Kadir, the father writes:

EzineArticles Premium Membership is a must for a blogger who is having more than three blogs and need organic traffic. But, premium membership doesn’t confirm that all the articles will be accepted, it it doesn’t meet the EzineArticles standard.

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Edward Weiss writes:

Well, since you asked … the hard answer is ‘no need.’ I may not be the target market your after, but I can wait as long as it takes to get approved. Now, if it took a really long time to have my articles aprroved, then I might consider it. And only if I were going to be writing a lot of articles (which I’m not.)

If I were marketing this, I would focus on selling the 1 month option as a test, i.e., ‘try our premium service for 1 month.’ If it doesn’t meet and/or exceed your expectations, we”l refund your money no questions asked.

Think short term here. Get people to taste the service. You’ll probably get a lot more signups.

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Marc, Product Marketing Manager writes:

Not a bad idea. Thanks for the valuable input, Ed. :-)

June 30, 2010 at 3:19 PM

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Janna Chan writes:

No worries, Marc. Also, I may have jumped the gun on my disappointment with the analytics feature, as it has yielded valuable info for at least one of my articles. It’s proven that the analytics tool I’m using to find keywords is valuable.

Also, some of the customer service reps are great and some of them have less-than-stellar interpersonal skills.

If you assigned your best/most experienced reps to answer questions from premium members, THAT WOULD BE A BIG BENEFIT.

Good service is a rarity these days, unfortunately. If premium membership really means a premium level of service, it will probably be worthwhile for a lot of people no matter how many articles they write.

Best, Janna

July 1, 2010 at 7:15 AM

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

Janna,

Our Managing Editor will be commenting shortly…

You’ve made it clear that we should route all Premium membership questions to Sr. Support people on our team as your Premium question that was asked during a time when your account was not Premium, was answered by a front line Support person who was helping with overflow.

Thanks for pointing that out. We’ll get that fixed.

July 1, 2010 at 11:43 AM

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Janna Chan writes:

Wow, it appears I need to write an article about premium membership. :-)

Marc, the refund issue does need to be addressed in a considered fashion. For instance, I was still a basic member when I purchased premium membership. Prior to purchasing it I asked the question, “what happens if I don’t become a Basic Plus or Platinum member,” and I only get to write 3 articles for my subscription fee?

All I got back was a boiler-plate answer, from someone who didn’t know how to answer my question, pointing me to a blog entry saying that premium members are not granted editorial favor.

Fortunately, I was granted Platinum status after I submitted 10 articles but if that hadn’t been the case, I would have been paying for a service EzineArticles was no longer providing. A better answer from the rep would have been, “if you don’t become a Basic Plus or Platinum member” we’ll prorate or refund your fees.

I was willing to gamble that my writing skills would translate into a higher “writer status.” Other people may not feel that way and/or be put off by an unhelpful response from a rep.

It seems that the premium service was designed with Platinum/high-volume members in mind. Premium membership is probably a no-brainer for that crowd,
but I think it could appeal to a much broader audience if certain issues are ironed out.

Best,

Janna

July 1, 2010 at 7:38 AM

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

Premium membership *was* really created for members who already earned Platinum membership… but because it was or is a new service, we didn’t know what the market wanted until we saw for our own eyes…

I agree… we can and will iron out these details to make it appeal to newbie, basic or basic+ level members as well, for different reasons than perhaps our Platinum high-volume members might need.

July 1, 2010 at 11:45 AM

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Janna Chan writes:

Thanks for responding, Christopher. As an aside, another reason people may submit articles initially and then fall of the wagon could be the unrealistic expectations of the “make money fast on the internet crowd.”

Article marketing is promoted as quick and free way to get lots of traffic by almost all online gurus. When money doesn’t materialize quickly, people probably move onto other things.

Just a thought.

Best, Janna

July 2, 2010 at 9:26 AM

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Penny, Managing Editor writes:

Janna,

We have systems in place that tell us when you use up your last submission. Within a 12-24 hour window, we are reviewing your account for an upgrade. In this review, we look at quality. Hopefully, this means an upgrade to the Platinum Membership level but it is not always the case.

What our team was trying to communicate was that each membership level is earned and whether you are Premium or not, each level much be achieved through quality written articles. This does not mean we would not provide you with anymore submissions if we could not upgrade you to Platinum. If we could not upgrade your account to offer more submissions because the quality was poor or we were simply not a match for each other, we would refund your Premium subscription.

As for our Member Support team, we have a select few that are trained to assist Premium members in every effort to provide you with the best service. I will bring your feedback to the team and look for improvement opportunities. We appreciate your thoughts.

July 1, 2010 at 11:59 AM

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

Edward,

The primary reason we haven’t done that is because it’s my perception that many of our members only want a short initial burst of Premium attention for a specific campaign they are doing or working… and they wouldn’t become long-term Premium members.

In other words, much of the value is front-loaded and our profit is back-end loaded… which means, a free 1 month trial would be a very expensive thing to do.

I could be wrong…and the only way we’ll really know is if we test it. No ETA for when or if we will… but I appreciate the suggestion.

July 1, 2010 at 11:37 AM

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

Edward,

I think I misunderstood your suggestion…

I thought you were suggesting a free month trial offer.

I now think you’re suggesting a way to purchase a month and if you don’t like it, simply ask for a refund.

We already have a 100% satisfaction or your money-back guarantee and I know we say that a few times in the sales letter and order forms.

In essence, we’re already doing what you suggest, but we are not openly encouraging it. Primary reason is that we don’t want to have an artificially higher credit card refund rate …which could put us on bad terms with our merchant account provider. That’s a challenge we’d have to think thru…how to overcome.

July 1, 2010 at 5:28 PM

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Janna Chan writes:

Hello Marc:

Just some thoughts on premium membership from a premium member.

