In today’s world, where almost everyone has access to the internet and can upload anything they wish at any point, finding good and reliable content to consume online can be a task, especially when it comes to written content.
Every day, thousands of content mills churn out similar pieces of writing in the name of SEO and outbound linking to increase the popularity of their own product or website without adding any extra value through the content they create.
As a result, readers and consumers are left with hundreds of similar articles that talk about the same thing – without actually verifying truth from falsehoods or cross-checking any of the information that’s been passed on.
There are many non-ethical practices when it comes to content curation, so it’s important to keep track of them so you can avoid them. In this blog, we’re going to walk you through some of the best ways to curate content that truly adds value to the world without being another content mill that churns out repetitive content. We’ll take a look at how exactly you, as a writer, can strike a balance between originality and curation, so you can avoid plagiarism.
Let’s get started.
1. Accuracy and truth over easy and accessible
Any content curator worth their salt knows that the internet is filled with facts that are wildly untrue. This is because most other content curators and writers prefer to do what’s easy and accessible instead of what’s right.
This means that while curating content, you may often come across data backed up by a hundred different sites – however, this doesn’t necessarily make it true.
Many curators currently use AI-generated content on their sites, so it’s pretty common that the same content repeated in one website gets rewritten on multiple others since there’s no one to cross-check the content and break the cycle.
However, if you truly want to grow as a content curator, you need to be able to rethink everything you read on the internet and check if what you’re reading really is true or false. This involves a lot of research and can be time-consuming, but at the end of the day, you’ll be able to put out content that is true and can be proud of what you’ve created. This is one of the best ways to establish a site that readers will trust, especially when you back up anything you say with reliable sources.
2. The art of paraphrasing
As a curator, you’ll often have to refer to or use content that’s been written on other sites or works when putting together a piece that involves different sources. However, your work can quickly get flagged as plagiarism if you aren’t careful.
Instead of simply copying and pasting all the information you see, learning how to paraphrase content can build your skills as a curator while ensuring that your work doesn’t easily get pulled down for plagiarism.
Paraphrasing content can not only prevent plagiarism, but it can also allow you to bring some originality into the content you create. It gives you the opportunity to simplify heavy content, rewrite bland content, and even add your own thoughts to help other readers who are into research.
Moreover, summarizing large pieces of content into bite-sized and easy-to-understand content will automatically increase your online presence and visibility since most people prefer reading summaries over full blogs or articles, especially if they’re intense and very long.
It’s also best to run your work through a robust plagiarism checker to ensure that none of the content you create has the potential to be flagged in the future. Since there are many different types of plagiarism, you’ll need to check it thoroughly to ensure that you haven’t accidentally committed some form of it.
3. Giving credit goes a long way
A common mistake that many content curators make is forgetting to properly credit the original writers and thinkers who may have come up with the content they are currently curating or paraphrasing. It’s important to give credit where credit is due, especially if you’re using ideas that aren’t original.
Make sure you use a citation style that’s appropriate for your content and keep track of all the works you’re referring to (and their authors) so that you can use a citation creator and quickly add your citations at the end of your work. This way, it won’t be an additional step where you must manually add all your sources.
Another hidden benefit of citing your sources is that not only does it protect your work from getting taken down for plagiarism, but it also helps increase your SEO since your article will also get tracked by search engines any time someone searches for any of the authors you’ve referred to and their works. This way, your visibility also increases, and your credibility will as well, especially if more people visit your site.
4. Adding value to existing works
If you’re going to copy and paste information that already exists on multiple other sites, then there’s a high chance that your site will quickly get buried under a million others in no time, even if you work on your SEO.
However, if you add value to the content you curating by either rewriting the content in a way that’s understandable, sharing your own thoughts on the original content or simplifying the content you’re curating (especially if it’s intense and heavy), then you stand a chance of getting more followers who specifically come to your site to get the content that they know they’ll find only here, rather than seeing the same content that’s been written elsewhere generated here as well.
Adding personality and even a touch of humor also makes your content stand out, especially in a world where half the articles on the internet are all written by bots.
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