Article marketing - content syndicators don't care if it's published elsewhere too, right?

21 replies
Just wanting to change up my approach to AM, especially in the light of apparent recent shake-ups. I have in the past been guilty of writing articles just for the backlink, not necessarily neglecting quality, but admittedly often neglecting LENGTH.

So I haven't written much so far with the express purpose of getting it syndicated, yet I am fully aware this is a more natural, indeed proper way to go about promoting a site using article marketing (and you still get the backlink, actually more than one if you get it right!)

Obviously I want to publish to my own site first (750 words plus, QUALITY, researched articles), then probably to EZA with only minor modifications (getting rid of internal site links etc.) So do people republishing article content CARE that it's already out there - on my site and possibly on other article directories? Or is that just not an issue for getting your articles syndicated?
#article #care #content #marketing #published #syndicators
  • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
    Some do, some don't. It depends on the publisher. You'll have to look at the TOS of the sites where you want to publish your content.
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    • Profile picture of the author markowe
      Originally Posted by Allen Graves View Post

      Some do, some don't. It depends on the publisher. You'll have to look at the TOS of the sites where you want to publish your content.
      Sorry, I didn't mean that, I know that question comes up here all the time about duplicate content, I don't care about that!

      What I meant was, somebody who comes to EZA looking for an article to republish on their own blog or newsletter, do they care that this article is already out there on other sites or are they basically more interested in good content that is free to use?
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      • Profile picture of the author smwordsmith
        Well, that would certainly depend on the intent of the person looking for content.

        If it is someone just looking for filler to slap on their site, no, they probably wouldn't care.

        If it is someone who wants to build a quality and value-driven site, then, yes, they would care.

        However, does EZA even have the capability to tell a user how often an article has been used for content elsewhere?

        Personally, as a publisher, I would rather keep my blog/site unique and publish a related article on something like EZA that would lead the reader back to my site for additional information. Nothing is more frustrating than reading an article on EZA and then going to the author's website to find the same article or no new information in a rewritten article.
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        • Profile picture of the author tpw
          Originally Posted by smwordsmith View Post

          If it is someone who wants to build a quality and value-driven site, then, yes, they would care.

          So, you are suggesting that quality, value-driven websites should never use syndicated content for their websites?

          Regardless of your suggestion, I know many quality, value-driven websites that utilize syndicated content. Some request exclusive-rights, others request exclusive first-rights, and the majority will allow writers to syndicate their work as they see fit to do.

          Some of those who request exclusive-rights will pay a small fee to the writer to ensure exclusivity, although not many do.

          Depending on the publisher, I will write exclusive articles, and for others I will do the exclusive first-rights. All others accept my content based on general syndication principles.

          iEntry.com is one of those networks that requires exclusive rights - that has not always been the case. About.com generally only publishes exclusive rights content, but on occasion will republish regular syndicated content.

          You seem to be suggesting that quality, value-driven websites would care whether the content is unique to them or not.

          Yet news sites and many of the more well-respected quality, value-driven websites generally offer a MIX of exclusive and syndicated content.

          They may not accept syndicated content from EZA, but they are happy to accept content from syndication networks such as AP, UPI, Reuters and others. They understand that certain syndication networks syndicate a higher-quality, better-value, more reader-centric kind of content, and they trust the syndication network that provides content to them.

          The quality, value-driven websites that offer syndicated content spend the time to make sure that the syndicated content they accept is good quality, value-driven content. They would never assume to only acquire content from EZA or any other article directory, as they will spend the time necessary to weed through the garbage to find the quality content that their readers have come to expect of them.



          If you take the time to analyze the Google Farmer Update, you will see that the big article directories were not completely devastated by the update. Most did see their Google footprint cut by 70% to 95%, but some articles in their directories survived the cut.

          Google suggests that those that survived the cut are the better quality articles, and that the update was intended to crush the spammy articles.

          By my initial assessment, I would say this is probably true for the most part. I am occasionally seeing search results from EZA, and those articles in those results are generally better quality articles.

