1. One of the first things to look at is the traffic statistics for an article directory. For example in Ezinearticles has an Alexa ranking of under 400. What this means is it is one of the top 400 most visited websites on the Internet.

When you think about how many billions of websites and blogs there are, this is an outstanding number. This explains why so many people want to submit their articles to Ezinearticles. They recently received their one millionth article submission.

2. Another thing to consider is the categories that are available to you. There are article directories that specialize in certain niches.

What you want to do is make up a list of your favorite article directories to submit to that have the proper categories that are relevant to the articles you are submitting.

3. How easy is it to navigate around directory? The best article directories are easy to get around again, and allow you to quickly find the information that you are looking for.

They should even provide a search box at the top that you can type in keywords and then be taken to relevant categories for articles directly.

4. As a publisher you are looking for article directories that you can quickly join and get started submitting too. Directories that make the submission process, quick and painless are the best ones to quickly get your articles submitted and online.

5. One final thing to mention is many article directories today now offer blogs. These are great because you can receive training in a non threatening way that may help you become a better article marketer.

Here are five of the top article directories on the Internet today.

A. Ezinearticles

B. Goarticles

C. Ideamarketers

D. Searchwarp

E. Associatedcontent

Another thing you can do is Google search the words "best article directories" and come up with a list of millions of article directories to check out. If you would like to reach a larger number of directories in a shorter amount of time, you can automate the process by using a submission service or article marketing software.
These are a few tips on what makes a good article directly to submit to. Over time, you will come up with a list of your own favorites, based on what appeals to you about them