WRITERS ARE THE PUBLISHER'S AND WEBMASTER'S BEST FRIEND
As a writer of free-reprint articles, I know full well the
intentions of the writer's who make their articles available
to publishers and webmasters as *free* content.
When the game is played correctly, the free web content is able
to provide value to everyone involved. The people who benefit
from the content includes the people who read it, the ezine
publisher who publishes it, the webmaster who posts it on their
website, the advertisers who support the publishers, and the
writers who take the time and initiative to develop the content.
But, when the rules of the game are broken, everyone suffers.
THE BENEFITS OF FREE CONTENT
As writers, we fully appreciate the value gained by everyone
from the distribution of free-reprint articles.
- The End User -
The people who read the content benefit from the knowledge that
is being shared with them. The content usually helps them to
learn something he or she has wanted to learn.
The article might teach someone how to make a tasty Cajun
chili. It might teach someone how to help their children with
the problems that children face everyday. The article might
even teach someone how to overcome the obstacles to owning
and operating a successful online business.
- The Ezine Publisher -
The ezine publisher is constantly under pressure to deliver the
kind of content that their readers want, which is necessary to
attract and keep readers for their publication.
- The Webmaster -
The vast majority of Internet surfers use the search engines
as a starting point on their active hunt for information and
products. Recognizing this fact, webmasters often use free
content to build their keyword ratings in the search engines,
thereby improving upon their chances of being located by
Internet searchers.
The hope is that by providing targeted content to search engine
users, webmasters can bring in people who are ideally suited to
purchasing their products or services.
- The Advertiser -
The advertiser benefits from the free content by having a good
ezine or website on which to advertise their products and
services. The stronger the ezine or website, the more likely
the advertiser's money will provide a good return on investment
for the advertiser.
- The Writer -
Writers honestly do not create content for ezine publishers or
webmasters from a purely altruistic point of view.
In fact, just as the reader, publisher, webmaster and advertiser
do, writers also receive a benefit from the content they create.
Through the *article resource box*, writers also have the
opportunity to create traffic and sales for their own businesses.
The *resource box* is the real reason writers make their content
available to the world.
To protect their own rights, writers usually include a *Terms
of Reprint* with their articles. Hyperlinking URL's is often a
very important component of the writer's *Terms of Reprint*.
*Free-reprint rights* does not mean that there is no cost
involved with using the content --- it only means that their
is no monetary cost for using the content. The actual cost of
using a *free-reprint article* is that the *Terms of Reprint*
must be honored in full.
When a publisher or webmaster breaks the writer's *Terms of
Reprint*, the writer's legal position to seek monetary payment
is assured --- even when the article was released as a
*free-reprint article.*
BASIC TERMS OF FREE-REPRINT
? You must leave the resource box unedited.
? You may not change the recommendations or context of the
body of the article.
? You may not use this article in UCE (Unsolicited Commercial
Email). Email distribution of this article must be opt-in
email only.
? You must forward a copy of the ezine or newsletter that
contains the article inside to the author's email address.
? If you post this article on a website, you must set the links
up as hyperlinks, and you must send the author a copy of the
URL where the article is posted.
WHY THE TERMS OF REPRINT ARE IMPORTANT
Writers are in the same boat as the publisher and webmaster.
They have started their online business for the purpose of
making money from their website. For the writer, the article
that they provide to others provides a small advertisement for
the writer's business in the writer's resource box at the end
of each article. This small advertisement in the resource box
of the article IS the writer's payment for all of his or her
hard work.
Webmaster's spend a lot of their time building links to their
websites for the purpose of promoting their own websites. Yet,
for some reason, some publishers and webmasters think it is
okay to cheat the writer of the same benefit.
THE LINE IN THE SAND
If you are using a free-reprint article in your ezine or on
your website and you are not following the *Terms of Reprint*
to a tee, then you are in violation of those terms and using
the content illegally.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Here is the deal, if you don't honor the *Terms of Reprint*
associated with a free-reprint article, then the writer has
every right to ask for a cash payment from you for the use of
the article. Should you choose to continue to deny payment,
the writer has every right to contact your webhost and make
them aware of your violations of Copyright Law.
Read the *Terms of Service* from your webhost provider --- I
guarantee you that your webhost provider explicitly prohibits
the use of illegally obtained content on your website. Failure
to adhere to the writer's *Terms of Reprint* could realistically
result in your site being shut down by your webhosting provider.
Considering that you could be put out of business by using the
writer's content illegally, wouldn't it make much more sense
to honor the writer's stated *Terms of Reprint*?
Do the right thing. Use our content that we are kind enough to
provide to you, AND make certain that you honor our *Terms of
Reprint* on every point. Your future success could depend on
all of the decisions you make concerning your use of OUR
content, which we are kind enough to make available to you.
MAKE NO MISTAKE
We writer's really do want you to use our content. We want for
you to be successful, and we know that our content can help you
to find the success you are seeking. In our hearts, we really
do have an altruistic nature, but we must watch out for our
own interests also.
The content we develop requires a lot of time and hard work
--- this article alone took more than 12 hours from idea to
fruition. We do need to be paid for our work, even when we
do not require a cash payment for our work.
Hyperlinking the URL's on a website and in an HTML ezine is
very important to our success. It is also important to your
success since your failure to hyperlink could result in your
not being able to use our content, and could even result in
the termination of your online business.
Let us continue to work together in a way that benefits both of
us. We will continue to create the content that will help make
you a success. And you will pay us for our work by including
our resource box with the article and hyperlinking the URL's
in our resource box.
Let's face it. We both need one another. Let us continue to
work together in a way that will continue to benefit all of
us. Do the right thing.
Bill Platt is the owner of http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com
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