          Google Farmer was not intended to kill syndication; it was intended to kill spammy articles in its search results.



          As Alexa suggested. Let us have another thought experiment.

          How do you tell the difference between good quality syndicated content and spammy syndicated content?

          If authority websites hand-select the content they publish, wouldn't that be a signal to Google that those articles selected -- syndicated or not -- are good quality articles?

          If an article happens to be posted on an authority website and several other websites, wouldn't that be a clear signal to Google that the article is not spammy, but good-quality, hand-selected content?

          Google is simply looking to improve the value of the results it presents to its users and its users' experience. And spammy content generally fails to deliver that value.

          Authority websites hand select high-value, reader-centric content for publication. If that is the case, why would Google want to discount that content, in favor of content that may not have the same value, but is clearly unique?
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          • Profile picture of the author TimG
            Originally Posted by tpw View Post

            Google Farmer was not intended to kill syndication; it was intended to kill spammy articles in its search results.
            Bill,
            I'd almost go so far as to say that Google Farmer actually promotes syndication of high quality articles.

            Clearly it sent a message across the bow that if you want your content to rank it needs to be high quality which tends to lead to more syndication which further leads to authors creating, submitting and publishing higher quality content.

            Respectfully,
            Tim
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            • Profile picture of the author tpw
              Originally Posted by TimG View Post

              Bill,
              I'd almost go so far as to say that Google Farmer actually promotes syndication of high quality articles.

              Clearly it sent a message across the bow that if you want your content to rank it needs to be high quality which tends to lead to more syndication which further leads to authors creating, submitting and publishing higher quality content.

              Respectfully,
              Tim

              Tim: I blogged about that very possibility on Sunday, here.

              In general, I still agree with that, but my opinion is a bit more nuanced at this point.
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  • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
    In the past, they were mostly looking for the best content, regardless of whether it was published elsewhere. After all, they are grabbing it from a site...where it is published elsewhere, right? :-)

    Since the changes last week, you pose a very interesting question. Those who are oblivious will probably continue doing it, but those in the know?? We'll have to wait and see what they do.

    I think that if all of their content comes from somewhere else, then their link to you will probably not be very powerful anyway - if at all.

    What do you think? What's your take on it? I think at this point, there is no right or wrong answer.

    AL
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    • Profile picture of the author Barry Unruh
      Originally Posted by Allen Graves View Post

      I think at this point, there is no right or wrong answer.
      That may be the most important statement of the week. There is only one thing which will tell in the end...testing.

      Good to see you back and posting Allen!
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  • Profile picture of the author markowe
    Sure, there is that whole argument of whether multiple backlinks from multiple sites embedded in essentially the same content really have that much value, especially with Google's changes (if I was 'Google' I would certainly devalue such links!).

    But aside from the SEO issue (wrong forum for that!) I guess I am wondering whether, when they happen across an article on EZA that they want to republish, publishers go and Google some snippets to see if the content is already all over the place, and if the article is already all over the Internet they might not bother.

    Or maybe they don't care - a lot of syndication I have seen has basically been on auto-blogs to be honest. And even when not, what are the chances the readers of your home improvement ezine have read that exact article on choosing kitchen tiles elsewhere?

    Well, I'll probably just go ahead and do it and report back!
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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      Originally Posted by markowe View Post

      there is that whole argument of whether multiple backlinks from multiple sites embedded in essentially the same content really have that much value
      What "whole argument"? I've certainly never heard that one. :confused:

      You're surely not suggesting that the value of a backlink should, could, might, ought to be or would be determined in accordance with some sort of assessment of the "uniqueness" of the content to/in which it's attached?!

      Now that, admittedly, really would be a game-changer for article marketing!

