You can prove the critics wrong. Anyone can. “If you think you can’t you are right.” Maybe YOU can’t, but that has absolutely nothing to do with anyone else. June first is rapidly approaching, by then I will have 100,000 article views in 8-weeks. I will have one million article views in under a year. I will have over 1200 articles posted by June 1st. Set goals, get it done. Show some spirit. Weakness is unbecoming of this species. “Can’t” Who even made up such a word? What were they thinking. How about “can and will?” Think about it.
Comment provided May 24, 2005 at 5:37 am”

It is amazing the amount of attacks one endures as a high-quantity writer, non-professional writer or multi-category article author. I think folks ought to stop attacking quantity and understand that quantity is just as important to online article authors, as is quality. To illustrate these never ending attacks; now I even have someone using my name, as their pen name? I guess when the critics cannot stop you they copy you they cheat (use PLR or software to write articles), when cheating does not beat you then they steal your name too? Humans?