The Web Uncovered

The name “Content Farm” kind of describes it perfectly. What a strange concept, isn’t it? Or maybe not. Spammers and BlackHat SEOs have been auto generating low quality content for long tail search engine rankings for a while now. The content farm technique arguably takes this a few steps further by creating better quality (note – still questionable quality), user friendly content for the exact same reason.

Essentially certain companies have hired thousands of writers and video content producers to churn out content that is determined algorithmically:

The system starts with an automated process, crunching data and running it through an algorithm to identify story ideas that have the best chance of success. The algorithm factors in audience type, ability to attract advertising and potential for traffic. Source

The whole “Why” of the situation is pretty much easy to decipher. After all, there are over tens of billions of searches every month. That traffic has some serious value, especially for Informational Queries.  After all, more than 80% of searches fall within this category.

Continue reading via Explicitly – Includes how to create your own content as well as what other professionals think…

Youtube has already been determined as the victor in the world of user-generated video.  This isn’t news.  However, the relatively recent addition of insights in Youtube reveals something that all marketers fear.  What if your content is attracting the wrong audience?

Let me give you an example.  You are selling lingerie, and your target audience is women from ages 20-40.  You find models who make your product look very good, or vice a versa, and you post your video on youtube.  Within a week you have over 1,000 hits, and a 10,000 within a month.  While you are excited about the virility of your campaign, you don’t understand why it is not generating traffic to your website or any signicant sales increase.  Then you look at Youtube Insights at demographics, and find that 80% of the viewers were men, ages 14-24.

The Takeaway:

Remember, segmentation and product placement are not enough alone.  You have to generate content based on the values of your target segment.  Using themes like pricing and value, or improved body image, could better focus this campaign.  While Youtube gives you only basic segment data, this is enough to know if your framing of content is seriously flawed.