• Written by Maurice Snell

As a firm believer in the power of article marketing and an editor of a general article directory, this has been slowly simmering away inside me for some time now.

The issue I want to address is the appalling quality of so much of the writing that has slowly but insidiously penetrated the whole article marketing arena.

Just the other day, being pressed for time and hoping to address a few specific web hosting questions that had been submitted to me over at my directory, I went in search of a well written article on the subject.

In theory, it should have been simple. There was certainly no lack of promising looking subject headings, but on closer inspection the writing was invariably on a par with what you could reasonably expect from a not very well educated child.

I trolled my way through article directories b oth large and small, and was shocked by the low standard of the majority of the writing on offer. Even well established and supposedly trustworthy sites seemed to be exercising little or no editorial control, allowing embarrassingly unskilled authors to publish, it seems, with impunity.

With article marketing experiencing an all time high and with increasing numbers of people entering the ranks of article authors, you would think that the directories would be enforcing even stricter controls. Apparently not. I was disappointed to see at directory after directory, the same badly written, poorly constructed, dreadfully punctuated and, in some cases, downright illiterate and nonsensical rubbish again and again.

I suppose I should not be surprised, as I see these terrible submissions on a daily basis, but why do article directories allow them to get through the net? I can only think that in many cases there just isn't a net; nobody capable of weeding out the rubbish, or nobody who cares enough.

This is a very shortsighted approach. I won't mention names, but one of the biggest general article directories out there was among the worst offenders. Maybe this lack of any kind of editorial intervention is due to laziness, lack of resources, greed, or plain old complacency but the rot has definitely set in. Gradually, article writing and distribution is becoming the province of the lowest common denominator and earning a poorer and poorer reputation.

I suppose I could just as easily blame the "authors". It is true that those responsible for submitting such shoddy examples of penmanship are a major part of the problem, but if nobody points out the errors of their ways, or educates them to the fact that they cannot spell, punctuate, or construct a simple sentence, it is no wonder that they persist. Make it clear that they must meet your editorial guidelines or remain unpublished.

I realize that there has been a slow swing to the prevailing attitude that telling children or even adults of their failings is "damaging to their self esteem" and that people should be coddled and praised at every turn, deserving or not. The last thing we should do is give an honest appraisal or express dissatisfaction for fear of hurting someone's feelings. My issues with this kind of liberal and damaging viewpoint is something else entirely, and I'll say no more.

As an article directory operator I find myself in a somewhat delicate position. I need authors to write and submit content. I therefore view them as valued customers, whilst also understanding that we both stand to benefit from our business arrangement. However, there are some things that authors must understand about directories, and their owners and operators.

For the owner, an article directory is an investment in terms of both time and money. By hosting the content submitted by authors, the directory hopes to recoup their operating costs and preferably turn a profit. They also exist to serve up quality content for their visitors and publishers, who, just like the authors, are also customers. If you write articles, your aim in submitting them to article directories is to spread your message to a wid