When starting a website most people think get bogged down with content creation. Where do you find articles? Should you use free content from article directories? Should you write your own, or hire a ghostwriter? Should you use private label articles? The questions abound.

Following we will explore several options for obtaining content for your website:

1. Do it yourself: If you have the time and simply cannot stand the thoughts of outsourcing your content creation to someone else, then by all means, pull out your research books and get cracking. All it takes is time and talent to churn out an article every hour. If you work at it eight hours a day you could possibly write 8 - 10 articles. In five days that would be 40 or 50 original articles you could post on your network of sites. Pros: you get to express yourself as no one else can do.

Cons: This is time consuming work!

2. Hire a Ghostwriter: The other option might be more up your alley: outsourcing your content to ghostwriters. You can find ghostwriters who will gladly write for you for as little as $5 (or more) per article. The ghostwriter does all the work and you get the benefit - i.e., you purchase the rights to the article. You may change it, add to it, sell it, publish it and claim authorship to the work just as if you were the writer. The ghostwriter relinquishes all rights to the content when it is sold.

Pros: You get all rights to the content and you can treat it just as if you are the author.

Cons: Price is usually an issue

3. Private Label Articles: Private label membership sites are numerous nowadays. The main reason for their popularity is that you can get content for a fraction of what you will pay to outsource your articles. Yet, while you can get articles "cheap" you will need to spend time re-writing the articles before you can submit them to many of the top quality article directories. And, like it or lump it, some of the article directories will not accept an article they deem to be from a PLR site.

There are also a few sites that offer PLR packages without the need to join and pay a monthly membership fee. They offer PLR article packages in the same manner as the PLR membership sites but do not require you to pay a monthly fee. You may or may not pay a higher price for the articles, depending on the site. One key difference in a site offering private label articles without the necessity paying a monthly fee is that the articles sold on these sites are usually limited to 50 to 100 people whereas a membership site will have from 200 to 1000 people downloading the same articles.

Pros: these articles are very cheap to purchase

Cons: The articles will have to be re-written, quality is sometimes poor, article directories will not accept them unless substantially re-written

4. Free Articles from Article Directories: Sites such as eZineArticles,com, GoArticles.com and ArticleDashboard.com (and a host of others) offer the webmaster the use of any article on their site so long as the resource box is published with the article. These articles are free to the publisher.

How can they do this? Well, actually, the axiom "there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch" is true in this case because the articles are not really free. It’s called "advertising"; and the webmaster who publishes the articles is actually paying for the use of that article through advertising. You may use this article you are reading in the same manner. If you post it on your site I don’t charge you a cent - but I get paid by the traffic you send me through the link in my resource box.

Pros: Free to use and can be utilized immediately

Cons: You are advertising for another site and sending traffic to them.

As you can see there are a few options for obtaining content for your website. Only you can decide if the pros outweigh the cons.