Article Marketing Confused with Article Spinning

December 30, 2011

We receive quite a few missives from hot, maybe radioactive, public relations outfits. A good example is AtomicPR, the MarkLogic information output service. I have a tough time figuring out what is editorial opinion such as the information I generate when a topic like azure chip consultants or LinkedIn enterprise search blather. I also never know when a Forbes or Bloomberg news story is a recycle news release. Marketwatch also baffles me. I am deeply suspicious of any information from Marketwatch which is displayed with copious amounts of green, which is supposed to suggest money to me I think. I skip the public relations nuclear waste, the company sponsored blogs which provide me with tips to cope with eDiscovery as ZyLAB is doing, and sponsored blogs like our own HighGainBlog.com operation. (Oh, we will announce a new sponsor in January 2012, and we will deliver useful, curated information too. I find company blogs endlessly amusing. Google operates more than four score blogs each outputting “content.” Now the SEO crowd has figured out “content.” Hooray.

Writing for Search Engine Journal, Suzanne Edwards puts her spin on article marketing in “Eight Good Reasons Why Spinning Articles is Bad for your Website.” The writer, who also writes for Cash for Gold, of all places, makes some sweeping generalizations. There is a wide range between summarizing and pointing the way to helpful links and using “spinning” software. The article describes these abominable applications:

Tons of article spinning software have flooded the Internet. Needless to say, article marketing has become an efficient way of building hundreds if not thousands of backlinks. However, automatic articles spinning with the use of a spinning software is deemed as a black hat SEO technique that can seriously hurt a website’s search rankings and page rank.

While we agree with her point on robo-writers, she paints with too broad a brush. Is reason number nine financial advisors’ ability to discern truth and accuracy? Financial services firms make SEO firms look like the Vatican’s college of Cardinals on a Bible study weekend.

Super. This goose will immediately snap to content ideas from a financial advisor. It’s okay. We trust financial advisors like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, right? We believe everything we read on the Internet even when the content is delivered by predictive methods developed by dear old Google and Microsoft.

Cynthia Murrell, December 30, 2011

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.