Article Directories & Links

Warning: Venting Post
Not completely venting, but there is some "what the heck?" moments expressed. ;)

Many of you know I spend a lot of time writing product reviews. This is one of the main focuses of Mom's Market right now, and I've been enjoying it for the most part. I've had the opportunity to see quite a few interesting products and businesses that I'll be ordering from again.

As fun as the products are, writing the reviews can be a pain to me some days. Submitting to directories is no picnic either. It's part of business and I accept it though. Tuesdays to me have officially become "article submission day". I spend a lot of time submitting articles, but for a good reason.

The other day I get a notice from a certain directory that states "links in the body of articles will no longer be accepted". Unless edited, articles with links will be deleted. You have got to be kidding me, right? The 30+ product reviews I submitted to that site (which by the way has an entire category entitled "product reviews") ALL have links in the body. It wouldn't have been fair to the owner of the product I did the review for if I hadn't included a link in the body. Honestly I don't know any other way TO write a product review for a small business if I don't included their link in the article itself.

Product reviews aren't the only "problem" articles I now have. I use links to examples of what's being talked about in the article. For example, Anita and I have an article on creating a gift registry. The article goes over how to do it, but when it comes to things like that I know I personally would rather SEE how it looks finished. Craft articles do the same thing. Wouldn't you like to know what exactly you are working on? Words can only describe so much, but as the old saying goes..."a picture is worth a thousand words". Or in this case, a website. Same thing in my opinion.

Now don't get me wrong, I can understand their reasoning behind making this new guideline. To avoid the ever growing problem of spam issues popping up everywhere, even article directories. But *ehem*, that's what the "review and approve article" function is for. It's not that hard to see the difference between pure spam and useful content.

I could go blurting out the name of the site, but I won't because I know I'm just mad and a little bitter over the fact I spent all that time submitting 50+ articles to their site, and now may be getting more than half of them deleted. It hasn't happend yet, which is another reason I'm keeping my mouth shut. No, I have a much better idea for fixing this problem that doesn't involve "name bashing"....

Our solution - we're starting our own article directory. At the rate we write and submit articles, this was only a matter of time LOL. We're taking a bit different approach to other sites though, and will be focused on the wahm market. Article submissions aren't limited to wahms, but they are limited to wahm/mom - related issues. Lots of family-friendly, kid-friendly artilces. ;) I can't say when this will be officially released yet, but it's looking like towards the end of the week. The site is finished for the most part, but we are still putting the finishing touches on it and making sure there's a good amount of content already when it's released.

I don't feel like this is a direct stealing of an idea, because look at the number of article directories out there. Had we focused on their market, it probably would have been a stolen idea. Since it's different, I think we are safe in being original. Well, not completely.....I must give credit to Dianne of WAHM's United for being the "original" wahm article directory with WAHM Syndicate. We do have plans to go in a slightly different direction so we will not be stepping on toes. I hate when my own ideas get stolen, so the more different we can do the better I'll feel. I have general ideas of where I want this to go, but more ideas I'm positive will develope later on. ;)

We'll announce the new site soon! :)