I’m not new to EzineArticles, but I’m new to being a premium member. I have to say I’m shocked by how much having my articles approved speedily has added to the quality of my EzineArticles experience.

Submitting an article and having it approved an hour later makes me feel like I got something done right away. Strangely, that’s motivated me to write more in general. I’m also trying to get over perfectionism in general, but knowing I can get a glaring grammatical or spelling error changed quickly makes submitting articles as soon as I write them an easier call.

That being said, I’m actually disappointed by the “keyword feature” that comes with premium membership, as it hasn’t revealed the long-tail keywords I was hoping to find, and I’m not exactly sure where the data is coming from. The interface is also difficult to find and navigate.

Having support questions answered quickly is nice, but not a big selling point.

And I leave that feedback with you.

Best,

Janna

[Reply]

Marc, Product Marketing Manager writes:

Thanks for the input, Janna! :-)

June 30, 2010 at 4:36 PM

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Penny, Managing Editor writes:

Janna,

I will be sending you a personal note to get more feedback from you on this. I look forward to your insight.

July 1, 2010 at 12:01 PM

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Janna Chan writes:

Thanks, Penny. I got the note and replied. I also understand the points you made above about my post regarding the “writer upgrade” policies.

I did get upgraded to the Platinum level pretty quickly. However, my question had been, “what happens if I don’t” and the correct answer was, “you get your money back.”

It seems the rep. who answered my question didn’t know that.

As for my general comment on the reps., some of them are very friendly and some of them definitely seem tired of answering the same questions all day.

I don’t mean to disparage anyone, but I think that feedback is probably helpful.

Best,

Janna

July 2, 2010 at 8:20 AM

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Gail C. McGonigal writes:

I sunk into a hole of apathy.
Now digging myself out with more energy to write about my niche market.

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Marc, Product Marketing Manager writes:

Glad to hear you’re back from the hole! I’ve learned that you should never become too apathetic about apathy … ;-)

July 1, 2010 at 9:30 AM

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Lance Winslow writes:

I think I can say this without hestation or reservation, the Premium Service is a must for anyone who is truly serious about article marketing. The analytic tools, speed of submission, and ease of use is like day and night.

Look here is the thing, I didn’t go for the Premium Service at first, perhaps out of arrogance, or pride, I thought I knew what I was doing, since my volume was high, and my traffic was outstanding, I figured I didn’t need it. Wrong, when I became a Premium Member here is what happened. I learned how to really capture the synergies of article marketing and I took my game to a whole new level.

My advice would be; try it out for 3-6 months, and see for yourself, use the tools, and make every article count. You see, traffic is important, better key wording will help you, and save you time doing all that research online to find those key words that really pull in the various categories.

But traffic isn’t the only important thing, it’s drilling down to the specific targeted traffic you need to convert to sales. Only two or three extra sales per month for someone selling a low ticket item like an eBook for instance pays for it, and as you learn how to use it better, you can boost sales.

It’s okay to be a novice, we all start somewhere, but the Premium Service is for those who are serious about making it, about becoming professional online article marketers, to me that’s what it’s all about. But what would I know, I only have 20,682 articles online now to prove myself right.

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Edward Weiss writes:

Ummm … I hope you use what Lance just wrote because it’s gold Jerry. Gold!! By the way, I just looked at the Premium Service webpage. Where are the testimonials?

Now you have a really good one from none other than your top aritcle writer. Gold I say.

[Reply]

Marc, Product Marketing Manager writes:

Edward, Lance and Janna,

As I read your comments, I realized something: You’re not aware that we offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee (no matter what) on our Premium Service … are you? Guess we need to make that a bit more obvious!

Also, we’re in the process of developing a product manager position to work directly with our Premium members. Expect to see that person becoming more visible in the near future.

We’re also working on pulling together testimonials like you suggested.

Thanks again for this dialogue, it’s absolutely invaluable! :-)

July 1, 2010 at 9:14 AM

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Janna Chan writes:

Thanks, Marc. I saw a reference to the guarantee somewhere, but it wasn’t prominently displayed (as you’ve indicated), and I assumed it didn’t apply since the answer I got from the customer service rep. didn’t make mention of it!

Likewise, the dialogue has been invaluable to me, too.

Best, Janna

July 1, 2010 at 9:49 AM

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Keith writes:

I have found the premium service very useful, especially as I won it in HAHD3!

The future scheduling of articles is fantastic. It means I can write and submit a whole series for one website and then let them release every few days, with other article series going in between for different sites.

And I can’t believe the speed of approval at times! Even when I’ve assumed your editors would have finished for the day the submissions zip through the approval process.

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Well heck Marc, if you have a money back guarantee then it would be my contention that “Everyone” ought to sign up and see what they’ve been missing. You know, I never knew until I started it myself. Now, I just smile and say; Wow!

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Edward Weiss writes:

Actually, as I was thinking abou tthis, the biggest selling point for me would be the comparison between the cost of your premium membership and pay per click.

Because I pay around $300 a month for ppc ads on Google, it’s a great value comparison. It’s no contest really … $97 a month or $300 a month.

Now, if you could do some kind of test where you can actually measure the results of article marketing agains ppc, you’d really have a winner. But then again, you make the majority of your dollars of off adsense so… ? :)

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Joan Lynch writes:

I’m in no hurry to have my atricles approved. This is all a learning experience and don’t want to rush it. I need traffic that I have converted to make premium worth while to me.

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Mohamad-Mariti writes:

I am beginning to use EzineArticles – submit my articles to this site. I hope everything here is good for my business.

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Craig Smith writes:

You have laid out your premium level advantages nicely in this post..but still hesitant. But I also don’t drop a $100 a week on online marketing. If I had that kind of money to burn I might give it a shot.

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