Richard MacManus from ReadWriteWeb in his article content farms: why media, blogs and google should be worried argues that demand media is a content farm and asks should journalists and the media be concerned that its incredible growth could threaten their livelihood. So, what is a content farm and why should we care?
Demand media’s strategy is to create lots of niche content aimed at the search engines. They produce 400 pieces of content a day. Now that is a lot. And they are now in the top 20 websites in terms of traffic. This is phenomenal growth. demand media are also funded to the tune of $355 million, so they are planning to stay around. For a website to storm into the top 20 so quickly, are they upsetting the balance? Do they really threaten journalism?
It certainly proves that google loves content. But is it good content? Richard suggests the content they produce is dubious. They are like a ‘fast food producer’ for content. Do we want quantity or quality? Quantity can work – McDonalds is very popular! But I think the readers, watchers and surfers will decide on what’s good or bad by voting with their eyeballs. Personally, I don’t bother reading poor quality articles. I’m picky about what I read. And so are most people.
In today’s video by beet TV and interview with Lex Friedman from demand media, you can see some of the video content they are producing. It looks good to me. I’m not so sure what the fuss is all about. Demand media also own ehow and expert village (now amalgamated with ehow), which are both respected content sites. With expected revenues this year of $100-200 million, I think people are just afraid of corporations that grow big very fast.
I think demand media is just a successful site with a different strategy and business model.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree, Terry. People do vote with their eyeballs. What some of the people who consider themselves “quality” content writers don’t seem to realize is that a lot of what EHow has on their site IS what people want to see. I read the other articles about Demand Studios and it cracks me up. Everyone is just oh-so-sure that what they consider “quality” will win out in the end. How out of touch with reality can they be? Every day there is a real-time tracker of what people are searching for in the major search engines. And you know what? What people are searching for are the very things these “quality” buffs criticize. It is the very stuff the content mills provide. In fact, the number one searched item right this minute on Yahoo is “Sarah Jessica Parker.” Number 2? “The Avatar Movie”
THAT is what the eyeballs want to see, not what a handful of former journalists and editors THINK they want to see. These dinosaurs need to wake up.
…and that’s why demand media is doing so well. They are providing content people want to read. After all, quality is subjective. It’s one of these slippery words that’s quite difficult to define.