This is an update to my previous post:
“Will I Get Approved by EzineArticles?“.

Finally, my first article, that I wrote myself from scratch and submitted to EzineArticles on August 16, was approved and went live today. It feels good after a recent stroke of bad luck, and the message is loud enough: never give up. It was important for me to find out whether my English skills could get me there, and now my next goal is the Platinum status.

You can read it here. It’s not great, and after reading about EzineArticles high standards I was a bit surprised to see it went through. I will, however, not complain!

If I can do it with my rather limited skills then everyone can, including you. EzineArticles is still easily one of the best article directories for driving traffic to your links and by continuing to write and submit decent articles, you are building a nice flow of free traffic with it.

Update on article outsourcing:
The team that I am currently using have delivered three initial articles so far, one of which contained a rather unpleasant number of duplicates, and I let them know about this, but the rest are above what I would expect at such affordable rate, and 100% Copyscape proof. If this continues, I will have a good reason for recommending them.

I promised to keep you updated on my outsourcing efforts, and as I have received the first article of the first batch from my chosen ghost writer team, it is time for a small update.

Even though I still prefer to keep the name of this particular team to myself, and I suspect they already have enough customers anyway, I will provide a link if I am satisfied with the results when everything’s done.

The first article is a review covering a popular affiliate program. I noticed a few grammar mistakes, although my text editor did not yield any errors in that regard. The communication with the team is excellent and they have asked me questions whenever they were not certain how I wanted it done.

I ordered two or three review-type of articles covering this particular affiliate program, and I will applaud the writers if EzineArticles let it through and publish it in their directory, as it is difficult to write a review on a feature-rich affiliate program and not make it sound like advertising.

I asked them to write as un-biased as possible, and they accomplished this very well with the first article. I look forward to see how the rest comes out, and I will update you on any further progress. I especially look forward to see how many of the articles will be accepted by EzineArticles.

On a side note:
Due to an increase in article submissions, do not expect a quick review by EzineArticles when you submit a new article. My first article that I wrote myself and submitted on August 16. has still not been reviewed (the progress bar is at 3/5). I will continue writing and submitting articles to GoArticles in addition to EzineArticles, as they do not require manual reviews. EzineArticles is still one of the best directories, though it comes at a price.

Phew!

The DNS update went well and everything seems to be fine, at least 98%. The Blogroll links were not included when I exported, so I’ll have to do a bit of digging in the old files to see if I can find it (if the owner of an exchange link reads this and is worried: fear not, I will have your link back up in a couple of hours). The theme, iNove, is temporary, but I have been saying that for a while now.. it is pretty nice, after all.

The Host Gator server is blistering fast. Browsing and installing plug-ins and themes directly from the admin panel was easier than ever before and all of the files were installed in seconds, whereas with the free hosting it would either take a while or not work at all. Even the permalinks setting kicked in immediately. Sweet.

It looks like this can be the beginning of a long and healthy relationship.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need some sleep.

You may have noticed this blog being somewhat slow when you visit. Who am I kidding.. you would have to be pretty ignorant not to notice it crawling on its knees, wheezing “put me out of my misery.. please…”. I have utilized free web hosting until now as part of my “start up at no cost” plan. It did work, at least until 000WebHost decided to pull the plug, and upon requesting a reason they made it clear that free users are not wanted.

I then had to re-build the blog using a two week old back-up. Unfortunately, I chose to go back to ByetHost. It suffice to say, it was not a very wise decision.

Upon receiving a somewhat unexpected (and very welcome) payment from a survey program I had almost forgot about, I took the leap and finally signed up with HostGator for a year. I chose their Baby Croc package. Not the cheapest option, but at $95 for the first year, using a promo code, it was still an excellent offer.

I am also waiting for the  first custom-written batch of articles to be returned in another day or two. The communication with the writer’s team is going well and we have clarified what needs to be done. I have a good impression of the team so far, and I will no doubt recommend them if I find the articles satisfactory and EzineArticles accept them.

See you on the other side…  initiating DNS change. 3… 2… 1… *pooOof!*

Here, have something to amuse yourself in the meantime

Due to a number of attempted frauds taking advantage of free e-mail services such as Yahoo! and G-mail in order to create fake accounts to exploit Tissa Godavitarne’s ACME People Search, the affiliate program’s T.O.S. have been updated to reflect a necessary increase in the security.

Effective from August 24. 2009, all ACME People Search affiliates must update their e-mail address in their affiliate account to reflect GDI membership, or they will not get paid the commissions.

In Tissa’s own words:

For future payments to be sent, the domain name of your email address on file with APS (domain name = everything after the ‘@’ symbol) must be registered through Global Domains International.  All PayPal and AlertPay payments will be sent only to email addresses with domain names registered through GDI.  Why?  Because GDI requires valid credit card information to sign up, which will make it a bit harder for the bad guys to hide behind free email addresses.

Source: ACME People Search support forum.

This again reflects that ACME People Search is strengthening its security in order to protect not only the company but its affiliates as well, who desire to earn a honest income and are willing to put effort in i. It suffice to say, is was almost inevitable that fraudsters would attempt something like this. As you can see, in the end all it does is hurting themselves.

I have mixed feelings about this, but sometimes harsh rules must be enforced for the greater good of the community. Many affiliates complain about GDI memberships being expensive at $10 per month. Today I got paid almost $40 in my PayPal account from a local survey program. It covers three months with GDI, just for answering a couple of questions every once in a while. There are so many ways for you to earn a couple of dollars per month. Please do not forget: with 10 referrals in your GDI downline, your membership pays itself.

I for one believe Tissa Godavitarne did an excellent decision in regard to this issue. He has established a reputation as a true Internet Marketing guru, someone who knows what he is talking about and put the money where his mouth is.

Click the link below  for more information on ACME People Search. You will only have to promote your People Search link in order to build your downline with both programs, which makes it a bit easier from the start, and you can ask me for help anytime.

ACME People Search