Note 6/13/08: I am changing this review. I should have hit the trash button after all. No longer using this service as all I got were unrelated, spam “articles” ala 2004. They may have fixed the service, but I’m no longer using it. People keep asking me how to get ahold of them, so it looks like this service is effectively no more. At least support is.
Please don’t ask me how to get ahold of these guys. I have no idea.
If you want to syndicate your articles, there is only one choice I recommend.
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I was asked recently to check out the Content Spooling Network for possible review. I was half a second away from hitting the trash button on the message because of the use of the term “content spooling.” It brought up images of black hat tactics of putting the same article on the web all over the place with just a few changes to each occurrence to fool Google into thinking it wasn’t duplicate content.
Which, I have to say, I’ve changed my mind about over the last few months. It’s Google’s job to try to weed out duplicate content, but it’s our jobs as marketers to make sure people see our excellent products and know we exist. That give-and-take, push-pull dynamic is a fact of life on the web and, ironically, is what makes for balance on the web.
Something made me hesitate and take a look, lest I miss something good under the surface. I quickly found out I would have regretted passing the Content Spooling Network up without a second look.
What is the Content Spooling Network?
This is a community of writers and site owners who are using CSN resources to
1. get more exposure for their articles, and
2. gain more high-value content for their sites in the form of relevant, targeted article directories.
What struck me about this service is their attention to specifically making this not about trickery or underhanded, black hat tactics. They are really focusing on quality marketing here.
For instance, I have my directory up here. And I am still waiting for articles to post to the directory from the CSN group, although I could be putting my own articles in there right now. The reason there isn’t an instant directory of 5000 articles? They would be 99% crap, spam, or just plain amateur throw-away articles.
The guys at CSN are taking steps to ensure that we, as article syndicators, get good, quality, relevant syndication for our work and that we can build equally high quality pages on our sites filled with the same relevant, good content our visitors will actually get something out of.
I will update on Content Spooling Network once my directory starts filling up and I see how the traffic reacts to my calls to action, which are obviously to download my free guides and buy stuff if they like what they get out of the free stuff.
For now, I am very impressed with how this thing is set up and see no reason that it won’t increase traffic and sales for FTR.