South African Freedom Day

Happy South African Freedom Day!

Yesterday, South Africa celebrated its 14th year of democracy since the first non-racial elections on April 27th, 1994. Freedom day is celebrated throughout South Africa and each year the National Celebration provides a constant message of equal rights and unity in diversity for all.

In honor of this day of celebration, EzineArticles expert author from South Africa Gerald Crawford is today’s Author Spotlight.

Born in South Africa, Gerald has studied electronics, telecommunications, eco-travel concepts and promotes responsible tourism in South Africa. An EzineArticles Platinum Author since September 2006, Gerald’s 225+ articles reflect his diversity of expertise from Travel and Leisure to Health and Fitness and result in over 57,500 views. Gerald’s article South African Coat of Arms describes South Africa’s new national coat of arms and its aim to reflect the democratic changes in the nation. His “EzineArticles Expert Author Badge” is proudly displayed on his website and links to his EzineArticles Extended Author Bio and Pic.

Thanks Gerald Crawford for being an Ezine Articles Expert Author and we hope you enjoyed your day of celebration! Take a look at all 534 of our EzineArticles expert authors based in South Africa.

Posted by Christopher M. Knight on April 28, 2008 at 10:50 am

Views 246 | Comments (3)

2 Self-Serving Active Links

We’re considering a change in one of our longest standing policies in terms of active self-serving links… and we’d like to get your feedback about it.

Currently: (See Editorial Guidelines section 2.f.) Your articles can contain up to (3) self-serving active links, and (3) non-self-serving links.

Proposed: Your articles can contain up to (2) self-serving active links and up to (2) non-self-serving active links.

Here’s are our research and current thinking why this must change:

• Our ideal EzineArticles authors already only use (1) or (2) active self-serving links, so they will not be negatively impacted.
  
  
• Members who write thin-content purely for the active link love will be negatively impacted…something that may ultimately be positive for our users & current/future members.
  
  
• User feedback emails confirm that they think articles with (3) self-serving links looks “spammy”.
  
  
• We want to continue to attract high profile expert authors and many of the highest profile of expert authors tell us they want to be seen in similar company. High profile expert authors almost NEVER include (3) self-serving links.
  
  
• We are certain that articles with (1) or (2) active self-serving links will lead to increased syndication and use by ezine publishers vs. the (3) active self-serving link article. Think about this from the Publishers perspective.
  
  
• Very high profile publishers do not take (3) active self-serving link articles seriously.
  
  
• The collective credibility and perception of our site and our members will climb when the maximum active self-serving link limit is (2). More market trust = more market credibility and higher quality visitors referred to your website.
  
  
• This is the natural evolution of our quality focus. Newbie competitor websites with no market credibility would have to offer lots of active self-serving links to make up for having a very low audience profile. Our high-traffic audience profile is the result of years of raising standards frequently. This is just another one of those standards that the time has come to raise.
  
  
• It’s important to differentiate EzineArticles from spammy looking websites (you know exactly who and the type of sites I’m referring to).

Your thoughts?

Posted by Christopher M. Knight on April 24, 2008 at 4:13 pm

Views 737 | Comments (62)

Original Article Campaign Case Studies

Wanted: I’m writing an article about the trend that many of our members are creating content specifically for EzineArticles as part of their exposure/traffic attraction strategy (vs. submitting content that they already have posted on their own website).

If your article writing & marketing syndication strategy includes writing articles exclusively for EzineArticles because you’ve found that strategy works better than posting articles on our site that you’ve already posted on your site or elsewhere, get in touch with me in the next 24 hours via this link.

Posted by Christopher M. Knight on April 22, 2008 at 1:54 pm

Views 506 | Comments (14)

Queen Elizabeth II

Happy 82nd Birthday to Queen Elizabeth II… and a salute to the 8,754 EzineArticles experts who call the UK home.

• More Info: Royal Birthday - Queen Elizabeth II

Posted by Christopher M. Knight on April 21, 2008 at 3:03 pm

Views 304 | Comments (4)

USA Presidential Candidates Content Face-Off

Here in the USA, if you turn on any news station, they have been obsessing over the past year on which political candidate will be our next President.

We thought it would be fun to see who’s winning in terms of article content submitted to EzineArticles.com to date that mentions the candidate.

Sorted by alphabetical order:

Hillary Clinton

• Total Articles: 106
• Total Views: 18,181
• Total URL Clicks: 195
• Most Viewed Article: Insights on Infidelity From Hillary Clinton’s Book
  by Ruth Houston. 1,492 views, 0 comments, 5 URL clicks
• Most URL Clicks Article: Background On Hillary Clinton
  by Jeremy DenHartog. 1,215 views, 0 comments, 23 URL clicks

John McCain

• Total Articles: 34
• Total Views: 2,106
• Total URL Clicks: 23
• Most Viewed Article: It’s a War, Senator McCain!
  by John St. Michael. 213 views, 0 comments, 0 URL clicks
• Most URL Clicks Article: John McCain - About Turn on Ethanol
  by Emma A Johnson. 179 views, 0 comments, 5 URL clicks

