Up until a week or so ago, I worked at a website called [Name Redacted]. I was fired along with lots of other really good writers because our corporate owners figured something out: you don’t need to have good writers to make money on the internet — you just need really good SEO (i.e. Search Engine Optimization, the process by which people find your article using search engines like Google or … Google. I was going to say “Bing” there, but, you know, come on. …)
I know that sounds bitter, but I assure you it’s not. As anyone who has listened to the PodClack will tell you, when I’m feeling bitter about something, I make Max Cady from Cape Fear seem like the forgiving sort. I’m still upset about [Name Redacted] making fun of my new haircut in 8th grade.
I make the claim that good SEO is more profitable than good writing because it’s already been proven by the market. Content farms like Associated Content churn out — conservatively — fourteen trillion horrible articles a second, and, despite the fact that not one human has ever found one of those articles useful, Yahoo! decided that they were worth $90 million.
Brand loyalty doesn’t matter much to content farms because it isn’t about returning customers, it’s about gathering clicks from search engines. What I mean is, nobody has Associated Content or Demand Media or any of the other content farms in their favorite folders, they just stumble on them (the same way that I sometimes stumble onto pornography while looking for legitimate websites!)
Because brand loyalty doesn’t matter, there is no need for brand identity. Hiring quirky writers with interesting points of view, writing about weird things that might make a passing visitor into a lifelong fan, doesn’t make sense for the content farms. You don’t need quirk, you just need good tags and a well-written title. If something really cool happens on TV, you don’t need writers to present their own interesting take on it, you just need to find a video of it, throw it on your site, make it easy to find, and do all that as quickly as you can. While a few people might be interested in what a good writer would have to say about it, a million more are just going to Google it because they want to see the video. The money is in gathering those millions of people Googling.
Again, let me be absolutely clear: I’m not bitter about what happened at [Name Redacted]. It’s just what happened there, ladies and gentlemen, is where the internet is headed. And that’s why you have a moral imperative to come to CliqueClack — and why you need to tell all your friends to do the same.
Does that sound like I’m trying to guilt you into monetizing this website? Well it should, because I am. I’m catholic and my wife is Italian — guilt flows through me and binds me like the force.
But it’s not just for me I’m writing this (though it mostly is) — it’s because I fear for the future of content on the internet.
Sites like CliqueClack and what [Name Redacted] used to be were founded on the premise that interesting people writing about things that interest them would ultimately find an audience, even as “embracing the quirk” meant that some articles would inevitably fall flat. The early part of the last decade was filled with sites following this model and that’s why social historians thousands of years hence will one day refer to the years 2004-2010 as the “Golden Age of Blogging.” Or as the “Last Time People Didn’t Kill Each Other For Water Ages.” I’m hoping for the former. …
In a lot of ways, this blogging ethos was a lot like FM radio in the ’70s. You had a collection of weirdo DJs all picking their own music in the hope that in doing so, it would give the station an identity beyond the number crunching of the quarterly ratings. You’ve seen WKRP in Cincinnati, I don’t have to explain this to you.
For those of you that don’t think that the internet is in danger, I want you to go to your radio right now and turn on any FM station at random. Do you hear quirk? Do you hear distinctive DJs playing the entire sides of albums you’ve never heard of because they think it’s cool to do so?
No, of course you don’t. You hear the equivalent of radio SEO. You hear songs that are designed to grab a passing listener, not to create a station people actually care about.
Maybe I’m tilting at windmills here. Maybe the Google wave that’s passing over the web right now is inevitable. Maybe this whole essay is stupid.
Maybe. Or maybe if we make an effort to spread the word about sites like CliqueClack or the AV Club or whatever site you love and visit often we can hold off the SEO Zombies at bay for just a little bit longer.
Oh, and I might just be a little bit bitter.
Clacked by Jay Black 
on Apr 28, 2011 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
Well said, Jay! Great comparison to radio stations.
Glad you’ll still be writing 3,000 word posts. ;)
Jay Black, you’re my hero …
Very nice, Jay.
I am here, but none of my friends read about TV. Will you be my TV friends?
Last night on Breaking In — which I watch because I only remember Christian Slater roles I have enjoyed, and also miss The Loop and Reaper — the writers/characters made random references to TWO things I love, without making any effort to turn them into pop culture jokes.
Since “we” have been hit over the head with pop culture heavy sitcoms the past few years I appreciated the restraint, even if the show isn’t setting the world on fire.
