I started my analysis of Demand Media in this August post. I wrote then that Demand Media operates based on a simple formula for success on the Web: create a ton of niche, mostly uninspired content targeted to search engines, then make it viral through social software and make lots of money through ads. Demand Media has been heavily funded to carry out that mission, to the tune of $355 million. In short, it’s a well-funded, well-oiled page view generating machine.

In November I explored more about how Demand Media produces 4,000 pieces of content a day, based on an interview I did with the founders in September. I followed up by asking: is ad-driven content crossing a line?

Low Quality, High Impact

The bottom line is that the quality of content produced by these ‘content farms’ is dubious, which has an impact on both publishers and readers.

Last week I analyzed the way wikiHow produces its content – its users do all of the writing and editing for free, via a Wikipedia-like platform. There was evidence that wikiHow’s model is producing better content than its Demand Media counterpart for how-to articles, eHow. More worrying though is that Demand Media is producing thousands of these types of articles a day.

So is the Web becoming awash with low-quality content produced by content farms like Demand Media, Answers.com and now AOL? Yes it is.

From my analysis of Demand Media and similar sites, such content is very generic and lacks depth. While I wouldn’t go as far as wikiHow founder Jack Herrick and say that it “lacks soul,” it certainly lacks passion and often also lacks knowledge of the topic at hand. Arrington’s analogy with fast food is apt – it is content produced quickly and made to order.

Can Quality Survive?

Given the impact that content farms are having right now, how can producers of ‘quality’ content survive?

Chris Ahearn from Thomson Reuters claims that journalism will “do more than survive the Internet Age, it will thrive.” Ahearn notes that Reuters makes the “vast majority of its revenues” from subscription-based business models targeted to “vertical and niche markets.” Plus Reuters, he says, provides “valuable services – not just content.”

Ahearn also implies that syndication technologies, like Reuters’ semantic analysis platform Open Calais, will lead to a new kind of “B2B content network” – where content creators and publishers can easily collaborate and make money together.

Google Needs to Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

In my view both writers and readers of content will need to work harder to get quality content. I know I’d rather read an article by The Economist on any given topic, than one generated by Demand Media. But we, as readers, need more help from Google and the other search engines.

Right now ‘quantity’ still rules on the Web, ‘quality’ is hard to find. Perhaps that’s why Reuters is betting on the subscription model – it hopes that consumers will just subscribe to quality content, thereby removing the need to search for it. I think there’s something to that, which if true implies that Google will become less relevant in the future. Should Google be worried about that? Yes; and they are.

I can only hope that Google and other search engines find betters ways to surface quality content, for its own sake as well as ours. Because right now Google is being infiltrated on a vast scale by content farms.

If you thought it was bad enough that many professional blogs pump out 30 posts a day, often regurgitations of press releases or quick write-ups of “news” such as Twitter being down for a few minutes (note the irony of that tweet), this new type of Google gaming is on a far bigger scale.

What Demand Media, Answers.com and AOL are doing is having a much greater impact on the quality and findability of content on the Web.

Source:  On Readwriteweb.com By Richard MacManus

Not to long ago a meeting was organized by the foundation Copyright & New Media at Seats2Meet in Utrecht. About Creative Commons, intellectual property, a subject that I am very much interested in. I will try to do my very best to publish news on this subject on a regular bases because I feel it is important to all you content producers out there.

Facebook about ownership and ‘user data’.
We do not own user data, the users do. This was told by Mr. Zuckerberg (CEO) in the conference call held today. Facebook and it’s Terms of Service became subject to a fierce discussion the last month because of the adaptations they had made. These changes resulted in Facebook being allowed to keep user generated content in their databases for eternity and they could use it when they want, even if a user had deleted his or her account.

This forced Facebook to act quickly. They introduced the ‘Draft Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities For User Review, Comment and Vote’. An initiative that ‘promises’ users that the issue on intellectual property is tackled and that they intend to keep users in the loop on further developments in this area.

