If you like this post, please subscribe to our RSS feed to read our new posts every day.
Squidoo: Can user generated content directed at marketing and making a profit from ad sales really ever be good content? I have been trying to follow some of the Web 2.0 startups and trying to fathom the principles of user generated content that these sites are hoping to build on. But after looking at some of the existing proponents of the model (such as Squidoo), I wonder if this is good for web publishing in general and the ad/search industry in particular.
I really could write a thesis on this but for starters I find myself quite dissociated with the content on Squidoo. The content looks remotely useful but also feels unnecessarily padded and somewhat redundant. Hundreds (maybe hundreds of thousands) of authors are vying for the elusive few dollars in shared advertising revenue and pumping out article after article on search engine stuffers such as Senseo Coffee makers. Squidoo reminds me of a legitimate version of Hot Nachos with a revenue sharing plan on a grader scale than Hot Nachos.
There is the argument that keyword stuffers and spammers are already using blogs to make money through advertising and this is just another such venture that benefits both the author and the company reaping the ad revenue, so this is more of the same old but with a new twist of lemon. However, I just have a bad feeling about this.
On the other side of the picture are the blogging networks. Those tend to create better content since the authors are hand picked and their performance has depended (so far) on the quality of their work, their personalities and unique perspectives.
[EDIT]: All gone.
Since the edit on the old post did not get any bites and the expiration date is coming closer, here goes again:
I have two new coupon codes to give away. They come from Melanie.
- There is a coupon code for 20% off selected desktop and notebook purchases of $999 or more from Dell. Valid through 1/31/06.
- There is also a coupon for 20% off $200 or more on electronics & accessories. Before tax and shipping. Valid through 1/31/06.
Please leave a comment if you would like one. Also, if you have coupon codes/discounts you would like to share with the community, just email me.
Brokering Big Blogs: How is that for an alliteration? If you have missed this peice of news, Jeremy over at Ensight is brokering the sale of a “big” blog that is within the Top 100 Top 200 blogs on the Internet. If nothing else, he is creating enough chatter about it. He is a blog marketer and he is doing what he does best, drawing attention to himself (and more power to him for being so good at doing that, remember the eBay blog sale?).
Blogs, especially successful blogs, are quickly becoming sought after commodities that can make decent money for the seller thanks in part to Jeremy and others like him. However, I firmly believe that the author makes a blog and not the content or the network that the blog resides on. My initial thought was that Om Malik was going to be selling his blog (which does not seem to be true). Robert has already denied his involvement (along with a few others). However, in each case, I could not help think how the content of the blog would miss the idiosyncratic influence of the blogger. If this big blog being sold can live on without the creators’ juice, that is great for the buyer. But if I were the creator, I would just build a new, competing blog and continue to write, I know my readers will find me again if I have/had good content.
Obviously Powered by 
