If you're considering syndicating your content, you're not alone. "I probably get twenty-five to thirty inquiries per week," said Curt Prince, director of content at the syndication company YellowBrix. In fact, he has gotten so many calls andemails from providers who want the company to distribute their content that he added a form to the company's Web site. It lets him prescreen providers who use it to describe their offerings. Clearly, many content companies are hoping to reap the rewards syndication can offer--rewards such as being able to leverage brands and generate additional revenue streams. If you want to syndicate your content, there are several issues you need to consider before you get started. Here are the top questions you should discuss with any syndication company you're thinking about working with. 1 What type of business model does the syndicator use? All syndicators are not created equal. Each offers a unique approach to collecting and distributing content. Prince noted that the YellowBrix model is a little bit different from the ones used by such companies as ScreamingMedia. "Their goal is to get as many content sources as they can, but that's not necessarily YellowBrix's approach," he said. "We try to purchase the best content possible to cover a certain channel or a certain vertical. Once we have that content, our real product is slicing and dicing it and presenting it to the customers so they don't have to do a lot of searching for articles." Another model is represented by Kinecta, which offers technology and services for companies that want to use the do-it-yourself approach. "We provide the infrastructure that enables providers to syndicate their content directly to their partners or customers," said David Burke, Kinecta's vice president of marketing.
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