A popular method of search engine optimization is article spinning. In an effort to create large quantities of “original” content, or a less honorable attempt to disguise another’s original content as your own, some people utilize a shortcut called article spinning, sometimes in an effort to create large quantities of backlinks to their websites, and sometimes to simply take credit for the creation of information.
Article spinning works by taking an original piece of content and putting it into a software program that will make suggestions for changing many of the words, while keeping the same theme and context of the original article. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_spinning
It is suggested that a minimum of 30% of the “spun” article must be changed in order for automated programs to believe that the content is new, original, or other than a duplicate of the original content. See http://www.ehow.com/how_2086253_use-article-spinning-seo.html
There are a few schools of thought on the ethics of article spinning, but one rule appears universal; and that is if you are going to spin an article, make sure it is a well-written original content solely attributable to you (the author), and that you are not simply copying another’s content, running it through a spending program, in trying to pass off as your own. Despite the technology involved, this would still be stealing. In addition, article spinning is generally used as a method of getting information out to many different blogs, article databases, and other areas for article submission, all creating backlinks to your own personal or business website. In turn, the search engine will give your website greater credence at an earlier stage of development than it would to a wholly organic method of search engine optimization.
As an experiment, I utilized free online spinning software, which I will not reference in this article (no free plugs for the shortcut service), but which can be easily obtained through a quick Yahoo! search, and spun original content as well as copied content to see if the article submission portals would be able to differentiate between the two.
For full disclosure, and respect for the authors whose original content I was spinning, none of the materials, either original or borrowed, was fully submitted for publication, as the experiment was to see the sophistication in both the spinning software, as well as the detection methods utilized by the article submission portals. I am very pleased to report that each and every of the copied articles was detected as such, despite the fact that I changed well in excess of 30% content, which gave me a level of satisfaction as to the quality of the article submission portals editorial and research process, as well as a sense of security for the protection of an authors original content.