This week has been a little crazy with my 9-5--scripts to write, members in town, last minute forest fires to extinguish...

All that really means is I haven't had as much time as I would have liked to work on IM. 

I knew the week was going to be a little crazy so I decided a little outsourcing might be in order. (Gotta keep the train moving or it'll never make it up the hill!)

During my daily dose of PotPieGirl, I ran across a link to an article service called MyArticleExpress.com.  They  have a professional-enough looking site, they boast unique content and English speaking authors...and they seemed really reasonable...so what's not to like?  You can link to them off of her site--I'm sure she's an affiliate (It'll just be my "pay-it-forward" for all the things I've already learned from her).

I gave it a whirl.  4 articles later, I can honestly say...it's not bad.

Based on the first article I received (literally overnight), I would have screamed their praises from the rooftop.  It was great.  The article was written just as I would have written it had I had the time.  i thought I had struck gold.

My second article wasn't quite as good--but I feel partly to blame because I was using a long tail keyword that was...how do I say this?  Weird.  It will need a little tweaking before I send it on it's merry way...but I honestly expected I'd have to do that when I signed on.  I'll give it three of five stars.

I got my third article back this morning.  It was on a topic I know very little about.  It was what I affectionately call "a guy article".   Unfortunately, I don't think the person writing it knew very much about it either.  It's likely to become a candidate for a half court shot into the waste basket.  Two thumbs down--But life isn't champagne and roses all the time.

The fourth article is still pending.

At the end of the day, I'd use them again.  Their article quality is better than I expected; their service is fast; and they're pretty good at using your keywords.   Not a bad deal when you're short on time.