Christina Sponias writes:

Hi Chris!

I hope this division will be helpful for the readers.
What is the difference between Alternative and the category Mind-Body and Spirit? And how about Spirituality?

I guess you are making things too complicated.
It was already difficult for me to decide if I should submit an article to Depression or Mental Health or Psychology or Alternative or Spirituality! because it could be in any of these categories very well.
Now this decision is even harder!

And how about the readers? Will they have to go from category to category when they visit the site?

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Christina,

My thoughts on this are if a reader goes to a main category and does not find something of interest, that they may not go to other main categories and pull the drop down on the main page for those other main categories. So if a reader feels that what they are looking for has to do with health, rather than self-help, it is very wish to have a Mind, Body and Soul subcategory in Health and Fitness as well. I like this new sub category actually, as I think its very important and many people are thinking here these days. I cannot wait to read the articles you post in these sub-categories, because I really like your articles. – Lance

[Reply]

Christina Sponias writes:

Thank you, Lance! I like your articles too, but I don’t have time to read them.

I think that the categories are too many and this is too confusing.
I cannot understand why categories so identical like Alternative and Mind-Body and Spirit are separated.

I like organization and I understand that the several categories are supposed to help people easily find exactly what they want to read, but I think that so many categories (and so similar) have the opposite effect.

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Christina,

Well, I certainly understand the need for organization in one’s life and profession, believe me, with as many hotdogs on the grill as I have going, you bet organization needs to be simple, efficient and effective, absolutely no doubt. I am with you on that.

But, you know, people (humans) have different ways of organizing their thoughts in their minds, each person uses a virtual neuro-network of sorts to assimilate their date (experiences, knowledge, observations). In doing so, they also have unique perspectives and ways of looking at things and coming to conclusions and decisions, this truth plays out as they search around the Internet.

Thus, it makes sense to have a categorization system that can be used in many different ways, to caste a wider net, to pick up the many ways of thinking, approaching a problem or searching for information. Therefore, although it may look chaotic for a librarian, it works extremely well for surfer.

Now this is not to say that an artificial intelligent program should not display a notice. Those people who liked this category, also enjoyed articles in these other following categories. Those who rated this article high, also enjoyed these articles too.

You see, but realize this is an evolving process, and EzineArticles does not have an unlimited budget for R and D that let’s say eBay, Amazon, or the US Military cyber command.

[Reply]

Christina Sponias writes:

I can understand a separation on Mental Health for example, sharing the categories in Depression, Anxiety, etc., even though I don’t know what about we can write on Mental Health if we have to exclude the subcategories, but at least it makes sense to separate diseases that have different symptoms.

However, so similar categories like the one I mentioned before can only confuse readers and authors.

Where is Chris to give us a scientific explanation for his decision?
Why did he decide to make different categories for so identical subjects?

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

New category decisions are primarily made by member suggestions throughout the year.

The new category suggestions are then aggregated and reviewed against top competitor sites who specialize in the niche we’re evaluating.

In addition, we’ll do further market research on the category suggestions to further make sure that we’re hitting a large enough target niche to warrant all of the services we provide to each category.

Then we’ll compare against existing content to determine if there is sufficient market demand for the topic.

I’m involved in the last step of making the final approval on new categories, but I wanted to make it clear that the decision is a team effort.

Why are there some that are clearly similar? Because not everyone evaluates a niche the same way. If the segment is large enough, we can serve our members and visitors better by having more categories to further identify the niche, not less.

[Reply]

Christina Sponias writes:

Now that I’m thinking better about this matter, I understand that Alternative is medicine that relates mind and body while Mind-Body and Spirit is another kind of study that might have a religious aspect. Spirituality is a huge category that gives everyone the chance to express whatever is or seems to be spiritual, not necessarily relating mind and body.

And I think that perhaps it is really better for our articles to be in a category with not so many articles because this way they are going to be read. The amount of articles at EzineArticles is too big.