(The references? Ana Ng, the name of Cash’s fringe love interest and the title of the #1 They Might Be Giants song as rated by users on the TMBG wiki; and Gordon Shumway, the alias used by Ted McGinley, or, you know, ALF.
Yay, a shout out for The Loop! I thought I was the only one who liked (or watched) that show! Loved Reaper too and was happy to see Bret Harrison on V and now his new show. I just wish Fox would release the second season of The Loop on DVD.
[Name Redacted] has gone way downhill, anyway–just look at the comments. Most appear to be written by people unfamiliar with the English language, or under the age of 5. They’re the typical [Name Redacted] crowd that the rest of us online have been laughing at since they all first went online with their free disks. You’re better writing somewhere where people can understand your writing and respond in an intelligent fashion, WITH NO SCREAMING or misspelled LOL-filled diatribes.
I was in the process of composing a message of agreement with you when I noticed Charlie’s “who gives a shit!!!!” post below. So it seems like you have the power to make the opposite thing happen by simply commenting on CliqueClack. While I’m bummed that Charlie ruined your argument, I would like you to please post a message about how my wife will never, ever, give me a three-way for my anniversary…
What they do with those articles, is that they are also posted on the general A*L site to try to draw in readers. What you end up with are comments from the general A*L users who are much less insightful in their critique of particular programmes.
I remember when we were being directed at a different [Name Redacted]blog, owned by the same American Over Lords to write about Britney Spears. This was a parenting blog, by the way.
Directed to write about Britney Spears. Work her in there like a worm through the soil, so we can tag the post and get hits on it. The rest of the words in the post don’t really matter.
Then, after we had been writing there for years, from almost the ground up, we were asked to re-submit applications for our own jobs, but ultimately replaced with American Over Lord spybots anyway.
No, I’m not really bitter either.
Who gives a shit!!!!
Respectfully sir, I give a shit.
(And then the rest of Mr. Keating’s class stands on their desks. “I give a shit!” “I give a shit!’ “I give two shits *and* a flying f***!”
And… scene!)
Um Charlie?
To quote Captain Luc Picard… “SHUT UP, WESLEY!”
Jay..I am thrilled that I can read your posts over here. I discovered this wonderful site when some of my favorite writers went missing from “the site that must not be named”. I do and will continue to send friends to this site.
Aw, thanks Toni. There’s certainly a Rebel Alliance vibe over here (and not just because I’ve got Wookie-level body hair, though that is a large part of it)…
You know, there is one radio station in Indianapolis that is still independent and plays just a huge variety of the stuff they want to play (it’s 92.3, for anyone interested). I don’t like every song they play, but they play more of the stuff I like than anyone else in the city. That’s what CliqueClack feels like for me. And I’m NOT just saying it because I write for it, too.
I’ve sent article links to my friends from here, but a lot of times I get a reply saying that they just wanted to see a clip instead of reading something. I then mentally call them a [word redacted] and roll my eyes.
In NYC 101.9 has several periods where they give the DJs or a band free reign to play what they want and the creator of the first alternative rock station in the USA is heavily involved with the station. Though there are a lot of times where you can sense that SEO taking over in parts.
And Charlie in the words of Peter Griffin: Shut up Meg.
I think I get what you’re saying but some of the words you used were a little too big for me to understand. Could you re-write this post with some of the more complex words replaced with Katy Perry and Charlie Sheen?
So what’s the next unexploited and unspoiled media? Augmented reality?
It’s not so much that commercial blogging was unexploited and unspoiled prior to the Arianna Huffington shoving her egg depositor down its neck and shitting SEO into its belly — I get that any commercial endeavor is, by its nature, designed to make money — it’s that I think that the path we’re on is a dangerous one. In the SEO model, no one wins; the writers are forced to churn out articles they don’t care about, and the readers are ruled by the tyranny of the masses (i.e. what people are searching for).
I recorded a podcast today with Bob Sassone (another exile from [Name Redacted]), and in it, I compared the SEO method to profitability as the dark side of the force: not more powerful, just quicker and easier. Building a readership (and, more importantly, the profitability that comes with a readership) is _hard_. You have to develop a voice, then nurture it long enough for other people to hear it.
