GoArticles, ArticlesBase, EZArticles

[Paper Shredder Clay]

Does anyone here utilize article content sites, such as GoArticles.com, ArticlesBase.com and EZarticles.com to provide informational articles while building a reputation and receiving links?

[Patrysha]

I have in the past. I prefer targeted guest posts and articles though :-)

[vangogh]

A few yeas ago submitting articles to article directories was a good strategy. The idea was you'd get to write your own anchor text into any links and your article might be downloaded and published on a bunch of sites. So you'd get a bunch of free links with anchor text you could control for the price of writing a short article.

Now though, the articles downloaded would likely be considered duplicate content and the links probably won't count for anything. The only links you might get are from the article directory itself, but since Google and the other engines are aware of the tactic and know that you are creating all those links with your anchor text, they probably don't count those all that much either.

A better strategy is to find real authority sites on your topic and find a way to get them to publish an article you write. That's how you build a reputation in front of your market and gain links that are worth something.

Submitting to article directories is more likely to be a waste of time.

[Paper Shredder Clay]

Thanks, yeah that was sort of what my hunch was telling me.

Originally Posted by vangogh

A few yeas ago submitting articles to article directories was a good strategy. The idea was you'd get to write your own anchor text into any links and your article might be downloaded and published on a bunch of sites. So you'd get a bunch of free links with anchor text you could control for the price of writing a short article.

Now though, the articles downloaded would likely be considered duplicate content and the links probably won't count for anything. The only links you might get are from the article directory itself, but since Google and the other engines are aware of the tactic and know that you are creating all those links with your anchor text, they probably don't count those all that much either.

A better strategy is to find real authority sites on your topic and find a way to get them to publish an article you write. That's how you build a reputation in front of your market and gain links that are worth something.

Submitting to article directories is more likely to be a waste of time.

[eborg9]

Man, there was a time when I was an article posting hound dog. Had the submission software and everything.
But it's been a while since I even thought about it.

Like VG said..it's a old strategy to manipulate incoming links and SE's are getting smarter about that and are now leaning more towards actual natural links and referrals.

The way things used to be, you only needed to have more time and "tricks" to manipulate your position...now it's a lot harder, but also a little more fair.

Some of the old stand by's are still good, but submitting to article directories is on the bottom of my totem pole now.

Articles: Still good if you can get them posted or linked to from an industry site. And of course blogging new content is still king.

Article Directories: It's not a waste of time..if you have it.. but they are saturated with spam. Choose any one of them and see how many "Acai Berry" articles they have.

[KristineS]

I used to pursue this at one time too. I don't bother with it any more. A far better strategy, as has already been pointed it, is to find industry blogs or magazines that will allow you to write articles. It's a higher quality of link and most likely a much more targeted readership.

[cbscreative]

Yeah, basically these all started out with noble intent and provided a valuable service to both authors and those needing content. Then abuse quickly set in. Liike Harold indicated above, those places are a wasteland of article garbage because they allowed it to happen.

Last I knew, Go Articles tried to put quality control measures in place, but it was too little and way too late. Ezine Articles is probably the best of the bunch, and have always monitored submissions with human eyeballs, but even they are flooded with useless content.

I suspect most of the "authors" are heeding outdated SEO advice from a few years ago touting the wonderful benefits of flooding these directories with ooze.