Robert Darrell writes:

Re: “Include common-sensical rehashed overly repeated tips or advice.”

Is this new? And will the editors actually be rejecting articles on this basis? Because, if so, BRAVO. It’s about time. IMHO, I see way, way, waaay too many articles of this nature on EzineArticles. I’ve found it very frustrating to see some of my articles that I spent half a day slaving over to get just right get designated as ‘problem articles’ over a coding technicality and meanwhile a truckload of articles with the most meaningless drivel you could imagine (and full of typos) get published. It’s one of the reasons I sort of lost interest in contributing to EzineArticles.com (with all due respect).

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Chris Smith writes:

Thanks for these handy hints. Is there any particular reason why you prefer articles in sets of 2 or more?

The reminder about the article matching up with the content is good. A few times I have forgotten the obvious and your approvers are very diligent! But means better content for everyone.

How has the response been on the Twitter integration and do you have any tips in this regard?

Rgds
Chris
ProfitsWithChris.com

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Leanne Hoagland-Smith writes:

Validate your insight with any reliable research that is easily available on the web.

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Mary Lynn Archibald writes:

Yes. Please make sure you know the difference between “lie” and “lay” and use them accordingly.

You lie down, but you lay and object down. For instance:

I’m going to lie down, and lay my book down on the bed.

It’s good to review, because these words are misused most of the time, and now the error has crept into the media as well.
Sad. It always makes me think immediately, “This person is uneducated,” even when that is obviously not the case.

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ian writes:

Mary Lynn –

With all due respect……

If you are going to critique those who don’t conform to your lofty linguistic standards – you might want to check your own commentary before you do.

“you lie down, but you lay AND object down. For instance”

Makes of course, no sense either.

Sometimes it’s nice to sort of give people a bit of a break, and commend them just for trying don’t you think?

You can always simply bask in the comfortable glow that you know better, right?

Have a great weekend..:-)

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Christina Sponias writes:

I personally don’t like the idea of writing articles in sets of 2. Other authors may find it convenient.

I usually write many articles about certain subject, showing everything I can about it, in many different ways.

Lately I wrote many articles about love, depression and happiness in order to promote my new e-books about this matter. Last week I wrote many articles about how to stop being insecure, good mood and positivism, how to be admired by someone, etc., promoting another ebook that is almost ready.

My articles are lessons and I follow this pattern. My readers can follow my lessons reading all my articles about certain subject, without feeling that I’m repeating anything, because I always examine different aspects in each article.

Now, my suggestions:

Do:

Write many articles, even if you feel that they are not so good, because you need to spread the word about your work and your site’s existence. With time you’ll improve your writing.

Do not be miserable:

You have to give precious content to your readers if you want to have their attention. Give them real information or advice, otherwise they won’t care about learning more at your site.

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Joseph writes:

Re: ‚¬“Include common-sensical rehashed overly repeated tips or advice.‚¬

This requirement is nonsense and completely unworkable since it is a purely subjective call on the part of the editors. What may seem rehashed and overdone to the editor may be very valuable and useful to your site visitors. Who pays your bills–the editors who make up ridiculous rules for submission or the site visitors?

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Jeff Herring - The Article Marketing Guy writes:

DO – aim for writing an article a day!

“An article a day keeps recession away.”

DON’T – whine and say you could never do this…you can :)

Jeff

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Lance Winslow writes:

This is common sensical advice that all authors should follow and thus, I am very glad you have written it. Ha ha ha.

But in all seriousness on the “Do Not Include common-sensical rehashed overly repeated tips or advice.”

An author must be up on their area of expertise enough to know what is common in that industry.

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Lance Winslow writes:

Hey, here is a thought about the “nonsensical tips” that I’d like to bring up. It seems persmissible to include tips that are obvious, but within all the tips should be new insight as well. In other words, just because 2-3 of the items in a “10 Ways to Dominate Your Local Market” article are obvious, does not mean we should leave them out. However if you have “3 Ways to Brush Your Hair” and then you say:

1.) Use your hand to re-adjust it
2.) Use a comb made out of plastic or other substance
3.) Use a brush

Then obviously that is nonsensical garabage. Now someone could go on for 300 words on why you should brush your hair, but that still would be considered a waste of space in the EzineArticles Directory.

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Christina Sponias writes:

It’s late, I still have an article to submit, another one to finish and a big dream to translate, but your funny comment reminded me of a funny article we talked about last year.

Do you need money?
Go to the bank.

Are you hungry?
Go to a restaurant.

What else do you need?
Ask me!

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Marte writes:

Steve – I need something that’s a rehash to help me avoid something that’s a “don’t.”

