Yuck. I don’t know how some people can stay so blissfully ignorant, but it’s beyond gross. You can use “facts” from other articles. But that requires quotes, sourcing, etc. Not making sure your language hits some arbitrary percentage of originality.

I didn’t used to think it could get worse than “bum marketing.” LOL But every few years it’s the same thing. Some skeazy marketing type takes a legit concept (longtail searches, authority content, etc.), slaps a stupid name on it, dumbs it down until it has questionable value, and acts like they’re some sort of business mastermind. It’s so gross. But sadly there are always people w/o the experience of having seen it a half dozen times who fall for it, hoping for an quick fix.

Skyscraper content. Another phrase to be wary of. Ugh.

Jenn, I once had a job “offer” from a company that told me the articles I’d be writing were to be “55 percent original” — they wanted me to take two or three articles and “rephrase” what was there to make a new article. For $50 per.

You can imagine the note I sent back both turning down and condemning the practice. Woman had the balls to respond “No, the writers will be creating new articles, just using the facts from these articles. It’s perfectly legitimate.”

Right. Theft is now “legitimate.”

This resurfaced on a larger scale with the “skyscraper content” BS being promoted by well-known (and often rather sleazy) marketers. It’s the opposite of this ad length-wise though. If it’s about the same, it’s “spinning.” Not sure how they think shorter versions is “curation.” But when you take info from multiple sources and turn it into a much larger article now it’s “skyscraper content.” Just as pathetic. But marketers now pretend that length equals authority or better quality. In the end, if you can’t write about something without ripping off other authors, you add no value, and you’re little more than a copyright-infringing creep. When exactly did these folks forget creating derivative works without permission is still copyright infringement?

One of my clients occasional hires me to edit and review content from new writers. He just had me give editorial feedback on the worst I’ve seen (and he confirmed he won’t be working with them moving forward thankfully). They were much like what you describe here.

In addition to the atrocious grammar and flat out false “facts” with no sourcing, nearly the whole thing was plagiarized. Not from a single source, but they were pulling a line or two from each site they linked to. No quoting. No attribution other than tucking the link into the text in odd places.

I’ve seen a lot of this on a smaller scale over the years — “writers” thinking they can use others’ words as long as they link to them. But this was on a whole different level.

I think I know the person you’re talking about, but sadly, there are many others promoting this lazy “business model.” The one I’m thinking of was the person I first heard use the term “mash up,” back when Glee was a popular series and did a musical mashup in almost every episode (my favorite: “Singing’ in the Rain” with “Umbrella”).

It was 2-3 months ago, but I never heard from them one way or another, not even a “Thanks for letting us know about the problem you encountered.”

Another thing on your point there, Paula — it’s the content regurgitation issue. There is a well-known writer who not only practices that behavior, but promotes it to their audience of newbies. I’m sorry — at some point I have to speak out about that. I won’t name the source, but I remember the posts that told people how to create these “curated” bits and turn them into “original” content. That is NOT original. That’s just theft from more than one source.

The karma that awaits anyone who pushes that kind of practice is going to be huge.

AARP is interesting. I knew someone who worked for them full time, and he liked it there (and his role led to books that got him on Oprah). They seem well-run, but there’s always the situation where there’s too much to do and too little staff to handle it all.

Good for you for alerting them to the issue. Hopefully, they can get someone to fix it.