The Real Truth About Duplicate Content

It is simply amazing how people will get ideas in their head and no matter what you tell them, they can’t rid of those ideas…no matter how ridiculous they are. One of these, and probably one of the biggest myths in all of Internet marketing, is the one about duplicate content and so called “penalties.” 97% of the marketers online are convinced that if you put your content on more than one site, you’re screwed. So it’s time to set the record straight once and for all, because this is ridiculous.

For starters, let’s take a look at the article directory model. How do these people make their money? They make it by providing content to web site publishers who are looking for content on specific topics. Now, do you really think that web site A, who takes an article from say, Ezine Articles on acne is the ONLY web site to use that article? Of course not. Some articles get picked up by web site B all the way through Z and beyond…especially if it’s good. Do you NOT think that these articles ALSO get indexed? If they didn’t, then the article directories would go out of business from providing a service that was WORTHLESS.

I mean come on folks…use a little common sense. Ezine Articles probably makes millions each year in Adsense revenue. But if that isn’t enough to convince you, go to Google and look up my friend Steven Wagenheim. You will notice thousands of pages on him. You will also notice quite a few of his Ezine Articles on OTHER sites…also indexed. If there was such a thing as duplicate content OR a penalty, don’t you think that there would only be ONE copy of that article indexed? Again, another reason why this myth is so ridiculous.

But if all that isn’t good enough for you, try this on for size. Google itself, has come out and said, “There is no such thing as duplicate content or a penalty for it.”  Essentially, the only thing that will happen is this. If you have an article and put it on two separate pages on the same domain, it will ONLY be indexed on ONE of those pages. However, you will NOT receive any kind of a penalty because you had the article on two pages. Now, is it smart to put the same article on two separate pages on the same domain? Of course not. Why would you even do it anyway?

Point is, this whole thing about duplicate content has been blown WAY out of proportion, mostly by people who want to sell you some worthless article spinner that you DON’T need.

Okay, hopefully, this article will have put this issue to bed…once and for all.

Why Are My Articles Being Rejected By Ezine Articles?

Well, it’s about time to answer this question because many article writers and marketers are totally puzzled over some of the rejections that they’re getting lately.

So, it’s time that we cleared up some of the confusion and explained some of these rejections. Some are simple to explain and some, not so simple. Keep reading and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

For starters, I’m not talking about the usual reasons why you would have an article rejected, such as poor grammar or submitting blatantly obvious PLR material. I’m talking about articles that you’ve been submitting all along that were always approved and suddenly are not approved.

There are essentially three reasons for these rejections.

Reason number one is that, while the official Ezine Articles site still says “minimum 250 words” for each submitted article, they have finally raised their standards, unofficially, to about 400 words minimum. Now, that doesn’t mean that you can’t submit a 250 word article and get away with it. You might. But the seasoned editors have been instructed to require longer articles. The news ones have been instructed to do the same, but you know how it is when you’re new. You don’t always do what you’re supposed to.

Reason number two is that, because of the FTC crackdown and all the scams out there, some topics are no longer allowed at Ezine Articles. While these aren’t specifically spelled out in their TOS, if you submit an article on a topic like Satellite TVs or Acai Berry, there is a good chance that an editor who is on top of these things will reject your article, where at one time, it would have been accepted. Unfortunately, there is no way to know what these topics are until they are publicly posted. So you’re just going to have to submit and take your chances.

Reason number three has to do with the general error that has no valid reason. In most of these cases, like it or not, the reason for rejection is because the editor made a mistake. Many times, what will happen is that you will get a response to a ticket you sent in on the matter saying that the article was rejected in error and they will then approve if. I know it’s annoying, but people make mistakes. Don’t get bent out of shape over it. Eventually, your article will be approved if it doesn’t violate any of their guidelines.

There you have it…the three main reasons why articles that used to be approved are suddenly getting rejected.

If you keep these things in mind, it will go a long way to preserving your sanity when submitting to Ezine Articles.

Directory submission, or the placing of various articles related to your business or website on article directory sites is an easy and effective way of getting your web site noticed, thus increasing the traffic flow to your business site and bringing a steady flow of customers who are purchasing your product or service.

