This is exasperating for me. I have just declined close to 50 articles due to website links in article submissions. This translates to a big chunk of time spent on writing individual emails to authors on reasons for their articles being decline.
Basically, these articles had several anchor links to their own site in the article body. This is an issue because this is considered spamming an article with several one-way back links. By doing so, the quality of the information that authors should be sharing through their content is likely to be compromised. I have checked - many webmasters and article directory owners will simply not choose to publish such an article.
In fact, the submission guidelines in my article directory are very clear on the issue of website links. I am publishing it here again for the benefit of those reading my blog:
i. Only a maximum of three links (active and inactive) of websites that you own, control or have an interest in, are allowed per article.
ii. Please confine the above mentioned links in the resource box.
iii. Do not include the same link or url more than once.
iv. For active links, please include the html codes. Otherwise, please include your full website url address.
With regards to affiliate programs that you promote, here are the guidelines once again:
i. Do not include any direct affiliate links in the article as it will be rejected.
ii. If you are promoting affiliate programs via articles (these must be articles that you have 100% sole ownership and copyrights), you will need to use your own website link(s) and redirect it to your affiliate website. The link(s) cannot be placed at the body of the article; it must be strictly confined to the author resource box.
iii. Do not submit articles that are owned and copyrighted by so-called “Gurus” and substituting the link at the resource box with your affiliate URL. These articles will be rejected because you are not the author. Also, your account will be deleted if you are caught doing so.
You can view all the submission guidelines here. These guidelines are in fact, pretty standard across several article directories. As such, please read them before submitting articles. Going forward, I will be more strict in enforcing them.
I have a couple of platinum author accounts. Articles that I market have almost negligible rejection rates. Why? Because I bother to read submission guidelines. I also ensure that most of my articles will meet standard directory guidelines for easy submission.
Those who want to do successful and effective article marketing should heed my recommendation!