Supplementing my original articles with free articles?
Submitted by jonesre on Tue, 07/18/2006 - 23:55.
Has anyone had any experience using free articles from sites like goarticles.com?
right now, I've got my site set up in a triangular hierarchy that has the most competitive keywords at the top (home), and my "money pages" are built around more focused, but still highly competitive keywords.
Below that, I've got article pages (so far all original), each oriented around low competition keywords (one per page), and they link extensively to my home page, and my money pages.
These article pages are designed with a twofold purpose: building the pagerank of the money pages, and getting picked up in the serps for these low volume keywords.
On the article pages, I've got the only instances of adsense on my site (I'd rather have the affiliate revenue, but if they are going to click away, I'd like something for it).
Writing articles is slow going, so I'm considering supplementing my existing stock with free articles found on other sites. Since I'm working my way through a list of high KEI search phrases (to write articles about), I'll probably have to write an intro paragraph for each article to keep the page on message.
Has anyone done this? If so, does it work?
Thanks,
Ron
Supplementing my original articles with free articles?
I hate typing, I get "typers cramp"!!, if anyone knows of a decent site to get content from (FREE), let me know. :wink:
Simon
Supplementing my original articles with free articles?
Hi Ron,
Your SEO strategy is sound. The only problem with free content articles are the duplicate content penalties. Google's duplicate content filter has improved a lot over the last couple of years.
Have you considered outsourcing the articles on e-lance. James Martell once mentioned at a conference that he got a pre-med student to write several articles for $5 each about hip replacement. I believe he sourced the job through e-lance. The articles were all original and written by an expert.
If you're looking for SEO content nothing beats original articles.
Best,
Jeremy
Supplementing my original articles with free articles?
You canalso weave your personal comments into the article. Be sure to make it obvious that your comments are seperate ie different fonts, comment blocks, etc.
Supplementing my original articles with free articles?
or pay someone to modify the free articles
Free content vs. original articles
Both sides have valid points.
I use extensive original articles that I have on my sites as well as using free content sources to post my articles (modified) for content for others as a traffic generator back to my site. As long as the people using the articles play by the rules and the byline remains intact I can receive traffic from my posted articles.
Having free content articles is a good way to 'bulk up' your website but has limitations. Be sure you use the articles as the author guidelines permit and not edit where not permitted. You can get ahead by not having to write the articles yourself but duplicate content will hurt you.
Original articles that are self-written, as long as they are of very good quality, will help your website, and the information it contains to stand out from your competitors and generate a loyal following. But you have to spend the time on writing, research, editing, etc. And then you have to follow up with searching for your own articles to be sure people aren't stealing your original content.
As long as you 'go with what you know' you should be able to work around any content limitations, free or original.
Free Articles with Landing Pages
What about strictly in a landing page scenario. I'd like to have articles linked to my landing page in order to have a good quality score. I don't necessarily care to get a better natural search engine ranking for those pages. Do "free" articles work to increase quality score in this type of scenario?
Thanks,
Russ
It's hard to predict how
It's hard to predict how much recycled content will help your ppc quality score. I recently received an e-mail from Google stating they were looking for "original" content from affiliates doing paid search.
I think the recycled content will benefit you more than no content, but having original content will give you an added boost.
A technique I use in one
A technique I use in one niche goes like this:
(1) Take content from government websites (which are usually full of good information, but written very boringly)
(2) Hire someone through elance to re-word the articles to add some "pizzazz". I also give the freelancer a few keywords that I'm targetting in the search engines, and ask them to use those words in the re-worded articles.
If you're torn between writing articles yourself and outsourcing it, calculate how much your time is worth on an hourly basis, and compare that to how much you would pay a freelancer. Give the job to whoever earns less (hopefully that's not you!)
Moe
Big product catalog
Thanks for the feedback. I guess my real problem is trying to add good "original" content to a datafeed approach. It seems almost impossible when the merchant has a huge product catalog. I guess one approach would be to focus on a specific niche in that catalog and try to put together some original content for that niche. Once that is optimized, move to the next niche in the catalog... It seems a slow way to do it, so I would rather target the entire catalog at first and find what converts, and then take the time to add original articles and content on those niches. Is this a good way to approach it, or should I focus on one niche at a time?
Again, your input is very much appreciated.
This is what you call a
This is what you call a Catch 22 ;) As Amit recently said, going wide before you go deep is a good strategy, but creating original content for so many keywords would be very laborious. Why not start with direct linking first, then move on to building content?
Go Wide
Unfortunately the merchant doesn't allow direct linking. I think my website provides additional value than what the merchant offers, but I just don't have content (words), if that makes sense. I think I'll try to go wide and then narrow it to the niches that seem to convert better. From what little experience I've had, it seems the quality score starts out pretty good as long as your site has something to do with the keywords, and then lowers as Google learns more about your site over time and finds it lacking.
the problem with free articles
Actually, there are a few problems with using free articles. Aside from being duplicate content, many of them are pretty badly written, stuffed with keywords but containing no real information. That is not to say that all of them are poorly written. I use free articles on my sites (with the intent of converting them to original when I have the time) and I also write and submit articles (which I think are pretty good). But, too often I find there's only one article that suits my keyword targeting, but it's so bad I can't use it.
Another problem with free articles is that your reader might click out of your site and go to their site.
If you feel you must use free articles, with the hopes of switching them out later, I would suggest going to EzineArticles rather than GoArticles. I believe GoArticles will approve most anything, but EzineArticles does check articles more thoroughly.
You might also consider PLR articles on your subject and then rewriting them or hiring someone to rewrite them for you. Again, many PLR articles are dreadful, but there are some out there selling article packs that aren't too bad with a little rewriting.
Gigglesoup
Rewriting Articles
I like PLR approach. I think it would be difficult to come up with content all on my own, but spinning someone elses thoughts with my own ideas seems more feasible. I wasn't aware of PLR articles. It seems too pricey to do at first, but I'll have to keep it in mind.
Thanks for the feedback.