yfs1 is an experienced webmaster and prolific forum poster who has recently started a new article submission site, http://www.ArticleDepot.co.uk Within just a few weeks he is receiving hundreds of new articles and also many hundreds of visitors each day.

Below are his answers to questions we put to him on June 3rd, 2005.

What is the philosophy of your organisation?

The main goal for Article Depot is to provide a two-pronged resource for webmasters. The first is a place where they can distribute their articles and gain the SEO benefit of the links contained within. The second is to provide them with related and useful content to supplement their site and gain greater exposure. We combine these two things with a "Keep It Simple" philosophy. There are no confusing signups or new code to learn. Most article submissions take less than 20 seconds from start to finish.

What are the organisation's plans and goals?

Our goal is to become a leading article distribution site by constantly adding new features that benefit the people that make Article Depot what it is, the webmasters.

What do you consider to your site's strengths and weaknesses?

Our strength is our ability to adapt. We always have features in development. Our biggest one right now is to have an RSS feed which webmasters can put on their site and display articles in their chosen category as they are submitted. This would mean they could have fresh content and wouldn't even have to come to the site. Our weakness may be our passion for this type of site. We are always trying to see things through webmasters eyes which can be difficult when you have the level of involvement with a site that we do.

What made you decide to run an article site?

I am a webmaster myself and I saw a need for a certain kind of article site. I struggled to find it so at first decided to build one to meet my own needs. It has now taken off with over 2,000 submissions every two weeks and unique visitors increasing 10% a day. I believe in it and feel it's the future of SEO. Content will always be important and can often help protect you from Algo shifts.

As the owner of ArticleDepot, what do you find to be some of your biggest challenges?

By far the biggest challenge we face is SPAM. With any distribution site, most times you are judged on the value of your site by the quality of the articles. This is why each article is viewed by a human reviewer before being added. This ensures the quality of our database and ensures you are getting the quality you expect when you come to Article Depot.

Do you think that content is still king?

I still believe in Content as King in an overall sense. Most SEO's these days have taken to the phrase “Links are King, Content Is Queen” but I would disagree. I don't disagree for a moment that links are essential and important, especially with Google. What I would argue is that if content is used correctly it can excel in places links can't. The sandbox is a prime example. No matter how many links you manage to get, it is unlikely you will be able to escape the sandbox. However, by using content during this time, you can actually rank for 1000's of less competitive keywords that aren't held by the sandbox. Many times those 1000's together bring in significantly more traffic than the one competitive keyword.

How do you ensure that the quality of your content remains high? The only way possible which is human intervention. Each article is read and reviewed to be sure it has the quality we expect at Article Depot. Most webmasters have a lot of pride for what is being distributed in their name so for the most part the majority of articles are approved within two hours.

Of all the articles that have been submitted to ArticleDepot, which one sticks out as your favourite?

In general some of my favourite articles are those where people show a passion. Recently we had an article where someone basically meant to vent out their frustration with returning something in a store. What followed was one of the funniest and well written pieces I have seen in a long time. If that person applied that passion to all of their writing, they would probably be quite successful.

What are your tips for writing a good article?

Write on what you know or have a passion for. This comes out in the article and gives it a quality you just can't fake. An authoritative article is better than a rehash every time.

Are backlinks from your site SEO friendly?

Absolutely. This was a major issue I saw with other articles sites. Most of them either limit the location of the links to areas that do not make sense or pass them through their own site in an effort to stop any benefit going to the webmaster. This goes against the ideals of a world wide web and at Article Depot we are very sensitive about the importance of links from both a SEO perspective and a visitor one.

Why should someone submit their article to your site first?

They should submit an article to us first because of the quickness in which our articles are spidered (Currently between 2-5 days), the SEO friendliness of our outbound links which are all static, and the fact that we have more and more webmasters coming to Article Depot to get content for their sites.

Most people submit articles to gain links to their sites. What, if any, other benefits do you see from posting articles to your site?

Its also about exposure. Many times in peoples' rush to just get links they forget about the benefit of having control over the content that surrounds those links. Most of our submitters see a signifigant rise in conversions (whether that's a sale or a signup) because people are more likely to click on a link when it is surrounded by content they are interested in. Footer links will never go away but the real power has always been in above the fold natural links.