Work From Home Online Guide

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Last month I posted a comparison of Unique Article Wizard and Article Marketing Automation that’s drawn a lot of search traffic and some requests for follow-up. Here’s what I’ve learned after using UAW for three months and AMA for a month and a half.

Price: UAW is $67 a month; AMA is $47 a month.

Ease of Use: UAW spins your article by having you write three versions of each paragraph and mixing and matching them. It allows you to vary entire sentences within the paragraph and even write different content altogether for each spin. AMA uses the more traditional approach of having you substitute different words using curly brackets and the pipe symbol. For example, a sentence written “All dogs {like|love} bones” would publish randomly as “All dogs like bones” or “All dogs love bones.” AMA works from the basic structure of each sentence, so your paragraphs will look more alike. I personally find it easier to substitute synonyms with the AMA system than to write different sentences with the UAW system, and I wish that UAW would add an AMA type of spinner to its system.

Duplicate Content: neither UAW nor AMA pass Copyscape 100%. A really thorough rewrite in AMA with 10 spins for each sentence will get you pretty close, but that’s even more work than UAW’s system. I’ve given up on worrying about duplicate content—I used to believe the conventional wisdom that Google only ranks the site with the best backlinks and ignores the others, but then one of my colleagues suggested that I google “carrot juice has many health benefits” and all 10 results on page 1 of the SERPs have identical content. Now I’m a believer. But I still avoid duplicate content in the following instances:
* I don’t submit duplicate content to high-quality sites like Ezine Articles and Hubpages. These sites want original content because of their own internal rules, not because of Google’s rules, so that’s what I give them. (I’ve been known to submit a UAW or AMA spin to Ezine before sending it out through the article service, though, and it’s worked every time).
* I don’t submit duplicate content to any article distribution service (UAW, AMA, etc.), because that’s part of their user agreement.
* I don’t put duplicate content on any site that I’ve monetized, such as with AdSense, Amazon Affiliate, or eBay Partner Network, because Google doesn’t like thin sites set up only to make money.

Quality of Network: there’s just no comparison; the worst article directory in UAW’s network compares favorably with the best site in AMA’s network. UAW might at least screen their network applicants before approving, while all you have to do to include AMA material on a site is send them your URL. I’ve had articles appear on UAW sites as high as PR2; a few of them are still PR2. With AMA, I’ve followed my pingbacks and ended up at some really spammy looking sites with multiple pop-under windows that I can’t close and the like. The vast majority of these sites weren’t even indexed by Google, which means they’re useless for backlinks. I’ve had some of my UAW submissions drop off the site’s home page before they could be indexed, but at least the home page was indexed.

Resource Box: UAW gives you two links in a resource box at the end of your article. AMA lets you put two links in the body of your article. I’ve read that Google gives more weight to AMA’s system, although how much more is anybody’s guess. I also find UAW’s spinner for the resource box hard to use, but I’m probably trying too hard to vary the text. Keep it simple…you know the rest.

Affiliate Program: both services offer an affiliate program. Both services are closemouthed about how much they pay their affiliates and when.

Results: UAW made a noticeable difference in my traffic. AMA didn’t.

Verdict: starting in July, I’m going back to UAW. It’s more expensive than AMA, but the quality of the network is everything with this type of service. If you’re new to SEO and have no choice but to run the article marketing treadmill, then choose the service that will give you the most return for your hard work—even if it costs a little more.