Title: Free Article Content Explained Word Count: 662 Summary: Creating successful website articles takes a sharp marketing mind. It also requires top-notch writing skills. So, what happens if you just don't have everything it takes to make your website a success? Some webmasters use free article content to entice visitors and turn a profit. Free article content is available on a number of directories, and is a valid service for those who lack the time or talents to write their own articles. It can also be a feasible option for those ... Keywords: Article Body: Creating successful website articles takes a sharp marketing mind. It also requires top-notch writing skills. So, what happens if you just don't have everything it takes to make your website a success? Some webmasters use free article content to entice visitors and turn a profit. Free article content is available on a number of directories, and is a valid service for those who lack the time or talents to write their own articles. It can also be a feasible option for those who have just started working as an affiliate for several companies, but lack the funding required to build niche websites to entice visitors. Free article content is often the only option for those who are running a website on a minimal budget. It is not, however, a good choice for effectively building your website or creating revenue. There are a number of ways that free article content can actually be detrimental to your business-building efforts. Search Engine Exclusions If your website contains the exact duplicated content as other sites, search engines will tend to skip over it. The more sites that share your free article content, the less likely it will be that you achieve good search engine rankings. It is essential that your website receives good search engine rankings in order to entice visitors to click on your affiliate links. If you cannot get visitors, you will never make a profit. Your first priority should be to work on the search engine optimization of your site so that you will eventually be high enough to ensure a good number of customers. Getting Visitors to Commit Boosting your site high on search engine result pages and acquiring visitors is hard work, but it is unfortunately only half of the battle. You must be able to convince those visitors to click on your affiliate links. If your visitors see the same free article content that they have already seen on a multitude of sites, they'll be less likely to click on your links. People want to see unique perspectives, and tend to purchase goods or hire services from those they view as subject experts. If your content is simply a duplication of the same material on other sites, you'll be exposed as someone who falls back on another person's efforts. Your readers may view you as not knowing what you're talking about, and you'll lose credibility as being knowledgeable about your product recommendations. This will reduce the number of website visitors who will be willing to click through and spend money. Author Bylines Most free article content is only given to you if you agree to place the author's byline under the article. Failure to follow the stipulated rules can bring penalties. Most author bylines include website links, so this poses another problem. If the article is especially intriguing, there is the strong possibility that the reader may click on the author's byline link rather than your affiliate links. Of course, authors only contribute free article content as a means to expose their own names and links to the public eye. In using this type of content, you may be shooting yourself in the foot and losing possible profitable website visitors. Most websites are in place for the purpose of making money. Using free article content is a quick and easy way to pad your site with material, but it can be detrimental to your financial goals. Novice website owners often find it the only option; but if you have the funds available you are much better off hiring a writer to prepare original material. Another option is to write your own articles, begin making a profit, and then spend the resources on a professional writer. Everyone is more comfortable buying a product or hiring a service from someone they deem to be an expert. Using free article content can be a feasible option for beginners, but don't give your readers the opportunity to see you as anything short of professional.