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Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

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Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#51

Post by troyvit »

1shooner wrote: post #32
catapart wrote: post #31

honestly: good. all of them jumped up their own asses for the sake of SEO and minimum required regulation compliance, which stopped me from even going to the ones that aren't low-quality, content mills, which many of them are. cut the cookies and tracking, so you don't have to have a ridiculous compliance banner. cut the paywall that tells me what you had to say wasn't important enough for public consumption. cut the…

What would be your suggestion for monetization without ads or subscription? Or are you thinking some type of privacy-respecting ad system? Because those have definitely been tried.

Subscription used to work. They can work again, even better than before now that we have the facility for micro-transactions. A micro-transactional framework would have the added benefit of making it expensive for scrapers to steal content.

This is hard for me, an "information wants to be free" kinda guy, to espouse. But there are softer ways to do it, such as how The Guardian does it, or how public media does it.

Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#52

Post by jeffbee »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #43
coldpie wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ads in the AI results, obviously. Google is now the king of the the SEO spam website game: plagiarize the info from others, slap ads on it, and profit. That is the purpose of LLMs: end copyright law, but only for the 5 tech companies wealthy enough to run these massive models. The rest of us still have to follow the law, of course.

But they aren't doing this, are they? How can their ads revenue be constant (as per your sibling comment), while nearly 60% of the traffic is gone (as per the article), before such a scheme has rolled out?

Gemini already drives some really valuable ads. It has, in effect, solved the "best pants" problem. It will use personalized chat to give you attributable shopping links for pants. And they don't have to share that revenue with some SEOmaxxing pants blogger.

Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#53

Post by catapart »

1shooner wrote: post #32
catapart wrote: post #31

honestly: good. all of them jumped up their own asses for the sake of SEO and minimum required regulation compliance, which stopped me from even going to the ones that aren't low-quality, content mills, which many of them are. cut the cookies and tracking, so you don't have to have a ridiculous compliance banner. cut the paywall that tells me what you had to say wasn't important enough for public consumption. cut the…

What would be your suggestion for monetization without ads or subscription? Or are you thinking some type of privacy-respecting ad system? Because those have definitely been tried.

I'm not suggesting monetization without ads or subscriptions. I'm suggesting monetization without obnoxious bullshit like full page, scroll arresting ads, or news content locked behind a paywall, rather than editorial content locked behind a paywall.

If I go to your website where you purport to cover the news of the tech industry, it is always in your best interest to actually give me that news. I'd prefer it if they gave a dry, sometimes even bullet-pointed list of bare news facts. What they know, how they know it, and the basic ways it affects the site's topic/hobby, as soon as they possibly know it. From there, link to your subscription content that goes into detail about the news and provides attractive insight or framing or whatever, along with reasoned updates when the news stops breaking and we have some better or more reliable information. People who just want the news can hit the site, light up the in-page and side gutter banner ads, and then bounce. People curious for more or appreciative of the talent can subscribe and get more, and more informed, detail.

Basically, just the same old suggestions for any enterprise: figure out what people, right now, today, want; stop relying on what worked in the past or what is most convenient for your team. Break it down in to how people actually function, and then place monetization where you would purchase, for a price that you would purchase for. I'll always be able to find the news without you, so you don't have any leverage to hold it hostage. Use it as a lead for your content, which can be the kind of reporting (different than news in subtle but meaningful ways) that people will be happy to pay for.

Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#54

Post by hackeraccount »

StLCylone wrote: post #2

AI has successfully scraped enough of their content so that they are no longer needed. Thanks for creating the content, now someone else will make money with it.

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2011-07-13

Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#55

Post by marginalia_nu »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #35
spudlyo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Franky, good riddance. The websites that had SEO optimized their way to the top of Google's search results for queries like "how to change DNS settings", "best free VPN", or "best wireless earbuds under $300" were generally terrible, and I can't say I'm sad that that creating that kind of "content" is no longer economically viable. There were large categories of information had become extremely difficult to search fo…

Yeah, that's only going to last until the first bad actor. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260218-i-hacked-chatgpt...

