Re: A search-engine question....

I don't know if Margaret's right or wrong; and neither does she or anyone else as far as what SEs may do in the future.

> OK, articles. I can't remember where I saw it, but I have seen a couple of
> discussions about duplication of content on articles directories. One
> argument suggests that, because the domain name, category names and other
> links on the pages are different in each case, the search engines don't
> see the content as being duplicate.
Margaret, not looking to be confrontational with this comment, but there are discussions on many things on the internet. What I have found is that many of these discussions are based on faulty information. What I try to do is read various viewpoints and weigh them to see if they're logical.

> My feeling is that that is only going
> to last for a limited amount of time
Why do youi feel this way? Article syndication is growing by leaps and bounds. What are the chances that CNN or Yahoo or other big sites are going to be penalized for publishing others' stuff?
The internet needs content and information and the capacity to gobble up any and all seems to be infinite.

>and I'd make an article directory on
> a specific niche subject within the FIB remit;
I think that's why most directories have categories. To put the articles in their correct place. The categories are the niches.

>if you don't put on Google
> Adsense, but link to your toolbox, there's quite a good chance that you
> could earn some extra dollars by the traffic generated.
Don't know about adsense, but I'd look at what the successful directories are doing.
The one thing that no one has thought of is how much work this will be for someone to administer. In order to be worthwhile,MaaMaw, you may want to consider monetizing, somehow.
Many of these places charge a fee of some kind or another. It's admirable to want to provide a free service, but I'm afraid that it may lose it's luster to you if you do this for free.

> Further, if you decide to publish articles warning about the latest scams,
> I'd also suggest checking that you don't incur any legal liability because
> of something published by another author.

I agree with Margaret. I'd suggest you find out how to keep from being sued for copyright violations.

> To safeguard your FIB site, you might like to consider registering another
> domain and running an articles directory there :O

I don't know if a separate domain ... are necessary or not but I'd sure put a link to it from here.