Ezine Articles is one of the most popular article directories online today, and a source that generates some of the highest traffic for contributing authors.
That makes it a crucial part of any online MLM marketing toolkit. If you have informative and useful content, Ezine Articles can promote that content in a way that no other article directory seems to.
But you have to do it right … you have to follow the rules.
That’s where most MLM business builders get screwed up. They don’t read the editorial guidelines for article submission, and submit articles that break the rules. When you break the rules, then you end up having to “redo” your articles. You also keep yourself from being granted Platinum status, which is the “end all, be all” of this directory. When you have Platinum status, your articles are quickly approved and posted, which means more traffic reaches your site quickly.
So how do you reach Platinum status? By not breaking the rules.
The Five Most Common Mistakes I See in Article Submissions
The folks at Ezine Articles no doubt have running tallies of the most common mistakes they see, but I can’t speak for them. I can only speak for myself and the people in my online MLM group. Within my own group, I see five common mistakes when it comes to submitting articles to this directory, mistakes that break the rules and detract from reaching Platinum status. I’ve been guilty of these myself … so save yourself some trouble. Learn from my mistakes and save yourself a few headaches.
Mistake #1: The Use of Links
There are two kinds of links that Ezine Articles allows authors to use: self-serving and non-self-serving links. Self-serving links are links that point to a website or blog that you “own, control, or have an interest.” For online MLM, that’s usually your main website, your blog, or your company-approved template website (where people can place orders or join your group). All other links are non-self-serving.
Ezine Articles allows you to use a maximum of two self-serving links, and you can only place them in the resource box of your article. The resource box appears at the bottom of your article, and is the place where you describe you, your products, and your business. It is the promotional part of the article, also called the “take.” You “give” information useful to the reader in the body of the article, and then you “take” or promote in the resource box. If you put any self-serving links in the body of your article, you’ve broken the rules. Oops, thanks for playing, please try again!
In the body of your article, you can place two links to websites that you don’t own, control, or have an interest in. But, and here’s a biggie, those links can’t appear in the first 3 paragraphs of you article. This can be a consideration if you are posting an article that reviews online resources for MLM newbies, or a similar subject. If you are posting this kind of article and you point to many different websites, instead of using links, just give the name of the website and let people search for the websites themselves on Google.
So just remember, no more than 4 links in your article. No links in the first 3 paragraphs of your article. No more than 2 non-self-serving links in the body of your article. No more than 2 self-serving links, and those must appear in your resource box.
Mistake #2: The Use of Affiliate Links
The use of affiliate links ends up being a big deal for online MLM marketers because most of the time we are forced to use a company-approved template website. While we may have personal blogs or custom websites, most MLM companies don’t allow their distributors to take orders via these web portals. So most of us have template websites that have URL addresses resembling this:
http://yourname.yourMLMcompany.com
This is called an affiliate link and Ezine Articles does not allow you to use this kind of link in your resource box. Instead, what you have to do is purchase a separate domain name and forward it to the affiliate address.
For instance, instead of using the long affiliate address above, you could purchase the domain name TryMyStuff. Then you forward this domain name to the affiliate name above. With a domain service like GoDaddy, forwarding is a simple step and takes just a couple of clicks. It’s pretty simple.
Then, when you go to write your resource box in Ezine Articles, just use the TryMyStuff address in place of the affiliate link to the company-approved website. Assuming that you have forwarded your domain correctly, when someone clicks on the TryMyStuff link in your resource box, they will be forwarded to the company-approved website.
Note: If you already have a domain name for your blog or custom website, you cannot use a subdomain or subdirectory of that domain as your forwarder to the company-approved website. I’ve seen people try this as well, only to have their article rejected. For instance, if you already own TryMyStuff, you cannot use the following to forward to your affiliate website:
subdomain.TryMyStuff
TryMyStuff.com/subdirectory
Both of these will get your article rejected. It’s better to go ahead and buy a whole new domain that you use solely as a forwarding address to point to your company-approved template website. It’s only about $10 a year … an investment that will pay big dividends in the end. Trust me.
Mistake #3: Too Much Sales Pitch, Too Little Information
If your article is nothing more than a sales pitch for a product, product line, or MLM opportunity, you’ll get busted. You can promote a general category of items, but not a specific brand.
For instance, if you write an article about gum health, you can suggest taking coenzyme Q10 as a useful supplement, but you cannot recommend a particular brand. And unless your article explores all the scientific whys and wherefores of coenzyme Q10, your article on gum health needs to contain more than that single suggestion. You might include tips on flossing and brushing, or lists of foods to avoid for better gum health.
Don’t sell hard in the body of your article. Instead, give the reader useful tips and information that they can use. If your article is interesting, informative, or funny, readers will scroll down and read your resource box. That’s where you can pitch your own brand of product or invite people to learn more on your website.
Mistake #4: Article Content
Any article you submit must be original, informative, your own writing, correctly punctuated, and not include any personal correspondence. In other words, turn in some truly good stuff that you have proof-read and double-checked.
Some things to avoid:
- more than 5 lines of quoted text
- articles that are not totally unique (don’t submit the same article with just a few words changed and a new title)
- advice column-type articles that answer a question from a reader (reformat these to be true articles rather than a Q&A type article)
- too much cussing (some people can get away with this on their own website, but Ezine Articles is a public directory so avoid cuss words if possible)
- excessive punctuation (a single exclamation point is enough, you don’t need three of them)
Finally, if you are quoting someone else’s material in your article, at least reference the original author in a parenthesis or by giving the name of their website. Give credit where it’s due, even if you don’t follow the Strunk and White rules of footnoting!
Mistake #5: Keyword Packing
Ezine Articles allows a keyword density of about two percent. Keywords are definitely important, and you should use your most important keywords at the beginning of your title, at the beginning of your keyword list, and in the body of your article. But, you can’t “pack” your article full of keywords just for grins. Your article will get tossed.
Luckily, if you can’t count or have no sense of keyword density, Ezine Article has a nifty tool that now counts keyword density for you when you submit your article. If the article is too heavily-loaded with a single keyword or keyword phrase, the tool pops up and tells you. Then you can correct the problem by rewriting the “keyword dense” problem areas before doing a final submission.
This tool won’t catch keyword packing in your title, though, so you’ll have to check for yourself that you are not overloading your title with a keyword phrase. One instance of a keyword phrase in a title is enough. No need to hit your readers over the head with a hammer. They are smarter than you think.
At the End of the Day
If at the end of this article and at the end of your day you are completely clueless about what makes a “good” article for Ezine Articles, it’s no big deal. Ezine Articles has a free multi-part email course that tells you exactly what to do and what not to do. I suggest you take the course. It’s not lengthy, but it does teach you what flies and what doesn’t in this particular article directory. Being that it’s the top article directory out there (in terms of driving traffic to your site), you can’t help but emerge a better writer for taking this course. And if you manage to reach Platinum status in this article directory, then you know you’ve made it.
Got it? Good. Enjoy!
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Or contact me if you want to join our MLM team. We are teaching people to dive into online MLM head first … successfully! I’m holding out for a few good people. Really.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/simax/ / CC BY 2.0
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Excellent post. It is refreshing to read something that emphasizes quality writing over attempting to game the system by getting as close to the informative vs promotional line as possible.
For anyone who is thinking of going the Ezinearticle route it is much easier to turn out good articles than it is to contort your writing by cramming in the maximum amount of keywords allowed and getting as close to the promotional line without actually crossing it as possible.
If people like your writing they will click on your links.