When submitting articles to article directories, it technically doesn’t matter whether the directory is great and user-friendly or very hard to navigate. We just do what we need to do: submit the articles. But it is not unheard of to have favorites on our list of article directories. Over time, we find that there are those directories that are so easy to navigate on and submit our articles. We find that we concentrate more on working on our profiles in those directories than in the least desirable ones.
The vital technicalities of a directory that I look for in order to label it as one of my favorite article directories are the following:
1. Fast reviews and approvals: We can see how many article directories out there are getting slower and slower in reviewing and approving articles. Reviews and approvals could take months, and we can understand that due to the overwhelming amount of articles the directories receive everyday. But I have noticed that there article directories that don’t seem to be updating at all. So I usually keep track of the speed of the directories’ reviews and approval rate to see which are active and which are no longer up to date.
2. Dofollow links: I also like to see whether the article directories allow dofollow tags on the links or not. As the search engine crawlers cannot read nofollow tags, online marketers like me would prefer directories that allow us to gain a backlink through the articles or the resource box/author bio.
3. Keywords and tags: Another factor for the search engines to search for your articles would be through the keywords and tags. It should actually be up to us writers to put in the keywords in our articles for better crawling and exposure. But there are directories who ask for the keywords and tags when submitting the articles. This feature is a big plus for us who can’t seem to put in the right keywords on the articles.
4. Vast writer and reader community: Articles would be useless without the writer and reader community. The online community is the reason why social networking and communication through the Internet works. This could only mean that your article would only be successful in cyberspace when it is read and appreciated by other people in the community. I, for one, value directories that have a lot or writers in it because it follows that there are a lot of readers in it as well.
5. Clear and readable approved articles: I actually to read an article on paper rather than on the screen due to my sensitive eyes. But I can hardly go around and print the stuff I want to read before reading them. This is how I’ve come to appreciate the directories that clearly posts the articles in their sites. Take a look at the articles of Expert Articles, for example. It is pleasing to the eyes and totally readable.
Taking into account these five criteria of mine for outstanding article directories, I now have my list of favorite article directories:
Amazines
Unarchived Articles
Article Alley
Article Bin
Article Biz
Article Avenue
Article Cube
Article Depot
ArticleMark.org
Articles Base
Articles Factory
Buzzle
Expert Articles
Free Article Spot
Free Articles Zone
Go Articles
Idea Marketers
SearchWarp
Not every directory I favored above employs the dofollow tag, though. But I still included them in my list because I am satisfied when it cam to the other factors.
