Why would people pay for content?
While it's definitely not known for being an area of employment which is frequently overpaid, content creation is critical to the success of any business with a web presence. Understanding Google Analytics is a bit tricky unless you have lengthy experience and training in SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Which I do not. But I know enough to be dangerous! [Insert wink]
There are a number of factors that can lead to penalties by Google based on the quality and source of the content. They are too numerous to mention but I have listed the ones that are of specific concern to content generators. When you are writing your articles (and when we write as a team on larger projects) it's very important that we all adhere to the same ethics and guidelines. An order for 100 articles is profitable, but if there is so much as one single article which does not pass "CopyScape" the entire group can be rejected.
Worse yet we can lose a valuable relationship with a long term client.
The business is built on integrity. And they are willing to pay for it as well as reward repeat business to content providers to demostrate content integrity.
The rules are as follows:
No Plagerism
There are SEO software programs that can scan articles provided in Microsoft Word and detect if the article already exists (in part or whole) on the internet. It also detects plagerised sentences. All content must be original.
No Article Spinning
Often times you will see this stated in the specifications. Software exists to take one article and "spin" it to create up to 100 new articles from that same article. It is a database program that jumbles up the sentences so that (in the past) Google could not detect the same repeated content. It worked for awhile, until Google got smart. Google "bots" can now detect spun articles and they result in a content penalty. Provide original content only.
No Spelling or Grammatical Errors
In it's aim to clean up the content of the world wide web, Google bots award penalty for bad spelling and grammar. Think of the web like a giant library. Would you want the books and references to be loaded with poor writing? Probably not. Neither does Google. Use your spell and grammar checking software. Also be careful to adjust your spelling/grammar to suit the region. If the client is writing for the UK or Canadian audience you must adjust your spelling/grammar settings to scan for language differences. I.e., Color (USA) Colour (UK/Canada).
No "Fluff"
"One way to lose belly fat is a traditional way to to lose belly fat by losing belly fat in a way that has been passed down for generations and generations over time..." Yuck. Would you want to read that on a website? Me neither. But the reality is that historically that kind of content was acceptable because there were no penalties in place to detect what I call "fluff". Inconcise writing for the purpose of creating more words unnecessarily. Google has improved in this area as well and it penalizes bad writing in this regard. Don't use it. It is considered a cheat and unacceptable by article buyers.
No Copyright Images
For blog posting sometimes we can be asked to source images for a client. For instance, if you are doing twenty posts on "pizza franchises" you may need to provide a copy of the logo for the blog post. Be careful. Look for images on Google that are licensed under "Creative Commons" and cite that the image is sourced under "Creative Commons" in the blog post. This prevents the client from incurring a small penalty from Google. If no image is available for the client under those terms, we will advise the client that we can "borrow" an image but that copyright may present an issue and disadvantage for page ranking at a later date, and violates Google Terms of Service.
No Re-Distribution of Original Content
You wrote twenty amazing articles on the topic of online dating. You may save them as part of your portfolio. A few months later you get a similar request for twenty articles on the same topic matter. Can you forward the new client those articles? Nope!
The original client owns the rights to the articles that you created as originals for him or her. Under no circumstances can those articles be given to anyone else. Ever. A good rule of thumb is to keep five portfolio articles in a folder for samples and delete the rest. Think about how angry you would be to find the "original articles" you paid for being used as content on a competitors website? Do not recirculate. There is a severe prejudice for this kind of "article recycling" and if you get caught doing it the result is the loss of a client. Word also gets around and you'd be amazed how much "relationship' matters in terms of repeat business and word of mouth referrals.
Quality and honesty. In a world full of foreign sourced article writers (or sweat shop writers) the tide is turning in favour of quality content. Built from the ground up one client at a time you can quickly develop a side business and even full time business providing content services based on your talent and integrity.
It's very important. We are in this to make money right? :)
