Comments on: The Benefits and Risks of Content Farms http://gigaom.com/2011/02/23/the-benefits-and-risks-of-content-farms/ Fri, 24 May 2013 17:29:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Collateral Damage of the Robots Race (on the Web) « @koenvanturnhout MacroBlog http://gigaom.com/2011/02/23/the-benefits-and-risks-of-content-farms/#comment-608042 Sun, 13 Mar 2011 14:27:23 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=301247#comment-608042 [...] farming. Giga OM is following the content farming debate from the start. Two good posts are “The benefits and risks of content farms” and “Google Tightens the Screws on Content [...]

]]> By: john sandman http://gigaom.com/2011/02/23/the-benefits-and-risks-of-content-farms/#comment-603026 Wed, 02 Mar 2011 01:55:42 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=301247#comment-603026 Jessica:
You say that About.com “Guides” can “make their entire living on their About.com salary.” About how much would that be a month?

The Wall Street Journal ran an article stating that the NY Times was interested in buying Demand, but back off when they realized it would compete with About.com. The Times braintrust probably concluded that the two aren’t that far apart

]]> By: Google demotes ‘low-quality’ websites in search overhaul | Daily News| Latest Daily News Online http://gigaom.com/2011/02/23/the-benefits-and-risks-of-content-farms/#comment-600974 Sat, 26 Feb 2011 04:54:29 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=301247#comment-600974 [...] the search engine has come under fire for allowing content farm sites like Demand Media – which produces thousands of articles a day based on popular search terms – to “pollute” its [...]

]]> By: Jason Knapfel http://gigaom.com/2011/02/23/the-benefits-and-risks-of-content-farms/#comment-600740 Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:49:52 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=301247#comment-600740 As a writer, I have mixed feelings about content farms. I don’t think they are as evil as many people say and I don’t think they are perfectly wonderful either. Places like Demand are pretty good about fact checking and editing their content. My main problem is that I don’t like that content farms are often at the top of the search engine list for any number of searches, when the better stuff tends to get buried. Sure, knowing that I can simply scroll through the results a little. But, the average user will simply rely on content farms as their main source of information.

]]> By: Google demotes ‘low-quality’ websites in search overhaul | joelyhryte http://gigaom.com/2011/02/23/the-benefits-and-risks-of-content-farms/#comment-600597 Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:16:50 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=301247#comment-600597 [...] the search engine has come under fire for allowing content farm sites like Demand Media ? which produces thousands of articles a day based on popular search terms ? to “pollute” its [...]

]]> By: Karen N http://gigaom.com/2011/02/23/the-benefits-and-risks-of-content-farms/#comment-600576 Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:45:49 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=301247#comment-600576 I was a little surprised to see Hubpages lumped in with the actual content farms like Demand Media and eHow.

By your own definition Hubpages is not a content farm and it’s a little unfair to put them in the same category as some of these sites which are little better than an internet version of a sweatshop.

Like a lot of writers I’ve also had the chance to write for both of those sites but choose not to, I value my time and name a little to much to have it linked to a site like Demand Studios.

]]> By: Google demotes ‘content farm’ sites « The BAT Channel http://gigaom.com/2011/02/23/the-benefits-and-risks-of-content-farms/#comment-600556 Fri, 25 Feb 2011 13:58:34 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=301247#comment-600556 [...] the search engine has come under fire for allowing content farm sites like Demand Media – which produces thousands of articles a day based on popular search terms – to "pollute" its [...]

]]> By: Charlie http://gigaom.com/2011/02/23/the-benefits-and-risks-of-content-farms/#comment-600336 Fri, 25 Feb 2011 04:37:53 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=301247#comment-600336 I’m glad that Google is pushing the content farms lower in the search results. That does include about.com – one of the first and most enduring content farms. If I notice that a click is about.com, I skip over it. If I press on one, then I get a link farm spam space and also click out.

]]> By: Katy I. http://gigaom.com/2011/02/23/the-benefits-and-risks-of-content-farms/#comment-599867 Thu, 24 Feb 2011 16:32:26 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=301247#comment-599867 Great insights. I am struggling with this shift to farm out content. Still believe there is value in original content, no matter how it is consumed. Thanks for posting.

]]> By: Colleen Vanderlinden http://gigaom.com/2011/02/23/the-benefits-and-risks-of-content-farms/#comment-599833 Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:46:33 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=301247#comment-599833 About.com is definitely not a content farm. The main goal of a content farm is getting as much content up, as quickly as possible. The quality and accuracy of the content is less important than just having lots of it, from the perspective of those who run content farms (Demand, which I’ve written for in the past, is a perfect example of this.)

About.com writers are vetted experts in our individual topics. We go through a two week intensive try-out to earn the position, followed by a three month probationary period, during which, if we fail to produce quality work, we are let go. It happens. Yearly, we receive performance reviews from our editors. Working at About is a real job. It is not dashing off some poorly written, error-riddled piece of content so you can earn your $15 fee and lose all rights to your work.

Big difference. Just because a site produces a lot of content (there are over 600 guides) does not mean they are a content farm. You have to look at the people who are producing the content.

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