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thepoolroom
Joined:
11 Dec 2003
Posts:
89
Location:
Australia
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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2003 5:56 am
Post subject: Site Built On Free Content
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Hi all, this is my first question, so please be kind  .
I'm putting together a site to wet my toes in the field of affiliate sales. The results from this experiment will help me prove to myself whether affiliate selling works for me or not. I'm hoping it will justify me spending a lot more time, effort and money in getting more sites going.
First off, the site I'm talking about is The Renovation Resource:
http://renovation.pool-room.com
I've configured it as a subdomain of my main site, because it's free that way. I understand that this will potentially cost me some pagerank, and might result in me not appearing as high in the search results as I otherwise could.
To get the site bootstrapped quickly, I'm using free-reprint articles that I've gathered from various directories around the web. This is giving me some structure for the site, as well as lots of pages on lots of topics for the search engines to feed on. I understand that using free reprint articles will also affect my SE rankings, since they'll be recognised as duplicated content from other sites.
But I don't think these two factors (subdomain and duplicate content) will be totally crippling, because another of my subdomains hit #3 in Google for "writing content" within weeks of being posted, using a free-reprint article. That was a happy accident, but it got me thinking.
I've joined some affiliate programs from Commission Junction, and I'll be displaying those as text ads underneath the articles (below the author's resource box, so they get the first chance at the visitor's click - I think that's fair).
Down the track, I'm planning to write my own articles to fill in any keyword/keyphrase gaps I identify as the site grows. I'll also be inserting my own photographs (I'm a photography enthusiast looking for a pet project!) to complement the articles and pretty the site up a bit.
As I said, this is an experiment for me to test out affiliate marketing. If this site makes a reasonable number of sales (say a few hundred dollars over the next six months), even though I'm doing many things in less-than-optimal ways, then I'll have proved to myself the potential of this business. At that point I'll be able to justify spending lots of time developing original content on my real passions, and building serious sites around them.
What do you guys think of this strategy?
Also, do you think this is a fair use of reprint articles? I *think* it is, since I'm giving people the links and promotion they ask for in return for my use of the articles. I'm organizing them into topics, formatting them nicely, and indexing them by author, so I'm adding some value rather than just chucking them onto an affiliate page. I don't feel like I'm being exploitative.
But then, you're the type of people who write free reprint articles, so I'd like to hear what you think. Maybe I've got it wrong.
Thanks in advance for any comments you might have!
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thepoolroom
Joined:
11 Dec 2003
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89
Location:
Australia
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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2003 6:04 am
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Sorry, I used the wrong search example above. I meant to say that a free-reprint article I posted about SEO strategies is currently at #11 on Google for the search term 'seo strategies' (without quotes).
Anyway, that seems to indicate that the penalties for duplicated content might not be too severe, at least for some search terms.
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Debs
Joined:
16 Aug 2003
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4296
Location:
NY
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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2003 2:23 pm
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I think your idea has merit whether you want to justify or not. Using duplicate content has advantages, and disadvantages as you stated. There is no real penalty for using duplicate content, just you may run into being one of those links held back by Google. A lot of other SE's will still take the page as normal quality content.
I wouldn't hesitate to add a couple of your own unique articles now to flesh out the site and add your personality. Once you get a site up, it's hard to let go. I think you will find later that if the site doesn't get the visitors, or convert, you will end up tweaking til it does rather than let it go.
Debs
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Larry Chamberlain
Joined:
01 Aug 2003
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1184
Location:
London, England
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Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2003 12:19 pm
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Hi Poolroom,
| Quote: | Also, do you think this is a fair use of reprint articles? I *think* it is, since I'm giving people the links and promotion they ask for in return for my use of the articles. I'm organizing them into topics, formatting them nicely, and indexing them by author, so I'm adding some value rather than just chucking them onto an affiliate page. I don't feel like I'm being exploitative.
But then, you're the type of people who write free reprint articles, so I'd like to hear what you think. Maybe I've got it wrong. |
I think the way that you have used the articles is fair enough. When someone uses one of my articles that way I'm well pleased.
