Revisiting Our Best-Sellers

[J. A. Young]

Ideally we should never run out of things to write about and as someone who doesn't mind researching a wide array of topics I know there is always something new to focus on. That said--if I am only selling lingerie articles (hypothetically) it behooves me financially to stick to lingerie. Now for the touchy part--well, it feels touchy to me--How do our writers revisit old subject matter? Naturally, we can't plagarize our previous entries, but are we allowed to write about push-up bras if we've already written about push-up bras? What is admin's advice for revisiting the same subject matter? Another, not-so-hypothetical topic, I've written about Japanese Rock Gardens and goodness knows why, but I'd like to write about them again. Am I safe if I just approach it fresh without even looking back at my old article. Is it ok to simply write it up differently or organize it differently? Any thoughts on this from admin or other writers who would like to revisit feng shui, vitamin B12, morning sickness or whatever other topic they've had some success with?
--Jennifer

[Celeste Stewart]

If you assigned 100 of us the same topic, we'd all write 100 unique articles each with its own slant, words, structure etc...

This is evident with the requests, you can see what the others have posted and while they deal with the same topic, they are not carbon copies of each other.

If you're an expert on a subject, I don't feel that you are limited to a one time discussion on it. I'm sure you can come up with numerous angles for that topic. Besides, another writer on CC will see that your lingerie articles are selling and will write their own articles about it. Why should the rest of us be allowed to write about push up bras but not you? As long as each article you write stands on its own, you should be fine. That's my humble opinion

[HerbDoctor]

This is something that I've been turning over in mind lately, too. I wonder if a returning client seeing the same topic addressed by the same author wouldn't feel a little slighted. I would. I'd wonder what the writer could possibly have left to say and why it wasn't included in the article I paid for. I suppose this is where putting a creative spin on things come in, huh?

[Celeste Stewart]

Sure, if it were the same article with slightly different wording, he'd have every right to feel slighted. But if the article had its own slant then he may even be interested in adding it to his website.

Let's use the lingerie example. The customer has a website dedicated to selling lingerie. He purchases his first article "How to Buy a Push Up Bra". The author later posts an article called "The Difference Between a Push Up Bra and a Wonder Bra". (I have no clue if there's a difference but you know what I mean). Two articles about push up bras but two different approaches. Another article might list reason why to purchase a push up bra . . . .

The author can use their expertise over and over and who knows, the customer may even want several articles about push up bras to better attract search engine rankings when someone enters "push up bra" in the search engine.

As far as why the second topic wasn't included in the original article - most of these articles are in the 500 word range - can't address every facet of a topic in a mere 500 words.

[candicep]

I agree. We can write on the same topic as many times as we want - as long as we don't copy our own work or someone else's.

For example, I've written many articles about web design, but from different angles. Some were even the same angle but provided newly found information. Many topics could probably have thousands of articles written about them and never run out! It's amazing how we all have unique thoughts!

Hope this helps!
Candicep

[J. A. Young]

Good--it seems as though we're mostly on the same page about this. I think it forces us to be creative to make the most of our knowledge and research. I mean, on the surface you may think, well, if I write an 800 word article about vanilla, what else can I really say the next time if I've already covered it thoroughly? Giving it some thought, I could explore the difference between Mexican vanilla and what we get in the U.S., using vanilla in cooking, health benefits of vanilla, etc...Some of the information may necessarily be the same (where its grown for example), but if written up differently ought to be ok. I was worried initially because I wasn't getting any posts to this query, but I've been wondering for a while about revisiting old topics and just wondered how others felt about it. --J.