Rewriting Articles
Lesson 17 from You Can Make Money Writing
You don't always have to write entirely unique articles. One
of the best ways to quickly create new ones is rewriting articles
that you already wrote - or rewriting your existing web pages
to make them into articles. After you have written your first
twenty articles, you can easily make them into another twenty
or more articles with just a little work. This lesson is about
the best ways to do that without getting into trouble.
First a Warning
Article directories don't want duplicate articles with different
titles or just a few words changed. In fact, if you submit those
kind of articles they may close your account. However, this doesn't
mean that they have a problem with you using the same basic material
for a "new" article. In fact, this strategy for rewriting
articles has distinct advantages for both you and the directory
sites - if you do it right.
Essentially the directory wants to avoid "duplicate content,"
so visitors don't get frustrated by running across the same thing
again and again. But on the other hand, if it is merely similar
content - and if it brings in new traffic - that's a benefit
to them. I'll explain that further in a moment.
Search engines are downgrading the value or "importance"
of any content that is not unique enough. Their search algorithms
give no "weight" to pages that are essentially the
same as other pages on the internet. Some call this a "duplicate
content penalty."
In reality, it is not a penalty. You can have a page on a
website that is on a thousand other websites, without any "penalty."
However, you also won't get any "credit" or search
engine exposure for that page. In other words, for the purpose
of getting search traffic it may be entirely worthless.
You can see that it's important to change your content when
you rewrite it. You want both the new article derived from a
page or other article to be found in the search engines. Some
ways to make this more likely follow.
Target Different Keywords
There is search traffic for both "increase iq" and
"improve iq." If I have an article on "How To
Increase Your IQ," and I want to rewrite it to create another
article, it becomes an "How To Improve Your IQ." If
a sentence in the original page or article reads "caffeine
can temporarily increase your IQ," it becomes "you
can temporarily improve your IQ with caffeine."
You get the idea. If you are going to reuse your content,
you might as well target new keywords with the new article. There
are generally at least several ways people search for any given
information. For example, if people are searching "how to
find gold," they may also be searching "best way to
find gold," "finding gold," and "prospecting
for gold." Do a bit of keyword research to discover the
most appropriate alternatives.
The advantage to both you and to any article directory you
submit the article to, is that you both can get traffic for the
new keywords. Those who searched "improve iq" never
had a chance to find my article on how to "increase iq,"
but it is obviously a relevant article that they might have liked
to read. Now, in its new form, they can find it, read it, and
go sign up for my Brainpower Newsletter.
This is a powerful strategy. Suppose you have an article titled,
"Online Articles - Six Mistakes To Avoid," which is
targeted to those searching the keyword "online articles."
If there is also traffic for "writing online articles,"
"writing articles," and "article submission tips,"
wouldn't searchers of those terms also be interested in your
article? This would be an opportunity to write three "new"
articles using essentially the same content, and everyone (the
reader, you and the directory) benefits as a result.
But please don't just change the title and a few keywords.
Read the rest of this lesson to see how to properly do a "rewrite."
Change the Content
Because some readers may run across your article rewrites,
and some article directories may be pickier than others, write
something new to add to your rewrite articles. It doesn't have
to be much. In an article on six tips for getting a job, for
example, replace two of the tips with new ones, or add a couple
and make it an "eight tips" article. This means that
the rare reader who has read your other article will at least
get something new out of this one, and the article directory
will be satisfied that it is a "unique" article.
If you are not going to change very much in the article, make
the changes in the first paragraph or two. And read the next
lesson on general writing tips for more ideas on how to change
the content.
Mix, Separate, Recombine
Another easy way to quickly reuse things you have written
is to combine them in new ways. For example, I have at least
a hundred ways to increase one's brain power on my site www.IncreaseBrainpower.com,
so when I do a rewrite of a "Six Ways to Get Smarter"
article, I can leave three of them (but rewrite the sentences)
and replace three with new ways. There is no question that this
is a new article.
Add a story from one article to another if it is relevant.
Take the best of the your ways from a "Ten Ways To"
article and expand it into a "The Best Way To" article.
Look for any opportunity to put parts of your various writings
together into a new article.
Change the Paragraphs When Rewriting Articles
Even after adding a little and changing the keywords and title,
there may be some duplicate paragraphs and sentences in the new
article. Article directory programs that check for duplicate
articles may catch this and reject your article. Some are getting
very good at identifying duplicate content. Fortunately there
are ways to be sure that the new article is unique enough.
For example, try to reorder the paragraphs when possible.
Changing the order of the paragraphs is easy for "list articles."
Those "Ten Steps To A More Attractive Website," usually
can be quickly cut and pasted into a different order (careful
- don't mess up the numbering). With other types of articles,
see if at least one of the paragraphs will make sense in a different
place in the article.
You can also break a paragraph into two to change it. Look
for any places where this can be done without getting in the
way of the "flow" of the article. Actually, smaller
paragraphs often make reading it easier, so this is a great way
to change things when done right.
Now for some important issues to consider when rewriting articles...
Continues here... More
on How to Rewrite Articles
Note: This is part of the book, You Can Make Money
Writing. There are links to all the all the lessons/chapters
on the home page.
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