Tailored news feed service.

[Shipper]

Hi all,

In my quest to improve my SEO I wonder about the value of this offer:-

I've been approached by http://www.directnews.co.uk/# and this page explains all. They want me to sign up for their news feed services. The costs are £1k/month with a 12 month contract and claim to write 60 articles per month!

Seems like a lot of money and a lot of articles.

Your comments and opinions would be welcomed.

Many thanks

[RedEvo]

That's £16/article which is neither the most expensive nor the cheapest so no issues with that. They may well be spinning the articles but so long as they do this well again that shouldn't be an issue.

Getting goods content out there onto decent sites with links to your site will do you no harm.

d

[Shipper]

Hi d

Thanks for that link and I suppose £16 an article doesnt sound too bad since you mention it.

I do just wonder what the quality will be like at 3 articles a day.

I'm looking for some input an inspiration on my site if you want to contact me off board?

Thanks again.

Shipper.

[theonlything]

Woah, I have never paid that much for articles...at most I would spend 10 quid each article. If they're spinning them...definitely not more than 5 quid each!

What are you thinking of using them for?

[Shipper]

Hi,

We do have a lot of fair amount of sensible newsworthy things to say about the company and the industry in general and hopefully this activity will help with page rank and natural search.

I'm rapidly going off 'Direct News' as they are trying to hard sell me on a daily basis. I have asked to put in phone contact with exisiting satisfied customers which they are 'working on' but so far nothing. 60 articles a month is a lot and I am very dubious now about the quality of what I might get.

Shipper.

[theonlything]

Like with anything...if they can't provide the references from satisfied customers pretty easily, then there's definitely something not right.

[Frantic Fish]

at most I would spend 10 quid each article

£16 an article... 3 articles a day

Unless you have a gifted student or overseas writer from a poor country with excellent Engish, I'd imagine they're going to be pretty poor.

How much do you want to earn a day?
How many articles worth reading (ah, there's a thought) do you think you can write in a day about your business?

[Shipper]

How many articles worth reading (ah, there's a thought) do you think you can write in a day about your business?

I think I'd struggle, after a few days, to write 1 worthwhile article a day.

Thanks for your input.

Shipper.

[Frantic Fish]

You're in the freight business right? There's always angles for articles and handy information to share. Here's a few off the top of my head (with no knowledge of your niche):

- toll roads/bridges in the UK (or Europe)
opportunity to develop a widget route planner - expensive but expensive linkbait is useful linkbait and generates tons of links. Is there anything free like that in your industry?

- packing advice for people moving (I mean specialist packing advice for specific items as well as general advice, size of crate, weight, even what styrofoam to use)

- how to load a van/lorry

- storage advice, compare facilities and prices - best deal for a few items / best deal for a whole house
again a widget that spits out best quotes could be handy, or a widget that shows people their nearest based on postcode

There must always be news concerning the industries you rely on - baggage handlers (disputes, legislation) customs.

Sending presents abroad - ones that travel well ones that don't (food regulations, import/export duties). Per type of item, per country, cross-referenced this topic alone could yield one hundred articles, all distributed to community portals and welfare sites over here that have great links like .govs etc.

That's just a start. You ship everything by any means anywhere. There are tons of angles to write useful content that touches your business and loads of great sites to get links from!

[Lingua21]

Unless you have a gifted student or overseas writer from a poor country with excellent Engish, I'd imagine they're going to be pretty poor.

Hi,

I'm not too proud to admit this but at the weekend I bought a copy of SEO for Dummies in order to fill in a few gaps in my SEO knowledge. It has a section on article writing and suggests that low cost English speaking article writers based in South Africa can usually cut the mustard and are worth a bit of a punt.

If I were in your shoes, which ever company you go for, I would want to purchase a few sample articles before I went for the whole hog.

Another thing to do in your case would be to create a glossary on your website for the freight business which should be a bit of a no-brainer. Google normally likes this sort of stuff and it is very easy to attract links to a glossary from high profile sites once you have a decent number of terms.

On our site we have a glossary for Italian Gastronomy which has given us a bit of a boost in terms of traffic and credibilty. I have just added another one on Italian Calcio which I'm just about to forward on to our Engand coach. They can also be used as advertising vehicles.

All the best - Mike Dove