Is Article Spinning Wrong?
In the online community, there seem to be some very clear black/white distinctions being made about “article spinning” being generally a bad thing. Whilst I agree with this view in some ways, I don’t belive that the argument is a clear cut at many would have you believe.
Background: What is Article Spinning?
For the uninitiated, article spinning is a way of generating multiple variations of essentially the same content. Why would you do this? Well, if you have a product of service to promote, you need to spread the message far and wide. One way of doing this is by using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques to try to get your web site to page 1 in search engines.
In SEO, article spinning helps distribute your “message” in the search engines so as to avoid duplicate content penalties. Done well, automatic article spinning saves you having to manually rewrite essentially the same content time and time again to target multiple online publications.
The “Bad” Things About Article Spinning
Many people criticise article spinning software for producing content that is unintelligible and “gibberish”. In fairness, there is some truth in this. Most spinning software comes with a “fast” spin button that will automatically rewrite a complete article using built in synonym databases. Unfortunately, due to the nuances of the English language, the results from these “fast” buttons are consistently very poor.
My Challenge
Question: What constitutes article spinning?
If you write an article about a subject that you have little knowledge or experience, where do you start? Let’s take the subject of “puppy training” for example.
Would you start by punching “puppy training” into Google? Or perhaps, you have some PLR articles or maybe even some printed books or magazines?
Whatever the approach, the chances are that you will use words and phrases from these sources and re-constitute (or paraphrase) them for you own article.
Isn’t “paraphrasing” just another form of “spinning”? If so, then are we not all “spinning” articles already?
Sure, automated spinning produces unintelligible garbage. However, well “spun” articles can be as good as any “original” (paraphrased?) content.
Isn’t “spinning” = “paraphrasing” but just in a semi- automated way?
Done badly (e.g. articles written by non-English speaking, offshore article writing agencies), “paraphrasing” can produce as much rubbish as automated spinning software.
I can point to many articles in EzineArticles.com (the biggest online article archive) that, grammatically, read as gibberish. Some are obviously “spun” but I suspect that as many, if not perhaps more, are written offshore.
Ultimately, this is all about quality of information. Is “spinning” any less of a valid approach to creating content than “off shoring” or “paraphrasing”?
Unless you are the only person who knows about a particular subject, then the chances are that you are already guilty of the “crime” of “spinning”.
Get Some Perspective?
To my mind, article spinning software is just a tool to get a job done. The job is to distribute messages as widely as possible online in a search engine friendly way.
Any “tool” can be used incorrectly. For example, a drill can produce great results in the right hands. Unfortunately for me (I am self confessed inept at DIY), a drill in my hands produces rubbish (or even gibberish;)) results. The same goes for article spinning software – put it in the hands of anyone who is either lazy and/or inept and you can predict the result! However, used correctly, spun articles read well and are indistinguishable from so called “original” content.
Just some ideas to promote further discussion before we all blindly jump on the “let’s demonize spinning” bandwagon;)
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