Bad Business Ideas: Duplicate Content-Based Businesses

Have you ever come across a business "opportunity" that tells you that your "investment" will get you a website set up "just for you?"  It is not exactly a scam... But it's a really bad idea. First, the web page is just the same form web page that everybody gets.  Until and unless you have the skills to really personalize it, gut the pre-done content and make your own, you are holding a piece of useless duplicate content in your hands.  Its really no better than a template. This happens a lot in direct sales and its really a shame.  Here are the top reasons to avoid this:

  • Google penalizes duplicate content.  This means each web page that is
    sold brings everybody else's rankings down.  Your ratings have virtually
    no chance of increasing until you change the content.
  • Your website has no chance of standing out from any other website of any
    other person selling the same product.  Even if one of these websites does
    get noticed in the search listings it is just as likely to be your competitor's site
    as your own.
  • You lose credibility with a site that is very obviously a form site.  Unless
    the consumer just happens to want that product and finds your site in the
    right buying mood there is nothing on such a site to motivate him.  These sites
    do nothing to create a relationship for you.
  • The parent company doesn't really care about your success with these
    sites.  They win whether you get 100 sales or whether 100 people across
    100 sites gets 1 sale.  In fact, the second scenario is better because they
    don't have to write very large commission checks that way.

The only way to make a website work for you is to keep it original and to keep its attention on the user.   A company's offer to set up a website for you is essentially worthless and it actually works against you.  You could go to Squidoo and sell affiliate products off a lens it takes you 15 minutes to set up (though if you want great content it should probably take longer) and do better than you'll do with a duplicate content website.  You'd be better off using that time and money to build relationships than you would be using it to buy an essentially worthless webpage "franchise." Web pages are not McDonalds.  People want to find something unique on each and every page.  You can't franchise  a web page.  Don't even try. Hopefully this has advice saves you some money today.

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