Furthermore, there is no cost for this plan unless you are paying for the writing of the articles themselves.

Search Engine Spider Magnet

Search engine spiders are those tools that look for keywords and links on the internet. They are the process of collecting and identifying on the individual websites that help those searching the internet for a specific term to be able to know the web page where the term is located.

By directory submission, you can add many keyword rich articles that are then linked to your website through the description and especially through the resource information. The major search engines each have ways of tracking and quantifying the value of the keywords you use as well as the links to your site.

Visitors to your site strengthen the importance of your web site, thus bringing even more visitors and by extension – customers for your product or service.

Web Site Index

Indexing your web site is a process of ranking it or listing it so that it is noticed by the search engines. Directory submission makes it possible to speed up the indexing process and once indexed, to improve the rankings in the indexes. Each search engine have different algorithms to measure the level at which the web page meets the defined standards for quality. You can improve your chances of an effective index for your web site by using a service that specialize in preparing and submitting articles to various directories.

Economics

Sites where directory submission is available are either free to use or can require payment of a fee to post your articles. Depending upon your budget, you can use either type of directory website effectively. It may seem obvious that using the site where there is no fee for articles inclusion would be the best deal for you. After all, free is a pretty good price

However, you may find that paying a fee to get your articles posted may actually be a more sensible financial decision, because web sites that require a submission fee often have a higher page ranking from the search engines and thus end up higher on the search engine results page (SERP).

This means that your articles will also end up higher on the search results when someone submits a query that uses keywords you have included in your article.

Beating the Competition

If you have been concerned about the fact that your competitors seems to be doing better than you in pulling customers into their websites or selling their products or services, using directory submission is a way to get one up on the competition.

Revamping your web site helps ensure that you are presenting an image of your business that will attract customers to your site. Presenting information to articles directories is also going to help get you recognized as an expert on the internet, increasing the number and quality of pre-sold prospects visiting your website.

Best of Success!

One of the biggest hurdles most new writers face is finding ideas to write about. The easiest way to begin is to write about things you are interested in and preferably passionate about. You already have knowledge in these areas which can be shared with others. It is easy to under-estimate your own abilities in areas you are experienced in. Talented people are often surprised by the level of questions novices ask (it is important to remember that there is no such thing as a stupid question – only stupid answers).

Once you have decided on a general area, a good way to narrow the topic down is to focus on the problems that people have. Typically, people read articles because they want to be entertained or they want information. Writing entertaining articles is a particular and more difficult skill. However, writing informative articles can be as simple as sharing tips that you have learned. A guiding principle is to expect the readers to be looking for “What’s in it for me”.

You may already know the common problems that people have in the particular field, but if not, a good source of information is to look at related online forums and note the most common questions asked. If you don’t have all the answers a small bit of research can assist. Often the answers are readily available with a Google search which the readers could do themselves. However, you are adding value and convenience by providing a range of answers in a single document.

Most people don’t like to read large documents from the Web, so unlike long essays, articles tend to be around 400 words long. If you break the article into an introduction, a small number of sub-headings and a conclusion you may only have to write about 50 words in each section. The sub-headings may be for authoring purposes only, but if they are relevant they can be left in the final article.

The first draft should be for your eyes only. Don’t try to produce a final copy as you write. It tends to be much quicker to get your thoughts down and come back to edit later. The final step in the writing process is to proofread your article making sure that the writing flows and would be interesting to the reader. Ask yourself, ‘does the article provide information the potential reader is looking for?’ It can also be helpful to have someone else proofread the article. This is also the time to remove spelling and grammatical errors.

If you still have problems writing you may want to do a search for ‘article writing software‘. There are many packages around which can make the process easier. Similarly, there are numerous e-books available on the topic and many of them are available for free.

Once you have written your article you may want to add it to your own website as an item that search engines love – a piece of original content. If you add an ‘About the Author’ section with a link to your website, you can also submit it to article directories. As other websites publish your article you receive another thing that search engines look for, one-way back links. Article submission can be a tedious process, but software and websites that can submit to multiple directories in one go exist to make the job much easier.

After writing your first few articles you will find it is not as daunting as it first appears. You never know, you may even want to offer your services as a freelance writer on the Internet as a way to make some extra income.