Blog Content Based Solely on High Paying Keywords

Doug Nelson writes "Michael Buffington chose to build a weblog using highly automated content aggregation tools around a single keyword, asbestos, because of the high click through rate associated with the ad. 'The subject matter, while weighty and all that, is of little importance to me. It's not that I don't have opinions on asbestos and asbestos reform, because I do. The whole point of the site is to experiment with an idea. I built a tool that helps me aggregate topical news with the help of Google's Alert system. So far it works wonderfully. But there's a second motive as well. Right now asbestos reform and asbestos related litigation is on fire. Lawyers are paying anywhere from $15-100 per click through on Google ads. The second part of this big experiment is to see if I can capture some of that click through revenue while still providing a somewhat valid service to people who might arrive by search results.'"

Comments

Re:Sad

[Sierpinski]

If I can make money from the lawyers instead of them making money off of me, how is that a bad thing?

I'm just disappointed that I didn't think of it first. Good job Michael.

So, let me get this straight....

[Teppy]

When I just now typed "Asbestos" into Google and clicked on the eight ads that came up on the right, I just cost a bunch of lawyers over $100? W007! I think I'll try it again from work.

Re:So, let me get this straight....

[Anonymous Coward]

ooooh that is fun. Try "personal injury", "wrongful death", or "malpractice" - those gotta be worth something too.

Googlebomb

[salvorHardin]

I think you have to be careful plugging blogs on slashdot, in case somebody starts a googlebomb with the words Money-Grabbing Pseudo-scammer or something like that. That would be unfortunate.

Report him to Google

[Anonymous Coward]

This is against their terms of service

"No Google ad may be placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads, whether or not the page content is relevant"

Built for adsense - google won't like this

[TheUncleBob]

Google does not usually like sites built specifically for adsense (as well as being against the adsense terms & conditions ). I wonder how long his adsense account will last before google terminates it.

Wanting frontpage coverage on slashdot is great for revenue, but admitting to building the site for adsense, well thats priceless.

oldest motive in the book...and good!

[tjic]

Providing a 'somewhat valid service'?...

the only real reason he's doing this is the money

These two things aren't incompatible.

The only reason my super-market provides groceries is to make money, and the result is a valid service.

The only reason the movie theater down the road plays movies is to make money, and the result is a valid service.

Just because this blogger is motivated by money does not mean that the service he provides is a scam. He's aggregating information, and will likely eventually - after he's been covering the topic long enough - provide knowledgeable commentary on it. I wouldn't be suprised if, in a few years, he's doing original research on the issue, iterviewing people, and digging up articles in libraries.

What he's doing is indistinguishable from someone starting up a new magazine because they see a demographic that would read it and an advertising base that would purchase ads (see, for example Make). The end result is that all three parties are better off: the readers get something that they choose to read, the advertisers get eyeballs, and the guy who puts it all together gets a slice.

What you're seeing is actually history in the making - the decoupling of demand-driven journalism from media companies.

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

-- Adam Smith

Re:oldest motive in the book...and good!

[CastrTroy]

Does this guy's site sound a lot like slashdot to anyone? Take a bunch of news stories from around the internet, about topics that people may be interested in, and get people to flock to your site. Then make money off the ads displayed on your site. I know I'm going to be marked as troll, but isn't this guy doing exactly what slashdot does, only with a different subject.

Unethical?!

[mariox19]

...it's just a little antithetical, if you know what I mean.

After looking up antithetical, I'm afraid I must say I don't know what you mean.

;-)

Re:Rationalizing??

[hamburger lady]

hey, give him a break, he's doing asbestos he can.

thank you, i'm here all week. try the veal.

There's a Cottage Industry Built Around This

[miller60]

What Buffington is doing is hardly new. Bloggers have been chasing high-paying keywords from the day AdSense was announced. The trend accelerated last year when the Wall Street Journal did a front-page feature about how much lawyers were paying for asbestos-related keywords. Tons of webmaster-related web sites offer tips on similar AdSense strategies, and there's even companies offering to sell databases of high-paying keywords for $199. This guy is actually way late in adopting a widely-used strategy. But by discussing his motivations so directly, he got linked on Boing-Boing and Slashdot. He's an accidental marketing genius. Go figure.