Defining “ORIGINAL CONTENT” and “EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS”
At EzineArticles, 
we only accept 100% original material for which you have exclusive rights. What does that mean exactly?
In a nutshell, it means the words in your articles are uniquely YOURS (a.k.a. You’ve written the article yourself). If you employ a ghostwriter, it means you are sure no other author is receiving any version of the same material.
Exclusive content is…
- Associated *only* with your author name
- Written by you personally from scratch, OR;
- Ghost written exclusively for you and no one else, from scratch
Exclusive content is not…
- Re-written from another article
- A combination of paragraphs, sentences, or article fragments re-arranged or re-worded from multiple sources
- Private Label Rights content or re-written PLR material
- Attributed to a company or organization
- Published under multiple different author names/ pen names
- Comprised primarily of sourced/ quoted material from others
- Lifted from the public domain
Here are some common questions:
I have rewritten my article to be 30% different from the original I received, so it is unique. Why won’t you accept it?
An article which was re-worded by 30% (or 50%, or 70%) is NOT 100% original; it’s derivative.
An argument we often hear is, “Of course my article is 30% copied. I can’t change the facts about my niche!”
This argument is used to justify derivative writing. We understand that you can’t change established facts, but if you channel your personal knowledge of “the facts” by writing from your own consciousness rather than relying on COPY+PASTE, the word combinations you choose will always come out 100% unique and original.
If my article passes a copy detection search, does that make it original?
Not necessarily. In our experience, authors who feel the need to see how many websites match their article before they submit it for review lack confidence in the originality of their work.
Copy detection searches are best used to see if anyone is copying YOU, not to see if you have copied someone else. If you are not certain that your article is a genuine original, it’s time to audit your writing style or find another ghostwriter.
I wrote the article, but it contains quoted definitions, statistics, and some sourced material. Is that okay?
Yes, as long as ALL quoted/sourced material is clearly identified as such within the article. If you quote definitions for common terms or include outside statistics, make sure you give credit where credit is due. Since we want you to share your OWN expertise, also take note that our Editorial Guidelines limit quoted/sourced material to a maximum of 3-5 lines.
The article is produced by and owned by my company. Can I submit it under my name on their behalf?
For an article to be considered “exclusive” to you, it must be your own copyright. If the content can rightfully be attributed only to an organization and not a person, it is best not to submit the article to us.
Writing original articles is hard work. How does it benefit ME?
Quality matters to your readers and to publishers. Readers are much more likely to click over to your site and make a purchase if they trust you. They will only trust you if you come across as a real person with unique insights.
Re-hashed and copied material does not offer unique insights, so it does not create trust with the reader or build an author’s legitimacy as an expert. That means less clicks and less sales. Even worse, authors who waste time rewriting articles will ultimately find their articles removed, accounts suspended, and memberships terminated.
KEY POINT: The effort it takes to write original articles is time well spent; the effort it takes to re-word copied “Frankenstein articles” is time wasted.
To Summarize…
We believe that writing 100% original articles that you own the exclusive rights to is inevitably the most beneficial and ethical practice not only for you, but your readers and article/ezine publishers as well.
Alan,
Your spot on. Passion about your subject will drive one to want to tell others about it. Articles is that door to let the world know. And writing should be easy. Heck, if I can do 100 articles in one month, then it should be a no-brainer for other folks.
Bob :-)
November 3, 2009 at 12:16 AM[Reply]