If you publish articles to promote your site, you have probably noticed the directories evolve. Some things are just odd, but others are not good developments.

Thoughts on Article Directory Oddities

Every major article directory seems to have a life of its own. They can be an excellent platform for publishing articles to promote your site and then make some change or take some action that makes you groan. Here are some oddities you may or may not know on the directories.

Article City is one of the older directories on the web. It is an old school article submission site that really produces links. There are, however, a couple of odd things about it. First, the categories you can submit under are very limited, which can be frustrating. More bizarre, however, is the fact the entire site comes to a halt during the summer. From roughly June through August, nobody appears to be working. No new articles are published on the site. Then in September, the site comes alive again. Odd, but true.

Ezine Articles is undisputedly the biggest article directory on the web. It is rated as the 552nd most popular site on the web by Alexa. Alexa is admittedly an inaccurate tool, but it is still an impressive ranking. Ezine Articles had a tremendous format, but suddenly decided to change it in early 2006. It added all types of features. Some I like such as the multiple author byline possibilities, but others are a waste. Overall, I can't decide if I like it or not, but one thing that definitely is a negative is the internal submission area is slow and sometimes freezes up. Still, this is the number one directory if you are going to use articles to pump your site. In fact, you can find this article there. Hopefully!

Article Alley - may you rest in peace. Once upon a time, this was my favorite article directory. It was simple, clean and generated links like mad. The site hasn't really changed much, but it must have been sold to a new owner. The site is extremely slow when it comes to loading pages and often times out. Submitted articles are more often than not disregarded and just sit in limbo. You might think my articles just stink, but I am actually one of the top authors on the site by views and number of articles published. I no longer submit to Article Alley, a sad day indeed.

Another site that has fallen apart is Isnare. In truth, the site is fine and runs just the way it used to. The issues has to do with profit. The owners of Isnare figured out they could make more money offering an article submission service than they could with the directory site. They now seem to spend most of their time on that. I have a sneaking suspicion there is one poor soul sitting their approving articles. Since they get thousands a day, not much gets published. Currently, they seem to be two to three months behind. Much like Article Alley, I no longer submit to Isnare.

At the end of the day, everyone has a favorite article submission site. As long as they are producing for you, who can complain? Still, I will miss Article Alley.


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About the Author

Halstatt Pires is with Marketing Titan - providing article marketing services.