I notice that CAPTCHA is once again being mentioned around the web. WordPress them selves have been talking about using it – which is strange give their strong belief in Akismet. There are several small business marketing sites that are also discussing the subject. I have found that manual editing works fine, but then, I don’t get thousands of comments.
I think it all depends on the type of web site you have. Blogs of course always attracts comments – especially from the robot commenters. If you had a site about medical transcriptionist services, you would probably get none – or very few.
Mention Valentines Day and you would probably get thousands of spam comments – even if your site was only about broken arms or dental health or something minor.
What about a blog about Heavy Equipment Technology, would that suffer from a spam attack – probably not – unless of course it mentioned valentines day.
Believe it or not, all web sites suffer some form of spam. It doesn’t really matter about the genre. If someone else is in your genre, they either compete against you or fail. To compete they need links and links come from comments – here comes the spam.
Are we entering an era in which newspapers censor what can and can’t be published on websites and blogs. I know it is drawing a long conclusion from recent events, but that is a possible result from recent events. Newspapers are now resenting people referring to their content and linking to it. This goes to the heart of public debate.
If they make comments, or write a story, that you or I disagree with, we should have every right to write an article with counter opinions. Now, from memory, you cannot argue, or give an alternative opinion, if you don’t in some way refer to the original content. This could include quoting snippets from the original and it would have to include some reference to the original material – normally in the way of link. We do this of course to make it easier for our readers to go and read the original content. They can then form an opinion based on both sides of the argument.
WebProNews reports on the issue and they have their own spin on the issue. Small Business Mavericks takes a different spin and asks – is linking unethical. I think newspapers may be taking this issue beyond common sense. Yes, they do have a right to their content as I have a right to my content. However, when I put it out there in public, I have to cop the criticism or applause. If people want to link back to me – I say yes please.
Some online news services now want to charge a fee for you link back to them. This is like the banks that charge us fees to borrow our money, or paying money for a tax service franchise to save us paying too much in taxation.
What these newspaper don’t realize is that down the track, the newspapers that stay open and who are prepared to welcome comments and inbound links, will be the ones who rise in popularity. They will be the online news services that we go to read. In fact, with luck, those newspapers will go the way of private school teachers - they are being laid off – so too will the newspapers.
Is this a potential threat to our freedom of expression online? What are your thoughts?
Search is a never ending game. Website owners and bloggers do everything possible to achieve high rankings, and search engines do everything possible to ensure that on the best content appears at the top of the search results. Therein lies the problem of course. Website owners and bloggers think their content is worth of reading and should appear at the top of the search results. We are not all right. Mine is probably considered crap by many – others may find it interesting.
Here is a video with Matt Cutts thinking on search in 2010.
As usual he skirts many of the issues. That’s okay – I think we get the general drift. Social will be big, page speed I think will be important and, as usual, content that adds value to the web as a whole. Original content of course. Getting a backhoe out and digging up old content wont do the job – unless it’s completely rewritten and fresh.
If you want a transcription tip, go to the latest news sources and freshen your content based on what’s being written there. At least you will be giving your content the latest information and not tired irrelevant information from the past.
With more newspapers looking to charge people a fee to read their content, it has to leave you wondering how long it will be before other content providers like some of the big names in the blogging world, start to charge to read their content. Would you pay to read CopyBlogger, Problogger or the Marketing Pilgrim?
I am not sure that I ever would and I am not sure that we will ever reach that stage. Small Business Mavericks asked the question – Is Paid Content Our Future? and more generally, “is this the future for all online content?”
What I can see in the not too distant future is that some of the big named bloggers and content providers will ‘charge’ an access fee – however, it won’t necessarily be in dollars. Insisting that individuals become members (and so sign up to the mailing list) is one option – an option that is probably very real. Would you become a member of one of the big sites if that was the only way to access their content?
I do see a problem with that model however. The only way it would work is by having all the content marked as private. This means keeping the search engines out and if you keep the search engines out, you won’t rank for that content. If you don’t rank, you will not attract new visitors unless you can circumvent the search engines and deliver a strong social media marketing campaign. If you niche is franchising, how will you let the non-franchise world know what is happening. I know if I was in that industry and want to Make Your Franchise a Success – I would want all the free traffic I could get.
Some niche’s are probably not big enough to utilize a subscription based content model. Take medical transcription – would you subscribe to get the latest news on the topic. If you were in the field you may, but that is only 5,10 thousand tops – is that enough? Probably, if you were so popular you had all of them subscribed. Most of those involved have enough difficulty Handling Home-Based Medical Transcription – I don’t think they would bother with any form of paid content.
I guess if the big boys aren’t ranking in the search results, we may get a look in! In the meantime, is paid content on the horizon – maybe for big time operators, otherwise, don’t even contemplate it.
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