I'm posting this here, as there is no other section (I'm aware of) for discussions related to writing. It's something I just discovered today. I found a thread on the Warrior Forum offering a software that converts the character encoding in articles. Apparently, the article looks exactly the same, yet, the characters are different. After searching, it looks like they even have this as a monthly subscription service. One example they used for this software was completely blackhat. Basically, it amounts to stealing content you find online. Yet, it does have white hat applications as well. You could do this to plr articles, and post them to web 2.0 sites with links back to your money site. But I would be amazed if Google isn't on to this. Certainly, they would be doing something to penalize this practice (and your sites)? I've read some reports saying these articles are indexed and great for SEO. Other reports saying they won't be indexed at all, and won't help you a bit. Honestly, I don't want to purchase articles like this. I had purchased cheap articles recently, and it made me think, what if they're encoded! I found this tool that enables you to check the coding, because these encoded articles will always pass Copyscape 100%. So, if you're depending on Copyscape, it won't catch this. When I really make the effort, I can write. Don't judge me by this post. It just takes so long, hours to write a 500 word article. With the encoding, this is not a shortcut I plan to ever take, but am just curious what your thoughts on all this?
Check out the warning on this website: http://www.contentboss.com/pass-copyscape.php Google is 100% capable of detecting this and will surely blacklist your website for it. I originally saw people talking about this back in early 2011. You're not going to gain anything as far as SEO is concerned through this method. The only place I can see you gaining an "unethical" edge here, is when you are building websites to sell. For example, you could put "unique" content on a made-to-sale blog and it will pass copyscape, however the content isn't unique. Furthermore, that site will soon be blacklisted. I don't think it's worth the risk. To quote:
Thank you. I kind of figured that must be the case - Google knows all! I'm glad when I checked the articles that I purchased, they hadn't been encoded.
Well, the shortcuts are always beneficial at first! But inevitably Google always catches up - and quick! Glad to hear you didn't get skunked, you tend to get what you pay for!
This is a great example of why I am not a fan of the WF. While there are some great people there who are sharing useful ideas and information there just seems to be many more folks who are looking for ways to steal from others to line their own pockets.
I think the sales threads on WF are funny. It seems no matter what, even if the product is garbage, every post in the thread will be something like this... Great! Life altering stuff!! Fantabulous, thank you ever so much! Gosh, I just can't wait to use this!! A+++++ Words cannot express how much I love this!!! All I can say is, WOW!!! I think it's just the culture of that forum. WF is very polite. On DP, if the product in a sales thread isn't that great, chances are someone will say so. With that said, I still like the WF, and have discovered some useful ideas there. I have an account at WF, but I just read rather than post.
Rebecca, you captured the essence of WF perfectly. Most of the time I just go there to have a chuckle at the people coming back a week or two later with an "Um... Ok it's not working anymore.......". Those sales threads are actually very useful for copywriters though, because despite the obvious dodginess of some of the products, the copywriting truly is superb... Lots of nice tricks and tips to pick up even for experienced copywriters.