How to Extend the Life of Outsourced Articles

Are you a webmaster who outsources your article writing projects?  If so, you may buy an article, post it to your website and then move on.  Yes, this approach is okay, but did you know that you can extend the life of your outsourced articles?  You can.

Before focusing on how you can extend the life of your outsourced articles, know why you should.  Doing so gets you a better value for your money.  An article that has a shelf life of a year or more is a better value than one that won’t be helpful to readers in another week.

Extending the life of your outsourced articles can also help you generate income for weeks, months, or years to come.  This ties in with getting the best value for your money.  If you make money through the use of affiliate programs or with the selling of a product, traffic is important.  When you extend the life of an outsourced article, that article should keep on generating traffic for you overtime.  It won’t just provide you with a sudden burst of visitors.

As for how you can extend the life of your outsourced articles, rewrite them.  You can do this yourself or outsource the work.  For article rewrites, hire someone who specializes in them.  Rewriters tend to charge less than writers who only write original articles from scratch. 

Rewriting your outsourced articles or hiring someone else allows you to get multiple uses out of your purchased articles.  You can do so without receiving a penalty from the search engines, which tend to dislike duplicate content.  With rewriting, you do not have to create a completely new article.  Often times, rewording every other sentence and changing a few paragraphs works.  You can also add length or shorten them.

Since you paid full price to have the original articles outsourced, add these articles to your website.  They tend to be of better quality than rewritten articles.  As for the rewrites, distribute them online.  You can get started with article directories, which are great traffic generators.  Be sure to include a link back to your website with each article submitted. 

Rewritten articles can also be added to your blog.  In fact, are you using a blog as marketing tool?  Although a good percentage of your focus should be placed on your website, as it will provide you with the most earnings, a blog can be an effective marketing tool.  Use your rewritten articles as blog postings.  You can shorten them or divide the articles into different segments.  To generate traffic for your website, be sure to link back to it.

Most importantly, choose your outsourced topics wisely.  Some article topics have a longer shelf life than others.  For example, the Apple iPhone is popular in 2008, but that doesn’t mean it will be in 2010.  As for the original outsourced article, paying for quality is important, but don’t pay too much for an article you can only use for a short period of time.

On that same note, remember rewriting.  If you want an article on the Apple iPhone in 2008, have your hired writer do so.  They can write an introductory article outlining what the phone is, how to buy it, the benefits of doing so, and what features are available.  You can spin that article so that a new version focuses on making use of the phone’s features.  This article will be useful to readers and iPhone owners later down the road, even after the popularity for this product has worn off.

As highlighted above, there are a number of ways that you can extend the life of an outsourced article.  Doing so is optional, but why not try it?  If you can rewrite your own articles or find a cheaper rewriter to do so for you, you have nothing to lose.  Your readers will love seeing a professionally written article on your website, while you may enjoy seeing the traffic those reworked articles generate.

                                                                                                            - Mohammed Zahran -