The Internet is all about words, when you think about it. People use words to find you in the search engines. They use words to describe what they want to buy. For this reason content is important, no matter what you are selling on the Internet.

One of the biggest challenges for web publishers is to keep their sites fresh with new and updated content. Free articles are a great way to get content. Ideally, you should keep your sales pages separate from your content pages. Your content pages should point to your sales pages because the words attract visitors. However, many people build content sites to promote Adsense instead of specific sales pages.

Some webmasters, particularly those who want to make money with Google Adsense, use articles from free content directories to attract visitors to their sites and make some money, hopefully with clicks on ads or with affiliate sales, both of which have links that are embedded within the article. This is an important resource for web masters who have just begun working on their sites and do not have the funds to get their own content. Others, who are looking at creating dozens if not hundreds of “content” sites for Adsense purposes will pull free content for massive page creation.

I have a few sites that will post free article content, particularly if I feel that the content is relevant to the focus on my site. For example, there are some great articles that I pulled from free article directories about cabins for rent in Gatlinbug, written by authors who live in the area and who are experts.

There can be some pitfalls if you rely solely on free article content.

The Search Engine Pitfall

The more sites that share the same articles — aka duplicate content — the less your use of free content will help you achieve good search engine rankings.

To get visitors to your site, you need good search engine rankings. Frankly, they are essential. There are some things you can do with your free articles that might shake things up a bit so you are not publishing the exact same thing as everyone else. You might want to include an introductory paragraph in your own words before publishing the article. Or, you might want to insert a boxed comment area in the center of the article that is in your own words. I am not sure how effective these strategies are, but they are worth trying if you are using free content. The key is that you cannot change the text of the articles or remove the author’s resource box. These practices are generally against the usage terms.

The Getting Clicks Pitfall

Getting visitors to your site is half the battle. Once you have a visitor, your site needs to entice the visitor to click on your Adsense, affiliate or other links. If your visitors have been searching the Net for specific information and keep seeing the exact same article that they’ve been seeing on numerous other sites, they most likely with not click on your links. This is because most people want to buy things that are recommended by people that they trust or whom they feel like are an expert on the subject.

If your content is just duplicated from other sites, your site may look like one that’s just a collection of material and that the site owner does not really know what he or she is talking about. A visitor is more likely to click a product recommendation if it appears that it is being recommended by someone knowledgeable in the field.

The Author Bylines or Resource Box Pitfall

There’s never “something for nothing.” There’s always an exchange of some kind. Although authors are giving you wonderful content with free articles, the exchange is that in order to publish, you must agree to place the author’s byline (or resource box) at the end of the article. If you do not do so, you could get in some trouble for not following the rules. That said, when a reader finishes reading the article, he or she is likely to click on the author’s byline link rather than your affiliate links.

Conclusion

As you can see, exclusive use of free content is not helping you make money on the Internet. You can use it judiciously, especially when you see an article that fits into your site’s mission and looks like it will benefit your visitor; however, you should also be including your own content.

Some people who do not feel that they can write content will hire freelance writers or ghostwriters. Others use what is called “private label right” content, or PLR articles. These articles are fine if edited. If they are not rewritten, you have the same three pitfalls described above.

Writing your own articles is not as difficult as it may seem. Check out the Lazy Man’s Guide to Writing Articles for some tips to get you started. It’s only $7.95 — the price of a domain, and can reward you with profit in the years to come.

To your web profits,

Urbain Beck

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 3rd, 2006 at 4:08 pm and is filed under Adsense Income, Reviews and Observations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.