Is article spinning dangerous? (Long-term viability)

28 replies
With the idea of article spinning, I would assume that Google's engineers are currently working hard to figure out ways to make all those spun articles drop off the search rankings... along with the sites they point to.

For me, it's too dangerous to get into. I only want to do marketing that is never going to hurt my business in the long run.

What do you think? Will article spinning bite you in the back-side eventually? Do you avoid things like that too?
#article #dangerous #longterm #spinning #viability
  • Profile picture of the author bertboy60
    If you do it write and in detail then you are fine.
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  • Profile picture of the author IceMustang
    Originally Posted by sitemarketer View Post

    With the idea of article spinning, I would assume that Google's engineers are currently working hard to figure out ways to make all those spun articles drop off the search rankings... along with the sites they point to.

    For me, it's too dangerous to get into. I only want to do marketing that is never going to hurt my business in the long run.

    What do you think? Will article spinning bite you in the back-side eventually? Do you avoid things like that too?
    IMO, yes it will. I'm WAY too skeptical of it, even if it works, to get involved in it, and the only article spinning I will ever do is manually rewriting my own articles. It doesn't take long and it works far better than machine-made work.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by sitemarketer View Post

    Will article spinning bite you in the back-side eventually?
    Please excuse the observation that most successful article marketers don't actually care what the answer to this question is, because they know that spinning has no benefits for their businesses anyway, and that the benefits claimed for it (typically by people selling spinning software/services) can equally be achieved without it, so it just isn't relevant to them.

    But I think it's fair to say that this thread answers your question as well as it can ever be answered here, anyway.
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  • Profile picture of the author backendbuddy
    Yep, spinning is bad. It does not show you love your site. Google does not like people who are not passionate about their businesses.
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  • Profile picture of the author sitemarketer
    Good, I'm glad to get that feedback and confirmation. I have clients doing this and I was torn between with either helping them improve their SEO from it by spinning keywords into links, or strongly advising against it.

    Alexa, I'm going to send you a private PM.
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  • Profile picture of the author Vikram73
    I'm not selling any "spinning" services but test it yourself and see.

    If you're goal is improving SEO rankings then it can help improve your rankings.

    My SEO strategy isn't centered around spinning (or even article marketing) but until it stops working (and it hasn't stopped working) I'm not sure why people debate this.

    It's like debating the output of a math equation. 2+2 is always 4.

    Pick a keyword you're ranking for, find a good service that will write/spin and distribute the article for you and measure your improvement.

    Will Google penalilze your site? Of course not. If that were the case - you could bring down your competition by simply having nasty links point back to them.

    Google is a big company and they're probably not going to give a flip about your niche blog. There anti-spam efforts and manual site reviews are saved for people with truly evil intentions.

    If you're marketing a bogus cancer cure online and ranking #1 for "cure for cancer" you'll get their attention.

    If you're marketing the Paleo Recipe cookbook off of ClickBank (and spinning articles or paying for links) I doubt they give a damn about you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Vikram73
    And as sophisticated as Google is they really can't track everything like you think they can.

    Scotland Yard crackdown exposes Google's flaws | Econsultancy
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    • Profile picture of the author DeadGuy
      I'll hone in on the long-term viability portion of your question. If you are truly going to build a business that is successful over the long run, you are going to need lots of your own good content. Period.

      If you are actually selling physical goods, my crystal ball tell me that Google will ultimately separate the wheat from the chaff by drawing a line of distinction between those who are truly "in" business vs. those who are "sort of in" business. Buying products directly on the site you visited, without being referred elsewhere, is more than likely a good indicator of who is actually in business. There might be a bit more latitude given to those selling info products, of course.

      Time will tell.
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      You are making this work at home stuff way harder than it is. Ready for some sanity? Clear your head and start over.

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      • Profile picture of the author smelley72
        Originally Posted by DeadGuy View Post

        If you are truly going to build a business that is successful over the long run, you are going to need lots of your own good content.
        Best thing I've read today I would add that you have to find ways to add value to your client...what do they want, how are you providing it?
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  • Profile picture of the author smelley72
    I think it depends on how it fits in your strategy and what the quality looks like. I've looked at the odd spinning software just out of curiosity and the results were usually pretty bad, the process convoluted and I thought that in the time taken to "fix" the article I could've written a new one -

    HOWEVER before I get over critical - it all depends on how much its been spun (how different), what your using it for and where your going to put it. Rather than think of Google as one of the posters above has intimated, think about users of the content - what value is it adding - if its some crappy piece of poorly constructed text - is it really adding the value you want? (yes I know a link is a link but ask yourself would YOU host the spun article? for example).

    I'm assuming your spinning articles for links? You could always look to repurpose your existing original content to do the same thing.... i.e.
    * Turn an article into a video (keeps the content the same but just uses it in a different way) -
    * Use bits of the article as the basis for a counter argument on a 2nd article (where because your using carefully snippited bits of the original you have to write less!).
    * Use your article as the basis for a press release etc.

