Common questions (FAQs)
People have raised a few questions which are not answered elsewhere on this web site.
What is TechScribe's motivation?
My main motivation stems from the observation that if a web site address contains an exact match to a search term, the web site will appear high in search rankings.
Copying content from the TechScribe web site and putting it on, for example, www.software-documentation.co.uk won't help me at all. It will hinder. One or both of www.techscribe.co.uk and www.software-documentation.co.uk would be considered spam sites by the search engines.
One option for me would be to close techscribe.co.uk and to migrate all content to www.software-documentation.co.uk. A foolish approach: TechScribe has many incoming links. I'd be shooting myself in the foot.
And even if I migrated content to www.software-documentation.co.uk, what about all the other domain names?
On a defensive level, ownership of the domains means that my competition hasn't got them. I believe that actively using them will be ultimately a better approach.
The only way to use them sensibly is to have a dedicated web site for each domain name (re-direction with URL masking is pointless).
Collaboration benefits TechScribe because:
- Creating content is a big job.
- The domain names are not specific to TechScribe's services.
Assuming that there is new content that's beneficial to searchers, each web site will rise in the SE rankings. That benefits me as much as (and possibly more than) the contributors individually; each contributor has a link for each topic. Every page on a site has a link to TechScribe in the footer, because TechScribe sponsors the site. Win-win for all.
What ongoing commitment do contributors give?
Content contributors have no ongoing commitment.
Project managers are expected to work on a web site until it is complete. Of course, unexpected circumstances may mean that's not possible, but please don't offer your services unless you are prepared for some hard work!
Aren't freelancers in competition with one another?
From one perspective, yes. That doesn't mean we should not work together on projects, because all contributors will benefit.
Should participation be restricted?
Someone suggested that participation is restricted to members of professional technical communication societies. I'm not sure about that. There are both advantages and disadvantages.
Who owns copyright?
Contributors retain the copyright of material that they provide.
TechScribe retains copyright of all web site addresses, user names, and passwords.