Barack Obama

• Total Articles: 126
• Total Views: 19,884
• Total URL Clicks: 647
• Most Viewed Article: Barack Obama’s Numerology: Will He Be Our Next President?
  by Keith Abbott. 2,152 views, 0 comments, 137 URL clicks
• Most URL Clicks Article: The Truth About Barack Obama
  by Amit Thard. 2,037 views, 0 comments, 210 URL clicks

(Continue Reading…)

Posted by Christopher M. Knight on April 21, 2008 at 9:51 am

Views 435 | Comments (20)

Article Content Idea- Survey Results

Your readers love reading the RESULTS of relevant SURVEYS you’ve conducted in your niche. Give it to them in your next set of articles.

Why articles that include the results of surveys are valuable:

• You are delivering the result of most likely hours/days or weeks of research.
• You are summarizing mountains of data into a less than 1,000 word summary.
• You are helping your reader to key into which numbers in the results are important and why.
• You are identifying how to evaluate the results…ie: What does it mean for their business.

Most surveys you produce will most likely produce too much data for just one article and that’s the beauty of why a single survey result can help you easily produce a series of 2-15 articles.
(Continue Reading…)

Posted by Christopher M. Knight on April 18, 2008 at 10:49 am

Views 994 | Comments (21)

10 Referrals A Day

EzineArticles Expert Author Suzanne Arant-Wells wrote a thoughtful blog entry of her experience with EzineArticles: How to Use eZine Articles to Drive Traffic to Your Website

Suzanne said:

“I have submitted numerous articles to eZine over the past months, and these articles have resulted in almost 10,000 page views.”

“…and according to my website and blog stat reports, eZine[Articles] refers about 10 visitors a day. Not a bad way to get traffic.”

10 referrals a day may not be very sexy, but it becomes 300 per month / 3,600 per year…and will most likely continue for many more years to come. Not bad from 40+ articles.

Posted by Christopher M. Knight on April 17, 2008 at 10:23 am

Views 2,327 | Comments (18)

The Time To Begin Writing An Article

Mark Twain Said:

“The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is that you really want to say.”

True true…

Posted by Christopher M. Knight on April 16, 2008 at 1:46 pm

Views 491 | Comments (22)

The Pain Avoidance Article Template

Here’s an article template that you can use to help speed up the creation of your next set of quality original articles:

Human behavior 101: (Why this article template idea works)

• Most people will do more to avoid pain than they will to seek pleasure. Because this is true, you can use this psychological trigger as the basis for a series of articles that show how to avoid pain associated with various issues within your niche.
• Some say that pain avoidance is the #1 underlying force in most buying/purchase decisions.
• The pleasure of the instant gratification is often offset by the pain of future risk of loss (lost opportunity, lost economic possibilities, etc.)
• Everyone experiences PAIN in some form, whether it be physical, psychological, emotional, financial, etc… and articles that help people cope or eliminate pain deliver real value.
• I’m certain there is a higher volume of searchers/users/readers looking to avoid pain vs. those who search/read/surf for pleasure-seeking alone.

The Pain Avoidance Template Simple Layout:

1. Introduce the pain. No more than (1) paragraph.
2. Give real-world solutions to the pain. (3-10) paragraphs max.
3. Tell why the solutions offered solves the pain. (1-2) paragraphs max.
4. Wrap up with a (1) paragraph conclusion that reinforces why your reader is in pain, how you recommended they solve that pain and why it’s in their best interest to follow your advice.

(Continue Reading…)

Posted by Christopher M. Knight on April 15, 2008 at 9:57 am

Views 1,891 | Comments (62)

Content Is Not Worthless

I was reading Jonathan Handel’s column on “Is Content Worthless?”

Ironic considering he writes for a firm that makes most of its profit thanks to “content.” :-)

Jonathan asserts there are 6 factors devaluing content:

• Supply & Demand - Meaning consumers have less leisure time to enjoy content.
• Loss of physical form - Meaning the electronic creation & distribution of content.
• Acquiring content is more frictionless - Yes it is and we’re proud to be part of that technology distribution platform.
• Most content is now ad supported instead of pay per view or subscription - He thinks consumers may demand that all content be free.
• Market forces in technology enable faster creation & distribution of content that traditional media fears due to worries about revenue stream cannibalization. Yep.
• Culture of a new generation hostile towards copyright. This is not a good thing.

Actually, I think the “Supply/Demand” thing is less about the “attention” deficit by consumers (you only get 2-15 seconds anyway) and more about the lack of high quality content. There is a true market demand right now for very high quality, low word count (less than 1000 words) content. Thin content only muddies the ‘content pond’ and makes it easier for us all to spot the very high quality content.

My message: “THIN CONTENT” is worthless and ubiquitous; “HIGH QUALITY ORIGINAL CONTENT” is king and will remain king/queen for a long time.

Your thoughts?

Posted by Christopher M. Knight on April 14, 2008 at 10:49 am

Views 1,037 | Comments (13)

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