    Repurposing content can be really powerful, achieve what your targeting while keeping the value add for your community/users relatively high.
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    • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
      May I offer my own experience with one WP blog I started a little over 3 months ago:

      I set it up with 12 pages and over those 3 months, 25 long, 1,200 - 1,500 posts. I have Web Traffic Genius and PuSHPress loaded on the site, that's all. I've done no other backlinking or promotion whatsoever. All the posts have also been published on EZine Articles, (once they had been indexed on the blog by Google). So far, I've traced 3 which have been syndicated, but I confess I haven't even checked the last 10 articles.

      My traffic has built (mostly) virally and steadily:

      July: 1,920 uniques
      August: 2,589 uniques
      September: 2,631 uniques (to date)

      I added the caveat "mostly" because I know Web Traffic Genius and PuSHPress have played some part.

      The blog is in position 4 for one keyword, 6 for another and 7 for another.

      127 people have signed up on my mailing list.

      I'm just now beginning to slowly, so as not to alarm Google, bring in some more backlinking from comments on niche relative blogs etc. I'm also going to use No Hands SEO. I shall also be contacting webmasters who have syndicated my articles to inquire whether they would like some more.

      The point I want to make, is that this has been achieved without any spammy spinning, just following a "gently does it" philosophy, which is what I do with all my sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author victor9011
    I am using a semi-automated software to do the spinning and I can say that I did not have any problems until now.
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  • Profile picture of the author brik2500
    Much like with Annie, you would have to be careful on how you do it...I don't personally

    possibly because I'm old fashion...but it definitely can work if you work it.
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    • Profile picture of the author mijagi
      If its that dangerous, your competitors will soon be linking back to your site using spinned articles. And all your sites will end up in sandbox.

      Scary world, isn't it?
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    • Profile picture of the author ebusinesstutor
      Originally Posted by x3xsolxdierx3x View Post

      What is everyone's main goal here?

      To genuinely help others and provide value?...or just to make money? :-/
      EXACTLY!!! Thanks for saying this. If your goal is to help people and build a long term viable business doing this, then techniques like article spinning are out.

      Article spinning doesn't provide ANY benefit to the customers and readers online.

      Whenever I create a product or web site, I focus on who I am going to help and if the product helps them.

      People who are trying to trick Google and earn extra affiliate and adsense revenue while doing it are parasites and are not adding anything useful for their customers.

      On the other hand, offering a quality affiliate product to your customers that you use yourself or have checked out that you know will help them is a stronger business model.

      So it all depends on whether you just want to screw people and make money or whether you want to actually build something useful for people.
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      • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
        Some have told me that spinning IS OK IF it's done the RIGHT way....

        My questions regarding what constitutes the "RIGHT" way typically go unanswered...

        I have only to 'assume' that the 'RIGHT' way would include potentially hours of toiling over an article, with the intent being moreso to make it pass copyscape than to make it have any semblance of usefulness or benefit to an end user....

        To those bloggers and IM'ers who earn thousands a month selling these software, I can't help but think that, had you taught people how to spin articles the 'right' way, the whole practice would become utterly painstaking and tedious....and they'd realize that it would be much easier to hand write everything from scratch anyway...

        Of course, teaching the 'right' approach to spinning, I believe, would drastically impact profits....therefore, for IM sake, the underlying message always seems to be "it's easier" or "it'll save you alot of time". Interestingly enough, it seems to be neither.

        Again.....was the submission of spun content, in anyway, responsible for what we saw in those graphs and charts? If the submission of spun content isn't at least partially to blame, what is to blame?


        Originally Posted by ebusinesstutor View Post

        EXACTLY!!! Thanks for saying this. If your goal is to help people and build a long term viable business doing this, then techniques like article spinning are out.

        Article spinning doesn't provide ANY benefit to the customers and readers online.

        Whenever I create a product or web site, I focus on who I am going to help and if the product helps them.

        People who are trying to trick Google and earn extra affiliate and adsense revenue while doing it are parasites and are not adding anything useful for their customers.

        On the other hand, offering a quality affiliate product to your customers that you use yourself or have checked out that you know will help them is a stronger business model.

        So it all depends on whether you just want to screw people and make money or whether you want to actually build something useful for people.
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  • Profile picture of the author Shannon Herod
    I do not have the time nor the energy to get into this debate again, but you can find what I think about the subject here...

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...uestion-4.html

    Here is an interesting truth... The vast majority of the time, the threads tone will sway towards the opinions of the poster with the biggest personality. Alexa knows that and responds to EVERY thread regrading this subject, with her negative view on it. And she obviously has a big personality. So...

    Shannon

    PS - I am too busy to debate this subject again, and that is the only reason I will not be replying to Alexas' well written rebuttal.
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  • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
    My stance against spinning is simple, and it's similar to Alexa's stance, from what I can see.

