Edward Weiss writes:

Cool graphic Chris. To answer your question, I would have to say inertia or lazyness. What motivates one author to write – let’s say getting more hits to the website, may not motivate another.

And if getting more people to visit your website isn’t enough to motivate someone to write more articles, I don’t know what would do it – except a monetary incentive, i.e. getting paid for submitting articles.

[Reply]

Mark David Gerson writes:

Thanks, Chris, for the validation of what I’ve already been doing — digging up old articles and blog posts and seeding the world wide web with them, including through EzineArticles.com.

Here, I thought I was being lazy…and it turns out I was being smart!

[Reply]

Loretta Lynn writes:

I agree, with laziness, but also there’s doubt, lack of confidence, or maybe lack of follow through too.

[Reply]

Drew Stevens PhD writes:

Excellent article and great insight. I know many that suffer from writers block. In fact, one person in my mastermind group cannot believe I write as often as I do. i learned a trick a long time ago from a previous acting class. Here are some tips:

1. Observe – take notes when you see people, read an article or see a television show or movie. There is some great commentary in daily life.

2. Place pen and paper where ever you go. I have tons of paper and pen at the ready i.e. bathroom, bedroom, office, auto, motorcycle, etc. You never know when a thought hits.

3. Telephone – I record memos to myself when I am on the road so as not to forget.

4. 30/3 – I dedicate 30 minutes three times per week for writing. It does not matter if you are an author, speaker, consultant, Subject matter experts must commit to sharing intellectual capital.

Thanks for a great article.
Drew

[Reply]

Leslie writes:

Yes. Sometimes it’s a lazyness. However I don’t think anyone that sets out to create a website as a side business can be called lazy. For me, it’s a matter of finding new and interesting topics or how to say the same thing in a different way.

It’s also hard to get things syndicated. I’d like to learn more about that please!

[Reply]

Loretta Lynn writes:

And as I had to recently rebuild one of my sites, and look for my links, articles, etc., it reminded me of how important it is to keep our articles handy. I have numerous article I can post on ezine now.

[Reply]

Michaela writes:

Yes, it is some laziness, but it is also an intimidation, about being unique, no double info. I find this being grossly abused by people. Except, a totally brand new topic, you will find info on Internet about everything. Example if I am writing about Internet Marketing, or Affiliate Marketing; how original can I be? Whatever I’ll write, it will exist already somewhere, and so on.
Especially for beginners, this is a serious intimidation
Michaela

[Reply]

marcomiranda sr, writes:

Great article. Nothing new but something often ignored. My professor used to say that writing is the best way to keep the brain and the soul on the same track!

[Reply]

Diane Dutton writes:

Your timing is amazing! I have just recently realized that I have been away from my writing for too long.

I believe it is the proper allocation of your time to the things that produce the most value.

If you are a writer who writes only when inspired, then it may be easy to distract you from writing. If you are a purist – well then writing and posting in order to create traffic to influence readers to your site to purchase product puts money before pure delivery of value – either way you will be an inspired, but very poor person!

So give your writing the time it needs and give your financial success the time it needs and go 3 for3, THINK, FEEL and ACT in alignment with giving great value to your writing to produce great results for you and the reader alike!

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

Leslie,

Getting things syndicated is the easy part…

At least as far as EzineArticles is concerned, we’d prefer that you submit your articles and let your article syndicate naturally (ie: via the RSS feeds, email alerts we send, ezine & web publishers who pick up your content, etc.).

For more about the lifecycle of your article after it gets submitted, see this: http://ezinearticles.com/article-cycle/

Drew,

Excellent points!

I often use my iPhone to make keyword notes to myself whenever I have a great idea of an issue I want to write about. Today’s blog entry is an example of a note I made to myself 10 days ago.

Edward,

Images credit goes to Joanne in the EzineArticles marketing team.

Mark,

Yep, smart.

Loretta,

Great observation! It’s our mission here to help educate and train our members with the most up to date ways that they can use article writing & marketing strategies with confidence.

[Reply]

Paul Macleod writes:

thougt provoking article, mmmmmm I’m thinking !

It seems to me that if someone is writing any articles at all there is motivation to communicate. Two ways to get someone to do something, hope of reward, and fear of punishment. So I suppose it would not be fear of punishment that would motivate someone to write more……… ? Right?

Perhaps it is reward, but what reward would make them do it? Money? Attention……. ? Maybe it is less and not more that works for some.

