One Way to Move Content Around

March 3, 2009 · Comments

triond I was reading about Triond somewhere (forget where) tonight. It’s a kind of marketplace for content, where publishers can sell their works for a set price, and where people who need content can buy it. Some of their sample content sites are Gomestic and Authspot. I’ve seen similar deals in the past, where people can just write random stuff and get it sold in a marketplace.

It would be easy to complain about this kind of project. You could say it’s selling a blogger short. I’m not ready to say that. If you were to average, say, $20 a post, and you could put out 5 posts a day in between other jobs you were doing, you’d make $100 extra bucks a day. Say you did it 20 times a month. That gives you $2000 extra a month in your spare time just writing posts. Put together a few other gigs, and you’re making a living on the beach.

It might not be my intended methodology. I want to create the next Open Forum like Federated Media or the next Digital Nomads. I’d rather start from the “company with an interest in content marketing” side of the equation. But that’s me. That’s why I started experimenting with Dad-o-Matic. That’s why I’m working on a content marketing project for a client right now (can’t divulge yet).

But I’m not going to fault people for coming up with models that fit their interests. And I sure as hell plan to pay some bloggers and media makers for projects, when the right needs arise. Editorial projects abound in the coming months, and I’m excited for the opportunity to put a few together myself.

I’m excited about what the coming months have to offer. As people find new ways to express their passion, and as the online world redefines the conversations, redefines the marketplaces, redefines the very act of business communications, I’m thrilled to try out all kinds of projects that will help people connect in the ways they seek to relate.

What’s your take?

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  • I agree with you about people trying all "kinds of projects that will help people connect in the ways they seek to relate." I think it's an exciting time, despite the economic woes that we always hear about on the news. Social media and the platform it offers seem to be propelling people towards creating new ideas and truly tapping into areas of interest. It's amazing to think that we may be at the beginning of a time when people can easily dedicate to what they love... and make money doing it! Thanks for the post Chris!
  • Hey Chris, many good ways to make a buck with content. eg. video of "The Proper Way to Floss." Sell to dentists within non-competing zip codes - or better yet, sell it to Johnson & Johnson and let them figure it out. Or how 'bout a video entitle, "How to Change Your Tire?" Could come pre-loaded on a Flip and mounted on the tire jack - or better yet, sell it to Goodyear. These are the kinds of projects ad agencies should be creating for their clients, but since they aren't , there's plenty of opportunities out there for content marketing freelancers and/or production companies whose income for TV spots has dropped off significantly.

    enJoy
    bonnieL
    triiibe on!
  • Hey Chris,
    Hoping to join you in Seattle. As exciting as this moment is, sometimes I wonder how much of what is happening on the internets right now is making its way to the real folk out there. I have a friend/business associate who is very successful and is just a really busy guy. He said to me, "What's LinkedIn?" which amazed me. That made me wonder if we all aren't one big community talking to ourselves. Not that that is such a bad thing, but there's an insular quality to things...I'm giving my friend/associate and his partners a social media presentation and I have no idea what they know or don't know. I think they know very little.
  • Carries on nicely from the last post. What comes with being on the content marketing side of the equation is a niche, a focus and most often (since you need people to actually create content) is a community with a strong sense or passion in that niche. And this works way better than Triond for example is that when content creators and consumers overlap through one single passion we have a community that holds its own - a dynamic equilibrium of sorts. Which then is completely mobile(sellable) and immune to who "owns" it - and who owns it ideally should not matter at all since it is owned by the community, right (unless the "who owns it" does not understand that you play this from the inside and not the outside)?
    Well, this is my take on it and I could be completely wrong - but that is what I am seeing happening in my space.
    Content is indeed the king today, but there is so much of it that the only way to build value around that is with a niche and a community.

    Thoughts?
  • Chris,

    I am also interested to see how this flies. I plan on submitting a few non-marketing articles on subjects I am knowledgeable and passionate about. It's worth the effort, especially since I'll love the subject matter.

    Richard,
    I agree with your assessment. I primarily deal with small (micro) businesses and have realized a good number of business owners are only vaguely familiar with social media (they've heard about it) and even less have ever participated in PPC campaigns. As online marketers, we are lucky in that we utilize the medium to communicate, share, and learn at a very rapid pace. Stop and think about how much we learn everyday. Most other professions do not have the ability for continuous education on a daily basis. Things do change fast and it is with this that new opportunities present themselves to those who are open to them.
  • @Maya - I agree totally. There's a HUGE difference between hired guns and passionate niche players. I think the results would diverge drastically.

    I'm certainly interested in knowing how folks fare with something like Triond. For me? When I'm ready to launch my projects, I'm going to search via Twitter. What else? : )
  • Hi Chris,

    Thanks for the post! The marketplace concept is a nice analogy for talking about exposure and traffic, but I want to clarify that Triond isn't a buying/selling platform for content. Our users don't sell their work, they retain all rights to their content.

    Users' earnings are 50% of the revenue generated by advertisements placed on the article's pages. The more page views a content item receives, the more earnings generated. There is no minimum earnings amount - and there certainly is no maximum.

