They make you lose track of what you were reading while you go back to re-read the last sentence and think “Huh?”

The one I found today wasn’t a major thing – but it was enough to make me stop. And I’m sure I know just how it happened. The write made some edits and changes before submitting the article. But he didn’t quite finish.

Here’s what I read: “There is still a huge backlog of these cases or foreclosures that have never been brought forward yet,” The sentence would have been fine if the writer had left off the word “Yet.” It would also have been fine if he had said “that have not been brought forward yet.” But “Have never been brought forward yet” was jarring.

Before you submit an article or a blog post – proof read your copy. See if there’s a word or two stuck in there that needs to come out.

For one thing, it isn’t on a blog. It’s on an article sharing site.

Even worse, this post, supposedly written by Terry Henry and placed on Our Article Source (dot)com has been put through a “spinner.”  I wouldn’t even care, because it’s such complete nonsense, but they left my name in it. It’s not in the resource box, but at the end of the article. They simply forgot to remove it when they spun it. Makes you wonder if they even read what they post.

GRRRR….

Here’s part of the author resource box:- “Terry Henry been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in agents marketers ,you can also check out his latest website about…”

Looks to me like he’s been stealing articles online, spinning them, and calling them his own.  And what he posts makes little sense.

Take the following, for example:

The sentence that read:
If you’re getting ready to write your real estate agent bio, start by thinking about things in your past that prepared you for your role as a real estate agent.

Was spun to say:
If you are obtaining ready to jot down your land agent bio, begin by considering things in your past that ready you for your role as a true estate agent.

So what should you do?

I suppose there is somewhere to complain, but I don’t know where it is, and I don’t want to take the time to find out.

I could track down the author and ask him to remove the article. But the few times I’ve done that I got no response, so don’t think it worth my time.  I do have work to do!

If the spun article is on a blog and I see a place to add a comment, I always do, and give a link to the real article – but I imagine those comments are quickly deleted!

Don’t let it upset you.

After letting incidents like this upset me the first few times it happened, I’ve now decided not to worry about it. What this “author” has done is obvious to anyone reading the article. And… he IS claiming that he wrote it.

Instead of an author resource box, perhaps sites such as this one should have a “spinner resource box.”

When I’ve found my articles on blogs where they’ve been spun, I’ve looked at the other articles – and seen that they’re ALL that way.  So any sensible person going to that blog can clearly see what the blog owner has done.

So just keep on marketing with articles, and don’t let what idiots do slow you down!

P.S. If you’d like to read the real article: Real Estate Marketing Mistakes – Bland Agent Bios, here it is.

And if you’re in need of a “Better Bio” come read more at Copy by Marte.

When Mark Twain made that statement, I’m sure he was talking about the word choices that speakers and authors make in order to create specific thoughts and feelings in their listeners and readers.

Creating those feelings depends upon recognizing the subtle differences in the meaning of two words that are similar in meaning – but impart a slightly different feeling. For instance, the difference between eager and anxious.

One conveys happy anticipation while the other hints at worry, however slight. And yet, many use the two words interchangeably.

These differences are the reason why writers of every variety keep a Thesaurus by their sides. If you know any writers or speakers well, you’ve probably heard them saying “I’m searching for a word. I wrote _____ but it’s just not quite right. I know there’s a better word.”

They’re also the reason why those who submit stories to newspapers are often dismayed to find that someone has edited their piece and removed a word that they had carefully chosen. Sometimes, the whole meaning of an article is changed.

I can only imagine what Mark Twain would say if he came back today and saw what article / content spinners do to destroy the intent and ideas behind written words.

He might have a good laugh, because some of the results can be humorous. For instance, in one of my articles that was “stolen and spun,” the spinning software changed a sentence from “You can appeal to…” to the confusing: “You crapper appeal to…”

It took me a while to figure out how the spinner got crapper from can, but I finally did and had a good laugh.

Of course, I wasn’t pleased, because the person who did it left my name on it. I feel certain that Mark Twain would not be pleased either, if it was his own work that had been “spun.” Especially if the spinner failed to remove his name.

As an article writer, I’m often confronted with seeing my own words “spun out of control” in a manner that makes them unintelligible. But, for those who like a mental challenge, figuring out what the original article might have said can be entertainment.