But that method works, and there’s money to be had there. Because people appreciate quirk and voice and the kind of long-tail sensibility that might lead someone to write a thousand words about a mock-Studio 60 twitter feed (something I’ll be doing tonight!). If they didn’t appreciate that, corporate entities wouldn’t have snatched up blogs like [Name Redacted], [Name Redacted], and [Name Redacted]. They bought those sites because they were making money!
Granted, there is more money in SEO, but there’s also less useful content. I don’t think even snarky cynics like yourself (no offense intended; I’m a pulsating spider sack of snark, not unlike the end boss of Metroid). Associated Content and Demand Media don’t produce things that people WANT, just things that they’ll click on. There’s a huge distinction there.
So sites like this one, and AV Club, and whatever it is the Engadget Editors are planning to build, are something that need to be cultivated. That was my point.
And also: Katy Perry.
Can’t wait to hear that podclack with Bob Sassone.
Where’s Brian??? i miss him in the podclack so much!!! :)
Sorry for being misleading. I wasn’t going for snark so much as “Sarcastic Prick”. I love your analogy of the 70’s DJs. And while I only got to listen to 3 months of my mom holding 70’s DJ radio up to her uterus, I still get it. Nobody truly “follows” and enriches any internet characters anymore since they can simply search for what their looking for on demand.
It seems too long ago I abandoned my RSS reader for my twitter/facebook-miniblog reader – and am dumbing myself down as a result. The loyalty has almost evaporated and many people will not effort towards a higher level of personal ownership or find their own “internet home” when it is now so easy to blow with the wind.
I don’t think the importance is that a site becomes too commercial or dependent on SEO, but that a site fosters and nurtures a community – and all good things come with time and dedication. There is room to blame search engines, twitter, and facebook status miniblogs, but hopefully with sites like this, a community of reasonably intelligent people can find a place to listen to cool new records and…
find out the latest on Lady Gaga and The Royal Wedding BS! OMG LOL!
If we could heart comments, I would heart the hell out of this one. It made me giggle.
I am a big fan of this place and have pretty much stopped reading [site redacted]. But I don’t entirely see the parallel between it and eHow/Associated Content SEO optimized content farms. It does still have real authors, but I do feel that the personal voice of each writer has been lost. I just hope your folks’ anger is directed towards the management that forced this. I do occasionally pop over there for the occasional episode review that’s more than a paragraph long.
FYI, one thing that would make me (and a few other people I know who started reading [site redacted] in the old days) come here more often is a link from the front page of CliqueClack TV to a list of new TV on tonight. I know there’s the email list, and linked on Twitter, but I’d rather not have to go through my email or twitter feed to find it every day.
It’s totally directed towards management. In fact, we made it clear several times in the latest podcast that the writers over there are very talented (and quality people to boot).
What you said about voice is exactly the parallel I’m drawing to eHow and Associated Content. Once you abandon authorial voice (or quirk or individuality or whatever you want to call it) in favor of blandness for pageviews sake, you’re walking down a dark path. Put another way, if you’re more concerned about whether or not Google is going to change the value of a variable in its search algorithm than you are about the actual editorial content on your site, I think the best interests of the readers haven’t been served.
I’ll pass the new TV link along to Keith.
Ah the good old days when posts with videos started showing up and Bod Sassone told people to STFU in the comments because this was going to be what the site was going to look like in the future.
I’m so glad that integrity starts exactly when you don’t get paid anymore to adhere to a certain “way” and still manage lump yourself in with Josh, considering he quit.
Oh and I can’t wait for those movie reviews that won’t hold back with a strong voice where nothing gets [redacted].
And what’s the reason for saying the name of the site on the podcast on Podclack 33 (by the way, small hint, you link to it in the related posts and there it’s not [redacted]) and censoring it here? I don#t get it. Do you think their lawyers can read but not listen?
So… what’s the business model of CC then? Voice acting role for Keith on the next Seth McFarlane show?
And the funny thing about this is that you guys read what I just wrote here and think to yourself “What an asshole”. Because I’m this vile person who just sits at home at his computer who hates everything because he’s bitter about his life and how everything turned out, empty, no friends, no purpose etc. etc.
Well… right back at cha. Because never has it been more obvious how bitter you guys are about this whole deal than with this post.
You raise a couple of points, I’ll try to go through each one:
1. Integrity. I’m a stand-up comedian, I have no integrity whatsoever. You know those singers who performed in Libya and were embarrassed by it? I’m jealous of them and I’ve instructed my agent to call other dictators to see if they need a comic.
