A Convenient Content Truth

Big businesses with huge pageviews fueled by Google have emerged in recent years that exist only because of a unique SEO / Adwords relationship with Google. Google gives them a huge presence in the long tail SERPS and they in turn give Google increased revenue by being a Google Adsense partner. Not just any Adsense partner, but a Google partner that turns Google search generated traffic into billions of Adwords clicks totaling tens of billions of dollars. 

Demand Media, for instance, was created with this business model. Figure out what people are searching for, create somewhat unique content in bulk that matches the title tags and other keywords in the search terms, place Google ads all over this content and  voila ... Demand Media's eHow.com articles rank on the first page of Google search result for hundreds of thousand of searches. By the way, Demand Media is reportedly going to generate $200 million in revenue this year and may be worth a billion dollars in large part because of these Google Adwords clicks.

It is a fascinating business model; A content assembly line creates content specifically for Google searches and Google then pays millions for Google ads clicked on that content. Unfortunately, it does raise questions about whether Google has a conflict of interest in being both the main supplier of traffic and revenue for these bulk article sites while also earning substantial revenue for itself? After all, if these articles didn't result high in Google searches this mass content production model wouldn't work.

I have followed the SEO industry for years and our WebProNews reporters have interviewed countless Google product managers on the subject of ranking well in Google.  Google's mantra has been for publishers to make quality content for their users and not for its search engine. Google's position is that quality content will rise to the top of its SERPS. 

However, Google seems to be sending content creators a mixed message. Demand Media is creating as many as 5,000 articles and videos each day for the purposes of ranking in Google. If Google's message is for publishers to create content for their readers, not just to rank in Google, then why is Demand Media's content ranking so well in Google? 

The answer could be that for thousands of long tail searches, Demand Media's content is quality enough. The vast majority of Google searches on any given day include a search term that will get less than a hundred searches a day. What content farms such as Demand Media do is provide articles and videos that are optimized for these rarely searched terms. The content is often mediocre, but it is unique and it has a title tag and other keywords that match these targeted searches. 

The problem as I see it is that while Google is highly ranking the content of these mass production publishers it also has a financial incentive to do so. Almost all content farms use Google Adwords for their revenue. So while Google on the one hand encourages publishers to make content for their readers and not just for search ranking, it is in partnership with sites that do just that. 

This should make publishers wonder about their business models. Should they spend thousands paying reporters and editors to create quality content for their users or should they simply create a content farm that pays little for bulk quantities of articles and videos but gets lots of Google love?  

I guess if you can make content for the purpose of ranking in searches ... but make it targeted, unique and not horrible, then you might find that Google well reward you quite well.

Is this the future of online publishing?

Hulu Partners With “American Idol” Creator For Web Reality Show

Simon Fuller, creator of "American Idol," is partnering with Hulu on an online reality program that follows the lives of five people hoping to make it in Hollywood.

The new online program called "If I Can Dream" will launch in early 2010 with each episode streaming exclusively on Hulu. Hulu says "If I Can Dream" will be the first recurring show to be available to international audiences.

Hulu and Clear Channel will create a distribution partnership with MySpace as well. "If I Can Dream" will have a customized page on MySpace allowing fans of the show to interact with the cast via comments and sharing.

The ad-supported program has signed on Pepsi and Ford as its first two major sponsors.

"Innovate is not a buzzword for Simon Fuller and 19 Entertainment. They've consistently delivered extremely high quality content in innovative ways, and helped to change how viewers engage with entertainment," said Andy Forssell, SVP of Content and Distribution at Hulu. "That's a great match with what Hulu is all about,
 

Have You Read This?

> Hulu Adds "Coming Soon" Page

> Hulu Launches 2 New Labs Features

> Hulu Makes Changes to Search Results

Fox Mobile Partners With Altoids For Online Series

Fox Mobile Studios is launching "Brainstorm," an eight-episode comedy series for viewing on mobile and online.

The Brainstorm series revolves around Altoids mints and is Fox Mobile's first entry into branded entertainment.

"We feel very fortunate to have partnered with Altoids, a brand that has an innovative history of challenging conventional thought and behavior, to achieve this milestone," said Michael Wallen, vice president and creative director for Fox Mobile Studios.

"In a world where consumers are accustomed to product placements and branded content we sought a new kind of integration that is mutually beneficial to marketers and media."

Fox Mobile teamed up with entertainment agency Omelet to produce Brainstorm, which offers a look inside the fast-paced world of advertising. The series was created as a stand-alone concept that incorporates Altoids.

The series will be available on Dailymotion and the Brainstorm website starting September 28. On October 7, it distribution will expand to MySpace, Yahoo Video, YouTube, Veoh, blip.tv, Break, Imeem, Metacafe, Vimeo, AT&T, Sprint and Nokia.

"Today's consumers are inundated with choice when it comes to content and because they lead active lifestyles, we have to proactively offer them quality content rather than waiting for them to discover us," said Paul Chibe, vice president and general manager, Wrigley U.S. Gum and Mints.

"The 'Brainstorm' series is an example of a well-known brand like Altoids finding the right creative partners, like Fox Mobile Studios, to bring consumers branded entertainment
 

Digg Makes Changes to Nofollow Policy

Digg announced today that it has tweaked its policy on the nofollow attribute on external links.

 "We've made a few changes to the way Digg links to external sites that may impact some folks in the SEO community," says Digg's John Quinn. "These changes reduce the incentive to post spammy content (or link spam) to Digg, while still flowing ’search engine juice’ freely to quality content."

Digg is now adding rel="nofollow" to any external link that they aren't sure they can "vouch for." This means:

- External links from comments
- External links from user profiles
- External links from story pages "below a certain threshold of popularity"

"This work was done in consultation with leading experts from the SEO/SEM and link spam fields, in an effort to lookout for the interests of content providers and the Digg community," says Quinn. "As always, we will closely monitor these changes in the wild and iterate based on feedback."

Speaking of Digg and search, Digg also talked a bit today about the search feature they launched earlier this year.

"We're using Apache SOLR/Lucene which helped us scale horizontally and solved many of our relevancy issues as well as enabling discovery of new content through facets," the company said earlier today. "Beyond site search, the rich set of features has allowed us build a platform that enables other features such as Related By Source and Related By Keywords."

There is a podcast available here, which discusses Digg's search feature in more detail.

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