I’ve hunted for an answer, but with no luck.

This summer my hard drive crashed so Word had to be re-installed. Naturally, it reverted back to standard settings. Now I can’t find any method of turning off the “smart quotes” (or whatever it is) that cause my articles to have nonsensical characters where dashes, apostrophes, and quotes belong (when I cut and paste into your site.)

I don’t want to type directly into your program because I never know when my satellite connection will disconnect and cause me to lose anything that isn’t saved.

I’m using XP – can you tell me where to go and what to change so I can stop having to go through every article and make dozens of corrections?

Thanks in advance…

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Phillip Skinner writes:

Hi guys n gals readers n posters one n all … write as you speak by getting to the point… because in this world of fast movers who has the time to “I wisssh I culd akshully desighfer whut all this abuv akshully meens oh yesh and spell check posts before submitting … ahhhrrr oh so important

My very best to you and your topics
Phillip Skinner

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Paul writes:

I think there should be a do’s and don’t’s post for editors, cause honestly, it looks like lately the heat only seems to be put on the authors (contributors). Since I have started to contribute to EzineArticles, I have always seen an inconsistency in how editors deal with my articles. One can’t help to get the feeling that no matter what editors do, they are always considered angels. Come on EzineArticles, don’t forget who keeps your site filled with content. You need to have a balance, and not just go on a rampage of blasting every single action an authors does. Show us a little more respect. A lot of those so called “common-sensical rehashed overly repeated tips or advice” actually generates a lot of leads to the sites they are linked to, and any of those leads turn into sales, so ask yourself this; “Why so so many readers keep on generating revenue for other sights on a consistent basis if they are reading “common-sensical rehashed overly repeated tips or advice”?

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

Robert,

This is not something new, but we’re reducing our tolerance of common-nonsensical content that offers nothing unique of value.

Chris S.,

I don’t prefer article sets of 2; but rather have found that it’s difficult for authors to write short-high quality articles and it’s easier to write 700+ word articles and cut them in half.

Do whatever works for you. :)

The response to EzineArticles->Twitter module have surprised us! Fast adoption with very little promotion on our behalf. I expect to see 1000’s of tweets going out per day by the end of the year.

Ian,

I’ve been guilty of giving grammar advice only to realize that my own sentences in that advice violated another grammar rule! ;-) Keeps us all on our toes in a complex language to master (even when it’s our native tongue).

Joseph,

It’s all subjective.

If it wasn’t subjective, I could let 25 people on our Editorial team go on Tuesday and we’d have software and servers do everything.

Our editors don’t make the rules. Their voices are heard, but ultimately, a small handful of us in the management team have set the rules that our Editors follow and our QC team enforces. It’s far from perfect, but ya gotta start somewhere.

James,

Ok, we’ll strongly consider how we might allow our members to see the complaint feedback so that it can become a loop instead of only being a datapoint that we make decisions on.

Lance,

I like your idea of adding UNIQUE ideas into bullet pointed COMMON SENSICAL advice!

Marte,

How To Disable Microsoft Word’s Smart Quotes:

1. On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect Options, then click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.

2. Under Replace as you type, select or clear the “Straight quotes” with “smart quotes” check box.

The above is what worked in 2005 with Word before Word 2007.

I can see that I’ll need to update that advice and will do so in an updated blog entry soon.

For now, if you have WORD 2007, click the upper left thingy, stare for an hour until you find the WORD OPTIONS link that is almost hidden, click PROOFING, click AUTOFORMAT, and UNCHECK “Straight Quotes” with “Smart Quotes”.

Paul,

Trust me, our Editors feel *heat* every single day.

I never said they are angels nor have I ever said they are always right. Technically, I know numerically how wrong they are as every editor is internally scored daily on quantity and quality of review. They feel pressure to perform & get it right the first time…I can assure you.

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Edward Weiss writes:

Wondering if comments posted on articles are followed by google or is the “nofollow” rule apply here.

Do or dont?

And if not, it might be a good idea to get people to comment on articles.

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Lance Winslow writes:

I guess I have been guilt of giving heat to editors. I tend to defend my articles, every single one of them with fervor even to the point of aggressive challenging. One of these days I’ll have to detach myself from the articles I write, but alas, if I did not feel so strongly about the articles I write, I wonder if I could get myself to sit down and write so many? So, I guess this is my way of apologizing to editors, when they kick back one of my articles now and again.

Keep up the great work, and realize many article authors are work in progress trying to match their industry sub-sector niche, to their writing style, the changing dynamic of search engines and internet surfer trends. Nothing good in life is easy, EzineArticles articles and online article writing is good, therefore it will be a challenge at times.

