Comments on: No place for good advice on web

By: Karen Bryan

Karen Bryan — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:11:26 +0000

Well I do try to write quality content that will inform, inspire and/or entertain readers without thinking too much about SEO. Yes I was delighted that with the recent link from Guardian Money. Well I hope that Europe a la Carte does rise to the fore of travel blogs soon.

By: David

David — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:03:20 +0000

You submitted to a MFA site as they are known in the business probably .. MFA = Made for Adsense . The whole idea is to trap the user into clicking a link that pays money to get out of there , to get that user in the first place the whole thing is written with hte bots in mind. Keep writing as you write , i noticed the gaurdian links , over time your site will rise to the top as cream always does..

By: Darren Cronian

Darren Cronian — Sun, 04 May 2008 10:38:15 +0000

Karen,

To be honest (I could be wrong) but it’s about 50/50 the potential advertising revenue and the fact that they have two popular blogs that they can promote the Conde Nast brand.

If you look at the Jaunted blog as it stands, very little in the way of ads and I don’t think that it’s because they don’t want advertising, I think it’s because travel companies just aren’t interested in banner advertising.

You would not believe how many requests I get each week for advertising through text link ads because it helps their Google rankings, but in return gets me penalised by Google for selling links.

It’s a massive challenge for bloggers, myself included.

Sorry I am going off topic! :)

By: karen

karen — Sat, 03 May 2008 10:09:03 +0000

Darren, I assume that Conde Nast make money from selling ads on a fee per thousand page views then if they are so keen to take over high traffic blogs and also to reinforce the Conde Nast brand.

By: Darren Cronian

Darren Cronian — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:56:13 +0000

Karen,

Take Jaunted and Hotel Chatter why did Conde Nast buy them? Not because their content is the best on the web (it’s not in my opinion) but because they have over 1million visitors every month.

They can put out their brand and advertise on high traffic blogs.

The reader in my opinion is second in their thoughts.

By: karen

karen — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:20:59 +0000

So you also think that there isn’t enough focus on content that is useful to the reader? It’s strange that value to reader seems to be low in the list of priorities.

I just don’t see how traffic in itself = ££s unless as I said you are selling advertising by page views.

By: Darren Cronian

Darren Cronian — Fri, 02 May 2008 20:06:45 +0000

I am afraid Karen it’s all about traffic and in return £££s, thats why they are looking for someone who will write an article that isn’t useful to the reader, but has been written for the search engines and social media sites.

Sod them.

Keep on writing, networking and using social networking tools that bring traffic.

By: karen

karen — Fri, 02 May 2008 08:05:27 +0000

Thanks for your comment, me.

I hold my hands up that my article is a bit boring. I’ve never claimed to be a fantastic travel writer. I try to write pieces that are useful, informative, entertaining and I agree my article about a £50 a day in Edinburgh is not particularly entertaining but some readers may find it useful and/or informative.

With regard to it not being written for the medium of the internet I disagree in some respects. Yes, not written for search engines but there are many links in the article for more information about museums, walks etc. I see this as an important part of writing for the internet that you don’t need to write about everything in detail but those readers who want more information are only a click away.

The obsession with getting “eyes to the page” doesn’t work for my business as they need to be targetted eyes who will spend some time reading the content, not just a quick click on the catchy title, a 5 second scan and then off to the next post tagged on the social media site.

By: Me

Me — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:20:23 +0000

Maybe, and this is a big MAYBE…. your article is a little boring. MAYBE it’s just the same old advise you see everywhere. MAYBE what the editors were saying, was they want a fresh perspective and at a minimum, something written with its medium (the internet) taken into consideration. Because maybe, as much as you’d like to pout on the sidelines, this is the way the world works– writing is a business… gotta get eyes to the page.

I know you don’t want to hear this, but if you’re trying to write for Matador (which is where I’m guessing based on the description of the requested article) and THEY are rejecting you to write a piece at $25 a pop, then MAYBE you should look at modifying your approach. MAYBE it’s time for a re-write.

Just saying, maybe.