What is Content Syndication?

Put in short, content syndication is the method in which information gets passed from site to site. Technically speaking, it is when a website ‘re-publishes’ another authors content, providing that the website has permission in which to do so.

Often, as content syndication is so simple and prevalent online, websites will generally credit the author for their work and provide a backlink back to the original article, thus blurring the issue of needing permission. This works in favour of both parties; the author gets free exposure for his/her works and the website can collate all useful information regarding a topic in one place.

The most ‘ethical’ method of content syndication is to provide a short excerpt of an article with the backlink available, ensuring the original content is viewed. Anyone who wishes to read the full article must visit the original authors page, thus increasing the traffic to their original piece.

As internet marketers, content syndication can be a great thing. You write an original blog post, let’s say, and put a link to it on one of the social networks. One of your friends is interested in the post, after viewing the excerpt, and visits your blog to finish reading it. From there, they may be interested in other content on your blog and keep clicking different articles or maybe even sign into your email list.

Possibly, they may also post the link to your article on their social networks too, thus increasing your exposure to their list of connections as well as yours! Again, with content syndication, everyone wins.

Let’s move this all to the present day. Internet marketers have cottened on to the value of content syndication and have cranked it up a notch. Instead of using a haphazard approach, many marketers have aligned themselves into content syndication groups often referred to as tribes. The concept of a tribe is very simple, it is a set group of members who syndicate each others content using the social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and Digg for example.

On joining one of these tribes, first off, you will have a whole new group of people who will be viewing your content. Secondly, you will also gain leverage of their connections on the social networks, which will exponentially grow your exposure. You are not solely going to be visible to the tribe but also to everyone in the networks too.

There are some expectations though. Don’t join a tribe and expect your content syndication to happen without you reciprocating everyone elses effort. There will, more-than-likely, be a system in place that rewards the best syndicators with an onus on syndicating their content on a specific week perhaps. So, the more effort syndicating you put it, the more content syndication you should receive.

So, if you are new to internet marketing and think that other people are ‘stealing’ your great new content, rest easy. What someone is doing, if they are posting links to your articles or blog posts, is actually doing you a massive favour and giving you lots of free exposure! But, what might also be nice is for you to reciprocate the favour!

If you see the value in content syndication, I am a member of the ‘Tribe Syndication Association‘ which is a free gang to join of like-minded individuals, they are also pretty nice too! May be worth a look

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