What changes have you seen in article writing and promotion since you started your service?

The article marketing landscape is constantly changing. Some once very popular article sites have completely vanished, overwhelmed by spam and the sheer volume of new articles being submitted. At the same time, new sites come online all the time. Keeping up with these changes is almost a full time job.

As people started understanding that they could get one-way (as opposed to reciprocal) links, better search engine placement, improved pagerank, more traffic and sales just from writing articles, we've seen the inevitable entry of spammers into the market. These are people who are not interested in providing good content, but only want a free link in someone's newsletter.

The result is that the article directories and content site owners are putting more restrictions on the articles they'll accept. While in the early days we could submit short (150-250 word) articles, these days if an article isn't at least 400 words, it's unlikely to be accepted. A number of sites have now banned the use of 'tinyurl' URL replacements because spammers mask their affiliate links or links to bad neighborhoods.

It used to be that we could incorporate URLs into the article body, but more and more article sites are rejecting anything they find with a .com address. We have worked out an arrangement with most of the content sites to allow the specific use of URLs under certain circumstances, and we teach our authors how they can effectively incorporate URLs into their articles and yet avoid having their accounts banned.

We've seen a surge of "Private Label" articles in the market. These are canned, pre-written articles that people can buy and submit under their own names. Unfortunately, only the first few people who submit those articles are successful, everyone else is an "also ran". Private Label articles are like jokes on the Internet. The first time you see one, it's funny. The 50th time it's just annoying.

What do you think article writers should be aware of when writing articles?

There are three rules when it comes to writing articles:
Rule #1: Provide Good Content
Rule #2: Provide Good Content
Rule #3: When in doubt, see Rules #1 and #2

If you follow those three rules, you'll do just fine. What is "good content"? It's approximately 750 words that allows the reader to come away with some knowledge that wasn't there before. Focus on a topic and make sure that the reader gets something of value at the end.

Authors should ask themselves this question: Must a reader buy my product/service in order to take action?

If the answer is "yes," then go back to the drawing board. Of course, the author may need to substitute "visit my website," "subscribe to my newsletter," or any of a dozen other calls to action based on the author's desires.