I like to write golf articles, I do link them and I make some money ..not a lot but it’s fun to get a check from Pay pal or click bank.. but I love hearing from folks all over the world that got some thing out of an article that helped them with what ever they were working on in their golf game, If I get a a few responses …….. well I may write a couple of extra articles and I may even put a little extra effort into them ..

I don’t know… what do you think?

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

Michaela,

How to be unique:
http://blog.EzineArticles.com/2008/05/how-to-be-unique.html

Excerpt:

• Forget for a moment that there already is a high ‘supply’ of articles already in your niche.
• Chances are pretty high that the ‘long tail’ within your niche has been ignored or under-served.
• I recommend writing 40% of your articles for the ‘head’ of the long tail and 60% for the ‘long tail’ itself.
• Stop researching what everyone else is doing. Think for a moment about the problems and issues your clients, vendors, and employees or stakeholders face. Now, write to solve those issues.
• Revere your uniqueness. No one on Earth sees or evaluates your niche like you do. Share your unique viewpoint.
• There is so much ‘thin’ content out there that it makes it very easy to immediately rise above mediocre content.
• Create an article content creation plan that chunks down various areas of your niche that you’ve deemed critical to cover.
• Poll your members, clients, prospects, whatever and ask them which areas of your expertise they’d like to hear more about.
• In the end, you’re competing against yourself. When you write compelling quality article content, your words and profile will immediately rise to the top.

[Reply]

Beau Smith writes:

Chris,
I am a writer as well as a fine artist. I have more than one site. What happens for me: I try to do too many things. I don’t concentrate on a niche and therefor I get burnt out. For a while I was submitting article after article. But I wasn’t getting traffic to justify the time. Not yet. I know in the long run it will pay off.

If I had concentrated my efforts on one niche, then I think I would have seen a big increase in traffic. I would say this is much like the advice the internet marketer gives to say, hone down on that niche. I’m overextended on too many websites and too many niches.

Thanks, Beau

[Reply]

Gregg Hall writes:

Excellent Chris!

I think that Beau makes a good point as well. As you probably know I have had hundreds of sites that I have promoted through EzineArticles and writing so many articles propelled me to the number 6 spot.

BUT I recently sold the vast majority of my sites and am now concentrating on a handful of niches that I can totally dominate by combining article marketing with social bookmarking.

My experience in going through the process as well as my 14 years online inspired me to put together the new ebook and video tutorials I just released to help people get started on the right foot, and I always tell them that no matter what they do, they have to make EzineArticles.com a priority.

Gregg

[Reply]

Kathy Ostman-Magnusen writes:

I don’t know what stops other people but for me there have been a few of reasons I have not been posting as often lately.

1) is that my computer has been having issues.. ug!

2) Wordtracker changed their free keyword trial and I am totally bummed about that. I can’t afford to join so had been using their free trial with the promise that when I can I would indeed join. I know that I can give them my c/c but am unsure if I can do that more than once for a free trial. Soo waa! I can’t see writing anything without good keywords. When I look at other peoples stats and see that they have written a zillion articles with less than 30 reads EzineArticles, I just feel what is the point? I know it adds up, but still. I guess something is better than nothing though but I would hate to see no reads… ewe!

3) I have had some problems posting my poems in stanza’s on EzineArticles but that is cleared up now. Yay.

4) I have been painting.

[Reply]

Kathy Ostman-Magnusen writes:

Ohh I forgot my last reason… I am not all that happy with the sales I get off my main website. I think I need to redo it and offer more variety, maybe put the text on the back pages.. dunno. Even when I was getting a lot of hits on my site due to article writing my sales were not worth all the effort. I plan to redo my site of course, but I also need to figure out some better strategies. An Ebook or something I don’t know.

btw EzineArticles shows the best stats of all ezines I have posted on, so I don’t even bother with anyone else anymore.

[Reply]

Strephon writes:

Hi Chris and others.

I appreciate all your thoughts and ideas that have appeared here. I am learning a lot.

However, I also found out in studying Internet Marketing, that no matter how many free articles I put out there on the web, getting visitors to my sites was still a missing art.

I can write books that sell but how can I write articles that compel readers to further action with me as an expert?

So, I have not learned that here. I’m sure there are workable concepts based on experience here, yet I am not clear on what in an article gets the most visitors to visit a site.

It’s only recently that you have statistics on how many click on your links, as a sign that visitors are going there.

