Frances Richardson writes:

This article does help me as a new writer, understand the importance of a well composed Authors Resource Box content.
Thanks

[Reply]

Abhishek Malhotra writes:

Hi EzineArticles Team,

I would like to talk from a writer’s perspective and how I personally see it. I already saw a post on the warriorforum on this specific topic here –

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/539674-final-blow-ezine-articles-ive-had-enough.html

Yes, the about the author format is not something new and it’s used by a majority of article directories across the web. But this is also the reason why majority of article directories out there aren’t as successful as EzineArticles.

I personally love EzineArticles for the single fact that it sends high quality visitors to my site. Other article directories don’t do the same for me, just because they use the about the author format. Readers usually assume that it’s the end of the article & don’t bother reading any further.

In fact, I don’t use any other article directories anymore, EzineArticles is the only one which is still working well for me.

Now, I urge you to please look at it from a writer’s point of view – Why does a writer spend hours writing an article and pour his heart and soul into it? He does it so that he can turn the readers into possible customers and that will only happen when customer’s have an easy way to reach his site.

And that would only happen when there is no distinction between his content and his website link.

Also, 1% Ctr isn’t exactly good, because let’s say my article averages 200 views & my ctr is 1%. I would only get 2 visitors to my website who might or might not turn into customers.

That would mean as an author I would have to write hundreds of articles to get a few numbers to my site. Now it takes me an average of 2 hours to write a high quality 600+ word article.

If I apply the math right – It would be almost impossible for me to make any sales with those numbers even if I offer the best content I possibly can.

If my ctr is low one of two things will happen –

- Either I will compromise on quality & try to churn out as many articles as possible thus compromising on quality.

- Or I will give up altogether and look for alternatives where my content would get better exposure. Writers have emotional value attached to their articles and it’s really painful when you have put in months of work & don’t see the expected results from your efforts.

What could happen if you use “About the author” format –

1- People who only write as a hobby will submit as they don’t exactly seek to grow a business from their article writing efforts.

2- People will try to sneak in self-promotional links within the article body to ensure they get some traffic to their website which could be a problem in the long run.

3- People who write high quality articles in order to win user trust & turn them into customers will stop submitting articles because they won’t get enough numbers to support their business and keep them in the game. So submissions will decrease over time.

4- And once again, 1% ctr is not exactly good by any means as that means 1 unique visitor for every 100 readers of my article that is not good whatsoever. And you can not compare article marketing to other direct marketing vehicles. Because you are ignoring the hours which go into producing high quality articles. People say it’s free traffic, no it’s not. Time is more valuable than money, and people put in a lot of time & effort into their articles.

Therefore as a writer, if my articles are capable of producing 10% ctr, it would be completely unjust for me to get 1 or 2% ctr. As a writer, if the output isn’t more than or at least equal to the input, why would I consider submitting to EzineArticles?

I hope the team doesn’t consider putting “about the author” format again as this will make it just like every other article directory on the web. There are several posts regarding this on several forums across the web & no one is happy about this change.

I will support EzineArticles as long as it supports me.

Thanks for reading.

[Reply]

Alan writes:

Hi Abhishek –

I am completely agree with your points. If I get just 1% CTR, then I would not like to submit articles to EzineArticles.com. Instead, I would like to post my articles on Squidoo.com. I find that Squidoo doesn’t deliver as much traffic as EzineArticles delivers. But all my Squidoo lenses get high PR from Google. One of my Squidoo lens has a PR 5, and I made that lens a month ago.

So, if getting backlinks is the only purpose to submit articles to EzineArticles.com, then I would not like to submit articles to EzineArticles.com. I would really like to post my articles on Squidoo.com.

February 14, 2012 at 6:19 AM

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Click Thru Rates at Article Directory Sites as a Goal? That shouldn’t be one’s only goal, especially here at EzineArticles.

You know, it seems that many are not considering the fact that editors of email newsletters pick articles up from this site, and thus, might include your article, which could go out to their entire mailing list, could easily be 10-20,000 people. With a proper resource box style they are more likely to pick up the article, as it looks a lot less than a giant article-advertisement, and more like an informational piece worthy of their ezines.

Further the click-thru rates here are important, but not nearly as important and the ezine editors and email newsletter folks that pick these articles up and replace them elsewhere with your resource box in tow. One of those pick-ups is easily worth 20 click-thrus here at a sheer minimum.

The whole idea of article writing and marketing is not a linear game, and if we want to argue in such terms then we will all fall off the end of the world at the end of the Mayan Calendar because the world is flat still. Think on it, let’s take this conversation to a higher level, and as for the warrior forum, hey, I’m just not impressed, I certainly don’t go there for accurate information, much of the advice there is garbage in my professional opinion.

