A Content Farming Retrospective (w/Shawn Colo)

Origins

Demand Media's origins trace back to the mid-2000s, when Shawn Colo and Richard Rosenblatt, a former MySpace executive, embarked on a venture to acquire profitable websites 1. They raised $120 million to purchase companies like Enom and eHow, creating a conglomerate of media assets 2. This strategy was part of a broader vision to integrate social networking into these platforms, aiming to leverage the burgeoning digital landscape 3.

We bought a business called Enom, which is a domain name registrar with a great founder, DePaul Sthura, who went off to found a business called Donuts, which is now a multi-billion dollar company in the domain name space.

--- Shawn Colo

Their approach was innovative for its time, setting the stage for Demand Media's initial success.

   

Content

Demand Media's content strategy involved mass-producing articles to capture every possible search term, a tactic that initially proved lucrative 4. Eric Newcomer recalls his experience writing for Demand Studios, highlighting the thin editing process and the focus on quantity over quality 4. This approach, however, faced criticism for producing "thin content" and eventually drew the attention of Google's algorithm changes 5.

Basically, you guys were incentivized to collect as many different articles as possible, so that no matter what, if someone searches something, it comes up at the top of Google.

--- Eric Newcomer

The company's reliance on such strategies underscored the challenges of maintaining quality in content farming.

   

Algorithm

The sustainability of Demand Media's business model was severely tested when Google altered its search algorithm, drastically affecting the company's traffic and revenue 6. Shawn Colo reflects on the impact, noting that the initial algorithm change temporarily boosted their traffic before a subsequent update caused a significant downturn 6. This experience highlighted the risks of platform dependency, a lesson that resonated with other companies reliant on tech giants 7.

We were the first ones to really bear the brunt of platform dependency. Right. Like, and this is now everybody is at the mercy of the platforms.

--- Shawn Colo

The episode serves as a cautionary tale about the volatility of digital media landscapes.