Open for Debate - Article Spinning, Pro or Con?
Before I officially declare war on the practice of article spinning, it might be prudent to get some feedback from people both pro and con. Perhaps I’m missing something, but the way I see it, article spinning is lazy and unprofessional, it creates very bad articles and fills the web with repetitive, useless information, and is contributing to the demise of article directories who get hit with the real duplicate content penalties.
Maybe it’s because I find writing fun and easy, or maybe it’s because I strive to share new information with my readers whenever I can, but spewing out variations of the same content just doesn’t seem like a good idea. What do you think?
Do people who spin articles really think readers only visit one article directory to get their info? They’d have to if they think its wise to submit a different variation of an article to each directory. But anyone who might visit several directories or get content through aggregation would quickly see that two articles say the same basic thing and are just worded differently.
Or maybe they just don’t think people (or the search engines) are paying that much attention.
I remember when spinning content meant writing a generic “template” piece that could be used for a number of different niches. All you had to do was insert the niche keywords to make the content apply.
But this method targeted different keywords and markets. For example, you could take the template content and insert keywords related to “dog training,” then take the same template and convert it to “cat training,” or “raising a chimpanzee.” However, this idea was mostly geared toward eBook creation, and so the similarities of content didn’t have any effect on the search engines or any content repositories like an article directory.
And targeting different markets usually meant the possibility of one reader getting more than one variation was remote. But article spinning raises the likelihood of a reader seeing multiple variations by a very large probability percentage.
I personally like using things like Google Alerts and Google Reader to get some good information. It doesn’t happen very often on Reader, but almost every day I get Google Alerts filled with notifications of articles coming down the pike that are obviously spun. When I see them, I quickly discard the content and lean toward those I know are written by professional writers who’ve taken the time to submit clean and original content.
These are the people who most likely know what they’re talking about who I’d more likely listen to, and take recommendations from. They are the real teachers, whereas people who just spin all day are more the hard sellers.
Does this make sense to you? Can you see why I’m on the verge of declaring all out war on article spinning?
Please comment below?
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Well, it is nice to see that you are speaking out against article spinning, but I would say that article spinning is appropriate depending on your goal and how you do it.
For example, on one hand you could submit one article to 500 article directories, but in this case, most of them won’t get picked up by the search engines - after a few of them being discovered by them, the rest will end up in supplemental results, which has little bearing on search engine rankings.
On the other hand, if you submit spun articles, more of them would be counted as unique (in theory) by the search engines, resulting in a larger effect on search engine rankings.
Personally, I have done both, and lately I do use an article distribution service that allows spinning. I know that spins don’t always turn out perfect, but I can live with that consequence - basically, I see spinning as a way to leverage my time when it comes to link building.
I am a little sleepy - I hope that makes sense.
Just a couple of things in response to you Marc . . .
1. Search engines don’t buy things. Readers do.
Having many versions of the same article, all saying basically the same thing will tend to turn off readers no matter how high up in the search rankings they may be. Turned off readers, like search engines, won’t buy.
2. The Sandbox is irrelevant
Whether an article gets listed from a particular article directory or not, its still considered a back link.
When that back link comes from a spun article, it counts as a single “yes vote” for that particular article. But if that back link, even if its in the sandbox, is for an article submitted to other directories, the “yes vote” is added to the weight of the listings that article does get which brings it that much higher in the listings.
Now you may be right about a spun article having more of an effect on the search engines. But the result is, you have more listings but a much lower ranking.
Article submission should be viewed the same way as building a web page. You wouldn’t create a 1000 versions of the same blog would you? No, you’d create one blog and build it up with strong content and get 1000s of solid back links for it.
Likewise, building 1000s of back links for one article builds its weight and credibility. In turn, that article with all its clout, pointed at your one blog becomes a serious force for content popularity.
The old saying applies . . .
“A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” The chain, in this regard is what gets your readers to visit your site. Strong articles with credible ( and readable) information will do the trick.