The Answer Factory: Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell
1–10 of 42 posts
Re: The Answer Factory: Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell
#2I hope this doesn't get buried. Fascinating article about how a media company is scaling itself in real-time (by analyzing over 100 high-value sources of what people are searching for) and algorithmically determining what obscure piece of content will generate a lifetime profit (at 55 to 60 cents per adsense click). They match the costs of production to the expected life-time profit, for example $15 for a few-hundred word article (fully acknowledging that most content on the Internet is cheap)
Re: The Answer Factory: Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell
#3Instead of trying to raise the market value of online content to match the cost of producing it — perhaps an impossible proposition — the secret is to cut costs until they match the market value.
This is the reality that Rupert Murdoch is trying his best to ignore.
Re: The Answer Factory: Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell
#4I'm cautiously excited, but am withholding judgement until I see the quality of their products:
From the article:
"Howcast, one of Demand’s largest competitors, also produces explainer videos and how-tos. Unlike Demand, the company employs a staff of editors and writers and gets freelance voice-over pros. Filmmakers can earn a couple thousand dollars shooting the videos, and the difference is noticeable. (Howcast’s “How to Make Friends at a New School” includes such useful tidbits as “sit in the middle of the classroom to surround yourself with as many potential new friends as possible.” Demand-owned eHow’s “How to Be Popular in School” video, in contrast, offers such vague guidance as “be nice to everybody.”)"
Re: The Answer Factory: Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell
#5See the previous discussion here:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=892290
Re: The Answer Factory: Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell
#6This is the modern information economy equivalent of a manic episode.
Re: The Answer Factory: Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell
#7Re: The Answer Factory: Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell
#8All hell will break loose when algorithms start writing these articles, imagine information just getting recycled with no new information conveyed. Of course, algorithms could detect correlations and patterns in text but would they be able to produce original and genuinely interesting articles?
Re: The Answer Factory: Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell
#9I'm skeptical of this type of business, simply for the reason that I think you have to actually help people to make money. You can trick them in the short term or exploit some discrepancy, but this doesn't sound much different than spam, so I can't imagine it being successful long term.
Re: The Answer Factory: Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell
#10Eek... Reading this article was like watching a nightmare become reality. I've been getting thrown into ehow.com quite a bit lately, now I know why the answers are so terrible. This sort of mathematical approach to maximizing profit is, to me, a cancer on the web.
The analogy in the article was perfect, they're like the kid that screamed out the answer to every question the teacher had, but with absolutely 0 insight.