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Does it exist to game Google search results and generate revenue through Google's AdWords advertising service by displaying contextual ads next to the copy? Or is it a new kind of media site, chock-full of original articles written mostly by average folk about everything from presidential pardons and karaoke to smoker's guilt and ventriloquism?
Add to the mix at Associated Content two prominent board members--Tim Armstrong, head of advertising for Google in North America, and venture capitalist Eric Hippeau, a managing partner at SoftBank Capital, who also happens to serve on Yahoo's board of directors--and you have a little company that's drawing outsized and quite possibly unwanted attention.
But while there are plenty of questions about this start-up, no one seems to be able to say it's actually doing anything wrong.
"This kind of service is not entirely clear-cut," said Danny Sullivan, editor of the Search Engine Land blog. "It's not a case that they are bad or should be banned, but they are embroiled in this kind of a debate."
Denver-based Associated Content was formed in 2004 and received $5.4 million in funding from SoftBank. It bills itself as a "user-driven information portal" and content provider, licensing content to other online publishers. The articles are "optimized for discovery and revenue generation," according to a news release on the company Web site. In other words, they're designed to be easy to find on Google through various search optimization techniques used by many publishers, not just people accused of gaming search results.
The company asks bloggers to write on the subjects of their choosing and accepts text, video and audio. Contributors can be paid based on the quality of the article and keyword optimization.
In most ways, Associated Content's methods seem fitting for any typical Web site--do your best to get play on Google search results and make money off its advertising. In fact, Associated Content is hardly the only company churning out content to match with Google ads. The success of Google's AdSense program, which matches ads with content on Web sites, and the growth of blogging applications have led to the emergence of pay-for-blogging companies that help match willing writers with sites that want content.
Editor, Search Engine Land
What separates legitimate content marketplaces from so-called "Made for AdSense" companies that generate content purely for marketing purposes is the intent of the company and the quality of the articles, said Rand Fishkin, co-founder and chief executive of search marketing firm SEOmoz.
That gets closer to the heart of the controversy. The dividing line between people who don't have a problem with Associated Content and those who do seems to come down to one of the most hard-to-define aspects of a Web site: quality. And quality, as most people know, is terribly difficult to define. As the 20th-century U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once said in declining to venture too far into a definition of pornography: "I know it when I see it."
The complaint is that much of the content coming out of some of these pay-for-blogging sites is lousy because it's designed more for ranking higher in search engines than to inform or educate readers. Associated Content was taken to task for that in an article headlined "Bottom Slurping for Google Juice," on the Clickz news site.
Search Engine Land's Sullivan followed up on his blog, suggesting that Associated Content could be contributing to the "pollution" of search engine results and "manipulating Google's rankings" by using, for instance, repetitive hyperlinks from the same word within an article to another page on the site.
"Some people just want to make money off AdSense and they just need content, so they'll effectively freelance stuff from authors. It gets into these gray areas," Sullivan said in a recent interview. "The only issue with Associated Content is they've got a Google executive on the board. Because the company is in this gray area it becomes an issue for them. What they are doing isn't wrong, but it is subject to debate."
"The key issue here is you've got someone directly involved in Google's revenue generation also involved in a company that is taking advantage of ways to generate revenue from Google," said Andy Beal, founder of Internet marketing consultancy and blog Marketing Pilgrim. "That's the conflict."
See more CNET content tagged:
Google AdSense, Softbank Corp., search result, Google Inc., search engine
Furthermore, let the market decide if the quality is any good. If it is not, then it will wither and die like many other "content" sites before it. If the content is good then users will return
People and the Search Engines that serve them want relevant content or more simply put answers. Mostly everyone who runs a search on any search engine wants an answer. They are seeking relevant and timely information that will answer a question.
Search Engine Optimization when practiced within an ethical framework seeks to provide answers for the people who are searching for them. SEO when practiced as a means of "gaming the Search Engines Placements" does the same thing that much of the internet marketing world does. Provides possible solutions, but not definitive answers.
I will not say that all internet marketing programs are B. S. just as ethical white hat SEO is not B. S. either. But I can say that wherever there is money involved, (and internet marketing and SEO do mean big bucks)there will be people who love money more then they love themselves or their neighbors. And then the naive and ignorant are taken advantage of.
Associated Content's Business Model and Services will thrive or die based on performance. Just like every other website or publisher. The beauty of blogging is that if blogs are good and create value, they thrive. If they are not good or provide no value, they will die.
I thought it was just a plain pyramid/scam scheme. Now it turns out, "Yahoo" and "Google" on board.
Lets hope Wikipedia guys plans for doing a independent/open search engine succeeds. Nothing could be worse.
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Moreover, they keep having these obnoxious promotions where writers who bring in the most new writers are rewarded. As a result they spam all the job boards and forums and are incredibly obnoxious.
Go ahead. Pick a dozen random A.C. articles, if you can tell me all dozen are well written and researched, I'll come back and apologize. It's time Associated Content stop taking advantage of writers.
Also, somewhat hypocritical to state that AC underpays writers, and in the next breath say the quality isn't any good. So should AC pay more for lower-quality work?
Associated Content is a tremendous outlet for writers who are honing their craft. The content managers give good feedback most of the time, and I know my writing has gotten better in the year that I've been a Content Producer.
As for the business model, it seems to me that they're simply doing what they promise to do: Publish work by anyone and everyone and make that work discoverable. Gaming search engines isn't a very profitable enterprise, and I think you'd be hard pressed to find an executive that would come on board for such a crappy plan...
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I haven't ready any of their articles because I'm not into random reading, except a couple of sites I trust.
There are a lot of people with knowledge and insight that will never be published on the current big reputable websites.
If being a journalist is something you want to do professionally then how do you get the experience to show you are good.
Sites like AC provide that opportunity.
Will it ever be as good as the ?proper? professional sites? Probably not.
Will it give alternative insights to a topic? Probably.
In a way it is like the early Wikipedia. Articles a bit sparse and low quality, but over time the quality has become better. I still wouldn?t trust Wikipedia for something critical, but for personal research and everyday discussions it perfect. I expect AC and other like it will serve the same purpose.
Finally, on the whole Adsense thing. Why not. You still have to click on the link before they get paid. If it isn?t relevant to you then don?t click on it.
As per the article. Who doesn?t want a site that gets high ranking in search engines and generates some revenue.
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