    I've asked this many times here, and have yet to receive a response:

    IF spinning is GOOD, why this?:
    Pandalized: Websites Negatively Impacted by Google's Panda Algorithm Change.

    On much closer examination, many (most, if not ALL) of these sites were hammered with spun content. The blame, I believe, is two-fold: writers hammered the sites with poorly spun content, while the sites themselves had inadequate, or nearly inexistent controls in place to safeguard from it.

    So, IF there is a RIGHT way to do spinning....why do affiliates of spinning software seem to have little interest in teaching people how to do it the RIGHT way? Is it all about just making money off of the sale of it being an 'easy' way to do internet marketing, even at the expense of other's businesses (remember, when you hammer a site like, say, Ezine Articles, THAT is someone's business as well...)

    It baffles me when I hear advocates of spinning say they'd never touch their OWN site with their spun content, however, they'd be more than willing to hammer another person's site with it?

    If it's just a matter of doing spinning the "right" way....what does this consist of? and why is it not being taught better?
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    • Profile picture of the author tj_inreality
      As a test, a week ago I generated spun junk and created backlinks from that article to see if it would help my SEO. It didn't.

      That's why I always write my own articles from scratch. I do spin them as well, but I do that manually on a sentence and word level. It's more work but you will get much more mileage from your articles this way.
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by sitemarketer View Post

        With the idea of article spinning, I would assume that Google's engineers are currently working hard to figure out ways to make all those spun articles drop off the search rankings... along with the sites they point to.
        You are half right here. Until Google develops their process to the point of mind-reading, they will not penalize sites for links pointing to them.

        They are working on eliminating the crappy gibberish some pawn off as articles, spun or not, the same way they worked to eliminate the software-driven MFA scraper sites.

        It's all about eyeballs. If the Google user experience deteriorates to the point people look for alternatives, the cause of that deteriroation will be excised. People searching on Bing or Yahoo do not click on Google ads. It's that simple.

        Over the long haul, I believe that the bite on the butt will come in the form of all the backlinks either paid for or created using purchased spinners will either disappear or count for nothing. And the money and time invested will be flushed.
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

          It's all about eyeballs. If the Google user experience deteriorates to the point people look for alternatives, the cause of that deteriroation will be excised. People searching on Bing or Yahoo do not click on Google ads. It's that simple.

          Over the long haul, I believe that the bite on the butt will come in the form of all the backlinks either paid for or created using purchased spinners will either disappear or count for nothing. And the money and time invested will be flushed.
          This. Exactly.

          The bite on the butt kind of has to come that way, eventually. It's clear from Google's statements, attitudes, objectives and behavior. Nothing else would make sense.
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    • Profile picture of the author Vikram73
      Originally Posted by x3xsolxdierx3x View Post


      IF spinning is GOOD, why this?:
      Pandalized: Websites Negatively Impacted by Google's Panda Algorithm Change.

      On much closer examination, many (most, if not ALL) of these sites were hammered with spun content.
      It baffles me when I hear advocates of spinning say they'd never touch their OWN site with their spun content, however, they'd be more than willing to hammer another person's site with it?

      If it's just a matter of doing spinning the "right" way....what does this consist of? and why is it not being taught better?

      You're really over thinking this. The sites with spun content got hammered. So what? Did the sites they were linking to get hurt?

      I've seen a domain that was deindexed by Google get reindexed by tiered xrumer blasts. Google is sophisticated but not all knowing. At some point these methods will just stop working but we're not there yet and it doesn't look like we will be for a while.

      And yes - this was post Panda.

      Low quality spammy links can help your rankings. Shocking? Immoral? Creates a bad user experience for the web? Smells of lameness and desperation?

      Probably yes to all of those points but those links can really make or break your rankings.

      If you're not into these methods that's fine.

      But facts are facts.

      This debate is largely driven by emotion and arrogance.
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  • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
    I know some who earn thousands of dollars a month selling article spinning software. Some of those won't even use the software themselves.

    It's easy to justify something when so much profit is tied into it.

    Again, some I've questioned think I'm totally off base when I show those charts of site's being absolutely smashed by Google....they think that spinning has nothing to do with that at all...

    Needless to say, I disagree entirely....
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  • Profile picture of the author the lord
    in my opinion better original content, because the return to yourself. whether you like to visit the web site content is the same with other sites. try to give the best for your visitor, so they come back again so that your site rank better in google.
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  • Profile picture of the author koreancowboy
    When y'all talk about manually rewriting your articles to submit to directories, are y'all talking about using something like Magic Article Rewriter? I ask this, because I'm thinking about getting this myself.
    Signature

    I provide consulting for companies that use Adobe AEM...you can check out what I've done so far.

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  • Profile picture of the author RAMarketing
    I won't lie and say I've read this whole thread, but here's how I look at it: I have enough to do each day without giving myself extra work. Does ESPN spin articles? Facebook? Google? Yahoo? They seem to do ok in the rankings. Save your time and energy :-) No need to spin, regardless of whether it hurts or not.
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