Content is king when it comes to marketing on the Internet. You try to keep visitors coming back by providing free content: Articles, reports, newsletters, ebooks, ecourses, and the list goes on and on. Any market, any industry--search on a key word, and you will find a passel of sites with copy in all shapes and sizes.

So content is king and there's already a lot of content out there no matter what market you are in. Is it any surprise that the latest gimmick being used by eager but talent-challenged web businesses is to do what I call "reverse plagiarism?"

Here's how you reverse plagiarize:

-- Search key words for the type of content you want to make your own.

-- Shop among the results to find articles, reports, ebooks, or other items that fit your market and your own business.

-- Capture them (or buy them if you need to, it's a small investment).

-- Then hire a copy writer to rewrite them just enough to keep search engines from highlighting your quasi-original work.

And Voila! You now have your very own content to provide and sell on the Internet! Wow!

This is biologically accurate "viral marketing," with content mutating as it replicates across the Internet. And it is being practiced by the hundreds (if not thousands) of mediocre businesses every day, all around the world.

This tactic skirts the edge of ethics. OK, so it isn't illegal. You're not going to get sued, since there's no law against having "extremely similar" content to someone else. But it's a parasitic practice where you suck off someone else's work and knowledge. If a business owner can justify doing this kind of thing, what other corners are they going to cut? Is this someone I want to do business with, either as a customer or a vendor? No.

And besides the fact that karma will eventually get you, if the stuff you are lifting to reverse plagiarize is really good, it is highly likely that your customers and prospects have already read it in its original form. No amount of thesaurus-aided rewriting is going to hide the cadence, organization, and overall tone of the article. It's going to be an obvious derivative.

On the other hand, if the stuff pull isn't all that great to begin with (which begs the question of why you'd be using it in the first place), all you're going to do with that thesaurus is create more mediocrity. Why would any business that wants to attract customers think that generating more low quality content is going to do the trick? Add to that the chance that you'll add more inaccurate or misleading information to the Web.

Either way, how does practicing this kind of not-quite-cheating enhance your image in the marketplace? What does it really say about your business ethics and professionalism?

If you want content for your site, do this instead:

-- Scope out what you want and hire a good copy writer who will give you a decent fixed price for the content you've listed.

-- Make sure they understand what you want to say, who will be reading it, and what results you are looking for.

-- If your own expertise and knowledge of market are needed, dictate into a digital recorder or have your writer interview you while they record.

-- Then, turn them loose to get the job done. You will end up with truly original content that represents you accurately.

You can use a service like Copyscape to make sure you don't end up having somebody plagiarize you. The reverse plagiarists, unfortunately, will replicate undetected--in this case, I guess you have to just figure that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and hope for the best.

Trish Lambert (http://www.trishlambert.com), principal of 4-R Marketing LLC, is an experienced marketing consultant and creator of the 4-R Marketing Model