This isn’t a post talking about how punk-rock CC and its writers are versus [Name Redacted], it’s a post discussing two business models. One in which I think writers and readers benefit and one in which they don’t.
It also should be noted that the shift from content-driven to SEO-driven was a gradual one that had one giant, flashing tipping point — the beast Arianna. For two solid years, we drifted towards it, then the corporate masters sold their soul to Arianna by buying the Huffington Post, and then (and only then) is there a mass firing.
So it wasn’t like we were SEO Nazis, working for two years doing something we hated and then turned to say that we were “only following orders!” when the war is over. We were writing, having fun, and doing essentially what we do here while the Earth slowly shifted under our feet.
(But yes, to the point of my integrity, I should say that I would be writing an essay extolling the virtues of SEO if they were paying 250K a year. Because I have no integrity. Because I’m a comedian. I can’t stress this enough, Sebastian, I talk about my penis for my job. *sobs, the smashes a mirror*)
2. The whole [Name Redacted] thing is a joke. Ha ha? Joke. Ahem. Maybe you didn’t get the — with the thing — see it’s like — (pulls collar Rodney Dangerfield Style)
3. The business model is to create the kind of site that is driven more by content than by SEO; that’s it. Rather than concentrating on people dropping by when the search for last night’s videos, we’re going to try to create a site that you visit every morning (or hopefully a few times every day) because you’re interested in what we have to say next.
It’s a simple battle of two philosophies. As I’ve stated above (and in the article itself), one produces better content and one produces more short-term profit. I’d like to think that the former will eventually out-duel the latter, but I’m not sure. I’m glad I get to try though.
4. I don’t think you’re an asshole, Sebastian, I think you just need a hug. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault. It’s not your —
Another joke! I was doing Good Will Hunting! Remember the scene where — okay, look it doesn’t matter.
Let me start again: I don’t think you’re an asshole. Again, remember, I’m a comedian and I live in New Jersey. I started my career screaming jokes at people from the top of a pool table. There is no internet heckle you can give me that’ll rattle me. You just go on doing what you’re doing.
5. And the part where it should have been obvious that I’m bitter about this whole thing should have been when, at the bottom of the article I wrote about how bitter I was about this whole thing.
I think that should clear everything up, right?
Hey Jay
Thanks. Great answers (no irony here). Thanks a lot.
You know from a readers perspective the moment when it became unbearable (for me at least) was sorta three months after CC started (not HERE, THERE, on that other page you guys came from. You know… [redacted]). I guess the difference is that for you guys the thumbscrews were tightened gradually where I already broke and spilled all I had about the resistence and they killed all my friends and family…
The other reason why I sometimes sat there and shook my head was because you guys went through this about a decade after I witnessed something like this for the first time. I think it was back in ’98 when a couple of the guys I work with founded kinda the first professional gaming clan in germany. They started covering all their games on their main page, with new entries appearing at the top. They added topic after topic, in the end handling half a dozen online games with about a dozen writers. So they founded a company and asked me and ten others I knew from playing those games, among them my brother and the neighbour I went to Kindergarten and Preschool with. Of course we were all asked to work for free, because “the site, in the end, is not making any money, you know that, right?”. I declined, my brother as well. The 8 other guys started to write for that site. That was during the Internet boom right up until 2000 when the bubble burst. So that company was bought by a gaming magazine. Huge payout. For whom? Yeah you guessed it, ONLY the two guys I worked with who founded that company. For the others? Nothing.
So they got a multi-million payout (most of it in shares), with a job attached to it. They moved to the gaming magazines headquarters while all the others didn’t get a dime and basically got a carrot on a stick “Here, if you are nice you can get a couple of bucks for each post you write”.
So yeah… that was the first time I got into contact with this idea of a website that has lots of authors and they don’t really get paid but have to work as if they were and in the end the guy who owns the place and his buddies get the big payout. That’s why I always thankfully decline every time someone asks me to come on board to “have fun writing”.
At least karma was a bitch and because the Internet Bubble burst in the fall of 2000 all those shares were suddenly worthless while the guys still had to pay the income taxes for getting them – at their former value before the bubble burst.
Also a reason why I saw the housing market collapse coming round about 2006 when I read the first article about prices shooting up everywhere in the US. What I didn’t know is that this would impact the whole world. I thought “Hey let them fail, it’s just in the US, right?”… yeah right. We’ll all have to pay for that one for decades.