In only one category, even the article that would be just submitted would end up in the end of the page because the submissions are too many, so it is really better to share the material. This way the readers will have the chance to read our articles in their category, whatever it may be.

And it doesn’t really matter in which category our articles are; if they are good they are going to be read.
Most people find them through search engines, anyway! The many categories are mainly an internal organization that helps the functionalism of EArticles.

So, Chris, it was really a good idea to share the categories this way!
Now, if they are too many and somehow confusing and if sometimes you see an article about depression on mental health and about anxiety on psychology, it doesn’t really matter, since the divisions can be interpreted in many ways.

[Reply]

Thaddeus Ferguson writes:

Hey Chris,

I wonder if you could tell me who you consider your primary competitors in the dating and relationship catagories as the only one I can think of is “selfgrowth com”
Just so I can expand my distribution as for the most part I only submit to you guys which gives me lots of traffic even though I have only been submitting sporadicly the last couple of months that is changing right now as it looks like I got some comp for the top spots in the catagories I hold most dear

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

Thad,

I’ll pass on sharing who I think our competitors are in that niche.

There is so much work right smack in front of us in our attempt to serve our members, users and advertisers better that I don’t give a lot of attention to tracking competitors.

Our members have this uncanny way of making sure we know who our competitors are. :)

[Reply]

Jan Verhoeff writes:

EA has competitors?

*SHOCK*

Jan

[Reply]

Thaddeus Ferguson writes:

EzineArticles is so big that its “competitors” are in specific niches rather than as an ezine as a whole.
If this industry was regualted by the US govt I am pretty sure that they would force Chris to split this bad boy up like AT&T way back when.
Thankfully Chris is not an Evil Empire and wants to do good so us writers and publishers live together in harmony with the biggest nuances being those blog sites that steal and break up content.

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Competition breeds the best. I love my competition, they make me better, even if every day they get up and hate me!

Lance

[Reply]

Christina Sponias writes:

If you are far very good on what you do, of course you love your competitors: they help you prove to the world that you are superior.

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Christina,

Yes, I believe competitors are like mile markers on the journey to success, yet even when you out pace them, you can never be too careful. Bill Gates use to say that Microsoft is number one today, but that does not mean someone with a garage start-up will not come along tomorrow and do what they did. So, competition keeps you honest and it keeps you striving to better your efforts.

I can tell you this in my days as an track and field athlete, even when the competition was not breathing down my neck, I imagined they were, even if I was disciplined enough not to ever look back. Competition is good, the strong survive, as well they should. It is the natural order of things, and going with the flow of life, it makes sense to never forget that. – Lance

[Reply]

Christina Sponias writes:

Yes, but only when the competitors are honest.

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Christina,

Indeed, I have competed against honest competitors in sports and those who took enhancing steroids. I have competed in business, against reputable businesses and businesses that did more illegal things than the things they did legally. In politics I have competed fairly and witnessed an unbelievable amount of unethical behavior. But, in the end, I figure if they have to cheat to keep up or beat me, that too is a mile marker, because if you can beat the cheaters, then boy have you proved something. It must be very demoralizing for them? To that I say…too bad! Play to win!

[Reply]

Christina Sponias writes:

If the competitors are not honest, the competition becomes a disgusting fight!

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Christina,

Well, just like in sports, all human endeavors can become disgusting, when cheating is involved. Just because the competition cheats does not mean you have to, to play or even to win. In business corporate espionage is common, and competitors often use the government to attack their opponents. In politics, it is often a free-for-all, anything goes, just do not get caught is often the battle cry its too bad.

[Reply]

rosie writes:

Hi, this is a great expansion. I am also looking for a niche area for my new site healthyinternetusers.com. Hence, a category for this much needed area would be super. I started the site out of personal needs to look at this area very closely. Although a health educator, I had neglected some critical areas related to ergonomics, nutrition and exercise. I am seeking other experts in this area to interview for this site and help spread the health message.

[Reply]