Would like some advice regarding syndicated content

Hi writetoearn,

I'm not sure what your intention is with the project, but if you're looking to create a content-driven site and monetize it with advertising, sponsorship and/or affiliate income, it won't be enough, IMO, to simply rely on articles from directories.

Curation works best as a supplement to your own original content, but it can also be successful on its own, as long as the webmaster seeks out material that's hard to find, is of genuine interest to the site's visitors and is of a quality that encourages repeat visits and creates a loyal following. It's not the easy way out for those not wanting to create their own content.

I stopped using article directories for content long ago. It was becoming too time-consuming searching for the occasional pearl amongst all the dross. But whenever I used an article, I always did what you suggest and added an introductory passage, in which I'd explain why I was including the piece, and perhaps highlight particular points. But my intention was not to gain traction with the search engines - I didn't care about long or short tail keywords. The only criterion was whether my readers would find it useful and/or entertaining.

Finally, you say you're unsure about what niche you want to write about. That's something you'll need to decide on even if you go the curation route. There's no point searching for content until you know what it is you're looking for.


Frank

It's unlikely, in principle. They're available for anyone and everyone to syndicate, aren't they? That's why they've been put there. People who syndicate content from sources like that aren't doing so because they want to gain SEO advantages from it, but because they want the content, to share with their readers/visitors/subscribers.

You'd need to be very careful how you did that, because the terms of service of EZA (and every other article directory, as far as I know) are that articles must be used - together with their resource boxes - in their entirety and unamended/unedited. An article in a directory isn't "PLR content" that you can change. Still, it might be possible to do something similar to what you're suggesting with text before and after the article, but I'm sure you'd need to define/delineate the article itself clearly, even so.

(i) Ezine Articles;

(ii) Any subject-specific directories (not easy to find, but there are some);

(iii) Avoid any "autoacceptance" directories, because they're understandably full of junk. Their contents are often submitted by people who don't actually understand what an article directory is, and are misguidedly trying to use it to generate traffic and/or for a backlink, and/or they're often writers who can't get their articles published anywhere else.

Plenty of syndicated content is highly original, and indeed some is so widely syndicated precisely because it's so original.

(I think you perhaps meant "unique", rather than "original"? ).

Now I'm confused ... it won't be easy finding it, without knowing what it is ... :confused:

Appreciate the replies. When I say I'm unsure about niches, I do have some ideas but I'm not sure enough about which of them I'm interested in writing a lot of content on. I like reading articles on a variety of things and thought that perhaps I could gather a selection of these in niches and write an introductory paragraph to them. In time, I could add my own content to the niches I was interested in writing about.