Anyway, I really didn’t understand where the money for paying all of you guys came from in the first place. Because I never saw the business model work. There were just too many talented writers. I know that John Gruber’s model works with a sponsored RSS feed but that’s about it. I don’t know a single other person who can support a family with blogging.
Oh and hey – I didn’t mean you thinking that I’m the asshole. I prepared for that Podclack thing you know. Problem is that I knew why you asked. You know… you knowing you can handle me because of being a standup comedian. Which made me think about why you thought you had to “handle me” and at that point all the other writers come in and there ya go. It’s not that I didn’t know that you wanted to play cat and mouse with me asking questions like “Why do you hate (insert name here)” or “What would you do if you were running the place?” which are the friendly versions of “Why are you such an asshole” and “Why do you think you know better” ;-
(the answer, by the way, would’ve been “Nobody, I’m interested in quality” and “Go visit a Red Sox game because then I would live near Boston” (thought about adding some dirty joke there about ‘my wife’ but I respect Deb too much ;-) )
My only suggestion would’ve been https://flattr.com but then again I knew that Keith wouldn’t like a clearly visible counter on every post.
But again, asking me about it for me was the clear sign that the general consensus about my person was that I was at the level of a heckler during one of your shows.
And that didn’t sit well during the next encounters with anyone else on the page later on.
Anyway, I wish you guys the best and that you can find a way to run the site so that the authors are happy, you guys all make a couple of bucks, nobody succumbs to a buyout, the overall quality of the posts is as good as of TVS and the posts aren’t littered with product placements (like the last episode of SNL which kinda disgusted me. You know. “Kung Fu Panda” n stuff).
Take care.
One quick note: me asking you on the podclack wasn’t so that I could “handle” you.
Paul Mercurio, a funny comedian and writer on the “Daily Show” has a pretty good stance when it comes to hecklers. He says (and I’m paraphrasing) that comedians always talk to the people making the loudest, most obnoxious comments and that that’s a mistake. Because you would never talk to those people in real life, talking to them from the stage takes on an unnatural and ultimately unfunny exchange.
He believes the best conversations come from talking to hecklers (or really, just people in your audience) that actually interest you.
So, yeah, you’re abrasive and you have a tendency to ruffle feathers, but that actually *interests* me. Why? Because I’ve got deep-seated psychological problems that I’m desperately trying to work out.
For the record, I still want to do that podclack. I never followed up with you in February because, as my wife would tell you, when I’m in the middle of a mega-tour (like I was this winter), most of my promises and commitments are eaten up and spit out by a dragon I like to call US Airways. I’m still game if you are.
I chuckled at the fourth paragraph. Your ability to make me laugh about you making fun of me by deprecating yourself sickens me, Sir! ;-)
I visited your website back then to check if you were on tour by the way so I figured that you were busy. No worries :-)
I really don’t think I ever told anyone to “STFU” because that’s how the site was going to be from now on. Doesn’t sound like something I would have done.
That wasn’t meant literally – you didn’t even say “shut up” – you said “This topis is over”.
If you could point me to the post that would help. I have a feeling you might be thinking of Joel.
Yeah… Joel…
I think you are right. I think you said “You guys have to understand, this isn’t debatable so please understand that we won’t discuss it” and Joel was the one who was more along the line of “This is policy so this topic is over”. I guess you have to thank him for me being pissed at you ^^;
That was the point where I got really pissed at TVS and vented here, and since you were the one who was here (and not Joel) I think you got all the blame. I think it’s also because I was pretty sure that you AND Joel ran the place (in that order).
So I guess I have to say that I’m sorry for putting all the blame I had on you.
Sorry.
Good :-)
Now… let’s talk about Studio 60 so I have a good and honest reason to start yelling again ;-)
Hey, can I get a link to the podcast that Bob and Jay made yesterday? *Waves at Bob.*
It’s edited and ready to roll. It’ll be out soon. 55 minutes of awesome from Mr. Sassone (though, as usual, I suck pretty bad. It should be noted that I did the entire thing pantless.)
For what it’s worth, Jay chose to use “redacted” because — and this is just a hunch — he doesn’t even want to utter TV Squad’s name anymore because it only saddens and sickens him. But he can reply otherwise.
“And that’s all I have to say about that.” – Forrest Gump
Yeah… I understand that feeling. It’s all really sad you know because the site was awesome when I first came to read…