Article Marketing is by far one of the best ways to promote something that you are passionate about, and at the same time, a marvelous way to build ranking for your web site(s). Article marketers are still excited about article writing and article marketing, and the search engines continue to delight in all the new content pouring into the Internet every single day.

Just make sure your content is unique, consists of VALUABLE information AND is placed in the right category because when authors are lazy then many tired directory managers get "lazy" too, and just hit "DELETE" and that action has the domino effect and most certainly defeats your purpose!

There are also some serious problems developing, and those authors who do not take heed of these growing concerns will quite likely fail if they are using articles to market their products or services. Article directory owners desperately need some help, too, because of the massive influx of badly-written articles they are receiving much more frequently than in the past (most of it due to the Lazy Author Syndrome and auto-submission software that is inferior).

This article will first cover the two most pressing considerations in article directory management, especially in light of the rapidly increasing popularity of article auto-submitters, then it will cover what aspiring authors can do to succeed with their article marketing, since you most certainly want to end up making some sort of profit with your article marketing efforts.

Firstly, there are two very important points that seem to be falling by the wayside, a growing concern is relevancy and the second major point (one that has always been stressed but too often ignored) is quality content. If your content is not top quality, then it is pretty much worthless to your reader and to your webmasters who come seeking outstanding website or ezine content.

As I have lamented in my article blog, some people proclaim themselves as 'authors' merely to promote some affiliate links or even their own products. There is nothing wrong with promoting a great affiliate product or service, it's called article marketing, and it's a valid promotion tool - when it is not abused.

However, rather than spending some time researching and editing, too many indiscriminate 'authors' simply write and submit what I have nicknamed "glorified classifieds" instead of writing and submitting genuinely interesting, lengthy and valuable articles that others would actually want to read and then, to make matters even worse, they stick it in a totally unrelated category in the directory (or their sloppy software does) and that's NOT good.

Submitting content that is not relevant to the category or the niche is completely worthless, both to the reader and to the article directory owner. The search engines will not use it and people in general will not spend the added effort to go find it when it is easier to obtain content that is categorized into the right places. In other words, you LOSE. You lose traffic and you lose potential customers because you didn't take a few thoughtful minutes to choose the BEST CATEGORY for YOUR article submission.

This is one of the major reasons that article directory owners and managers struggle with keeping up every day. With an article directory being a FREE SERVICE TO YOU, the author, it makes sense that you would want to help him or her as much as possible in return for your free promotion. A lot of these directories are PR3 or more and have some pretty nice Alexa ratings, too. That's good for you!

Submitting too-short articles, BAD articles, non-articles, glorified classified ads instead of a genuine and interesting article is another problem for directory managers. It becomes a nightmare when the managers have to frantically work day in and day out, merely to weed out all of the irrelevant or sometimes just plain awful material from their article directories.

Sadly, it seems that far too many aspiring authors either do not know enough about article marketing, or simply do not care enough about relevancy to put their articles into the correct, and the most relevant category. They do not seem to realize how vital it is to take this extra step... to spend a few moments thoughtfully examining the available categories to see which one is best for their particular article.

Taking time to contemplate which category would best serve the reader, will also get your material seen more often. That is your goal, is it not? To have millions of readers discovering your information, and perhaps seeking to visit your website and perchance place an order, very simply makes good sense.

And for those authors who are not making sure their article submissions are both top quality *and* relevant, the resultant dilemma is posing a significant and potentially catastrophic danger to everyone who uses articles in their marketing campaigns. If this thoughtless trend keeps up, article marketing itself may very well become irrelevant; or at the very least, an extremely unreliable resource for content and ranking.

With all this in mind, it obviously goes way beyond just the money. Sure, income is an important consideration, but if money is your solitary goal, you will fail miserably with article marketing. Every single day, article directory owners delete those poorly written 'glorified classifieds'. Many of them consist of just a couple of paragraphs that appear obvious that someone hastily and literally threw them together, some are poorly written and others are just over-loaded with links. (Obviously, the author didn't read the submission guidelines that generally state not over one "live" link allowed in the article body and allows multiple links in the resource area).

For a 'bad submissions' example, let's say that someone submitted a set of at least twenty "articles" that read more like short personal blog entries with links; they were certainly not what any discerning reader would deem to be articles and in such an instance, the article directory manager is usually obliged to delete them all in order to help maintain the expected level of integrity and quality of the directory.

The reason why this type of article submission will usually always be deleted by discerning article directory owners is because they know that their web visitors are looking for quality information, seeking articles, not blatant advertisements. And so are the search engines, the ezine editors and webmasters who need top quality content for their sites, not short blurbs that serve only to promote some product or service that anyone could use a search engine to find if they actually wanted it.

Even though it takes just a bit more thoughtfulness, a little bit longer to edit and research prior to submission, far too many of these alleged authors do not appear to care enough about submitting both relevant and quality articles. And, judging from the number of these types of submissions we receive by the hundreds every day at our own article directory, this statement is unfortunately true. It is a growing problem for all of us, whether we are directory managers or webmasters seeking quality content for our sites or ezines or we are information-seekers just wanting to learn more.

So, if you want to be an author, and publish articles, and promote your products or services... please heed the advice in this article. Make it your solemn vow that you will spend more time researching your article, that you will edit and rewrite as often as necessary, that you will use spell-check if you cannot spell correctly, and that you will make sure you submit your article to the *most relevant* category in the directory you are submitting to. By so doing, you become a winner!

Then and only then, you will begin to see results in your traffic... and the reason why is simple, you provided value and interesting information to your reader, not simply a 'glorified classified ad' or a misplaced blog entry that serves only to annoy and distance your reader from you and from your product or service.

For an article directory owner, it is extremely frustrating to sift and plow through the massive amounts of pure drivel (much of it from bad auto-submission software) they receive on a daily basis, just to get to the type and quality articles that directory owners are proud to display to their web visitors.

In closing, please know that I wish you complete success with your Article Marketing and Article Directory Management, and of course, without all the aforementioned stressors.



================================= About the Author: Donna Maher owns and manages ArticlesNetwork.com article directory, and she is a registered nurse who has also become an avid consumer advocate, as well as an infopreneur, and graphic artist. You may also wish to avail her of her graphic artist talents at http://bizunlim.com A good example of her latest work is at Alan Tutt's wonderful site http://powerkeyspub.com - Donna designed the header graphic for Alan.