A good example of intellectual property problems that even makes giants like Facebook trip over. I am looking into the subject myself as well. It does take up some time but it is worth to find out!

Want to know more on the subject? Check the following links:
De ‘Draft’ van Facebook zoals genoemd in het bericht.
Creative Commons
Stichting Copyright & Nieuwe Media

Nog niet zo lang geleden was er een bijeenkomst van de Stichting Copyright & Nieuwe Media bij Seats2Meet in Utrecht. Over Creative Commons, intellectueel eigendom, een onderwerp waar ik persoonlijk erg in geïnteresseerd ben. Ik zal dan ook mijn best doen met regelmaat interessant nieuws waar ik tegenaan surf te publiceren omdat ik denk dat het belangrijk is voor alle content producenten wereldwijd.

Facebook over eigendom en ‘user data’.
Wij zijn geen eigenaar van deze data, dat zijn de gebruikers, werd door de heer Zuckerberg (CEO) in de conference call van vandaag gemeld. De gebruiksrechten van Facebook waren eerder deze maand onder vuur komen te liggen doordat de aanpassingen die men had gemaakt ervoor zorgden dat men door de gebruiker geproduceerde content oneindig kon opslaan en gebruiken, zelfs nadat men een account bij Facebook heeft opgezegd.

Dit heeft Facebook ertoe gedwongen snel te handelen. Kort na het gebeuren kwam men al snel met de ‘Draft Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities For User Review, Comment and Vote’. Een initiatief waarmee men de gebruiker wil garanderen dat men de problematiek rondom de gebruiksrechten onder controle heeft en van plan is de gebruiker daar actief van op de hoogte te houden.

Een goed voorbeeld van een kwestie over intellectueel eigendom waar klaarblijkelijk grote reuzen als Facebook ook over struikelen. Zelf ben ik er ook mee bezig. Kost even wat tijd maar het is de moeite waard om ‘in de vingers’ te krijgen.

Wil je meer weten over dit soort onderwerpen? Kijk dan even naar de volgende links:
De ‘Draft’ van Facebook zoals genoemd in het bericht.
Creative Commons
Stichting Copyright & Nieuwe Media

Content, content and again content. Content that makes you content and content that still needs some work. When is content good enough for your website? When is it good enough to use in your online presentation?

Content has to fit your target group. It has to do something for them, has to be congruent with what they do and who they are. That proves to be difficult to realize. Because first you would have to know exactly who the target group is. After that you would want to know if you can even reach the majority of this group through online media.

It seems to become easier because of online networks and a lot of tools but it is getting crowded at the same time. The amount of info the target group has to master will make them filter for specific information even more. More and more focussed on the ‘real needs’ of the consumer, they are doing that themselves.

What is the best way to handle this? Do you have good ideas? Please let me know and I’ll publish a top 5 of the best ones.

Content, content en nog eens content. Content waar je content over bent en content waar je nog iets mee moet. Wanneer is content goed genoeg voor een website? Wanneer is het goed genoeg om het in een online presentatie te verwerken?

Content moet aansluiten bij de doelgroep. Het moet iets met ze doen, bij hun belevingswereld horen. Dat is erg moeilijk. Want allereerst moet je exact weten wie je doelgroep is. Daarna wil je ook weten of je die doelgroep ook wel kunt bereiken via online media.

Nu wordt het schijnbaar steeds makkelijker gemaakt door allerlei handige netwerken en tools maar tegelijkertijd treed er ook een verdichting op. Die veelheid zorgt voor een overdaad bij de doelgroep. Er zal dus steeds meer gefilterd worden naar informatie, steeds specifieker, en steeds meer toegespitst op de ‘echte’ behoeften van de eindgebruiker. En de consument doet dat helemaal zelf

Hoe kun je nu als ‘publicist’ het beste omgaan met deze groei en verdichting? Heb je goede tips? Laat ze weten, dan maak ik van de beste een top 5.