    If you have any questions - I'd be happy to answer!
  • Richard A Marti Jr
    Yes, the lines are fuzzy. How ethical is it to be paid to write about the virtues of a certain product in the voice of an objective reviewer and potentially deceive the reader? That is taking the art of rhetoric into places that feel wrong. I have often wrestled with the idea of placing advertising on my blog or web pages. Dam-it, I have a right to make a living too, "Caveat emptor" that voice in my head shouts out. Then I think again. How powerful is my voice? Why is it powerful? The answers are fairly and because I have integrity. I think readers "hear" that in my written voice.
  • I say pay'em.
    People are blogging at a million different levels. Why not try some of this and some of that? Learn, grow, move on. There's room for (almost) all of it.
    Suzanna
  • Interesting post, Chris. I've always been a big believer that content and marketing are permanently linked together, especially online. Good content without good marketing to support it isn't enough and good marketing without content that can deliver on the promise also isn't enough. And I agree that the real killer combination is content, marketing, and niche which is why I've recently started to explore the connections between the three in the comedy niche on my blog.
  • Chris, unless Triond has changed recently I don't think you're describing it 100% accurately. I've got some experience with sites like Triond, Helium.com, and Associated Content, so here goes:

    Of the three that I just mentioned, only Associated Content consistently pays you a flat rate per article (and this is only if you live in the US; last time I checked they weren't paying authors from other countries).

    Helium.com pays authors based on a share of ad revenues, contest winnings and flat rate fees from their Marketplace section. You only get paid the flat rate fees for Marketplace articles if the publisher buys your article, although you could get ongoing ad revenue shares as well. I have a bunch of content at Helium that has earned a few hundred dollars over the course of 18 months or so.

    Triond is 100% share of ad revenues. I don't know exactly how their system works, but page views is certainly a factor. I have about ten articles across their various sites; two of those articles have gotten some of my biggest page views ever (over 15K each to date). Total earnings to date = less than $100.

    I wouldn't say that these three sites are aimed at bloggers. I'd say that they are aimed at article writers who are willing to part with the rights to their content and, in some cases, recognition that they are the author. Of course, a blogger could use them to earn some cash, no question.
  • the problem with writing for money, as we have seen with newspapers, sitcoms and hair metal bands is that there is little lasting value. If you tell yourself you are worth x dollars per post you are a x-dollar a post writer and thus, because you set yourself up to do so, compared to other writers, and are lesser than those who command higher fees!

    Maybe if you physically cannot do anything than write then it's worth doing but if you write to have an identity other than 'homemaker' or 'underemployed' are you going to put your heart into something that will change your identity to 'below minimum wage writer'?

    I say, write good quality stuff (take your time) and let the world notice your genius rather than being a mediocre writer.
  • This may be slightly askew of the topic, but I continue to worry about the erosion of editorial authority and the dissipation of actual collections of expert knowledge. Maybe blogging for cash provides the same level of quality that the great publications like Time, Life, Newsweek, and The New York Times used to, but so far I am not so sure. The function of Editor seems to be disappearing and is being replaced by Marketing VPs. Who's gonna cover the police beat? Who's gonna keep an eye on government, especially if the articles aren't exciting enough to get high bids? Who's our "blogger in Dubai?" Yikes. I love social media and blogging , but I still can't endorse it as a suitable replacement for expertise, journalism, and real coverage. OK, slam me!
  • It's a great question, Rusty. I think it's a worthwhile question, but not one I'm equipped to answer. That's more a @stevegarfield or a @danielaschorr, etc. Important as all hell.
  • My mother preached the gospel of poverty. I've spent my life trying to recover from the effects of her teachings. Money is a means not an end. As long as you understand that money is a means not an end, you can fairly access your value and your values, and make decisions about your creativity in relation to your income. Pretending a person can ignore money won't make those who don't any less inclined to stop selling get rich quick schemes with a digital component.
    When I worked in a rock and roll band, all the musicians had zealous loyalty to their preferred brand name instrument, amplifier, guitar hero, and genre. Anything but rock and roll was garbage in their view. When I worked with jazz musicians it was the same thing all over again. People just like to get their Limbaugh on. It's my idea and it's very true. Freedom is as free as you want to be.
  • Daniel Sorensen
    What are the big advantages of Triond over Lulu?
  • Chris,
    Utility? That depends upon circumstances. In comunication online, it´s all very relative. Choices are. http://overjobs.blogspot.com/2009/03/no-adwords...
  • Hi Chris,
    I am at work now, so I may not have taken time to look at Triond long enough, but I don't see where you can "sell" your articles. It looks to me like they publish your articles on their own sites and monetize them with Adsense or whatever and split the revenue with you.
    If that is the case, then I'd be much better off starting my own blog network about my subject as I am sure I can dominate any of Triond's sites.
    Am I off base?
    AL
  • I wasn't aware of triond before now. sounds like a completely viable idea to me. It's funny how so many people would discount an idea simply because they wouldn't use it themselves.
  • As I look over Triond's network, where they give authors' content exposure I'm a bit worried by the 2007 copyright notice at the foot of each page, and that the majority of the sites are showing Ad Council and charity ads...

    So ok, you can put your content on these networks, and eventually someone might bump into them but it's a bit chicken and egg. If a high traffic site offered me a share of revenue, great, but if I was just going to have my content disappear on an anonymous site...well, I could probably do better myself.

    Perhaps Triond is waiting for the mass of articles to generate a long tail of occasional traffic which finally gains momentum -but right now, they just seem to be pooling together 50% of the ad-pennies from a bunch of sites which seem to have been set up and forgotten about.
  • Interesting post Chris, and a great comment by Rusty. In order for a piece of content to carry some clout it should come from a reliable (/expert) source, and that is the things with weblogs - they are so easy that just about anyone can blog... problem is that just about anyone does blog. Maybe this is simply a different tier of content provision (and pricing) compared to that of the contributors of Time / Life etc, and if so then yes, there's plenty of room for it and I'm sure there'll be some gems from budding 'breakthrough experts'.

    Lee.
  • Ack! As a writer with a relatively new aim to have an outstanding voice, news of this kind is kind of discouraging. On the other hand, those who do have a really good voice will float to the top. I stumble on quite a few blogs that have a great voice but aren't totally up there with the rankings or engagement, but I see them change as time goes on. So in the end, I think content given in a unique voice will win out over sold content. Having said that, I see that the "end" is further away than it used to be.
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