Comments on: Things I Lose Sleep Over #2 – Demand Media

By: SteveG

SteveG — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 22:58:23 +0000

Good insight – After reading the Wired magazine and reading your blog I have a richer perspective. Although this thread is from late 2009, I’m here in New Zealand and these sites are not commonly used, but thanks to historical perspectives I am being educated on what you have done in the past. Cheers

By: The Myth of Hand-Eye Coordination « Solid State UX

The Myth of Hand-Eye Coordination « Solid State UX — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:28:28 +0000

[...] piece given that they were likely paid around $20 for it – but that’s a whole different story.) The concept is quoted frequently in parenting articles – usually under the pretense that [...]

By: hmmmph

hmmmph — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:43:35 +0000

The majority of Demand’s content is not obscure at all, in fact, many articles are just regurgitated common knowledge pieces that you can find anywhere. I’m not familiar with the body of Youtube videos they produce, but I am quite familiar with their text products. Demand is in business because of a very cushy relationship with Google, not because they produce obscure articles that can be found nowhere else. Shame on Google for bestowing a ridiculously high page rank on eHow and other Demand Media owned sites.

By: Conrad

Conrad — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:26:32 +0000

I can’t see Google penalising Demand for producing low quality content. Firstly the makority of their content is so obscure there are no alternative results for Google to display. Secondly Google is making to much money from Demand to want to penalise them – especially when you consider their close partnership with Youtube.

By: hellola

hellola — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:36:21 +0000

I meant…CVPP…

By: hellola

hellola — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:33:37 +0000

The ccpv average of eHow is low because they are constantly adding new articles (and deleting quite a few, believe it or not). Obviously newer pages do not have many unique visitors.

But to my main point that I wanted to get out…if traditional quality-minded publishers are worried that Demand’s business model is going to edge out people who are contributing things of value, they shouldn’t worry. Demand’s blissful disregard of quality will come to bite them in the ass. Their wages are too low to get the high quality content that advertisers ‘demand’ of publishers, and their primary mode of monetization is Adsense. If Google should change their terms with Demand and penalize them for dumping such loads of crap on the internet, Demand would tank.

As one who writes for Demand, there’s no way I can spend the time to create higher quality content, considering the peanuts I am paid. And actually, they don’t have many assignments besides junk articles to begin with. I put honest effort into my own sites, and my real job, I am being rewarded for that. Demand gives me a healthy stream of side income, and if I wasn’t writing their lame ass content, someone else would take my place. But I don’t lose sleep over it because I know that quality always rises to the top eventually. Demand is buying truckloads of garbage that will only make money in the very short term.