      But fortunately not: no, it doesn't work that way at all. Certainly not. That can affect whether or not it's indexed in Google's main index, but not the value (link-juice) of the backlink. Dear me, no - not at all. Even those people selling "spinning software", whose own landing-pages and sales-pages tend, collectively, to be so full of some of the most misleading and dishonest statements ever made about SEO, aren't alleging that - as far as I know. :rolleyes:

      Originally Posted by markowe View Post

      I guess I am wondering whether, when they happen across an article on EZA that they want to republish, publishers go and Google some snippets to see if the content is already all over the place, and if the article is already all over the Internet they might not bother.
      I suspect not. I do see that some might, in theory, but I'm certainly not aware of any of the ones I know (and that's quite a lot because I'm in 8 different niches and syndication is my business model) ever does that at all.
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    • Profile picture of the author WillR
      Originally Posted by markowe View Post

      I guess I am wondering whether, when they happen across an article on EZA that they want to republish, publishers go and Google some snippets to see if the content is already all over the place, and if the article is already all over the Internet they might not bother.
      There are actually a lot of people out there who don't worry about links and all the Google nonsense and just want to provide their visitors or subscribers with some fresh, well-written content. These are the types of people taking articles from EZA and these people will not care whether that content has been published elsewhere.

      The people who WOULD worry about things like that probably wouldn't even bother taking content from a site like EZA. They will just get some cheap plr articles and spin them. They don't necessarily want well written content for humans.
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  • Profile picture of the author markowe
    Thanks for the input everyone.

    Alexa, I said I didn't really want to get into a SEO debate But if I was Google, trying to find links created by automatic methods, I MIGHT devalue links in the purely ranking sense that seem to be coming from the same content, just like site-wide links currently do not have much value, even if you have 10,000 of them! It might be a way to home in on the 'article blasters'.

    But anyway, like I say, I don't care about that stuff all that much, getting the message out is the main thing. But I'd prefer not to have to write/rewrite articles just for EZA, I think that's what I am getting at
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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      Originally Posted by markowe View Post

      I'd prefer not to have to write/rewrite articles just for EZA, I think that's what I am getting at
      In that case, I have good news for you: you don't need to.

      Here's a little "theoretical thought-experiment" (I won't pretend it's more than that, though I'd quite like to!) based on the general impressions you've gleaned from all the article marketing threads you've ever read here (I know that's quite a few): if you could reliably identify in this forum the ten highest earners from article marketing, you already know, don't you, that they won't include one person who re-writes articles for EZA? Whereas if you select at random ten or twenty or thirty or forty article marketers who are earning nothing or very little indeed (again, if you could identify them reliably), there'll be some (many??) of them who will be doing exactly that. I respectfully suggest that this little test, abstract and theoretical though it undoubtedly is, does actually have some validity and some significance - and you do already know this, really, I think?
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      • Profile picture of the author markowe
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        In that case, I have good news for you: you don't need to.

        Here's a little "theoretical thought-experiment" (I won't pretend it's more than that, though I'd quite like to!) based on the general impressions you've gleaned from all the article marketing threads you've ever read here (I know that's quite a few): if you could reliably identify in this forum the ten highest earners from article marketing, you already know, don't you, that they won't include one person who re-writes articles for EZA? Whereas if you select at random ten or twenty or thirty or forty article marketers who are earning nothing or very little indeed (again, if you could identify them reliably), there'll be some (many??) of them who will be doing exactly that. I respectfully suggest that this little test, abstract and theoretical though it undoubtedly is, does actually have some validity and some significance - and you do already know this, really, I think?
        I think I would have to concur with the (presumed) conclusions of your thought experiment

        I suppose I tend to imagine full-time article marketers (say, one of those top ten!) as people who do not necessarily even have their own sites. But that's silly, now I come to think of it!
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  • Profile picture of the author Dahlia Valentine
    I think if you're seriously looking at syndication, then you - as the article writer - should also be proactive in choosing where your content is placed.

