Reality about Article Exchange

Reality about Article Exchange, by: Rich Brunelle

I recently read an article regarding websites and considerations writers should take when selecting sites to submit their written works to. And, as I believe that a good deal of the Internet Community accepts most of the information they read from such articles to be truthful and correct, a little additional information need be presented.

Article Exchanges are web sites where professionals (in their field) can submit articles about topics they are knowledgeable of, so that the Internet Public may download and reprint or publish to their web site the article as free content. One of the expectations is that the article will be published to numerous web sites creating both linkage for search engines to spider and promotion of the writers web site, business, or product.

Most of the sites that serve as Article Exchange sites advice writers that their written works are being made available for FREE download and reprint/republish by the Internet Community as FREE Content. Some further advise writers that if they charge a fee or do not wish their work distributed as FREE Content, not to submit their work to their site.

There are sites that you can post your unpublished manuscript and expect your copyright to be respected. And, there are sites where you know your copyright will get instantly abused. An Article Exchange site kind of lies middle ground. The writer expects their work to get used by others, so the writer grants reprint/republish rights to the user. An Article Exchange site is not the place for a professional writer to publish their work. Although there are some that do on occasion.

The best expectation for respect for copyrights is a site that specifies one time reprint/republish rights. In other words, the user may publish the writer’s article one time, to any media. But, the user may not publish it to multiple print media such as books or magazines. However, this would only be of concern to the professional writer, because any other writer submitting his article to an Article Exchange hopes and prays that their article gets the widest and farthest distribution possible.

That raises another issue from the article written by the writer that prompted this article. That writer spoke of a selection process for what sites to submit articles to. This only applies to Professional Writers. It does not apply to Professionals that write and submit their work to Article Exchanges as a means of web site promotion. “Professionals that write” want their articles to be reprinted everywhere, even if they have to do it themselves. Each reprint read is a prospective visitor to their site, a link for a search engine, and an online atta-boy by those that use it.

In closing, I note that some of my favorite Article Exchanges advise Users to contact the writer for reprint permission. I have spent hours trying to ascertain how to contact most of the writers whose work I have used. No writer should expect to be contacted regarding reprint rights of articles from Article Exchanges if they don’t affix a contact method to their article. Failure to provide such information is indicative of the writers release of obligation for such contact.