The Review System Is Tremendously Flawed
The EzineArticles article review system needs to be completely reinvented in my opinion. Here is why:
It is evident that a new writer at EzineArticles.com can publish a bunch of jibberish that adds no value whatsoever to readers so long as they don’t violate any of the guidelines. The problem is that those guidelines are based on a set of protocols that do not actually measure the quality of the article itself. They just check for common characteristics that are often associated with low quality articles. Therefore, a writer can submit a very low quality article (low quality in the eyes of readers) and still get it approved so long as they do not trip one of these filters. In fact, I assert that it is easier to get lower quality material approved there than it is to get higher quality content approved.
Those low quality low value writers achieve platinum status pretty easily. Yet, a number of authors that I have met who have published on the site (and I am talking about a substantial number) complain that they have had articles rejected and been kept from platinum status for reasons that were utterly ridiculous. In fact you can read about such complaints in the comments on their blog.
Here are some examples of reasons that I think are ridiculous:
Example 1: If someone mentions the words “my blog” in the body of their article, their review process rejects the article as it falls under self-promoting inside the body of the article instead of the resource box.
Why that is BS: If someone is writing an article as if they were having a conversation with one other person, (as good writers usually do) it is perfectly natural to say things like that. Example: “When I first launched my blog I thought that people would automatically find the things I wrote about to be interesting.” If this is mentioned in a nonchalant manner, why would that get flagged as being promotional? It is not promotional. It is merely giving the reader justification for how the author has arrived at their point of view.
One mention of the phrase “my blog” inside the article gets it rejected even though the article is 700+ words long, very well written, really engages the reader and is targeted to rank well for a search phrase with higher than normal search volume. – Stupid policy on your part!
If a real human using common sense judgment had read that article, there is no way in hell they would reject it.
So the writer is told to fix it if they want it published on the EzineArticles.com website as if they were just caught trying to shoplift. Then they are further insulted by realizing that something so incredibly trivial as this labels them as being unworthy compared to the other writers on the website. No platinum status for you unworthy subject. Your writing does not meet the quality standards of our organization. Really? That is laughable compared to volumes of crap that gets accepted after passing their supposed quality control review.
Example 2: Someone writes an article about why people should write one hundred percent unique and high value content for publishing on article directories like EzineArticles.com and others. The article explains why this is an intelligent choice instead of choosing to publish spammy spun articles on low value spam websites. Then the article links to another article that further explains why people should not be doing this.
The EzineArticles.com quality control process rejects the article for several reasons:
1) They claim they don’t want people promoting black hat article spinning services
2) The page linked to talks about black hat services
3) They don’t want people to mention the name of their own website
To EzineArticles.com Management:
Duh! If a human quality team actually read the article, they would see that no names of any article spinners or any black hat software programs are mentioned. They would see that black hat methods and article spinning methods are denounced, not promoted. They would also see that the author is in fact encouraging people to produce as high of quality content as possible for posting on your friggin website! Duh!
The page that is linked to also never mentions any names of specific software and talks very strongly against the use of anthing that produces spammy content. Tell me – Why in the world would you not allow an article that makes a very strong case for authors adding nothing but great content to your website?
You don’t want people mentioning your own website because you don’t want to be seen as self-promoting nor encourage other writers to do so? (Duh! -More Stupid policy). I can understand you not wanting to encourage excessive butt kissing of your own website. Readers would get sick of that. Why not use some common sense discretion here though? Is your quality team actually reading any of these articles?
I can assure you that it is extremely frustrating when an author puts substantial time and real effort into producing what is quite obviously above average content for your website only to be shunned by your god awful review process. Some of the best bloggers I have met online have been denied platinum status on your website because of that kind of ridiculously bad review process. If you don’t want these people contributing to your site, then you are simply nuts. These people drive traffic and keep it because their material is so good. You would never need to worry about quality issues with them. Yet, that magnificent review process of yours keeps them from wanting to produce anything more for you.
Scrap that horrific review process. Yes, it really is that bad.
The fact is that you are discouraging people who write the best content and encouraging people who write meaningless emotionless fluff.
Replace your review process with intelligent human review by people who are qualified to make those types of judgment calls. Have the articles reviewed by other writers. It is a no brainer. See my next post on my proposed solutions to the problem.