    I tend to find it far more efficient to seek out a list of sites that are actively seeking content in my niche and working within their guidelines, rather than putting an article up on a directory and hoping someone decent picks my work. In other words, go straight to the source that's going to be using your content and cut out the article directory middle-man.
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    • Profile picture of the author markowe
      Originally Posted by Dahlia Valentine View Post

      I think if you're seriously looking at syndication, then you - as the article writer - should also be proactive in choosing where your content is placed.

      I tend to find it far more efficient to seek out a list of sites that are actively seeking content in my niche and working within their guidelines, rather than putting an article up on a directory and hoping someone decent picks my work. In other words, go straight to the source that's going to be using your content and cut out the article directory middle-man.
      That's a great bit of advice - just publishing on EZA can be very hit-and-miss. Sometimes you think you have written the article of your life and it doesn't get picked up anywhere, sometimes I have written a 250-word wonder and seen it all over the place.

      Would you say THOSE kinds of site owners are looking for original content, or again, are they mostly looking for relevant content that they can republish with the author's blessing?
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      • Profile picture of the author PatriciaJ
        Good to see you back Allen

        I use part article directory content to help build ny niche sites and I don't mind the content being on other sites as long as it's useful content for my visitors. If you use Market Samurai to search for content you can tell how many other sites an EZA article is on and often it's surprisingly few.

        Sometimes I write an introductory paragraph to the article directory articles which adds some uniqueness to a page. I add my own content and also have several guest bloggers who supply me with unique content though I don't insist on it being unique.
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  • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
    Hi everybody, thanks.

    Hi Bill - I like to think of it as Google leveling the article marketing playing field.

    I am compiling info from several other content publishing sites I have been contacting - unfortunately, and much to my dismay, Demand Media refused to comment. LOL

    I have discovered, in fact, that not "every" article directory got slapped. I know of one in particular that increased 12% - 20% since Thursday - and I know Bill's traffic increased significantly. Even some of the other big boys are simply cruising right along - untouched.

    Marketers will simply have to do their publishing research all over again - and just like before, it will be time well spent.

    Good to see you all.

    Allen
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  • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
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    • Profile picture of the author jgant
      I've had an increase in article syndication rate from EZA since last week. By increase I mean that more articles are being syndicated each day than before last week. I'm basing this on the EZA Publisher stats - which may or may not be accurate.

      My articles on EZA are seldom shorter than 400 words (and of course no longer shorter than 400 words given the new EZA TOS) and almost always 650 to 1,000 plus words. These articles are copy and pasted from my site after being indexed on my site.

      I did have a slight dip in traffic from EZA last weekend, but the last 3 days my traffic from EZA is as good as ever.

      During the first few days after the Google algorithm change I was not sure whether to take the time to post as frequently as I had been to EZA. I monitored EZA's response and am happy with the measures they've taken especially with still permitting previously published articles. Then as I noticed EZA traffic to my site continue as before, and my syndication stats increase, I'm back to publishing as regularly on EZA as I had before last week. By publishing I mean copying and pasting my website's indexed articles on EZA "as-is".
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  • Profile picture of the author IdeaLady
    Originally Posted by markowe View Post

    So do people republishing article content CARE that it's already out there - on my site and possibly on other article directories? Or is that just not an issue for getting your articles syndicated?
    I use articles from a number of writers on my site for authors and publishers, SellingBooks.com. Some of those are submitted directly by the writers and some come from directories such as EZA.

    I love having original unique content, and publish a lot of it, but I also want my readers to find a lot of good, useful content on the site--even if it is not exclusive to my site.

    Although the content does not have to be exclusive it does have to be good. If it is promotional garbage it doesn't do anyone any good.
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  • Profile picture of the author TimG
    If you are reaching directly out to webmasters or ezine owners I would expect that they would prefer exclusiveness to your article. I know for a fact that most guest blogging articles are submitted based on that principle (the content being exclusive to the blog).

    If your articles are being picked up for syndication from sites like EZA than there is no concern with the exclusive factor because the publisher already knows your content can be syndicated by other people.

    Respectfully,
    Tim
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