The other weakness I still have is getting my sites designed right with the right copy to encourage buying from me.

So I tell myself that while I am learning I don’t have good enough sites yet to take advantage of visitors who come because I have written good articles. So I don’t write many articles yet. Why use my time this way if I am not yet skilled enough to be effective?

It comes to mind that while you use two editors to evaluate each article submitted, you do it for your own quality purposes.

My need would seem to be editors who evaluate articles for their marketing strength as well.

Conflicting values?

You evaluate for good, clear information writing but tend to limit the marketing aspect? Right or wrong? I don’t really know.

Reading free marketing letters they inform us on how to write good web copy that gets visitors to respond, like joining a mailing list or buying a service or product.

In terms of this topic about being a dominator, I am more interested in techniques that work to be a dominator.

Summary need: the need to know using a template that works how to construct and write an article that most motivates readers to follow through and go to the links.

Techniques, more techniques, and still more techniques!

I love your new little audio files on techniques. I am going to do the same with my niche ideas where people can click on the audio button out of one hundred buttons on relationship techniques and issues.

These buttons are better maybe than articles.

Articles should also be audio buttons.

Why not add to the directory thousands of audio buttons on single topics. The audios last a minute and a half as yours do.

The medium is the message. You don’t need to dominate a niche. You need to create effective means of conveying info that works.

I will have at least 100 audio buttons of specific info for my site, then see if that is true enticement. I will take this audio text and also submit it to EzineArticles as 100 articles.

How many articles do you have to write to dominate a niche? Or does it not work that way?

I’m not interested in who writes the most articles.

I am interested in who gets the most readers per article as a total and as an average per month. I want to see those dominator articles, the 100 best for getting readers and link clicks.

What are your measures of article effectiveness?

How’s that?

[Reply]

Kathy Ostman-Magnusen writes:

Yes.. I would like to know more about this too:

Written by Strephon:

“I am interested in who gets the most readers per article as a total and as an average per month. I want to see those dominator articles, the 100 best for getting readers and link clicks.”

I have one poem of all things, that has had over 500 url clicks.. I do know why but don’t want to be known for that sort of thing. It fits with my efforts in a way but not enough to do a lot of it. I also notice a lot of url clicks, (not nearly as many) within my niche so if I can get my keyword issue resolved I will try to stay closer in theme with those and see what happens.

This brings up the whole issue of EzineArticles not posting images that was on another blog of EA’s. I think the ‘reason’ I got so many url clicks on that poem is that they wanted to see more of who wrote it and what else I had to say about the subject. That there is what I hope to aim for, to spark their curiosity, that and an improved website.

[Reply]

Frank writes:

I’ve only published two articles, but I have content for many more articles. However, what’s holding me back is I’m trying to find someone to proofread, edit, and design a cover for my eBook so that I will have a book to sell when my articles get published. Where am I wrong? By the way, I heard that I can get my eBook finished for under $100.00, but the bids I got ranged from $300.00 to $1,500.00. I wouldn’t mind paying that if I had more confidence in my marketing skills, but I am new at this and that means I will need to hire a copywriter, too. Perhaps others have had a problem such as mine, and I would like to hear if they found a low cost solution that was successful in terms of selling their eBook. Help!

[Reply]

Daryl Campbell writes:

Good stuff Chris

I think it’s fear for some people. Fear of leaving that comfort zone, fear of the unknown, fear that they may not have the ability to do it, fear of the hard work. These are just some examples but starting from scratch and moving forward to dominate your niche can be a scary proposition.

[Reply]

Afric de Blaca writes:

Hi Chris,

I would say that dabbling authors fall short of success because they suffer from Dabbling Disease. This terrible disease causes absence of success in all walks of life and can occur where The Dabbler manifests lack of intention, commitment, focus, perseverence and application.

Some people want to succeed, others don’t. And a third group, the Dabblers, think they do, but haven’t yet won that argument with themselves. And so they are their own worst enemy.

As those great intellectuals, the Spice Girls, used to sing, way back in the halcyon days of my youth: “Tell me what you want , what ya really really want…” This is THE profound question Dabblers need to ask themselves. This single question can cure Dabbling Disease in an instant! It is miraculous! Once Dabblers clarify this question of what they really really want, to paraphrase the great Goethe (a forerunner of Spice Girls), once you commit to something, all the universe will conspire to help you—in this case, EzineArticles and one Knight in shining armour (or whatever!).

