Any online article submission website must consider its market mix and decide what quality level it can accept and which type of articles are appropriate. I believe a good online article submission site can handle the trendy pop culture articles and the serious articles and the strength is in the numbers and the rankings of the submission site.
If this is the goal then the online article submission site might handle white papers, or have sub-categories for more elevated articles. Perhaps even an eBook section where they pay out half to the author. I am certain the top online article submission sites have considered all these things at one time or another, although before launching anything like that, it must be a WIN/WIN, for them and the author as well, otherwise it cannot work.
A limited system of review for only serious authors that could be placed in a special category would be excellent, but if the submission site draws its traffic from search engines those folks are coming anyway, only this way they may eventually trust the source more in the future, thus the serious author wins big.
An online article submission website which can accept both serious articles and pop culture articles would allow the site’s authors to have their cake and eat it too. The author chooses what to write and the site distributes the work to the world and the Internet Surfer if interested will see the articles they like and choose. Everyone wins, as it is the information topics they are looking for, if it is too heavy for them, they click out, if not they win, you win and everyone is happy in cyberspace?
L. Winslow is an Economic Advisor to the Online Think Tank, a Futurist and retired entreprenuer. Currently he is planning a bicycle ride across the US to raise money for charity and is sponsored by Calling-Plans.com Calling-Plans.com and all the proceeds will go to various charities who sign up.