sockii's blog

So, as anyone who writes articles for the web knows by now, Google recently launced a massive smackdown campaign against (not all) so-called "content farms." What that seemed to come down to, as the linked article shows, is that many domains such as Associated Content, Suite101, hubpages and others are now massively devalued in search results. An article that might have shown up on page 1 of Google results before may now be buried on page 5, 6 or even 10 - largely just because of the webdomain it is published on. Curiously enough, one of the most often criticized "content farms", eHow, only seemed to get a boost from the re-ranking process.

I know I've certainly seen the fallout myself. Whereas before I was getting anywhere from 350-1200 page views a day on my AC content library, over the past week that dropped more to 150-250 page views. That's a huge, huge drop and very discouraging, especially when I always prided myself on trying to write "evergreen", original content instead of chasing Google trends or churning out celebrity gossip for the PVs.

Interestingly enough, the public announcement of the Google change came only a few days after Y!CN announced the ending of their former Associated Content "Featured Contributor" program. That meant the end of 9 $10 upfront assignments (+PVs) for me a month. To say my enthusiasm for writing for Y!CN dropped significantly after that was an understatement. Why would I kill myself carefully editing articles and trying to do my best when a piece might only get a couple hundred hits now, if that? When earning less than $2 per 1,000 page views on Y!CN, the economic impact of the Google change is huge to many.

I understand and fully well saw there has been plenty of crap published on AC/Y!CN through the years - even through their mismanaged FC programs. Poor grammar, plagiarized content, nothing but link lists to other sites, you name it. And yet now everyone - including the good authors - has to suffer? I think it stinks. Y!CN seems to be doing its best to move people off the AC domain and onto their own sponsored networks like omg!, Yahoo!TV and Shine - which is great if you write the kind of content they want for those channels. I don't. I've only had one article chosen from my 250 piece library for Yahoo!TV, and while it got a nice upfront, it barely has received 30 pvs in over 2 months.

I've reapplied for the "new" Y!CN featured contributor program in 4 categories but remain discouraged. Now instead of 3 $10 assignments per month guaranteed, per category, you'll only get one $15 assignment as a FC - oh but they keep telling us "new and exciting opportunities are coming!" Yeah, sure. I really don't believe that.

So what am I doing? I'm branching out. I'll work harder at grabbing $15 upfront assignments from Demand Studios to reach the next level where I can qualify for better assignments. I've been working on developing a library at Squidoo where I can earn pay not just on how my pieces are performing but on affiliate sales links.

I'm also getting back to what I should have been doing for months - working on my artwork, marketing it, rebuilding my Etsy shop and realizing that web writing was a good gig while it lasted and might still be a good gig, but only if you're willing to change with the times and play the system as it develops. And I'm not sure how much I want to play the system just yet.