Author Topic: Cheap, throwaway crap - get it online  (Read 4391 times)

JJ

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Cheap, throwaway crap - get it online
« on: April 30, 2012, 09:14:38 PM »
I knew sites like ehow were bad, and now I know why: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/all/1

Sorry if it's old news - I see the article is a good couple of years old.

Anyone know how to set up a google filter to filter out ehow search results?

arebelspy

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Re: Cheap, throwaway crap - get it online
« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2012, 08:00:03 AM »
I knew sites like ehow were bad, and now I know why: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/all/1

Wow that was interesting.  Thanks for sharing.  I was wondering who was making all those poorly filmed "how tos" on esoteric subjects.

Anyone know how to set up a google filter to filter out ehow search results?

I'm sure there's a poorly made video on how to do it.  ;)

http://lifehacker.com/5760245/personal-blocklist-filters-out-spam-from-your-google-search-results
http://www.bukisa.com/articles/230307_how-to-remove-ehowcom-articles-from-google-search-engines-ehowcom
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JJ

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Re: Cheap, throwaway crap - get it online
« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2012, 05:30:04 PM »
Thanks!

Quote
I'm sure there's a poorly made video on how to do it.  ;)

 - straight after I posted I did wonder...

James

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Re: Cheap, throwaway crap - get it online
« Reply #3 on: May 01, 2012, 06:08:56 PM »
Wow, I had noticed all the crappy how to videos cropping up, but had no idea what the cause was.  Thanks for the post.  Sad, but good to know.

MMM

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Re: Cheap, throwaway crap - get it online
« Reply #4 on: June 12, 2012, 08:06:45 AM »
WOW!! What a fascinating Wired article that is.

I had only recently learned that many people (including bloggers) were making money with search engine optimization and messing about with keywords. Trying to choose what to write about based on what would earn the most money due to search results. That's why companies have been buying blogs and using them as marketing platforms while keeping the content going mostly in zombie status. I think it's a bunch of crap, and I'm amazed those sites make money at all.

But Demand Media's model is ridiculous. Reading the description, it sounds like a giant parasite on the Internet - especially if you note the other shitty online businesses the founder was involved in before starting Demand.

The interesting part is the tie-in with Google via YouTube. Normally, Google tries to block content factories like this, since users naturally see through the cheap content and prefer real stuff. But if YouTube is making good bucks from Demand Media, the search engine branch of Google may see pressure to keep including junky results.

Still, I'll make a prediction that this is just an early stage in the game. The internet is like a big field of fertile soil, and Demand media has blown a bunch of weed seeds out across it which have sprouted. In the long run, good-quality stuff will tend to outcompete the weeds and take over in the most popular niches. Advertisers will gradually abandon ehow as they chase us, the customers who are blocking ehow from their search results. Google may even be forced to deprioritize content farms like this further than they already have, if that's what we users want. Otherwise, another search engine will do it, and take our business away.




Tim

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Re: Cheap, throwaway crap - get it online
« Reply #5 on: June 12, 2012, 09:01:52 AM »
Ever since I started on the path to fiscal responsibility (and finally Mustachianism), marketing has given me the creeps. The internet has been especially conductive to building an army of amateur marketers.

I'm pretty good at navigating around sites filled with garbage content, but what has really gotten to me is fake Amazon reviews.

Amazon used to be great for researching a possible purchase. Amazon also has an affiliate program. An internet marketer creates a site based on BBQs. They put in affiliate links for each one. When a potential customer clicks on the link, they're redirected to Amazon. If the customer buys, they get a comission. What's a powerful sales tactic? Social proof. Solution? Hire people to write fake reviews.

Creepy stuff.