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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;
color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial;
line-height: 110%;">OPLIN 4Cast #209: Content
farms</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal;
color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-style: italic;
font-family: arial;">December 22nd, 2010</span></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://www.oplin.org/4cast/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Content_Farm.png"><img
class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1537"
title="Content_Farm"
src="cid:part2.00000505.03090106@oplin.org"
alt="plant growing articles" height="132"
width="132"></a>Ever visited a content farm?
Chances are you have, at least online. "Content
farm" is the slightly derisive term for a company
that hires freelance writers to create online
articles answering the most common questions
people post on the Internet. One of the best-known
of these companies is <a
href="http://www.demandmedia.com/">Demand Media</a>,
which prides itself on giving people articles
about the information they want, but online
journalists <a
href="http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3ic1904d9b2e94022a620c2508a3f20eda">sometimes
refer</a> to such articles as "sludge" written
by amateurs with no fact-checking and little
editorial oversight. Because these articles meet
an existing demand and are thus accessed often on
the Internet, they tend to rise to the top of
search engine results—something to keep in mind
next time you use Google for answering a reference
question. </p>
<div> </div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/community/columns/other-columns/e3i7fd4195ba1b2a846d03fae18ea96f724">Lessons
from the content farm</a> (AdWeek/Robertson
Barrett) "Demand Media has turned traditional
journalism on its head, flipping the model to
create content that meets user demand, and using
algorithms to determine which content makes the
most money. For better or worse, its strategy
has been effective. Search for anything from
'how to bake a yellow cake' to 'how to belch,'
and you'll find Demand Media content at the top
of the search results."</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/07/dont-blame-the-content-farms207.html">Don't
blame the content farms</a> (PBS
MediaShift/Dorian Benkoil) "Rather than a small
group of editors surmising what a community
might want, algorithms from Demand Media, AOL
and others process search queries and social
media, glean what's wanted, then use other
pieces of technology to calculate the likely
value; they then quickly find writers or
producers at a profitable price, assign and
produce the content, attach money-making ads,
and pay the 'content creators' in a streamlined
way."</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/content_farms_top_trends_of_2010.php">Top
Trends of 2010: content farms</a>
(ReadWriteWeb/Richard MacManus) "By the end of
last year, two of these content farms—Demand
Media and Answers.com—were firmly established
inside the top 20 Web properties in the U.S. as
measured by comScore. This year, Demand Media
filed for IPO and two big Internet portals—AOL
and Yahoo!—joined the trend."</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://www.bnet.com/blog/advertising-business/a-new-internet-bubble-why-8220content-farm-8221-news-sites-face-an-inevitable-crash/6647">Why
"content farm" news sites face an inevitable
crash</a> (CBS Interactive Business
Network/Jim Edwards) "Mostly, money is still
rushing into online news content even though few
of these properties have profitable business
models. This is not sustainable. Something has
got to give. First, it will start to drive down
even further the price companies are willing to
pay for new content. [...] The worst,
least-useful sites will go to the wall. A
handful of good ones will dominate the
post-crash landscape. At that point, they better
figure out a way to raise advertising prices in
the long-term."</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: left;"> </div>
<p style="text-align: left; font-size: 20px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><small><strong><em>Wage
Fact:</em></strong></small><br>
</p>
<div style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;">According
to a copy editor who <a
href="http://www.theawl.com/2010/11/my-summer-on-the-content-farm">worked
for Demand Media</a> this past summer, freelance
writers make $15-30 per article, and the copy
editors make $3.50 per article. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;"> </div>
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