For 18 months, Clark Scott has been feeding the beast with fresh, original copy.
The beast being the world of content on the Internet. In theory, sites like the family of HelloMetro community sites, which publish fresh and original content, rise in the search result rankings in Google. When they do, internet traffic increases and the sites can charge more for advertising
But Scott, the CEO of HelloMetro, says that Google has changed its algorithms (the way it ranks sites) recently in a way that penalizes sites like HelloLouisville.com and dozens of similar ones throughout the world. It’s been quite controversial, in that site administrators around the world have been complaining about the way the rankings are done.
“The way they say they rank sites is that unique quality rises to the top,” he said. “You can complain, and I do, but our traffic did not go up when we added articles.”
During those 18 months, Scott said, he hired several dozen contract writers throughout the country, including several in Louisville, making a distinction that the writers are journalists, not bloggers. HelloMetro writers have names like the Washington Post, New York Times and the Courier-Journal on their resumes. The journalists write 400-word stories highlighting local events and attractions.
“We were paying $55 an article, which is three times the going rate,” he said. “Because we wanted respected journalists, not bloggers.”
But after thousands of articles and nearly a half-million dollars, Scott is pulling the plug on the contract writers and focusing the company’s efforts on new social media aspects of the site. In markets like Louisville, he’s created a Social Commons feature that allows peoples to become friends with others in their communities who share similar interests.
“It’s like Facebook, but the difference is that it’s all about locals only,” he said. “There will be interest badges and people can match up and find people with similar interests. With these new tools, we think people will interact.”
Scott said about 600 people have signed up in Louisville, and 40,000 across the U.S. About 150 people a day are signing up.
Scott said he hopes to bring back contract writers in the near future, and emphasizes that his 12-year-old company, which has other Internet-related business focused on local communities, is simply adjusting its business model. There are no layoffs of the 15 full-time staff.
DISCLAIMER: Since I am one of the contract writers mentioned in this story, I have a conflict of interest in writing the piece. However, I felt the news was important enough to inform you about it.