February 14, 2012 at 9:16 AM

[Reply]

Russ writes:

Well said Abhis,
I was just thinking I really need to get back and start writing more articles again but in light of this new update I’m now thinking I won’t even bother. Yes writing a quality article IS VERY HARD WORK. If the payoff is reduced by a decreased ctr well… It like someone telling you we are going to give you a pay DEcrease even though you are maintaining the same quality. Most people want a pay increase and rightfully so. This is offensive to us, the writers. I wrote an article a couple days ago and I’m writing another today but for now I will submit them elsewhere.

February 14, 2012 at 12:35 PM

[Reply]

Jose Bulao writes:

Abhishek,

Thanks for that lengthy explanation. Like you I no longer submit my articles to other article directories. I stay with EzineArticles. The others seem to be not a good method of getting traffic, to be polite about it.

I agree with you that the About the Author addition makes EzineArticles like the other article directories and it seems to break the thought of the reader. Instead of focusing on the content of the article his attention is now pulled to the author’s data.

February 15, 2012 at 1:44 AM

[Reply]

Sunny James writes:

I was wondering what was going on so thanks for the info

[Reply]

Agus Siswoyo writes:

I really loved this article and am excited to learn of author resource box. I think a lot of other people wish they could write full-time and make trust.

[Reply]

Jeff McRitchie writes:

Hi Penny,

I actually think that changing the Resource Box over to an about the author is a good idea. However, I hope that there will be a decent way for existing authors to edit their resource boxes to make them fit. On most articles it seems like the resource box is more of an advertisement than an author profile. If that is going to change it would be wise for authors like myself who have thousands of articles on EzineArticles to update their resource boxes.

[Reply]

Peter M. Olsen writes:

I am trying and anything you can do to help get my articles read would mean a lot.

As to the author’s resource box. I think it would work only if used the right way. The writer would have the chance to tell the reader who he/she is. Maybe I am selfish, I would say that a direction to a blog might help. I have a diary blog and it relates the good, bad and ugly about me. The reader can then form their opinion if I am worth following or not. I would even post it here but that would not be allowed, so I will wait and see?

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

I like the new format, it looks crisp and clean, professional, attractive, and classy. Now then, can you tell authors to not send people to their website with a mere splash-page where they interrupt the visit and demand the reader type in their email to sign up for a free newsletter before they enter the site. This is a major no-no and when they do that it turns off readers who peruse this site and the categories for pertinent information about their area of endeavor. If anyone here disagrees with me – send me an email and I will explain why that trickery tactic truly sucks with regards to the user’s experience.

[Reply]

Lawanna Bean writes:

I like it without the About This Author box. Thanks.

[Reply]

Nicola writes:

When you talk about trust – please also think about the trust you want the writers to have in EzineArticles. Many writers carefully craft their articles knowing the way they are presented on the page. Articles may be crafted so that the resource box flows seamlessly from the article. It is not very trustworthy to simply change that and “break” the article.

I don’t have a problem with having a separate author box – as long as you tell me so that my article isn’t “broken” which in turn causes me to look like I don’t know what I am doing!

If you want to make this change please let us know before hand and only make it to future articles.

Thank you.

[Reply]

Thomas Bodetti writes:

Good read, I believe the number one concern for article writers, is exposure, they have a number of choices, they can publish to other resources, they can publish to their own websites, the main consideration would have to be exposure. Do they get the level of exposure, even from indexed content in the search matrix? Is the exposure derived from a resource box worth the time and effort to product professional copy?

If they do not, then the valid question becomes, why not?

That would seem to be the single most difficult obstacle to overcome. When you measure the new search engine indexing policies, concerning unique content, (sorry there is not a grammar policeman sitting over at Google they don’t give a fig on that deal) unique is good, and being a human is good, the level of sophistication involved in determining humanistic behavior and computing resources, is higher than anyone ever realized. Until those facts are realized, the performance will not be as good as you hoped it would be.

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Hey, I’d like to chime back in here, and I don’t mean to post twice on the same topic, but I’ve been writing articles straight for the past 18 hours and I’ve also been thinking about this, so, I’d like to make a second comment. You see, the Baby Boomer crowd, most of which actually have money to buy things online have seen this style of resource box during their careers in the trade journals, and whereas, it may be new here, it’s what the older crowd is used too.

Secondly, since it looks very professional it makes us authors look good too. That’s really important. I think everyone will be satisfied with this new look, you just have to sit back and trust EzineArticles on this one. Personally, I have been considering all this, and I believe they are correct on this, you’ll all see. At first, I wasn’t sure, I mean, the other way seemed okay to me too, but the more I think on this, the more I really, really like it.

And realize I have the most to lose if it didn’t work considering I’ve written 5 million words and have 25,600 articles completed now. See that point, and I am satified with the new look. If you disagree shoot me an email sometime, seriously let’s talk. I have taken 100s of trade journals in my time, and those authors which have done informational marketing through articles even before the Internet had resource boxes like this.

And we are adding a big audience here by having a resource box which crosses age segments, and thus, we will all be the better for it. Okay, that’s my comment.

