There`s been a lot of debate as to the value of article syndication, some are quick to cite the possibilities of having your articles modified without your permission or even being accused of spamming. Others jump to the defence of article syndication and point out that it is still one of the best ways to build links and establish your authority in the field. Whatever your personal views, there is no denying that a carefully managed article syndication campaign can do wonders for boosting traffic. You do need to be careful where you are submitting articles though. An article directory or RSS feed where human editors must go through the article before accepting it is best.

Staying Current:

If you`re specializing in an area where there are continuous improvements, such as SEO, you`ll want to keep your information up to date so that people will continue to believe that you are an expert in the field. Article syndication can mean that your work is on hundreds of sites on the internet and there is no way to update them. If people read these older articles they may think that you`re stuck in the past and not aware of current issues.

Unauthorized Modifications:

Most of the reputable directories nowadays have strict rules about modifying authors` content. Unfortunately this doesn`t mean that everyone thinks this way. Some webmasters apparently think that allowing them to archive your article is the same as allowing them to make changes to it, despite your instructions to the contrary. You need to carefully monitor any article that`s in syndication to ensure that the integrity is maintained.

Loss Of Revenue:

Some people set up their own article directories so that they can make use of revenue tools such as Adsense. This only works if the articles are on a topic that people will want to know about, and if there`s nowhere else they can find them but on your site. If you allow your articles to appear on other sites then people can find them elsewhere and there`s no need to come to you site. This can seriously cut down on your revenue. Of course this is only applicable to sites whose sole purpose is to house articles.

Duplicate Content:

Search engines, such as Google, don`t like duplicate content. It`s one thing if the same article shows up in multiple directories. That`s to be expected. However, if all the content on your site shows up on other sites, you`re very likely to have your page rank drop to zero. It won`t matter that you were the first one with the content. To the search engine it`ll look as though you`ve copied all your content from other sources.

Spamming:

You might not be the one who`s actually doing the spamming, but your name can become associated with it. Imagine that you`ve given practically everybody, including newsletter publishers, the right to re-publish your article, as long as they retain your name as the author and the link back to your site. Should one of those newsletters be accused of spamming, your name could very well become associated with the infringement since it was your article that was sent out.

That`s a lot of disadvantages, but article syndication isn`t all bad. In fact it`s one of the most popular marketing tools for many webmasters. Here`s why.

Traffic Generation:

It all comes down to the links which you`re allowed to include in your articles. People will want to know more as long as your article has substance to it and isn`t an attempt at a cleverly disguised advertisement. This will lead them to your site once they have a link to do so. Article syndication lets your article be seen by more people than if it was just kept on your site. This translates into more visitors if you can offer them something of high quality.

Branding:

Why is this important? If you are selling a product, or endorsing a product as an affiliate, people will want to know that you have at least some idea of what you`re talking about. Would you buy web hosting from someone who doesn`t know the first thing about it? Writing relevant articles within your chosen niche and having them syndicated is a great way of making a name for yourself. People will have more confidence in what you`re offering if you can present yourself as an authority.

Page Rank:

The higher the page rank, the higher the site will appear in the search results. Most people only look at the first ten or twenty sites before refining their search so the aim is to get into the top twenty. It`s often difficult to convince people to link to your site, unless you offer useful content that includes a back-link. Many of the article directories already have their own high rankings and this serves to increase the importance of the link. Imagine having hundreds of back-links by just submitting a few articles.

Article syndication can be a good thing, if done properly. Remember that, once you have submitted your article to a directory or an RSS feed, you have very little control over what happens to it. Articles are best used to market a site which contains other useful content. That way there`s no chance of your site being penalized for duplicate content. Try to stick to one niche so you can make yourself an expert in that area, and this limits the possibility of your article being arbitrarily taken up by a lot of unscrupulous general sites.