article spinningSo you’re thinking about recreating some content, or more specifically, article spinning. Your purpose here is to get more content on your blog. Before you do this, I want you to consider carefully the cons of article spinning.

What is Article Spinning?

Article Spinning is a search engine optimization technique in which website owners or bloggers attempt to manipulate their rankings in the serps (search engine results pages.) This is done by taking original content and replacing sections of the text with synonyms or reorganizing the existing structure of the article.

How Does One Spin Articles?

There are two techniques commonly used in article spinning. Manual and automatic. Manual simply means a website owner can pay someone to rewrite their article or they can do so themselves. The flip side is article spinning software which allows someone to enter an article and out comes several different articles. The spun articles will utilize synonyms to make the article seem “new.” For example, I am sad will now become, I am depressed or I am down. Doesn’t seem all that fresh to the reader, but it might to the search engines.

So, What’s the Problem?

It actually is a big problem. Most of the articles are stolen from the original author without their knowledge, let alone their consent. Placing this content on your own site is considered plagiarism. Don’t they expel students for that these days? So why on earth would you want to conduct business in this way now? I also am pretty sure most of you have heard of copyright infringement. The basic premise is that you can not claim someones work, whole or in part, and use for yourself without their consent.

The Cons

I, personally don’t see the pros in article spinning. Therefore, I am giving you the cons. Here are just a few.

  1. Morality. It is morally wrong to steal…and that means content too. You can spin and spin and spin, but it won’t change the fact that it is someone else’s hard work.
  2. Legally. There is no in between here. Stealing is illegal. Stealing content is copyright infringement and it’s against the law in most countries. I don’t think much of an explanation is needed here.
  3. Education. Switching the order of paragraphs or blocks of material to disguise the source obliterates the logical flow of an article. Computers can’t produce good articles. Using synonyms oft times changes the whole meaning of a sentence. If you have read a spun article, many times it makes no sense at all.
  4. Visitors. If you have ever done a search on Google, you will see mounds of information..repeated. Useless junk cluttering the web. People are trying to educate themselves and learn. How infuriating it is to click on five sites that all share pretty much the exact same content. What happened to diversity? To unique content?

Article Spinning: Final Thoughts

I won’t pretend that you have probably read many posts on article spinning and I am not sharing earth shattering news to you. However, what makes this post completely different from anyone else, is that it’s MY opinion. It’s my theory on the subject and that makes it unique. This is what we as blog owners must strive to achieve. Obviously we are going to discuss the same topics from time to time, but HOW we present it is the key. When writing your posts, incorporate your opinion and your experiences to give the readers a fresh new outlook.

It’s like the movies…how many movies have been made about, “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, etc..?” A million! But each one is presented to us in a different manner. Each one utilizes the writers’, directors’ and producers’ own vision of the theme. And we buy the tickets, we rent the movies and we talk at the water cooler about them.

So, if you were considering article spinning, I hope that you may reconsider now. It insults your readers intelligence. You are above that tactic. Formulate the ideas for your post and figure out your take on the topic. Then write what you know. Write about what you do, what you have tried and even what has not worked for you. I would much rather read about this then some half baked version of an article I already read somewhere else.

Image: healingdream / FreeDigitalPhotos.net  Editors note: This guest post on Article Spinning was contributed to info carnivore by Lisa Drubec,  I hope you'll take the time to follow her on twitter!