So Many Article Directories So Little Time

So Many Article Directories, So Little Time

Twice today I received invitations from article directory owners to join their new sites. In many ways I am flattered, but in other ways I almost want to mention that they have their work cut out for them. As an author of several hundred articles online (I expect to add between one and two hundred per month for the foreseeable future) I have some recommendations for article directory managers. If you are interested in learning what they are, please read on.

Benchmark Ezine Articles – My primary site for submitting articles is with EzineArticles.com. Why? Volume, service, article penetration, search engine optimization, blog, forum, email updates, site navigation, cutting edge technology, to name some features. This site is one that is highly active where authors know the manager, Christopher Knight, and hear from him regularly. You get the feeling that Ezine Articles is going places...and fast!

Ask Permission First – Some of my articles have appeared elsewhere, without my permission. I guess having over 400 articles online gives me extra special attention, perhaps more than someone who has 40 articles. Still, I must say that one web director who took my articles has apparently given up the practice and without notification to his authors. Let’s just say I won’t waste my time with someone who doesn’t at least care enough to respond to my emails!

Distinguish Yourself From The Pack – Thanks to a new article software program that hit the market over the summer, lots of folks are snapping up this easy to use program and starting their own directories. Competition is a good thing, but a shake out will occur. If you want someone like me to take interest in your site, to direct my clients to you (I have plenty), and keep me interested, your site shouldn’t even look like any of the rest of them. I am not saying you shouldn’t use the new software, but please take it to the next level and make it work to the max.

Build Up Page Rank – Heck, my own site pulls down a page rank of 6. I want you to match my site’s strength or at least come close. Some of the newer sites are not yet ranked and little or nothing has been indexed by Google. BTW, Google is it for me. MSN and Yahoo are alright, but Google rocks. After these three...nada!

Details, Details - The big picture of getting articles out there is great, but I like to see some attention paid to the fine details too. Ezine Articles has not one, but three resource boxes for authors to select from each of which contains information already keyed in by the authors. I know not of one other directory that has even one. Hmmm...

Where Are You Going? - Where is your article directory going? Do you have RSS feeds, submission agreements with other sites, unique features that are regularly being rolled out, etc. A blog where we hear from YOU, the manager, is highly useful.

There are other areas I am sure that I haven’t covered. I am not singling any directory out and I do wish you the best in your endeavor. Perhaps as your site grows I’ll sign up, but for now I am very busy writing articles and submitting to just a few select sites, like Ezine Articles. Thank you for allowing me to vent!

BONUS : So What's Your Villain, Or Villainess Like?

My, my; what a Question, It truly depends on who the villain (ness) is. Are they related to the character? Have they always been around manipulating from the sidelines? Or are they someone who has recently appeared? It also depends on the type of personality they have. Are they outgoing, possibly highly influential or are they
the type that hides and attacks when you back is turned.

Yes you have to give the villain some type of background without going to far, you also to consider are they misguided and will be redeemed in the end, or are they truly going to get what's coming to them.

Each story has a different Hero/heroine so also each one has a different Villain/villainess as such it is only when the tale unfolds that you truly get to know all the characters involved.

I will always have to deal with evil and all around bad guys for the simple fact I write fantasy, if I ever branch out into other genres I may not even have a villain at all life itself is demanding enough, not too mention most of the hero's are jerks we have to reform throughout the story.

So do I ever want to whip my bad guys, of course? They wouldn't be bad guys if we didn't.

I never really know my characters until they start to come to life on paper and then they surprise the hell out me. But I imagine for those who know what each character is like or at least a rough outline does the same thing for the villain. And some times a secondary character just becomes too nasty not to be the bad guy.

As far as how real we can make them, unless you go inside their minds you have to depend on the other characters to help you build them and tell their story some throughout and explain their actions in the end. While doing all of this you makes them real and believable while telling there past as well.

I am not sure if I answered any questions or just raised a few more. I do know one thing absolute on this subject, if you ask a hundred writers you are going to get a hundred answers, all will be different the only thing the same will be well aren't villains characters too?