All the best to you and everyone for Christmas, and have a great 2004,
Larry Chamberlain.
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thepoolroom
Joined:
11 Dec 2003
Posts:
89
Location:
Australia
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2004 10:03 am
Post subject:
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I'm just posting a follow-up in case anyone is interested in how my site is going.
http://renovation.pool-room.com/
I don't know how, but my site is already listed at #50 in Google for my primary search term, "home renovation" (with quotes), and about #55 without quotes. That's a lot higher than I expected, especially since the site's only been live for about 2 or 3 weeks and I don't have any incoming links that I know of. It's a pretty competitive term, too.
Many (most?) of the content pages aren't listed in Google yet, but I'm hoping that when they are I'll get similar rankings.
Now the task begins to move my site up in the rankings...
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Charlie
Joined:
22 Aug 2003
Posts:
3305
Location:
UK
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2004 11:25 am
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Good news.
| thepoolroom wrote: | | Now the task begins to move my site up in the rankings... |
Some good incoming links should certainly help there.
Cheers,
Charlie.
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thepoolroom
Joined:
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89
Location:
Australia
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Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 1:11 am
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Just posting another update on my progress, in case anyone's interested...
Two days ago, my site got fully indexed by Google, and all pages are now showing up in search results (previously, it was only the main page that was indexed). Traffic jumped from around 5 visitors per day (probably mostly from links in this forum, and emails to authors to let them know I'd used their articles!) to around 85 uniques per day. My main page has PR3, and the other pages are still at 0. I've got very little in the way of incoming links - that's on my 'to do' list.
I'm pretty happy with the results, given that it's been less than a month since I started the site!
Interestingly, I don't seem to be getting penalised heavily for duplicate content. For many of my key phrases, I'm showing up in the top ten search results. Maybe that's because nobody else is using those articles? I'm not sure.
Adsense is starting to tick over (nothing really significant, but it's still a nice trickle). I haven't made any affiliate sales yet (it's still very early!), but I'm getting nice click-through rates on the displayed ads.
I've been writing the top-level pages myself (e.g. Bathroom, Home Office, etc) to try and optimise the keyword placement. Almost all the content below that level is free-reprint articles at this stage, but my early success has convinced me that it'll be worth my while writing custom content for specific vendors and products.
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hugeaffiliates
Joined:
01 Feb 2004
Posts:
8
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2004 4:57 pm
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| Quote: | I understand that using free reprint articles will also affect my SE rankings, since they'll be recognised as duplicated content from other sites.
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Can anyone advise more on how badly a site's ranking or PR is affected by using free to reprint articles?
So far, the impression i get from here is that's its not a big penalty....so it's same to use reprint articles?
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Debs
Joined:
16 Aug 2003
Posts:
4296
Location:
NY
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Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2004 5:06 pm
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Have you ever done a search on Google that returns a few results, then puts in the italicized message "Duplicate content removed, click here to view all results?"
If so, that's how it penalizes subsequent sites that have the same content as a few higher ranked sites.
I don't know if your PR is higher if that will help kick you into the shown results and out of duplicate content, or if the "date of indexing" determines what is duplicate and what is not.
I have an article of mine which I distributed and which was ranked by Google on another site before it was ranked on mine ... I show as "duplicate" even though it's my article. Once I beat this sites PR, I'll let you know if I kick into shown results or not.
Debs
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thepoolroom
Joined:
11 Dec 2003
Posts:
89
Location:
Australia
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Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2004 4:31 am
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Yes, Debs' theory about who gets to the top when there are duplicate pages matches my experience so far.
I also make sure I format the articles properly - I put in proper h1, h2, h3 tags, use proper <ul> and <ol> lists, etc. Besides looking better than another site who just pastes in plain text articles, I reckon it will help my pages be indexed properly and rank higher in Google. The formatting may just be enough to make them look like original rather than duplicate content, too.
Anyway, the site is now getting enough traffic (150-200 unique visitors per day) that I think it's a goer, so I've registered a proper domain name (http://www.home-improvement-hq.com). I redirected the old URL to the new one, and Google seems to be handling that OK. The new one isn't very well indexed yet, but it shouldn't take long.
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