Self-Serving Posts and the General Public
- by Alex
- in Uncategorized
- posted September 18, 2014
One of the biggest issues plaguing the Internet is the prevalence of self-serving articles online that convey a shockingly small amount of information to their readers. When I say self-serving I mean that, rather than attempting to convey useful information to readers, it is made to look like it is conveying useful information to readers. In reality, the articles often have a different purpose. That could be driving readers to take some action (click an ad on the page, buy a product, etc) or it could simply be to lure readers onto the site to increase pageranks and viewership in general. There isn’t anything wrong with that, but just be up front about it. Don’t trick people into visiting your site by pretending like there is some original information there if there isn’t.
These articles usually have a general outline that looks like this:
1. Catchy headline based on keyword research that purports to be a useful solution to a problem.
2. Introduction with a brief overview of the issue.
3. A body of text which has flashy headings (again, based on keyword research) and very little information of substance.
4. A conclusion where they hit you with their sales pitch and you realize that all you read was a long advertisement.
Typically the introduction will be the only part of the article worth reading. The rest of it is usually something that was taken from a content mill written by someone who has no idea what they are talking about or it is such a broad overview of the issues involved in the topic at hand that it is absolutely useless.
I’ll provide a brief example of what I am talking about, skipping the intro:
“How to Do Laundry”
Intro Paragraph
Body 1 – Here are the steps involved in doing laundry:
1. Buy a washer (include outbound link to affiliate)
2. Get some laundry detergent – They make different scents so choose one you like!
3. Do the laundry!
Body 2 – It’s that easy! Three simple steps and your laundry is done!
Conclusion – Still confused? Call a laundry professional like (insert the company hosting the blog). They are going to be able to tell you everything you need about your laundry and can make the process very simple for you (and hassle free!).
Obviously the above example is exaggerated. But not by much. I bet at least half of you cringed looking at it because you have read articles exactly like it hundreds of times. The premise, of course, is that they are going to teach you to do laundry. This is a real problem. Some people don’t know how to do it. But then when you get into the thick of it, not only do they not teach you how to do laundry, they also hit you with an outbound affiliate link for stuff they are talking about (always high-end) and then hit you with a passive sales pitch at the end. They don’t say the article is for “their” company, but it is usually obvious.
Most of these posts are made in the name of “content marketing” which is a form of marketing that takes the idea that “content is king” to heart. Unfortunately, 99% of these articles are not providing any quality content at all. They are just providing information that is either common sense or is actually wrong. If you want an example of “wrong” information, go visit one of those crowd sources “how-to” sites. They are absolutely full of answers that are, at times, dangerously wrong. NOTE: Only do this if you can stand to click through an individual page for each step in whatever the process is (have to maximize those viewer rates).
The point is: Your readers can see through this. It’s entirely obvious when an article is a sales pitch or when it is full of fluff meant to boost pageviews or rake in ad money 99% of the time. The issue with that? Think about it. The issue is absolutely obvious. Think about what you do in your own life. When you read a page that you realize is full of fluff or is an advertising piece, you will probably write off that website. So in the short term, you may accomplish something in the way of viewership or pageviews. But in the long run you are shooting yourself in the foot. If you want to attract people to your website, do it through quality and original content. Don’t do it through SEO trickery. This is not to discount SEO at all as a marketing tool, but keep in mind that you have to be able to funnel your clients or readers to what you want them to see once they are on your website. If your text is coming across in the wrong way (and it usually is) then you are just making yourself look unprofessional.
I’ll put it another way – You’re readers are not stupid and they know what you are trying to do. Once you realize that a reader knows what is going on, the game is over. There is no point hiding a sales pitch in a hack article if they know it’s a sales pitch anyway. You might as well expend the effort doing something that is actually useful instead.
Let me know what you think about this in the comments. Do you think this problem is as big as I do?