A recovering Dabbler!

[Reply]

Ed Winslow writes:

Between EzineArticles and my blog I learn what people want in my market.

What holds me back from writing more? Lack of time and energy which ultimately means laziness I guess.

I need to write more. It drives traffic to my blog. I have written about 20 articles this year and received about 20,000 views which converted to about 3,000 visitors to my blog.

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

EzineArticles is not doing AUDIO, IMAGES or VIDEO on purpose and this is not going to change this year.

I know that closes many doors for us, but our reasons for doing it actually HELP authors keep a significantly higher CTR overall due to image branding ad tests we did in 2007. This is a greater good issue that clearly hurts a minority of members who could really benefit from it (artists, painters, photographers, etc).

Daryl,

Scary that people are afraid of the potential for success, eh?

Afric,

Interesting… You just described the type of buyer who collectively buys millions of dollars of info products to get the secrets of success but deep down inside, they have no real desire to act on the information.

You ended quoting Goethe…one of my favorite sayings.

[Reply]

Thomas Cummins writes:

Excellent question and fantastic responses.

Boy does this show the enthusiasm of the authors.

Well to be honest I fall into the dabbler part and not because I am lazy as I believe I have posted quite a few articles in a short space of time but have not had a website until two weeks ago.

Regarding statistics of who gets the most hits per article I think we do not need to know that as it will demoralize rather than inspire and I believe the intent is for uniqueness as well as quality otherwise the team may reject our articles.

Regarding holding back from publishing to get all ducks in a row is a mistake and one should forge ahead as it will build familiarity and you are showing that you are not all about hits and sales.

Meanwhile back at the ranch I am learning as I go and I have quite a few knocks from falling and stumbling but as long as my readership is climbing then I am happy and the rewards will come later.

Thanks to everyone here for all their insight and suggestions.

[Reply]

agnes_griffins writes:

Hi Chris,

Cool and nice graphics. I agree, that sometimes laziness, but also, lack of confidence.

[Reply]

Kathy Ostman-Magnusen writes:

Chris I just wanted to make sure I was clear about my feelings about images.. I SEE THE LIGHT! I do! I agree with you. The answer came because people clicked my url to see what I was all about. I think if there had been an image they would not have done that near as much. I compared my url clicks with another ezine that does post images and it was practically nil for the very same ones that got tons on EzineArticles. So Yay EzineArticles and thank you for your wisdom.

[Reply]

Amy writes:

What holds me back from writing more? Lack of time and keeping up with the email from my web site and another that I answer FAQs for. That’s what keeps me from writing more. Good point Chris however, about FAQ answers, I have done many 500 word ones that could be articles, I never thought of that before.

[Reply]

Duncan Richardson writes:

Wow! That was an excellent way to put it. I’m still a dabbler. I currently have 10 articles and I thought I was doing good. I now have realized that I could actually triple that within an hour just by digging up old material.

Thanks for presenting this in just the right manner that really made it hit home!

Duncan

[Reply]

Emma Martin writes:

Inertia, laziness, boredom, ADD *g*

I tell myself that I will write and submit two articles every day, just two, and yet I still don’t manage it most of the time because of the combination of factors listed above. I either can’t make myself MOVE or I feel too scattered or I just plain don’t wanna! Being self-employed and not very disciplined are not things that go together too well, but I am muddling along.

I do try and mostly stick to my two main niches and I am slowly building up the numbers of articles in each (37 in one and 17 in the other), but I find myself indulging my ADD by dabbling with other stuff that strikes my fancy! My goal though is to get to at least 100 articles each for my main niches.

[Reply]

Ramalingam writes:

I think the lack of will and motivation desist them from dominating.Perhaps lack of monetary incentives plays another role.

[Reply]

Frank Froggatt writes:

I think that a lot of it has to do with system overload as well. We all spend a lot of time on the internet and we are baraged with this offer and that offer that so and so is offering. It takes up a lot of our time looking at all this clutter. We must stay focused and set our goals. Write them down in a list form for the day and stay at it until you have accomplished the tasks you’ve set for yourself. I’m really bad about it.

[Reply]

Sourav writes:

Hi, Chris this post of yours have given me confident of submitting my first self written ezine article and I’m still waiting for its approval. Usually my sister writes article for me, but this time I overcame my laziness and wrote myself. Let’s hope for the best that its goo in the eyes of the editors.

