One Way Not To Create Content For Your Blog!

"the great gordino" "goal achievement" "make money blogging"Content generation is one of the biggest barriers between a blog that succeeds and one that fails. Yes, it’s possible to set up a blog with fixed content that you never add to, but that is quite a specific model, and most blogs need content as a life blood. In this article I’m going to cover one method you should *not* use to create content..!

I’m talking about spinning.

Ooh, I hate spinning!
Spinning is where you use software to take an article and produce or ‘spin’ a new one using different words and phrases in appropriate places of what is basically the same article.

The logic behind this software is that it helps people who either don’t want to or can’t write that much, that it’s great because you only have to write one article to produce many ‘different’ ones. It didn’t take long though, for the idea to be taken up by marketers promoting it as a way to trick or game the search engines.

The idea behind that particular theory is that the spinning software produces content that the search engines will lap up without penalising, boosting your blog’s position in the search engines.

Hmm, 3 major flaws in that – the first is that trying to trick or fool the search engines rarely works long term, and in fact can come back to bite you if those search engines go after content that is obviously spun.

The second flaw is that the spun articles are usually terrible!

They read so badly, that as real content for real visitors to read they are worse than not having the new content, because it will drive real readers away in a hurry.

Here’s the third flaw with spinning, and it leads on to the way I use and recommend…

When you set up the spinning software, you have to input the words and phrases that you want to interchange. Then you have to write the article in a certain way, so that the words and phrase can be switched without ending up as nonsense. Then, you have to go through the spun article to make sure it reads properly – correcting the nonsense the whole programme promised to avoid in the first place!

All the time it takes to do that might just as well be spent writing a brand new article!

You can use the point that underpins the original article, and then write another one using the same point hung in a different context. I’ve been using this technique for years, in the areas of goal achievement and self improvement for example, and it works a treat!

I’ve never used an article spinner, and have no intention of ever doing so. Yes, I enjoy writing, and can turn it out without problem, but that doesn’t take away from my point about the quality of spun articles.

They suck.

Honestly, use the time you’d waste fiddling about with spinning and just create a new one – your blog will so much the better for it.

That’s it for today – do let me know what you think!

‘Til Next Time,
Health & Happiness,
Gordon
P.S. You might like to read my article ‘How To Use Other People’s Content On Your Own Blog!’

Do leave a comment!

Leave a Reply to Sandy Halliday X

14 Comments

  • I have never heard of this technique, but now I know to never even think of trying it. I must be blessed because I love, love, love to write & therefore, am not challenged by creating content.

    Great information for many, Gordon, I am certain!

    • Hi Julie,
      It’s a technique which may sound ok in theory,but works pretty badly in practice. It became the pet love of internet marketers for a while, and spinning software can still be found offered as the next shiny new thing!
      Cheers,
      Gordon

  • Gordon, I have not heard of “spinning” but I have just recently started blogging about a year ago. I like how clever you were with your words and content in this post. I just sit and write, slogging it out, in hope of getting better each time I give it a go. Thanks for an excellent read! Cheers, Maggie

    • Hi Maggie,
      I’m interested in your use of the word ‘slogging’. Something I’m aiming to write about this month on the subject of blogging, is that the more you do it, the easier it gets! You get used to pacing the writing and knowing where you are in the article, plus you develop the technique of coming up with new ideas.
      Cheers,
      Gordon

  • Gordon I like how you explain this so clearly. I have often wondered how this “spinning” worked, and really did not like the sound of it. Now I understand why I did not like it!

    • Hi Marjan,
      I don’t have any need for it myself, but can see why some might be attracted by the logic. I have yet to see one that works anything like well enough though!
      Cheers,
      Gordon

  • In addition to all the “cons” against spinning that you’ve shared, another biggee is that a spun article doesn’t speak with your individual tone. Many readers take time to read your blog because of its style and voice.

    • Thanks Kathy,
      Superb point you make – style and voioce can be everything on a blog. I have seen spinners advertised that say they maintain your style, but that’s hardly likely!
      Cheers,
      Gordon

    • Hi Sandy,
      I’ve taken the link off to the spinner, I appreciate why you put it there, but as someone who isn’t a fan of them I would want to see more before recommending the technique – do you have examples of where you have used it?
      Thanks,
      Gordon

  • I have seen software, might even have a copy, that requires the writer write three versions of the same article with different sentences, and then it “spins” a sentence from each of the three to make a lot of different versions (5 sentences per paragraph x 3 versions = 15 variations.)

    There’s a website out there–last time I checked, I was blocked from getting there–that would scrape and spin my articles. They were completely unreadable. I wrote to them and asked that they take the articles down, but they blocked me instead.

    I decided that as long as my name was not attached, I did not care. The articles made no sense anyway with the wrong synonyms spun in.

    • Hi Charlotte,
      You hit the nail on the head twice! Firstly that the time taken to write the article so that the software likes it might just as well be spent on a new article. Secondly that the spun articles tend to be rubbish anyway!
      It’s gradually becoming an archaic view to think that a web page with nonsense on it is worth anything – thank goodness!
      Cheers,
      Gordon

  • Hi Gordon,

    love your article, honestly. I do not spin but I do have a spinner and I actually use it. I use it when I need to create extra articles after I published and article on my blog.

    What I do, I mainly use it for new words, related words, synonyms and related phrases, etc. as I often find that I get stuck on some terms and thesaurus is not that good.

    Like all of you here, I hate spun articles as most of them do not make sense. It always disturbed me to find spun gibberish on first page of Google search. This is now slowly changing because search engines can “read” an article almost as well as humans can.

    Regards,

    Dita

    • Hi Dita,
      Thanks an interesting way to use spinning software – probably wouldn’t work for me, but having said that I’ve never tried them for that, and it may work for many to help find different ways of saying things.
      Thanks for the input,
      cheers,
      Gordon