MICHAEL MARTINEZ <Michael_at_xenite.org> WROTE:
>Content syndication is so cheap that it
>hardly pays anyone.
(Large Content Syndicator Name Deleted) charges the
portal I used to work for over $10,000 per month for a
content feed. That's hardly "cheap".
>Even major news sites which have
>other revenue streams have been scaling back on staff
>or shutting down operations completely over the past
>six to eight months.
90% of people doing self-syndication will NOT succeed
at it - but not for any of the reasons you outlined.
The main reasons will be that their content is of poor
quality, or there is too much in the way of similar
content being offered elsewhere for free. There is a lot
of stuff on your site that could be fed remotely to
other fan sites and either drive traffic or be a source
of revenue for you. Don't go after it - (shrug) - it's
your loss.
>Heck, Fox shut down it's TV Web site team. They weren't
>even a revenue group.
No doubt they were paying off their CMS implementation.
At $500,000 + $50,000 a month you gotta sell a lot of
ads. I doubt they were doing much content syndication
in any case. TV Networks never did wrap their minds
around what Internet users really want anyway. It's
possible they tried, but most networks are anal about
the proprietary control of their content, they tend to
be poor at syndicating it. I worked at a portal site
and we tried to get a TV network to "syndicate" to us
(it's called "cobranding" in portal parlance) ... it
was a political nightmare.
Newspapers on the other hand make a pretty good game out
of cobranding and syndicating their content, because
that was built into their world-view to begin with.
Freelance producers like myself are in an excellent
position - because a lot of sites are looking for
low-cost alternatives to in-house content development now.
It's simply a matter of finding the demand to fill.
>how is the average business
>supposed to create syndicated content?
Most small businesses have someone on staff who can write
passable copy. If not - they can hire a good freelance
writer or content producer. It's not rocket science.
---
Brandi Jasmine
Writer, Digital Photographer, Illustrator
www.brandijasmine.com
www.astrology.ca - www.twostar.com
brandi_at_brandijasmine.com
Received on Wed May 16 2001 - 14:31:24 CDT