[Reply]

Leanne Hoagland-Smith writes:

Chris as always makes an obvious point. From my experience it is a lack of alignment to a cohesive marketing plan with specific goals. After my first year, I began to set written goals about how many articles to submit and these goals have increased every year since.

With the web’s exponential growth, submitting a couple of articles a month will not cut the mustard so to speak.

When you look at over 107,000 plus authors and less than 60 have more than 1,000 articles (.000561%), this demonstrates that most authors are dabblers and very few are dominators.

[Reply]

Anne Sentell writes:

Christopher Knight had some great ideas and comments! We do not always have to “reinvent the wheel.” In the recent or distant past, most of us have jotted down interesting and informative material as it relates to our subject; or, in some inspirational moment written down material keep and remember. Often, these are valuable bits of information that others need to hear.

[Reply]

Rafael writes:

I think it’s a binary of self doubt and laziness. Each of them fuels the other. At least, I think that’s true for me in any case.

[Reply]

Min writes:

Chris, great diagram. Would you be able to offer advice on when one’s original out of my head article is rejected as not original enough? It wasn’t spun or re-hashed. As someone else wrote here, there aren’t many new ideas in the world left…just new ways of putting it. I don’t believe there are THAT many ways to clean a room (for example), so of course the info may be a little generic.
I’d like to not have this happen again!
(and I’m still confused that my prev 2 ext links are now considered as 4…I fix that, then I get told my article is not informative or original enough!
Considering I see others articles x 30 that are virtually the same (by same author), I just don’t get it!!
Love to hear your thoughts and any tips please!

[Reply]

Jim writes:

Chris,

Great article, as usual.

Guilty as charged. A dabbler.

Possible reasons, lack of confidence,ability,focus and the list goes on. Very perplexing!

On a more positive note, some excellent advice stated amongst the comments here.

[Reply]

Marks writes:

Although I agree with laziness like the other guys above, i think one of the reasons why people slow down on there writing is mainly becuase they run out of things to talk about. To constantly think of new ideas and theories for articles can take a bit of brain power which most people cant be bothered to try. (me being one of them from time to time) Incentives such as a boost of traffic on a particular day or some very motivating comments can go a long way and bring out motivation.

[Reply]

Link Builders writes:

Hi Chris,

Gotta admit an amazing article here. Most of us dont realize how powerful article submission thru ezineartices can be.

We had written keyword enriched articles for an attorney client of our and submitted them thru EzineArticles and in 2 months we had between # 1- 6 spots in google for the clients site.

Adding orginal content and articles that intrique the reader definitely helps. Having guidance from experts helps and we appreciate all the advice given to us.

Love to hear any more tips and success stories.

[Reply]

Willi D writes:

I think people need to know what to do in order to really dominate.

Lack of knowledge can be a right crippler!

[Reply]

Wayne Tully writes:

I think it could be a confidence thing holding back alot of expert writers, I mean is there stuff really any good? it probably is, but they lack the confidence to move on from what others may say about them or their writing, sometimes it takes just one negative comment from someone who may not be meaning any harm.

But they just add their opinion as genuine criticism and that puts a spanner in the works quite often, This has happened to me, and plus if you are a little shaky in the area of grammar and punctuation like me, then that’s going to impact your productivity in article writing too.

[Reply]

Successful Entrepreneur writes:

Hey there,

Great article. It was an eye opener. I am sometimes a bit lazy but your article was an eye opener for me.

Regards
Amit

[Reply]

Recent Trends in Human Resources writes:

Hi Chris,

You make an obvious point. From my experience it is a lack of alignment marketing plan with your specific objectives.It reminded me of how important it is to keep our articles handy.

thanks a ton

HR Manager

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

First a gentle note about our Blog comment policy:
http://blog.EzineArticles.com/2007/01/ezinearticlescom-blog-comment-policy.html

Please use your name for your website link and not a keyword or keyphrase for your name/link… Also, we don’t allow resource boxes to be included at the end of blog comments.

—

Seems like a lot of business friends here need to FOCUS their business, stop chasing every niche idea and get narrower in their approach to a single or a few niche markets… in order to dominate.

“If you chase every niche that looks interesting to you, you shouldn’t be surprised when you feel overwhelmed and undersuccessed.”

(Yes, I just made that last word up.)

Emma,

Excellent goal of achieving at least 100 articles for each of your main niches.