It seems very easy to manipulate.

Noticed the other day it now heavily cites and sources my one of my blog post to support the claim that yes, AI makes you boring if you google "Does AI make you boring?"

If you search "Does AI make you interesting?", it drums up other sources to support that contradictory claim as well.

Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#56

Post by catapart »

troyvit wrote: post #51
1shooner wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be your suggestion for monetization without ads or subscription? Or are you thinking some type of privacy-respecting ad system? Because those have definitely been tried.

Subscription used to work. They can work again, even better than before now that we have the facility for micro-transactions. A micro-transactional framework would have the added benefit of making it expensive for scrapers to steal content. This is hard for me, an "information wants to be free" kinda guy, to espouse. But there are softer ways to do it, such as how The Guardian does it, or how public media does it.

Yeah, I think there's a lot of juice left in the "newstand" model. We just have to figure out how to translate the efficiency of "drop in quarter, get news" with digital currency and content. Like you said: a micro-transactional framework. That would be a hell of a thing to get started, but if you could my money's on it working like a charm.

Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#57

Post by renegat0x0 »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #43
coldpie wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ads in the AI results, obviously. Google is now the king of the the SEO spam website game: plagiarize the info from others, slap ads on it, and profit. That is the purpose of LLMs: end copyright law, but only for the 5 tech companies wealthy enough to run these massive models. The rest of us still have to follow the law, of course.

But they aren't doing this, are they? How can their ads revenue be constant (as per your sibling comment), while nearly 60% of the traffic is gone (as per the article), before such a scheme has rolled out?

OpenAI was already found to be integrating ads into API. It is only a matter of time. Enshitiffication is inevitable.

Google participates in AI bubble. When it pops, they will aggressively seek monetization. Be ready to see chatbot output to be populated with popups, video ads, popups, and stuff.

Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#58

Post by esseph »

BoredPositron wrote: post #28
xrd wrote: post #5

I recently replaced a power supply to upgrade a GPU. I bought the power supply on Cragslist, so it had a jumble of cables and no manual. In the past I would have read an article that I would have found on one of those sites. This time I conversed entirely with Gemini, sending pictures of the cables and of the components and the motherboard. I'll not soon forget when I plugged in a cable incorrectly and sent an image…

I have never seen a review site or tech blog go into detail about how to wire a specific power supply to a specific motherboard. I would also never go to such a site to get information I can easily get from the manufacturer through a handbook but I would also never ask a chatbot. Really odd use case tbh.

> Really odd use case tbh.

For 99.99999% of people out there, LLMs are the new search. You can gnash teeth and yell and sob, but it is how things are.

Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#59

Post by esseph »

paulnpace wrote: post #40
spudlyo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Franky, good riddance. The websites that had SEO optimized their way to the top of Google's search results for queries like "how to change DNS settings", "best free VPN", or "best wireless earbuds under $300" were generally terrible, and I can't say I'm sad that that creating that kind of "content" is no longer economically viable. There were large categories of information had become extremely difficult to search fo…

[flagged]

> And now we can enjoy Marxist advertising ("posts") within our discussions on how to replace a TPMS sensor.

Reddit is Marxist? Hilarious.

I can't believe real people believe shit like this. Truly, the state of education is dire.

Marx and Engles must be rolling in their graves as a beacon of capitalistic tech is called "Marixst". What a silly world we live in.

Re: Most-read tech publications have lost over half their Google traffic since 2024

#60

Post by beej71 »

xrd wrote: post #5

I recently replaced a power supply to upgrade a GPU. I bought the power supply on Cragslist, so it had a jumble of cables and no manual. In the past I would have read an article that I would have found on one of those sites. This time I conversed entirely with Gemini, sending pictures of the cables and of the components and the motherboard. I'll not soon forget when I plugged in a cable incorrectly and sent an image…

> But, it was so much better to do this than to try to synthesize that in my brain

For some definitions of "better", that is. :(

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