Using EzineArticles to Make Money with Hubpages

I have recently started actually submitting quite a few articles to ezinearticles.com. I've been a member of the site for over a year but hadn't done much with it. I couldn't really be bothered with all the trouble of writing at least 250 words of original content just for a backlink. There seemed like there were easier ways.

Then came the hubchallenge to make passive income - you may have heard of it! Court suggested that we submit an ezinearticle for every two hubs (each article can have two links you see), so I dusted off the old membership and submitted articles, and immediately got them rejected! I was fuming but I've learned a few things about ezinearticles over the last month or so, so I thought I'd share them.

EzineArticles is the Best Article Directory.

There are thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of article directories out there. But Google seems to love only one - ezinearticles. How do I know? Because when I do keyword research I often find an ezinearticle in the top 10, never any other article directory, but ezinearticles - quite often. Ezinearticles has domain authority in the eyes of Google -google trusts the site and will rank the articles on it. Why? That's easy, each and every article submitted to the directory is reviewed by a human. They have standards! The standards are a little weird so I that's why I thought I would write this hub.

But the oddest thing of all, as far as I am concerned, is that people who find your article will click through on your link to your hub. And they may then even click on an ad! Seriously I have no idea why - but this happens - I seem to have a 10% click through rate from my ezine articles, that's better than just a backlink.

So What is an Article Directory

An article directory is article source for webmasters. Its perfectly legal for webmaster to reproduce your article (so long as the links at the end are included) on their site, and no its not plagiarism - its syndication. If you don't like that don't submit to EzineArticles.
The theory is that its good for the author because each new publication of the article gives them another back link. The reality is that most webmasters are either clueless or criminal and generally won't include your links. You can report them to their hosts, Adsense and God Almighty if you want - but its a complete waste of time. If you are worried about this - don't submit to EzineArticles.

So How Do You Submit Articles to Ezinearticles

Well to start off with its well worth reading the EzineArticles Editorial Guidelines they are pretty confusing though and I did read them and still got rejected so this is my guide to the important stuff! By the way this is a shorter version of what really matters when submitting articles to ezinearticles

Duplicate Content At Ezinearticles

Same as hubpages - even if you wrote it, they won't accept a piece that has been published elsewhere. Well that's the common understanding - but its not quite true. They will accept a piece that has been published elsewhere if you can prove that all copies out there are your work too. This is tricky if your content has been illegally copied.

So I keep it simple: submit an original article to EzineArticles, wait for it to be accepted, then you are totally free to publish the article elsewhere - but do it in that order.

Its Not a Hub, its an Article

Its just words people. No videos, no pictures, no helpful links to outstanding sources, just write words! They accept articles from 250 words to 5000, but really anything over about 700 words should probably be two articles. After all you are trading words for links - so do yourself a good deal! Bullet points, numbered points, sub-headings are all fine - but that's about as fancy as it gets.

Also they need to be stand alone article. Don't write a 10 part series, write 10 independent articles which stand alone. Or better still write 10 different articles on the same topic - more on that in a moment.

What You Can't Link To

You can't link to an affiliate link - link to your hub url - but don't include an affiliate tracker in the url. Don't link to your finest e-book affiliate offer - link to the hub which sells the same. Don't link to a "thin affiliate site" - that means the eBay sites you have with very little content, even if you intend to add some content. Add some content first then submit the article.

Be Careful With Your Titles

"Article does not deliver on the promise in the title" is the most common reason I've been rejected. Don't promise five frequently asked questions and write down six (true story!). Fix the article by changing the title on that one! Be very careful of using locations in the title. I got an article on Camping in Australia approved but a whole bunch about New Zealand lawyers rejected, even though the specifically talked about New Zealand law. This one is tricky and its an area of interpretation which will depend on the reviewer you get. I suspect that "commercial occupation" plus "specific location" is much harder to get approved than travel type articles.

From an SEO point of view have your keywords at the start of your article: use "Making Easy Money Online: Three Things You Should Know" NOT "Three Things You Should Know About Making Easy Money Online"

The Resource Box is Your Sell

Your resource box - which goes at the end of the article is where you can "sell" your hub or site. Although the TOS says you must include your full name I usually don't and haven't had a problem yet. If I am linking to a website I often just include the url e.g. http://lissowerbutts.com rather than a proper anchored link - that way when the article has the links stripped out by an unscrupulous publisher the site is still there.

