I guess the old adage that you get what you pay for holds true. After finding several relatively inexpensive articles in a niche that I was developing, I decided to buy the exclusive rights to the articles from a fellow DP'er. The author had a great iTrader rating, had lots of great comments, and was actively selling content. Articles were advertised as "keyword rich", "hand written", "copyscape passed" and "original". I would receive the exclusive rights to the articles, a one-time sale. I've bought a pile of content through similar transactions, and many different authors and had always got what I paid for. After sending payment, receiving the articles, something wasn't right. The word documents contained some embedded HTML code, which led me to believe that these articles were a cut / paste job and that I had been duped. A quick search in Google led me direct to the articles - they were previously published. The seller wasn't even the author, he just copied, pasted the articles in a word document and was reselling someones work. I heard horror stories of similar instances here on DP, but this was the first time I experienced it personally. The seller promptly refunded my money, no questions asked. Yet, I still see this same author selling more articles today. Now with that being said, I purchased another set of articles for the same niche, from a different author, and these were exactly what was promised.
You're totally right. The quality of the content that comes from DP is totally hit or miss. Sometimes it's great, other times it stinks!
I think it was because I busted him - sad thing, he's still selling articles which I know are probably ripped off.
Get samples and read other people's reviews before making a purchase of content. Plus outline exactly what you want. You should be covered then. Finding good content writers is like finding a diamond in the ruff.
Sysbase is right. I write and sell content and I can tell you that the best way to insure original work is to be as specific as possible about your demands upfront. Unless it's a plr, why not make demands on the writer?
I realize the pitfalls of buying content. I just got contacted by another individual who is actively selling content on here, offered 5 articles that would pass "copyscape". He gave a sample of his writing and I did a quick search. Found all the articles in Google and already published on a very obscure blog. LOL! I guess PM spamming and offering to sell someones work is acceptable here on DP now. It is happening almost daily to me since expressing interest in some articles.
Well, it's fine if you have some experience with writing but how about those who don't? I guess it all boils down to reliability. You can ask for samples before getting all of the content. If not, get a freelance writer.
The old addage is that if something is too good to be true, it probably is. You can buy content or content writers from India for incredibly cheap. Usually around $0.01 per word, or even less - that's fine, if you want your website to look like it was created by a 4 year old. As we all know, content is king. If a reader comes onto your site and finds the content to be well written, informative and accurate, they'll more than likely come back. They'll be more willing to use your site to its full potential. If the content is awful, poorly written and fill of spelling - people will run away and not come back to that site. That's why, when offering content creation services, I charge a fair bit more than your average outsourced work but I take pride in my work.
I guess this is a problem we all have to deal with. The number of scammers here on DP increased rapidly during the last year ...