by Joe Wallace
I recently read two blogs offering excessively bad advice to writers. One blog suggested you re-write “public” articles and monetize them on places like Squidoo, Associated Content, and HubPages. The source given for these “public” articles, also known as public label rights articles or PLR articles, had a large number of “Make money online” articles full of bad information and advice that can actually get you kicked out of the Google Adsense program.
Advising people to take advantage of PLR articles isn’t necessarily bad advice in and of itself, but I take exception with pointing people towards a collection of articles specifically about Adsense, Google Adwords and other specialized topics with high data turnover without at least a warning to check your facts first.
The advice in those crappy PLR articles is dangerous because it’s old and no longer safe to use with Adsense in many cases. But the average article re-writer won’t know that because you have to actually READ the labyrinth of Google’s Terms of Service. Folks, when it comes to highly specialized information, your reputation is on the line every time you publish, even if you’re just posting on EzineArticles. It’s YOUR name on that crap.
Another website aimed specifically at freelancers stated unequivocally, “Being a free agent who works for free has its perks.” The author of this one opened with “Free is the new paid.” I tried that line on my landlord and she laughed in my face.
This article was full of treats, like this gut-busting gem; “With so many people able to access any place at any time,” the writer says, “there simply aren’t enough distinguished experts to help fill the void that would exist if we didn’t have things like youtube.com.”
If anyone understands what that means, please get in touch.
The Internet has always been a bad place to get good advice. There is a skewed signal-to-noise ratio for highly specialized topics, and real experts are often hard to find. Some of my fellow writers contend that having a playing field full of idiots dispensing bad advice actually helps us freelance pros.
The clowns actually help us raise our rates. One of my favorite fellow writers tells me she’s had clients turn her down because of higher rates, only to come running back with open arms once they’ve tasted the fruits of some cheapjack writer who gives their work away for a song. It’s true, you really DO get what you pay for.
