Marketing your articles is a fantastic way to gain needed exposure on the internet. Article directories are being introduced at a breakneck pace, but they are not all equal. In fact, listing your articles on some sites can be nothing but a waste of your time and could cause you to lose your valuable reputation. How so? Read on for more information.

One of the nicest compliments I have been paid is when a manager of an article directory approaches me to submit articles to his or her new site. Generally, this happens when they have discovered that I list a large number of articles to a high quality site, such as Ezine Articles, and realize that I have the ability to produce articles in spades.

Truthfully, I am very selective about joining new sites and only do so after examining how the site is set up and whether it is received by members of the article marketing community. The following list contains some of the danger signs of article directories that do not quite measure up:

No contact information. I want the person who manages the article directory to be personality driven. A little self promotion goes a long way! Sure, if they don't have what they say they have, it will soon become apparent that they are blowing in the wind. If it isn't possible to uncover the personality behind the directory, chances are they really aren't that involved with the day to day operations.

No blog, no forum. Talk to me! Literally speaking. A blog and/or a forum are necessary parts of a successful article directory site, in my opinion. I want to get the article directory owner's input on article marketing, and I want to leave a comment when inspired. Those article directories that encourage active participation are certainly the high achieving sites. Their success means your success...plain and simple!

Feed it to them. Yes, a news feed that includes the articles submitted to the site is a must. RSS is a terrific way to maximize article exposure. I give article directories that have this feature an edge over all others as it tells me that they are serious about article marketing.

Statistically speaking. What, no stats?! If you cannot measure how many people have viewed your articles, downloaded the same, emailed them to someone, or left a comment, I have no use for you. Article marketing = statistics. You cannot possibly measure the success of what you write without some sort of feedback. Stats provide it!

Page rank. I want the article directory to pull down a Google page rank of at least 5. Heck, if my own article site can pull down a PR6, then I would expect an article directory to do at least the same! I give new sites 2 or 3 months to get their page rank up before deciding whether to submit to them or not.

Things I look for that are pluses: press releases; preservation of back links; easy submission of articles; approval within 48 hours; circulation of my articles via Google; a contact form to get a hold of the directory manager; continual growth of the site; and introduction of relevant new features to attract authors, content seekers, and the like.

Any site that fails to measure up is, in my opinion, a bad neighborhood. You wouldn't want to live in a bad neighborhood, so why would you feature your high quality articles there as well? Your reputation is golden; submit only to those sites that can enhance your reputation not lessen it.