Buying content... then using it. Plus your opinions on cost.

[JamieC]

I've just had an interesting meeting with a guy from an "old media turned new media" company who wants to sell me XML feeds of content for a couple of websites.

So here are my questions.

1. Techy Details
Does anyone have any experience of taking a continuously updated XML feed, and publishing it in an SEO-friendly format using IIS/mySQL? My first thoughts are to write a VB script and schedule it to pull down the XML at regular intervals, and write it to a database. The script could also create a new .aspx file in the website that talks to the database. This way, we retain SEO friendlyness without sacrificing the integrity or future usefulness of the data. Any comments?

2. Business Details
They're charging a shade under £500 a month for a unique article written to our editorial guidelines daily, plus all the syndicated news we want on a particular topic. They're also throwing in a few extras for good measure, such as keyword research and images, and they're not locking us into a long-term contract. What do people think? Are there a lot of companies out there that do this? Is this a bad deal?

3. SEO Details
A great deal of our current traffic comes from typeins, and we're trying to get listed on the search engines, plus build a little more real-world appeal than link farms. What are people's opinions on the advantage that this sort of volume of unique content will give us?

I will of course post a follow up summarising my findings for the rest of the forum!

Thanks in advance,

Jamie

[JSource]

All sites are different, but I use freelance writers to provide all my content. With some sites you can't really do this, but the sites I have are on pretty common subjects that most writers can write on. Now if it was a PHP or chemistry site this would take a certain knowledge base that not all writers could do.

For me cost can vary... I have spent $200 on an article and I have spent $20. it just depends on the subject, length, and the writer.

I don’t really follow the “ syndicated news” part of your package, does this mean news that other sites can use? If its syndicated can’t you use it anyway or do they only let certain people use it?

[JamieC]

I don’t really follow the “ syndicated news” part of your package, does this mean news that other sites can use? If its syndicated can’t you use it anyway or do they only let certain people use it?

As I understand it, the syndicated content is available to their clients only, making it quite a limited distribution.

Obviously £500 / month works out at £25 ($45) / article. To me that seems like a bargain. Most of their articles are of medium length (maybe 5-6 shortish paragraphs) but very well written. Plus they're coming in over a nice, easy to use and store XML feed...

Any other comments?

[JSource]

$45 an article is good that’s about the average I pay for a 800-1000 word article. I purchase most of mine at Constant-Content so I can see a sample before purchasing. I also toss projects up on enlace and scriptlance as well, but Its risky accepting a bid when you don't know the person. With the bid for project sites like elance and scriptlance it may take a couple bad projects until you find a good writer. Over all most of of profits go right back into content and so far it has worked out well.

I would recommend changing up writers so you don't get stick in one form of writing, its good to have all different types of formats and views. Even switching for US English to UK English is good as well.