Forum Moderators: martinibuster
So one day I decided to start another website. About another topic I really loved. Again, it took me many months to write about 50 pages of content. Fortunately, traffic gained and I started to make so cash with this website too.
At some point I noticed I made USD 10 a day again, but now I needed two sites to make that amount of money. I could continue this story, but you might be able to fill it in yourself.
The trouble is I read time after time about people who have websites with thousands of pages. Recently we even had a person claiming to own a 3 million pages website! Some of these sites are obviously fishy (scrapers and the like) but others are completely legit (user generated content). It is clear that these large sites have a far more evident presence on the Internet than my tiny 50 pages sites. I know it isn't all about quantity. But sometimes I doubt if a global computer network with at least 20 billion pages is the right place to try to get attention for 75 pages that took you a year to write.
Long story, but here come my questions:
Who is still writing their content page by page, the old fashioned way?
And who uses some kind of user generated content system, allowing to grow the site rapidly?
Who lets other people write content and then buys their articles?
And are there any other legit ways of making a relatively large site?
[edited by: BrandNewDay at 4:54 pm (utc) on May 19, 2008]
I write my own content, in vi, for most of my sites.
I also run a CMs on one of my larger sites to handle different sort of (image) content.
I don't buy content.
Rgds
Damon
Recently we even had a person claiming to own a 3 million pages website!
What he was doing wasn't legal, just trying to make a quick buck.
Partner with people that create the content. They're the experts with the passion for the subject. So have them write about it while you manage the sites. Or, as I think of it, do what you do best and have them do the same. Split the money.
1. I write my own content the old fashion way, legit, and valuable.
2. I created my own CMS for my sites
3. I don't copy or buy content.
I also see that in some way my efforts to create more sites with more content increase my earnings only to fall flat to the same amount quickly. It seems no matter what I do I will earn the same.
On the other side my efforts on creating new, unique, original and valuable just leave me receiving mails from other people asking permission to use it, I hate this.
I don't write so people want a piece of my work so they can put it on their websites. I'm dealing with it limiting the amount of text they can use and ask them to put a link to my site.
After 12 years online, my site has a little over 300 pages. I would guess that I've written about 2/3 of them myself, though I have never actually kept track.
My site is in a fairly small niche, but it's holding its own against larger, flashier sites, simply because it is seen as an authority. Of course, I'm not making a lot of money from it--but I'm also not putting a lot of time into it.
I just wish I could find independent, experienced people who are capable of writing about my subject, it's a nigh impossibility.
I write my own content, in vi, for most of my sites.
long live vi! vi or die! ork ork
And are there any other legit ways of making a relatively large site?
Who is still writing their content page by page, the old fashioned way?And who uses some kind of user generated content system, allowing to grow the site rapidly?
Who lets other people write content and then buys their articles?
And are there any other legit ways of making a relatively large site?
1) Creating my own content, the old fashioned way. Works well.
2) No powerful CMS for main sites; Wordpress for Blogs.
3) Rarely I do buy other people's content.
4) No idea. Tried various Web 2.0 techniques, but -despite fair traffic- it did not lift off. So back to #1.
Who is still writing their content page by page, the old fashioned way?
I do.
And I pursue content thieves without mercy.
Next week I'm supposed to meet with someone who claims he creates content, registers it, publishes it as bait and then files copyright claims against the thieves who bite. He claims it's a more lucrative income source than AdSense.
I have no idea if this is legit (I'm going to find out) and I really don't like the litigious nature of our current society. But like I said, I have no mercy for content thieves.
And are there any other legit ways of making a relatively large site?
In case you're asking that under the assumption a large site is the magic pill for AdSense, I make most of my AdSense income off a very small site, and just 1 and sometimes 2 pages of that site. Consider people like Matt Drudge and Glenn Reynolds. Their archives constitute a large site, but I'm guessing 98% of their income comes from one page.
FarmBoy
Who is still writing their content page by page, the old fashioned way?
I do it. Even more old fashioned way.
I drive myself to events and fairs, make photos, make interviews.
Just like an old fashioned journalist.
I have even a press card like an old fashioned journalist.
There is no single best practice, things change, just try to keep up.
Who is still writing their content page by page, the old fashioned way?
Count me in.
Castar, that's a very good example of how to get a larger and quality content rich site without writing 24/7 yourself!
Forums can be a great place to find writers. She has written hundreds of articles for me over the last 4 years.
If she was writing on your forum, I assume she already had knowledge of your topic. I discovered someone like that recently, not on a forum, but someone that had knowledge and good writing skills. I considered discussing it with this person but there are a few things I am still unclear about so I haven't yet brought up the subject.
Does this writer know what you're doing with the articles and has she ever mentioned setting up her own site and just writing for herself, thus competing with you?
Do you get a signed agreement indicating the copyright belongs to you once you pay for the article?
How much time and effort does it take to review and research the articles she writes and assure she isn't "borrowing" heavily from others? I know some people don't care about that, but I wouldn't want to get a DMCA notice from another webmaster someday.
FarmBoy
Good point on getting an agreement signed. Our agreement was verbal as to who owns the content. I'm going to get one in writing. Thanks for the suggestion.
I double check, in various search engines, that the articles aren't copied, once in awhile to make sure that it's original content. Another thing is if the page doesn't get pagerank, it's an indicator that I need to check things. So far so good. She understands that we can both get in trouble legally if we copy information from others :) Like I said, I hired her years ago and all the article databases and such, weren't as visible. A person really needs to stick out in my mind as a possible writer and then I look for character too, before hiring. I think a checklist would be good with what I expect from a writer and then making sure that the person follows those guidelines.
We all know that if we are to make websites profitable there is going to be some risk involved. We just need to be smart about it.
Who is still writing their content page by page, the old fashioned way?
I do it as well as i have produced more than 10.000 photos and 4000 minutes of videos for my sites.
Never buy ... :-)
