Ask Shawn Collins: Content for Affiliates

March 1st, 2007 · Comments

Thanks for visiting the Affiliate Tip blog. Subscribe to my RSS feed or enter your e-mail on the top right to get updates by e-mail.

I am a new affiliate and I want to add content to my blog. Are there any places to get free content?

One option you’ve got is to go to a site called EzineArticles.com. They’ve got a variety of articles on all sorts of different subjects.

You can reprint those articles provided that you adhere to their terms of service.

Also, you can syndicate people’s RSS feeds. When somebody has a blog, they typically make an RSS feed available that enables anybody to republish their content in whole or in part.

I would suggest taking a look at two sites to see what’s available for different subjects: Technorati and the Google Blog Search.

After you come up with some blogs you’d like to syndicate, there is a tool called CaRP that is a converter of RSS to HTML. This enables you to get the SEO benefits of having the actual content on your site and in your code.

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Viewing 6 Comments

David 1 year ago 1 point
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You have to be careful about reusing articles though - its a hit on the SEO. If search engines find the same two (or 3 or 4) articles on different parts of the web, they will credit to the stronger site (if at all). In fact, they might devalue both.

So, if you intend to get additional traffic reusing someone else's content, you should make sure you are aware of the consequences!

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Shane 1 year ago 1 point
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Did I understand you to say that anyone publishing an RSS feed is giving people permission to republish it?

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Shawn Collins 1 year ago 1 point
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> Did I understand you to say that anyone publishing an RSS feed is giving people permission to republish it?

Hi Shane -

I said "When somebody has a blog, they typically make an RSS feed available that enables anybody to republish their content in whole or in part."

I've seen some blogs with a Creative Commons emblem or copyright notice regarding their content, but for the most part, I haven't seen notices on blogs restricting the use of their content.

Personally, when I make my RSS feed available, I do so with the understanding that people are going to publish my excerpts, and I'm glad for the incremental exposure and traffic back to me.

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Shane 1 year ago 1 point
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That's not my understanding at all, and I don't think it's the common understanding. Very good topic for discussion, though! I'm going to ask my readers.

(BTW, when your blog recognizes me, I'm no longer able to submit a comment because the captcha is hidden.)

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Shawn Collins 1 year ago 1 point
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I'm very interested to hear people's opinions on this. Would you rather people didn't post excerpts of your blog?

I don't like that people use my content to make AdSense money, but I think the tradeoff of further penetration is worth it.

> (BTW, when your blog recognizes me, I’m no longer able to submit a comment because the captcha is hidden.)

This got through fine - maybe it's because you're "trusted" by having a previous published comment.

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Shane 1 year ago 1 point
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No, I actually had to click Change to be able to see the captcha box. I lost two posts before I finally saw the tiny "Answer the question!" text and then just lost another one because I forgot to answer the question, but all the fields had been disabled :)

I'm fine with people republishing excerpts of my posts if they link back, but I'm definitely not giving them blanket approval to republish my "content in whole."

...and I may clearly be in the minority. That's why I've opened it up to comments: http://www.askshane.org/blogging-basics/does-an...

I'm interested to see what people have to say!

(And thanks for all the great content, by the way. I've been a subscriber since Shoemoney recommended your blog.)

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Does an RSS Feed Imply Republish Rights? » Ask Shane.org
March 2, 2007 at 10:35 am

[...] can enjoy them however they like. For that reason, I was very concerned when I read this from Shawn ...

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