Question from a self-confessed newb trying to learn fast:

I'm a writer, so I have no problem churning out pages of topically relevant content. However, since the beginning of civilization most informational essays have included quotes from other sources (with full bibliography/attribution and permission, of course).

Thanks to hyperlinking, its easy to give readers a link to an entirely different article on another site, naturally, but when you just need to quote a paragraph citing an expert on a topic, its simpler and easier for everyone to quote it (IMHO).

So... what impact does the inclusion of quoted text have on your site's Search Engine ranking? Is this something I need to AVOID because my sites might get branded as being redundant and "not adding enough new content to the internet"?

Here's a real world example: On my site www.videotopsecrets.com, there are many long articles that are completely original. However, there is also a press release section containing public news items that are copied from multiple feeds and grouped together. Those are web-redundant. Is that bad?

There is also a Glossary of video terms section that is about 20% original. The other 80% is a compilation of definitions culled from dozens of disparate reference sites from Wikipedia to "Joes Video School" (sic). It took me weeks to find and gather all of those pieces into one place. Will I be penalized for aggregating and centralizing the information?

Should I be avoiding all quoting in favor of paraphrasing and putting information in my own words??

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