[erogers]

I submit articles.
I think it's a big part of a diversified link profile.

However, for many that do the same, we run into the issue of duplicate content penalties. True - if you submit to enough sites, there are going to be some that get picked up and indexed even though they are duplicates.

However, my personal experience has been that a good majority of the articles you post will get de-indexed or otherwised penalized as duplicate content. Evidence points to the search engines continuing these penalties and even getting more harsh on duplicate content in the future.

Lately, I've been trying out several options to get around duplicate content and have found a site that offers a tool called "Jet Spinner" that allows you to randomize words and phrases in an article. I've just started playing around with it, but done correctly, I feel it provides some good ways to potentially escape some of the penalties. Here's the URL:

http://www.spontent.com/spinner/

This isn't a random content generator - it's a way to selectively randomize an article in the ways you specify. Done correctly you have an article that reads fine but potentially has enough differences not to trip a duplicate content filter.

Anyone else using this with success? I have just started using it and would like to know if anyone has any history with this or similar tools.

[kid disco]

In my opinion, content spinning shouldn't be done on legitimate articles. It's generally used to generate pages for spam.

A page that is spun will still have the exact same words and the exact same number of those words regardless of the order they are in... It shouldn't be too difficult for a search engine to mine all the data on a page and pick up these similarities, as well as others.

If you have been submitting to directories for awhile, you should notice which ones give you the most return (in terms of authority, traffic, linkjuice, etc.). I would submit articles to the best sites first and wait for the search engines to pick them up before distributing the article elsewhere.

Personally, I would just take the 2 or 3 best sites and hand modify my article for those sites. If all the others are being de-indexed anyway, what's the point of submitting to tons of sites?

[erogers]

If you submit only for link juice, I would agree. However, if you're going for traffic, having the highest number of copies out there for folks to find is advantageous - even if the site is low-PR, low-authority. If I can monopolize some long tails with my articles and get some good CT, I'll consider it a success.

BTW Each spun version has a different word count due to the way you can randomize phrases. The search engines might be able to pick them up in some cases, but in others - likely not, depending on how much randomization you use. You can even have the tool randomly select any number of phrases from a list or database. I think you're thinking it will just put the words or phrases in a different order - this tool is different, though.

[avonreal]

would the article still make sense after its been spun??

[Homesurfer]

Originally Posted by erogers

Lately, I've been trying out several options to get around duplicate content and have found a site that offers a tool called "Jet Spinner" that allows you to randomize words and phrases in an article. I've just started playing around with it, but done correctly, I feel it provides some good ways to potentially escape some of the penalties.

Duplicate content doesn't mean that the content is repeated word for word in the same order, like a carbon copy. For example, all the sites that use the same census data information, even though they put it up in different formats or different order -- Google considers it to be duplicate content.

Of course, what Google thinks about something and what they catch without human intervention are two different things. It used to be that there was no risk in violating some of Google's guidelines and now that risk may still be minimal, but it exists -- especially when they think you're purposely trying to spam the search engine and not just making an ignorant mistake.

[erogers]

Sure, there's still a chance that the SEs can adapt their algorithms to de-index pages that are not word-for-word duplicates. I personally think that the ability for them to do that is minimal - there is too much chance that legitimate sites will get dropped. Take our business - there are only so many ways you can say "I sell houses, click here to search the MLS".

However, if a few of my articles get de-indexed because of this at some point in the future, no big deal. They get de-indexed already because they are exact duplicates, but lots still get in anyways.

I'm not worried about penalties since they're external content and most of the SEs have taken a fairly firm stance against penalizing due to external content. Otherwise, too easy to Googlebomb another's site.

Anyways, this isn't so much meant as an argument for or against content spinning - that argument has been hashed over and over on many other forums. For those that are looking for a tool to possibly avoid duplicate content, the above one is fairly good.

[erogers]

Yes, the article reads just fine after spinning because you set your own replacements. It's just like writing 3-5 different versions of the same article and having the program mix them up and put them back together. With a little work you can come up with a lot of articles that are very different in wording yet read the same.

For example, the phrase:

The dog ran down the hill. It drank from the cool pond. It likes to play ball.

can be re-written as:

The brown, athletic canine sped down the hill. It lapped eagerly at the pool of cool water. One of the activities it enjoys the most is a good game of ball.

The program then mixes them up:

The dog ran down the hill. It lapped eagerly at the pool of cool water. It likes to play ball

etc. etc.

With enough specified replacements you can come up with the same article stated as many times as you want but fairly different each time.

[Borino]

For what it's worth, I did take Spinner for spin (pun intended ;-)
I found it too cumbersome. It seems I can take an article and re-write it by hand only using Dupe Free Pro and be done faster, while producing a decent set of similar, but not exact articles.

Obviously, I only submit to small number of sites. For a large volume, Spinner is a better way to go.