For instance, take the following sentence: “Whether you admire them or not, Accessible Houses can be a actual able absolute acreage sales tool.”

I looked up the original article and found that it said: “Whether you adore them or not, Open Houses can be a very effective real estate sales tool.”

The words “real estate” and “Open House” have specific meanings in our culture – we all know what they mean. But when “absolute acreage” is substituted for “real estate” it not only takes on a different meaning, it leaves us thinking “What in the heck is absolute acreage?”

On the other hand, “accessible house” could have a couple of different meanings – just not the same meaning as “Open house.”

As for “actual able,” I doubt if I’d have figured out that it meant “effective” if I had not gone in search of the original article.

In this same article, spinning changed the Law of Attraction to the Law of Allure. The difference is subtle, just as it is with eager and anxious, but there is a difference.

Adding content to a website is a good idea. It adds search engine optimization and gives site visitors more reasons to stay longer. And borrowing articles from a site such as EzineArticles.com is a perfectly acceptable way to do it.

Your website and your articles really are your “face to the world,” and you will be judged by them. So don’t choose an article and ask software to spin it into 10 more articles. The results are often such that you’ll present the face of an illiterate, or a “goof.”

At best, they’ll show that you’re more interested in appealing to search engines than humans – and what is the point of attracting visitors if they’ll see what you wrote and hurry to leave?

My opinion: when content is the result of article spinning, the best idea would be to delete it.

Be careful! If you do it, read every article before you submit it, and make necessary changes. Otherwise you could end up looking foolish.

You probably know that I write article for EzineArticles.com. I also have Google Alerts set so that I (sometimes) get notice when someone posts one of them. What I wish is that if someone takes an article and runs it through that software they would remove my name.

This rant is because of one of those posts I saw this morning. It was an old article entitled “In the business world, do nice guys finish last?”

When I followed the Google alert this morning to see who had posted it, I was once again shocked by finding an article that for the most part made no sense.

For instance, this sentence:

I read a great report about malpractice suits that said doctors who are nice don’t get sued.

Turned into this:

I read a report on abuse suits, said that doctors who are not nice to be mentioned.

And this sentence:

That’s where you get the word of mouth advertising that money can’t buy.

Turned into:

It is here that the word of mouth that the money buy.I ‘m sure you can get very nice, but now worry later “must be set.”

Huh??

When you take articles from a site like EzineArticles, you promise to use the article as it was written, and to include the author’s resource box. But more and more often now I’m finding articles that have been altered with the resource box left in place. As you can guess, it bothers me a lot to have my name attached to gibberish, but as far as I can see, there’s not much any of us can do about it.

Anyway… be careful. Don’t ask some software to do your work for you, even if it does mean that you can be posted on 100 article sites in the time it takes to post to just one. Filling your blog or your website with bad writing just to add content makes no sense whatsoever. And sending those articles out under your own name in order build SEO with  links back to your site isn’t smart either.

More content is good – but only if it’s good content.

First, you have to come up with a title that someone searching will find. In other words, use the keywords that match the content of your article. It pays to do a little research before you choose those keywords.

Remember, you probably don’t want ones that are THE most sought-after on the internet. Go for some long-tail keywords that fewer people are searching for so that your article won’t just be lost in a vast sea. Trying to attract everyone could result in attracting no one.

Next, you have to write an article that shows your expertise in your chosen niche. Picking up someone else’s article and putting it through one of those article-altering software programs won’t do it! Neither will purchasing $5 articles from some PLR site.

Write something original. You can take ideas from other articles or blogs, but put your own twist on them. Give readers the value of your experience on the subject.

Make the information useful so that others reading it will want to pick it up to add to their own sites. Every time this happens you get an extra link back to your own site – a very good thing for search engine optimization.

Which brings me to the resource box. Take care when you write it, because it is your advertisement at the end of each article. Include a link back to your site and a teaser to lure people over to learn more.

I am constantly amazed by the number of articles I see with a useless resource box. Many say nothing more than “Mary Jones is a prolific writer and the mother of three.” So… so what?

Think about why someone should come and visit your site – what value they’ll recieve when they get there – then tell them.

Good articles will bring traffic to your website – and that’s what you need if you want to build your business on line.