For some unlikely reason, known only to EzineArticles, although you can do normal links in the body of the article (outside of the first three paragraphs), using a WISWIG editor, you have to use code to link in the resource box, and yes its the resource box where the links are supposed to be.  It works like this - this code:

will give you Article Writing Software

Oh and don't get all excited about doing normal links within the body of the article - they are no-followed unless you are a platinum status author - which I am not, which brings me to the next point

Turnaround Times - Patience is a Virtue At EzineArticles

For normal people we start with basic membership level and then get "promoted" to basic plus status after 10 submissions. I am basic plus and it takes about 6.5 days to get my articles approved, the turnaround promise is 7 days. Revisions take about 3 days. They don't work (US) weekends. I believe that if you get elevated to god-like Platinum status then you get turnaround time of a couple of days. I haven't got there yet - I will let you know if I make it! I suspect it may take even longer to get your first submission approved but I can't remember - it was too long ago.

UPDATE: I finally got platinum status after nearly 80 articles! The change in turn around times is noticeable - I now get articles approved within 48 hours. It really is worth being careful with your first 10 submissions and getting upgraded sooner rather than later.

Only One Account Per a Human

You can't have more than one account at ezinearticles - if they find that you do they will ban you. Instead you can have what is called "alt authors" - I have several different names associated with my EzineArticles - Lis Sowerbutts is one of them. The others match a couple of other HubPage authors I also have. The pictures, names and stories match. On the Internet you can play out all your multiple personality disorders!

Writing Multiple Articles

I was amused that several people complained in the forums about not being able to come up with 100 different ideas for the hub challenge. I now expect the same people are wondering how you come up with multiple articles on the same topic. To be honest this is why I've been ignoring EzineArticles for a year. I find it hard to come up with unique new articles on the same subject. To promote a website I want around ten articles for each keyword- that adds up to a whole lot of articles. I've tried using spinners - they don't work well enough to get past humans- and they are even more boring than writing! I've tried re-writing PLR content -that's somewhat more successful - but equally boring. This product suggested that there was an interesting, and quick way, to create unique articles. I was interested and skeptical!

Well the e-book was a bit of duh moment - I suspect anyone who's been to journalism school would know the trick already. But basically it gives you formats which you use to take the same basic information and present in 8 different ways (including the original).

Well I can't say my eight articles took 7 minutes each - it probably worked out more like 14 minutes each - but I was still pretty pleased - especially for some types - like the "story" option I had to stop and think about how to punctuate dialogue because I don't think I have written any since school!  It was significantly less boring than other approaches that I use - but I'd have a couple of caveats. You need to be either a fast typist (I am) or competent with voice recognition software. And you really need to sit down and do all the articles in one sitting - otherwise you lose the benefit of the flow.

Here are my eight articles from one. I can't link here here because of the hubpages linking rules.but you will find them from my EzineArticles author page.The first article is the original and I have highlighted the variations - I wasn't too worried about length - I vaguely aimed for 300-400 words for the variations.

• Making Easy Money Online: Three Things You Should Know (532 words)
• Online Passive Income -Is it Legit - Five Frequently Asked Questions (402 words)
• Do You Have the Skills to Make Money Online - Take This Quiz to Find Out (407 words)
• Online Income - Beyond the Hype A Step by Step Guide (433 words)
  
• Want to Make an Online Passive Income? Use This Check List to Get Your Business Started (418 words)
• Want to Make Quick Easy Money Online? Avoid These Dumb Mistakes (328 words)
  
• Making Passive Income Online - A Story (458 words)
• Making Online Income - A College Student's Guide (358 words)

According to ther blog EzineArticles have "declared war" on Affiliate Marketers - particularly those that publish multiple articles which have only "just" been re-written -they migh pass copyscape but EzineArticles editors are picking them up - and rejecting them.

I have had several friends lose their Platinum status and be downgraded to "Basic Plus" again.

I am still getting articles approved just fine with my new Platinum status the trick appears to be:

• write at least 400 words - why EzineArticles don't just up the word ilmit from 250 words I don't know;
• be aware that articles approved in the past may not now be acceptable - you might want to check some of your article back catalogue before  an editior does;
  
• I still am having success using the "8 from 1" approach mentioned above.