I assumed it was a new thread since I received an email from the EzineArticles system telling me about the thread.

I don’t quote people often in articles, but I do on occasion and was wondering the policy on it. Thanks Chris.

Lance, I am afraid it is a bit unrealistic to say EzineArticles has no competition, and I am not saying that because I have an article directory. I consider that there are about ten article directories that are worth recognition, although EzineArticles is definitely in the top two. I won’t rank the top two in a particular order, because they both have their benefits.

I will grant you that I participate in the forum for this one more often than any but one. And I will grant you that Chris has the best of the article marketing blogs.

Yah, I get a couple of emails every week telling me to post my articles on their sites, some even offer me money, I guess to give them credibility by using my name there, but you know, if you stop to wonder why they are doing that or making such an offer, its obvious. Ezine Articles is the champion and oh how they wish they could even be in the same race. – Lance

Yes. I did miss that.

I’ve been very focussed on writing a novel for the past 7 months and have therefore taken my eye of what is happening on the net.

I agree with your last comment about content thieves. It’s just the damage that they do trying to get there. They are a waste of space and the sooner they are penalised and dropped from search engines the better off everybody will be. They just have no relevance to anybody but themselves.

I liken them to thieves who smash a vehicle window and cause $500 worth of damage just to steal a couple of CDs.

Thanks for the heads up and Happy New Year!

Regards

Gary

You missed a comment I made in a previous thread:
http://blog.ezinearticles.com/2007/01/1-to-200-or-200-to-1.html

Google did something very significant in 2007 to stop the scrapers and content thieves: They terminated a huge giagantanormous number of MFA’s (Made For Adsense) sites. I was told the approx. number of publishers in confidence who were terminated and my jaw dropped. They really cleaned house and it’s better for their advertisers now… They have also made it clear that they will terminate untrusted publishers who use ripped content. I’ve noticed the drop in MFA sites in the last 5 months that are coming up in search results, so they definitely made an impact.

My belief: No content thief ever rises to traffic power over the long term.

This thread opened up on 27 January 2007. Here we are, almost a year down the track, and people are still concerned with plagiarism of their articles.

It just goes to show that Google and Yahoo and other SE’s aren’t particularly interested in stopping it.

There are so many sites going up that remove authors’ names, strip out resource boxes and mangle articles. The quest for money (via adsense) takes precedence over everything else.

Some people will do ANYTHING for money.

It reminds me of some graffiti that amused me on the outside wall of a toilet in London a few years back.

Some wag wrote: “I will do almost anything for 5 Pounds.”

Under that somebody else wrote: “I WILL do anything for 10 Pounds.”

Regards

Gary

I wrestle with that myself… In fact, I purposely don’t always follow or read what competitors are writing for fear I’ll be moved to copy them (NOT!) but at the same time, I’d be incompetent if I wasn’t at least informed of multiple viewpoints on every important issue.

To answer your question:

“Chris Knight” and many variations of my name are phrases that trip a management review of any article and in most cases, we reject them by asking the author to rewrite it without my name being mentioned. It’s just my preference.

As for other names being quoted, we’re conscious to not allow an article to be approved that attempts to defame someone or mentions someone’s name where we have a good feeling of certainty that the person would not want their name mentioned.

We also don’t accept articles that are nothing but quotes by others as we feel that we’re not going to become a ‘quote compilation’ site if we didn’t make that ruling.

This extra review process has nothing to do with our anti-duplicative content proprietary software.

Happy New Year to you and everyone in this thread.

Software article creation is most despicable because it generally steals sentences from other articles to fill its output, and the users of the software are seldom wise to how the software actually “creates” articles.

With trust being such an important element in internet marketing, why are so many people willing to trust a software program to develop their reputation for them? It boggles my mind.

What boggles my mind even more is the article directories, who sell PLR content and Content Spinner software, when they also profess that they are only interested in quality content. In my mind, the first two cancel out the third.

Trina L.C. Sonnenberg was right when she referred to the wages other people earn, against what people expect writers to work for. I wrote about the same topic in April of 2006:
http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Article-Directory-Managers-Take-Stand-Against-Private-Label-Content&id=177352

Chris said, “After you’ve got 85-95% of the article written, ONLY THEN is it ok to do research to make sure your message and article is comprehensive enough.”

That is the best policy for people who are starting out as writers, or simply lack the integrity to create articles without copying other people’s stuff.

Personally, I read what other people write, in order to find inspiration. I read forums, blogs, articles, news stories, Wiki posts, advertisements, reviews, testimonials, etc. While I am reading, a spark will go off in my mind telling me what I should write about. I will stop and sketch out an article idea. Then I will return to reading.

If one were to compare my article idea to the content I was reading when the spark went off, one would have no idea how one was derived from the other. I cannot really explain the reason for the inspiration other than to suggest that two ideas collided in my mind, creating the catalyst for inspiration.

I know the inspiration is something I should do, because I cannot stay focused on my reading until I have written down my story idea.

When I have finished my daily reading, I sit down and read my story idea and contemplate that idea for an hour or so. Only then do I begin writing my article. Sometimes, I will contemplate on the idea for days or weeks, before I sit down to the keyboard.

p.s. Chris. I have a question for you about your duplicate content software. If I were to quote an individual in an article, would the software trigger the content as duplicate content? For example, if I used the following in an article, would it trigger your software to red flag:

Chris Knight of EzineArticles.com said, “After you’ve got 85-95% of the article written, ONLY THEN is it ok to do research to make sure your message and article is comprehensive enough.”

And, once a red flag is generated on an article, do your staff put eyes to page to make the determination of legitimate use of quotes from other people??

I research and write original articles for a fee. I spend a great deal of time on them, and my time is valuable, just as theirs [clients] is. So, why is it that people seem to think that I should write for them for next to nothing? Because PLR gurus have cheapened the craft, that’s why.

You pay a plumber to fix your plumbing, a mechanic to fix your car, and an accountant to do your taxes, and you pay handsomely for their services; so why do people expect to pay bargain basement prices for professional writing services?

The notification to your comments popped into my email and because the subject is so interesting to me I had to come back and see all the good comments by other bloggers here.

All that the cheats will achieve is to delude themselves.

My articles are all over the net and a great percentage of them are devoid of my name and resource box. Thanks to all the CHEATS who have done this.

Dan, there is only one way to become a good writer and that is to… write. Keep practicing and improve yourself at every opportunity.

I have been busy just about all of 2007 writing a novel. Article writing has therefore taken a backseat to that.

I enjoy writing ORIGINAL articles. But I don’t enjoy being ripped off by the hordes of plagiarists out there. On the internet it is just too easy to copy and paste.

Regards

Gary Simpson

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYBODY! (except the cheats – LOL!)