Monique,

QUALITY is always better if you have to choose between Quality vs. Quantity… I prefer to not choose. I prefer QUALITY and QUANTITY both because it is possible.

Min,

We monitor false positives very closely when they are reported. Frankly, it’s not possible to be caught by our CASM anti-derivative software if you wrote the article directly out of your head. It’s just not possible due to what I know of the results of stats & internal reporting we’ve done.

I looked into your account and you’ll receive an email this morning from Member Support about what happened. In fact, you did nothing wrong in a recent article and I used your article as an example of a type of article we want to accept (numbered lists of tips & strategies).

You want some tips?

• Add a 1-3 sentence introduction to your numbered lists of tips.
• Increase your word count to at least 100 more words than the minimum that we accept (250).

All,

I didn’t want anyone to feel guilty for being a dabbler… just wanted to inspire, encourage and cajole folks to see how easily others are eating your marketshare for lunch due to low article counts.

It’s important to not get caught up in the paralysis of analysis of which way is the perfect way to optimize your articles, etc…

Taking Massive Action can solve a lot of problems…and you will naturally improve over time. We all do.

Willi D,

What to do?

13 Free article writing & marketing training tips just created:
http://ezinearticles.com/training/audio/

Or join the 12+ part email course:
http://ezinearticles.com/training/

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Well, as I approach 6.5-million article views here alone and a 250,000 article published count, I guess I can vouch for the synergy affect. It just keeps growing, the number of incoming links is truly unbelievable. I thank EzineArticles as I sit in the air-conditioning at Starbucks sipping on my last Frappachino considering the unlimited possibilities that they along with my hard work have opened for me. I am smiling, life is good.

[Reply]

Chris writes:

OK, doing a lot of something means you’re not dabbling, but it could also mean you’re thrashing about in the wilderness, hoping that something will ‘stick’.

Hence products like “Write An Article In 5 Minutes”, “Write An Article In 7 Minutes”, and even, “Write Like A Maniac”!

Perhaps it’s just me but if you can’t add to the sum of human knowledge then don’t waste someone else’s life having to read it. Yes, quantity does show commitment, but quality will be the most likely indicator for eventual success.

[Reply]

Hendry Lee writes:

Well, time to look at my rejected article. Once I wrote an article about re-purposing articles from e-newsletter and blog content, but it was rejected.

Obviously the reason is not because of the content.

Thanks Chris, that was a nice graphic.

Btw, images really attract comments, I’d guess.

[Reply]

Paul Lalley writes:

Excellent piece. Thank you.

The thing holding back experts from writing more is time. Being experts, they’re in demand.

Thanks, again, for the post and, yeah, very cool grafix.

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Paul, you are absolutely correct, that is the biggest dilemma indeed. I can tell you had I not retired there is now way I would have ever had the time.

[Reply]

Paul Lalley writes:

@Lance: I look forward to the day. And you seem to be putting that retirement to very good use. That’s got to be a couple of long tons of content you’ve written.

Keep ’em coming!

Best,
Paul

[Reply]

M.G. Matally writes:

You triggered my thoughts. Yep, I do have a whole bunch of articles and blogs in waiting. Thanks for the tip.

[Reply]

Tinu writes:

Time. It would be one thing if I could cut and paste a few humdred of my blog posts into EzineArticles and have them publish into the future, but my blog posts are different from my articles, and would have to be changed to include some of the info I link to.

I’ve tested paying someone on staff to go through the blog and rewrite certain things for use in EzineArticles but so far I haven’t got anyone who into knows enough about to do the whole job for me.

[Reply]

Dean Shainin writes:

I really love the graphics showing the difference between the 2 types of article marketers. I for one at times have struggled to produce new articles from scratch because I have hundreds of articles already written. Now I have a much better idea on how to get more quality article content to submit.

To answer your question I would have to say the number one reason why authors don’t dominate their niche is simply because they don’t see the full potential of laser targeted traffic that articles can generate when done right.

Thanks for the great ideas Chris.

Cheers,
Dean

[Reply]

min writes:

Chris….*you rock*!

Thankyou very much for that, I really appreciate it.
I have received the email from Member Support, thankyou. (Can you possibly please spell out what a false-positive is please, in context of articles?)

I really appreciate your tips too. I will certainly take them on board to make my articles even better content for ezines. Muchos gracias Senor!

