Authors get to spread their words of wisdom across the web for free, and create search engine friendly backlinks, often from directories with very good page ranks. Provided publishers follow the rules, they will also have their own links in front of a lot more eyes.
Publishers get to grab free content from a choice of hundreds of directories to use on their blogs or websites without fear of copyright infringement or other problems further down the line. Great time saver for busy webmasters, and often great content that helps them grow their readership.
Article directory owners achieve good page rank and a lot of traffic from both Publishers and Authors, plus keyword soaked content for any keyword you care to imagine. What is more, far greater potential on the pay per click advertising and any other kind of advertising that they place at their sites . Furthermore they can build an op-in list extremely quickly from membership signups, a list to which they can market their own and affiliate products and services,
So, with all that going for the business that has become known as article marketing, all in the garden should be rosy right?
Well, you would think so - there are very few, if any, forms of marketing that deal an all round fair and beneficial hand like this, and yet, there are rumblings that all is not well in the article marketing arena. For anyone reading this, I'd like you to consider the following, no matter in which of the above mentioned groups you number yourself.
There is a disturbing trend among some of the higher ranked directories to start charging "membership" or "submission" fees to the very people who did all the work to put them where they are today. Without authors, directories would be nowhere. Yes, your service is valuable to the authors, no doubt about that, but it is their content that brings your traffic and therefore the potential for you to make money.
I know that with the introduction of article submission software, directories are dealing with higher numbers of articles than ever before (more of that in a moment) and that to a degree you are becoming victims of your own success but biting the hand that feeds smacks of greed and I for one will never submit to a directory that considers it has a right to charge me for my work. $10 for the privilege of giving you something that your site can't do without? Please. Don't tell me there are not other ways to control the quantity and quality of submissions - you can ban constant offenders for example (maybe it burns to lose even one opt-in address though?). I hope you see the reasoning on the greed angle - money does not equal credibility or whatever other lame reasons people might give to defend it - if your hosting costs have increased because of increased bandwidth usage, that's a tough one. Like I say, victims of your own success. You can't pass that cost on to your suppliers, and at the very least your ethics are questionable if you try to do so.
So how about authors? Well, since people began to latch on to this good thing, article production has stepped up hugely but inevitably, quantity has far begun to outweigh quality, and many directories are unhappy about having to wade through illiterate dross from people purely interested in trying to make a fast buck. I sympathize with this, and say to anyone who wants to write content - it is not purely an exercise in keywords and the great god Google. If you submit useless and worthless drivel, nobody wins - your articles will end on the cutting room floor where they belong. Burying the directories in poorly written, grammatically mangled, ill disguised ads, helps no-one. You are wasting your own time and everyone else's. And authors, take a stand against money grubbing directories by simply ignoring them and letting them fall alongside the dwindling page rank which is sure to follow - the one they believe gives them the right to stiff you.
And so to publishers - most of whom are honest and abide by the rules - but for those that don't, bear this in mind. You can pretty much edit article content any way you see fit, but by copying the content in the first place you have agreed to leave the author's resource box completely untouched - that means no disabling hyperlinks, changing the anchor text, or deleting any part of those few lines whatsoever. If you really have a problem with that, well, write your own damn content! I certainly urge all authors to report abuse of their rights whenever they see them. I appreciate that it's sometimes impossible because some publishers delete resource boxes and also any reference to the directory from which they have now "stolen" articles. Publishers, it's free, you don't need to steal it, so please, give those authors the meagre few lines of real estate on your sites that they are owed.
So wise up folks - the original idea still works and if it ain't broke don't fix it. Unless you all behave like grown adults and retain at least a little integrity, honesty, some good old fashioned values and show respect for your fellows in this game, your little cash cow will soon be on it's knees and you can crybaby all you like about it after it's too late.
Graffiti has always been given a negative connotation as it is seen as a defacement of a piece of property with the used of paint and other items. It has also been inextricably linked with the hip hop culture and has become one of the main elements of the movement. Despite the negativity that some people feel towards graffiti, it has slowly become one of the foremost art forms in modern society.
Graffiti's History
Despite seeming to be an all too modern art form, graffiti has always been around even in ancient times. Remains and relics from the ancient Roman city Pompeii reveal a world where people expressed their thoughts emotions by writing on walls and on other public and private items. Everything from poems to various drawings was found preserved in the ancient walls. This kind of society in ancient Rome is beautifully depicted in the introductory scenes of the HBO series Rome. The animators of the two season TV series depicted Roman streets and walls covered with graffiti that ranged from the obscene and sexually explicit to depictions that were political in nature.
Rome wasn't the only place where ancient graffiti was found. The Egyptians were also known to write on the walls aside from their highly celebrated hieroglyphics. In Saudi Arabia, it is widely recognized that a form of ancient Arabic language called Safaitic was only found scratched into boulders and rocks in the Syrian and Jordanian deserts.
During war eras and choppy political periods in the United States, people have also seen various forms of graffiti from World War Two's ?Kilroy Was Here? to Dick Nixon ?Before He Dicks You? during the 1970s. Another famous graffiti are the immortal words ?Clapton is God? found in the London
Underground.
Modern Day Graffiti
Modern Day Graffiti is mostly associated with the Hip Hop Culture. There are various forms of graffiti art as well as a multitude of artists that leave tags on their work. Notable is TAKI 183 and Julio 204. These individuals and a lot of others left their stamps in public walls and also in the heart of modern day art. Graffiti as it is found today has become very elaborate and have evolved from simple images to more elaborate slogans, images and other spray paint creations.
Graffiti Tributes are a common occurrence all over the streets of New York and on the prominent cities in the United States. These are often tributes given to people of prominence that have passed away. Most notable are the hip hop legends that have died like Tupac, B.I.G, Jam Master Jay, Big L and Big Pun. Other than Hip Hop legends, ?greats? like Princess Diana and Mother Teresa were also immortalized in graffiti artwork.
From the Streets to Galleries
In 2006 graffiti art found its way into the halls of the Brooklyn Museum. Here, artists like Lady Pink, Crash and others were officially celebrated as great artists. The curator of the Museum hoped that by this process, the negative view that people had about graffiti will change for the better.
All over the world, graffiti is slowly getting the recognition that it deserves. Though it is still not a generally accepted art form and is still often viewed as a form of vandalism, people are slowly changing their ideas about graffiti and soon consider it to be an official art form.
Both The Cayman Host & Benedict Smythe are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.