As an article author and article marketing enthusiast I am sure you are aware of any number of great article directories to be found on the internet. They serve as repositories of knowledge by allowing authors to submit their articles for review by the editor for inclusion in the directory. This can mean massive exposure for the author and the authors personal website because publishers and free to copy the articles into their own websites provided they keep the link back to the authors website active. I am also certain you are aware of the fact that most of these article directories use scripts specifically designed for that purpose.

They all have their advantages and disadvantages and some similarities. For example, like almost all directories, the index is subject driven. This means the articles are organized by a subject heading and subheadings. This has the advantage of allowing the editor to decide which subjects will or will not be included in the directory. One disadvantage is that building such a directory that is all inclusive would be difficult unless the editor plans to think of a heading and subheadings for every possible subject in the world. Some people would argue that you are better off with a niche type article directory that concentrates on one subject. Other people would state that it is virtually impossible to build an article directory that actually is all inclusive.

There is another article directory format. It does not use a regular article directory script. Instead it uses a forum script . Some of these new forum style article directories simply have a single forum where authors are encouraged to post their articles. Others have a group of several forums designed for articles on a few specific subjects. A new development in this area is a forum that includes 26 subforums which are simply arraigned in alphabetical order. As an example, A Forum, B Forum, C Forum. All an article author has to do is register for the main forum and post their articles in the appropriate alphabetical subforum by subject.

Aardvark articles go in the A forum, Zoology articles go in the Z forum which seems simple enough. This kind of forum has the obvious advantage of being all inclusive as you can post articles on any subject you can think of from A to Z.

These forums are configured so that registered users can add their author bio box in the signature file under the user control panel. This signature file automatically appears at the bottom of every message the user post on the forum including articles. It can include information about the author and the authors copyright policy as well as links to the authors homepage or websites. Visitors can copy and paste the articles on to their own websites as long as they adhere to the authors copyright policy which usually means keeping the links to the authors webpages active.

From the article authors point of view there is another advantage to these forum style article directories. Registered users can post their messages and their articles and they will appear immediately. There is no need to wait for approval by an editor and in most cases users do not have to wait for approval by the forum moderator either.

These forum scripts usually also have an rss feed generator that visitors can use to subscribe to the forum rss feeds. The rss feeds themselves are automatically generated by the forum scripts and usually include the most recent messages posted in the forum. These real simple syndication feeds are a great way for the forum users to gain even more exposure for their articles and websites.