You have discovered that article publishing scripts are an excellent way to get top search engine rankings and traffic which you can direct to your other sites, but you just don't know which article script to get. If you are like me, you just do not have the time to try every article directory software title available, so I will list my experience with the most common scripts here in the hopes I can save you some time and money.



Our goals here are to find the least expensive article directory script, that has the most features, ease of use for you and your visitors and the best support given after your purchase.

Expensive Scripts (Over $50.00)

First, lets eliminate the very expensive scripts. The rule of thumb for any kind of sales is to buy low, sell high and you will have to make a lot of money on the net to make up for spending several hundred dollars for any site! You also have to keep in mind that you may not want the standard version of the script you just bought, so unless you are experienced in php, mysql programming or design, you will probably be spending MORE money.

Encrypted scripts

Next, we can eliminate from our list of scripts any that are encrypted. This means any scripts where the code cannot be changed by you or read by you or anyone else. The reason for this is that you are stuck with every bug (no matter how small) until the developers fix them, and from my experience, this is rare. Also, as your site grows, you may wish to add javascript, php or other options to your site, and with encoded scripts, this is usually not possible. At least it's not easy, and can be very time consuming (even if you are a php expert) , and we all know that time is money!

Free Scripts

Generally, these scripts should be avoided if at all possible. The biggest reasons are that you will probably get no support from the developers, so you will have to search through ton's of the script users posts (if the script has a support forum) to try an find a solution for problems. You will also probably be stuck with a link back to the developers site, which basically boils down to your site being part of a link farm. Bad, very bad! To top things off, free scripts of any kind are available to anyone to analyze. This means hackers. One free script (I will not mention its name here, but it is a popular free script) proudly proclaims itself the most hacked script on the Internet! Another has had the same bugs infesting it for years now, and still no sign of updates. This is a bad sign folks, so free is not good for you and your goals to make money on the Internet. Especially if the free script has broken features (such as email) that will not allow your site to reach it's full potential. Now, I'm not knocking open source .. just making you aware of some of the pitfalls you may have to deal with later on.

Script Demo

Would you buy a car if all you could do is look at the outside of it? Of course not! The same goes for scripts. If you can not see the front side AND the admin side, move onto another article script. If you are able to see the admin section of the script, look at it's options carefully. Try to determine how automated the script will be for you as the administrator. If there are few options for article admin or author admin or you have to choose the articles that appear on your front page, you will be spending ALOT of time with admin duties. Your best option is to choose an article publishing script with the most back end options for the least money!

Support Forum

This is a very important point. If the script you are considering buying does not offer to let you see its support forum BEFORE you purchase, move on to the next script! You should always look through the scripts support forum before purchasing anything so you can see what problems others that have purchased the software are experiencing. If there are many support requests and no real solutions offered, then it is probably a good sign that the script is not worth your time or money.

Installation

If you are able to view the support forum before purchasing a script, check to see how easy it is to install. Are people having problems installing on different hosts? Are users having to ask their hosts to install additional software in order for the article publishing script to work? How much free help by the developers is given to assist purchasers of that script to install if they are having problems? Look to see if the script requires any templates folder or pages to be set at 777 (the permission settings that allow or deny the world from changing, reading or uploading files to your file or folders set at 777) in order for you to use it. Be wary of this as it's like giving any hacker the key to your back door!

To summarize, avoid encrypted and free scripts. Thoroughly examine the admin demo, as you will want to spend as little time administrating articles and authors as possible. Look for the best after purchase support available, and most importantly, trust your instincts. If it does not feel right, move on!