free website content?
 

Ive read numerous articles on free website content. In other words, what I interpreted it as was content that you could put on your site to add value to your site that wasn't copyrighted, and that all you had to do was give proper credit where credit is due. (in other words, dont take credit for something you didn't write)

however I was also wondering, for a site like mine (thats currently down right now) that my site would be used nothing more than a proverbial "gathering place" for loads of information....would it be ethical to do it as long as you didnt take credit for the writing...

my site would be only taking credit for 1. being the gathering place, and 2. for the articles that I myself write (which would be specially marked...)

It would be kinda like youtube so to speak. meaning that youtube did not take credit for all those videos that others did (we're excluding obvious copyright infringement here...) they just took credit for being the one gathering place for them all...

Oh and before any of you think of how I know its free content:

I went to Freesticky: An index of free web site content, free content providers and self publishing resources. News feeds, financial content, jokes, royalty free photos and images, free articles, tickers, weather, games, comics, riddles and more. and typed in a few keywords in the search engine, and up came some websites for free content for your website...

any POSITIVE help would be appreciated....

My Site has a similar setup, where people can post their own written lists, and they take 100% credit for anything they submit and I publish (as long as they don't steal the content themselves).

So, I don't see any ethical problems with it, as long as credit is given where it is due, like you said.

I like to think if big compaines like Youtube, or Ezine articles can do it, why can't you?

The problem isn't one of ethics.
If you just cut and past free content you probably lack the focus, that is required in your nitch.

You have to focus on your costumers instead of searching for an easy way to make money online. Does your site create added value for your visitors?

I subscribe to lifehacker because they search the web for good Personal Development posts and I don't have to read all they blog they read but can still read good posts from them.
They filter out the junk.
If you just look for free content and gather that on your website, you serve your visitors the junk.
Why should visitors visit your site instead of the other sites that publish the same free articles? Where do you add your bonus value for your visitors that distingushs you from the other sites?

Oh yes, there will be articles that I write myself that will be specially marked. These other articles in theory will be used to jumpstart my website's visitors...(i.e. get ppl interested enough to go to my website and spend some time on it...) so that I can have time to write my articles of veterinary related content, (as I have more frequent cases of 'writers block' than I would like to admit!!)

and as far as the "junk" its far far FAR from it...I agree with you that I hate the meaningless junk such as the 'win a free ringtone for doing [insert here]" or something of the sort.

no, these are original articles of HIGH value as they are written by a veterinarian! And since my site is "your one stop shop for anything and everything Veterinary", I thought it would be highly appropriate...:D They are articles such as dealing with arthritis in older animals, dealing with intestinal parasites, etc....its really good highly related non-junk content....TRUST ME on that one!!!:cool:

Warning: Search engines may refuse to list your pages, because the original author/post is the canonical reference and purely duplicate content does not add value.

While it may be legal, it is not a good strategy. For every YouTube, there are 100 also-rans you've never heard of.

I don't see anything wrong with your idea, Jess. It sounds like you're going after good content and giving credit where credit is due.

Just because that article is also somewhere else, doesn't mean your readers are going to see it on that other website! And if you can keep fresh new stuff for them, they'll come back to yours.

I also thought of it as a way of doing a favor for the other website: meaning if the original content website had a link that was dead, or if their server was down for a specific amount of time....but the same link was not dead on my website, and I had a server that was not down at that moment then the visitors wouldnt miss the valuable information. I like to think of my website as a reliable backup website for the original content websites and their servers.....what do y'all think??

Are you hoping to beat Google at their own game? They have a cache, you know. So does the "Wayback Machine".

IMHO you should focus on your Unique Competitive Advantage.

You don't need to justify it; if you can take content that's licensed for use on other sites or short pieces of interesting articles and use it to create a website that puts together information in a compelling way, you'll get well-deserved traffic. Some of the biggest websites just link to other interesting sites, so it's nothing new. The only thing that's wrong is if you take full articles without permission and try to pretend they're your own.