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Christina Sponias writes:

Dear Edward, how can we get people to leave their comment if they have to look for the place to do that, which is at the beginning of the article, and not in the end as it should be?

My articles are rated many times, since the readers find the place where they can rate the article after reading it (even though they have first to read three lists with:other articles of the same category, the most viewed articles and the most published ones, before they find where to rate the article they had read, if they can remember it, or if they simply ignore the three lists).

I rarely have a comment at EzineArticles, because of the problem I just mentioned while in other sites, with the same articles, I always have comments from readers.

Comments are very good, even when they are negative, because they give you the chance to explain better what you really meant in your article and you can give additional lessons to your readers. And they do appear on Google, Yahoo, etc.

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

Edward,

All links given to commentors on articles include the nofollow link.

My gut feeling is that search engines still follow nofollow links for ‘discovery’ but not for trust passage.

Christina,

In other sites where we’ve tested different layouts, putting comments at the bottom significantly DROPS the CTR for your RESOURCE BOX links and ads both…and that’s why we’re not going to change it.

Article Comment Trivia: In the month of August 2008, 2,603 new comments were submitted, 832 were accepted, 31 of those were deleted by authors, and we’re managing 7,453 unique subscribers who have subscribed via email to receive new comment updates on 7,914 articles.

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Christina Sponias writes:

Never mind, Chris, because the comments are not indispensable and most people don’t leave a comment, even when they like very much an article. They prefer to simply rate it with a click.

It would be good if we could have a combination, but most readers, even when they leave a comment, never continue the dialogue.

Many of them ask me to translate their dreams for example, what I do publically since they ask me to, but they never confirm anything and they are exposed this way, even though they don’t understand that. This is why I use the dreams of my contributors only anonymously.

Thus, the readers’ comments don’t help the author prove anything, since they don’t continue the dialogue, while they are exposed this way, because they talk about their personal problems. This is not good for them.

There is this negative part about comments too, besides the ones you already mentioned.

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Barcelona apartment writes:

Very handly article, clear as crystal

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Amy K. Jones writes:

Writer’s Guidelines #3 “MUST BE informative and share your unique expertise. Include tips, strategies, techniques, case-studies, analysis, opinions and commentary in your articles. We do not accept articles that contain more than 5 lines of quoted or sourced material.” (ae)

RE: submitting “meatier” articles.
In trying to match your objective of 2-part articles, I find I have run afoul of the five line quoted or sourced material requirement (above). How am I to present case-studies, salient information, and opinions comprehensively under this constraint? In both parts of my article I cite three sources. I’ve already deleted links to each source document (because they exceeded the 2-link maximum requirement), and still find that the article does not fulfill what EzineArticles is seeking to publish.

Even the allowance of five lines of sourced material (or quoted material) presents problems for an article writer. Topics that require documentation do not always involve speakers or writers who severely abbreviate the presentation of their thoughts. The 5-line allowance, when observing the other guideline that states that a quote must be complete enough to prevent the necessity of the reader to leave the site (follow a link) in order to grasp the salient point, strips the bones right out of the meat and makes for opining tripe – which I’ve already happily provided. (Tripe: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tripe)

While having guidelines is appropriate and necessary from an editorial standpoint, the addition of rules based on the many and varied personal pet peeves of writers may do nothing more than discourage those who, after reading through them, cannot find a way to conform to all the subjective critiquing…which is what I suppose suits writers who hold their competitors to a superior standard.

As a beginner here, not everywhere, I am afraid to risk submitting my meaty two-part article even though I’m confident that it is thought-provoking and offers valuable information worthy of notice. My series crosses up no less than four of the guidelines, new and old, and by the time I might have submitted it, no doubt many more. (weeps as she leaves the room)

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Lance Winslow writes:

I had an idea the other day. Why not do this:

When someone writes an article under 325 words your system will automatically post another article of over 325 words from another author under it. This will give the reader an automatic second choice and more information. This way the reader is happy and the reader has a second source and a second choice.

It also puts more content on that page for the search engines to grab at. Just thinking outloud. Authors will then want to write longer articles out of their own self-interests and you have given them an incentive to do so.

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

Lance,

I like your idea… it’s kinda radical, most likely will upset thousands of people…

I’ll bring it up internally as a discussion option…

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graham douglas writes:

I just submitted my first article a couple weeks ago. It took me a while to be brave enough to set it up. I appreciate the do’s and don’ts. I will say though, in terms of quality content or bloated articles, there are plenty. For sure the authors with quality submissions should be commended. With the good, there is always the ugly.

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Adolfo writes:

This is awesome!

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Adalberto writes:

This is awesome!

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