[Reply]

james writes:

First-class goal of accomplishing at least 100 articles for each of your main corners.
__________________________
james
Addiction Recovery Florida

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

Min,

A false positive would be when our system auto-rejects an article submission as being duplicate when it’s clearly not.

I have yet to see it.

[Reply]

Beau Smith writes:

I understand that there are places where you can find people to write your articles for $5 apiece. So why not keep a jar by the computer and pay yourself 5 bucks every time you write an article? It could add up. I might try this for the motivation.

[Reply]

Frank writes:

One thing that is holding me back is I can’t find someone who will proofread and edit my articles and not charge me an arm and a leg.

Are there really people who write articles for $5 apiece? How much do they charge for proofreading and editing articles?

If you know who writes articles for for $5 apiece, please tell me who they are so that I can hire them to edit my aricles.

[Reply]

Paul Lalley writes:

@Frank

Stay away from the $5 an article guys. This work is outsourced to individuals whose first language isn’t English – India, Latvia, Russia – you can find people who’ll write $5 articles but you will most assuredly get what you pay for.

If you’re looking for editing and proofing at reasonable rates, visit Elance.com. It might cost you $10 an article but at least it will sound like native english.

Save your $$$ and hire a pro – even a cheap one.

Best,
webwordslinger

[Reply]

Gregg Hall writes:

I have to agree with you overall. I sometimes outsource for blog content and such to cover a multitude of sites but writing articles for submission to Article Directories is more important.

When I have the time to contract myself out for writing I charge $16 per article and my clients are happy to pay it.

Gregg

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Bully Xtreme writes:

Chris,
Based on my years of personal training and success coaching! I believe the reason people are dabbler‚¬s instead of dominator’s in article writing! as well as in other areas of their lives is because of the following reasons:

– Lack of a clear goal to use article marketing as an effective strategy in promoting their site/business.

– Focusing on excuses and obstacles instead of solutions

– Not setting a specific 90 day goal for number of articles to write and publish

– Not scheduling the time to write and research their articles

– Not focusing on the rewards of article marketing in terms of website optimization and traffic generation.

– Not utilizing other people (outsourcing) to help them achieve their article writing goal.

– Not committed

– Making excuses instead of making time.

– Self doubt – They doubt their ability to write instead of researching and learning how to write effective articles.

In Summary:

The most difficult thing for many people to do is to face themselves squarely to determine their strengths and weaknesses.

Then to set concrete goals to strengthen each area. For example if in your evaluation of setting a goal of writing 20 articles per day you find that your biggest obstacle is finding the time to do all the research and writing.. you could brainstorm and come up with 5 to 10 solutions.

Most people look at life in this manner! goal !obstacles! then they ask themselves is it worth it to me.

I suggest before you set any goal or make a decision that you look /try this process.

On a blank piece of paper.

1. Determine your specific goal.

2. List all the rewards that will come to you personally by accomplishing this goal

3. List all the things that are stopping you from achieving this goal

4. Now focus on coming up with 5 to 10 solutions for each obstacle

5. Now is the time to ask yourself with the goal clearly spelled out! is it worth it to me. I the answer is yes! then begin right away. You are destined to succeed!

Chris thank you for creating a premier quality article directory.

Frank

[Reply]

Christine Sutherland writes:

Yes Chris, great questions and comments.

I regard myself as a rather prolific writer of articles and books, however I have to say that after a solid decade of writing it hasn’t paid off and that’s why my pace has slowed.

I realise that I must not be writing with the right language or angle for my audience. There is just no point continuing to put out material that isn’t seen as relevant.

For serious business people, I think the emphasis should not be on writing masses of articles, but on writing articles that actually do lead to people engaging with us.

Keyword and market research must be the number 1 focus.

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Christine, I could not agree more. To Dominate your field, or industry sub-sector you must focus and go for the main key-words and the long-tail too. And your articles must be relevant, intelligent and contain valuable information. So, I concur COMPLETELY with you comments, you are spot on!

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

Christine,

You touched on the dichotomy that exists in that you need to choose a niche that has high market demand for information yet those niches are also filled with much competition… leading some authors to waffle or not ‘be up to the task’ of competing.

It’s ALWAYS better to serve a niche with intense competition because at least you know the marketplace will be there when you rise to the top. The best ALWAYS rise to the top.

I can agree that authors should not write masses of articles in markets where they are finding little engagement.

Work to figure out which topics within your expertise area leads to market engagement and then go very deep with content into that area.

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