[Reply]

Bonnie Moss writes:

All interesting and differing points of view. I do agree with Thomas Bodetti- ” I believe the number one concern for article writers, is exposure, they have a number of choices, they can publish to other resources, they can publish to their own websites, the main consideration would have to be exposure. Do they get the level of exposure, even from indexed content in the search matrix? Is the exposure derived from a resource box worth the time and effort to product professional copy?

Writers have very personal reasons for writing. I used to submit to other article directories- but I narrowed it down to EzineArticles. However- no matter how well you think you crafted your article, results can be disappointing. Let’s face it-some readers are just not into your way of thinking, no matter how pertinent you think the topic is. With the deluge of information, readers seem to be confused as to what it is they are looking for.

It is frustrating to see a trickle of readers – but since I am not writing to generate business but just to share my thoughts, I feel that if I can reach out to even just one reader who can appreciate my thoughts, then I feel good. Any curiosity generated driving a visit to my website is most appreciated, the resource box does not truly represent all that the writer can be. I do thank EzineArticles.com for allowing me to share my writing, my thoughts.

[Reply]

Michael Oksa writes:

Lance Winslow (and others) said:

“Secondly, since it looks very professional it makes us authors look good too.”

My question is:

Does anybody think it “looks very professional” to have 30 (yes, 30!) AdSense and 8 Chitika ads per article? I sure as heck don’t, and I bet most readers don’t think so either. So professionalism fails as a justification for this latest way to generate more clicks for EzineArticles, not authors.

The post admits, “After our change, we did see CTR decrease…” Great! Think about it. It doesn’t say the total number of clicks on ALL links went down, just those in the resource boxes. Well guess what happens if people aren’t clicking on links in resource boxes? Yep…they have 30 AdSense and 8 Chitika links to choose from.

This newest change is only further evidence of how authors truly rate here. Come to think of it, all of it really shows how readers rate, too.

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

The change during the test period was revenue neutral. ie: It didn’t impact revenue in any way.

If the authors didn’t rate with us, we’d have shut off comments on this thread. Instead, we’re open to your comments. Doesn’t mean we’ll agree with them, but it does mean we’re listening and thinking about all feedback before we act.

I get that you’re jaded, but why do you think we’d risk delivering a lower CTR to our authors and no positive revenue change to us?

Answer: BECAUSE LONG-TERM TRUST with our readership and those who refer traffic to us, TRUMPS what we or you want in the short-term.

This issue isn’t over. We’re still studying the data from the test period.

February 14, 2012 at 11:54 AM

[Reply]

Michael Oksa writes:

Thanks for the reply, Chris, I really do appreciate it.

I have to admit that I was making a rash assumption. My thinking was that if people are clicking off the page by following a link, and if the resource box clicks are down, then the other clicks would go up as a result.

That logic may not follow, but that was how I arrived at my conclusion.

Good point about how authors do rate with you (keeping comments open). Further proof of this is that I wasn’t surprised that you responded, that shows you do care about our concerns as authors.

As for being jaded, well, let’s just say it’s been a rough week for me, and I have noticed a jaded quality to comments I have made on other websites as well.

The long-term trust with readership is important to authors, too, but long-term trust with authors is vital to having the content that brings in those readers. It’s like a three-legged stool, with EzineArticles, readers, and authors each comprising a leg. Neglect one of those legs and the stool tips over.

February 14, 2012 at 12:12 PM

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

4 legged stool…

Readership/Users getting unique quality content
Expert Authors getting good Traffic & Exposure
Advertisers getting good long-term ROI
Behind-the-scenes Team innovating/serving

February 14, 2012 at 12:15 PM

[Reply]

Michael Oksa writes:

I stand corrected. :)

The principle is the same. If any one of those four legs is gone, then the stool can’t stand.

February 14, 2012 at 12:43 PM

[Reply]

Daniel Robertson writes:

Let’s not forget publishers getting quality content for their sites and ezines.

February 14, 2012 at 3:32 PM

[Reply]

John writes:

Thanks Penny for making me aware about this fact. I was just wondering what is happening. Hope this change won’t affect my traffic.

[Reply]

Mike writes:

First let me say, that I don’t write articles here (yet) but I am an avid reader here.

I thought the ‘old’ way of letting the author box sort of blend into the article was ok, I didn’t really think much about it. (well I do find it anoying when people put two links into the same sentence and make it appear as if they point to two different sites and in reality they point to the same site – but that’s another discussion).

I must say though, that after seing the new ‘About The Author’ box – the obvious sign saying here article stops and here author info starts, I much prefer the new one.

I actually didn’t notice the switch at first (I though it was a feature from the platinum membership), so when I couldn’t find “About the Author” sign anymore, I thought I was going crazy! :D

After thinking about it and comparing the two, I must say the ‘new’ version does give a more professional impression. Well at least to me it does.

[Reply]

Albert writes:

I can’t see the change made by you as you have revert back the change for study that. As an individual my comment on that is: if this change doesn’t affect my traffic then i don’t have any issue with the chance made by you guys.

[Reply]