All across the Blogathon, the topic of content aggregators like Helium is blowing up. What started as a guest post by Tim Beyers on Michelle Rafter’s WordCount has spread beyond the cubicle and now it’s about to be chopped up and tossed into the Blog Salad.
Disclaimer: This is not a real attack on content aggregators in general nor an attack on Helium specifically. I don’t believe in wanton acts of aggression and believe no one ultimately benefits from them. But, when a company or individual does something unbelievably dumb, my analytical gears get spinning.
Please take the following as a tongue-in-cheek approach, scarcely based on substantial research. Since this is a tongue-in-cheek stab—and people are likely to get rowdy—I’ll probably wind up looking something like this before it’s all over:
"Please, Ganesha, forgive my satirical ways!"
Nonetheless, here goes.
Writers, teachers, distributors of unsolicited advice and know-it-alls, before you journey down the path of contributing to content aggregators like Helium, I want you to burn this image into your brain:
The Hindenburg zeppelin, 6 May 1937
That’s you, crashing and burning.
Why are you there? Because you lack the technical skills necessary to pilot an airplane but still wanted to fly. Because, for the general masses, it’s the only way to get into the air. And because everybody else was riding around in giant flammable Nazi zeppelins and you didn’t think twice before doing it.
Content aggregators are an easy way for thousands of writers to get off the ground. In the race to fill the web with content, Helium and others have given these aspiring writers a vehicle for their stories, and in theory, it’s brilliantly egalitarian and represents everything great about Web 2.0. Without any real writing skill, the general public has a place to sell their words.
And so the masses flock to the combustible balloons of doom. They are lured by the prospect of pay-per-click profit. They produce articles that lack substance—you could say they’re lighter than air—and score a measly pittance for their efforts.
If you truly desire to earn a living as a writer, however, I can’t help but think the decision will ultimately blow up in your face.
I won’t claim that you can’t make money writing for Helium. I won’t even claim that they lack editors and that you won’t have marketable clips from the experience. I won’t even claim that it won’t make you a better writer, because all forms of practice will make you better. And I certainly won’t claim that there are no great writers on Helium, because I’m not one to judge.
But I’m confident writing for Helium will never get you in the cockpit of a real airplane. Writing as a profession is far more than good grammar and a story idea. In fact, I’d argue that sheer literary talent means diddly squat next to knowing the mechanics behind the business.
If, by some miracle, you get the opportunity to really fly, you won’t know a darn thing about the complex controls in front of you: queries, letters of assignment, contracts, publishing lead times, editorial calendars, deadlines, editor etiquette, and especially payment negotiations will be completely foreign to you. Writing for Helium will never, ever teach you about the hed, dek, lede, galleys, or even grafs.
And, worst of all, if you haven’t already wrecked the going rate for all writers by taking a paltry few cents per click, you will certainly have established yourself as a nickel rag writer—guaranteeing that you’ll never be offered a fair wage in the industry.
Don’t believe me? Still think Helium and its cohorts are the wave of the future?
Maybe you’re right. But watching newspapers—those dinosaurs wallowing in the tar pits—buy content from Helium confirms for me that writing for them is a mistake inspired by fear, desperation or laziness.
But don’t take my word for it. By all means, crash and burn, baby.
Thanks for contributing to the debate Ron.
I have a suggestion for young journalists or anyone else who’s considering using Helium to get into the writing business. Instead of writing for an aggregator, find out what hyperlocal news sites have popped up in your area, introduce yourself and ask if there’s anything you can do to help. You’ll probably start out making about as much as you would at a content aggregator – which is to say not much. But if you use the opportunity to go out and do some man-on-the-street reporting, the experience could be invaluable.
If you don’t think there are hyperlocal or citizen journalists operating in your city you’re wrong, you just haven’t looked hard enough. Here in Portland, Ore., there are at least four, more if you count specialized sites that focus on niches like tech or cycling (BTW Ron, I know you’re into cycling, you should check out the Bike Portland blog).
If there really aren’t hyperlocal sites where you live, start one. By teaching yourself everything you need to know in order to run a hyperlocal or community news site, you’re teaching yourself everything you need to know in 2009 and in the future to get hired as a staff writer or make it as a freelancer, things like using a content management system (a fancy term for blogging or blog-like software), HTML, linking, how to write for a blog, how to write straight news, how to take pictures, video and audio, etc.
When it comes down to it, as long as you’re going to the time and trouble of learning the craft, why not do it in a way that maximizes the benefit – and profit – for the enterprise that most – you.
Michelle Rafter
WordCount: Freelancing in the Digital Age
Duh, but that sounds like work Michelle. I want to be a writer because I hates me job and don’t wanna work. Helium makes that possible…
After reading your post, and seeing the graphic image of the Hindenburg burning, the image of content aggregators as desperate, drunken air traffic controllers flashed into my mind. Wave of the future? I don’t believe it for a minute.
I love your blog tectonics metaphor. Will the hot lava burn away the content aggregators? (Content aggregators is an ugly sounding phrase that invokes images of hungry alligators). I think it will because the Internet can’t be controlled and that’s exactly what they are attempting. Answers? Reputation and the hope of good content oozing through the cracks?
John
Forget my metaphor—air traffic controller, drunk or otherwise—suits content aggregators even better. The sheer volume of “content” flying through their airspace is overwhelming and impossible to manage, no matter how hard you try to edit. It takes a volunteer team of 1800+ people to keep Wikipedia in check and they can scarcely keep up. I wonder how many folks are on the Helium staff…
Eventually, as Seth Godin and countless others postulate, there will be a quasi-Victorian backlash (my verbiage, not his) against all of this unbridled information flow. We’ll begin to crave truth seekers over profiteers, quality over quantity, and maybe even go back to paper. Or maybe Google will aggregate us all.
Spin, odometer, spin.
I’m glad this debate is happening and that Ron has brought his folding chair to this little slice of Web 2.0 beach. The water’s great if you avoid the sharks. Oh, and be careful of the tar pit when drying off.
As much as I’m impressed by the passion of Helium’s defenders and what the service itself hopes to accomplish in transforming media, I’m not at all convinced that quality won’t suffer under the fiscal weight of needing to produce hundreds of new articles each month. Perhaps I just don’t type fast enough?
Onward,
Tim
The Social Writer – experimenting with social media, one word at a time
Thanks for getting everyone all riled up, Tim.
Loved your metaphor, Ron. Perfect! I’ll be speaking to a group of writers next week (many of them new freelancers) about running a smart freelance business and how to keep turning a profit. I’ll be sure to refer them to these recent posts about content aggregators as the “what not to do” tip. The question is: will they listen? I’m not so sure. We’re still trying to break through the myth that you have to start low if you wanna move up.
Still, I love this post!
Jackie
Thanks, Jackie. In all honesty, Michelle’s advice is the wisest I’ve heard so far. Niche newspapers, despite their gigantic cousins, are growing right now. The opportunity for pay and published clips is equal but the competition is significantly less. And editors are ultimately the undervalued quantity in these equations. At least at a tiny newspaper you’ll gain the experience of working with someone editing your writing—and that someone may move on to bigger and better things in the future. With content aggregators, you’re stuck with your big, unrealistic dreams of landing on the front page.
Of course, I shouldn’t dig on Digg or Helium or any other service like this, because they’re acting like filters for my freelance writing business. I don’t have to worry as much about my queries being lost in the flood.
Niches are the only safe refuge in a Long Tail world. I turned Chris Anderson’s comment in The Long Tail: “…if you’re in the newspaper business, the chart above raises some troubling questions about the future of the news business in a Long Tail world” around just a bit. The chart he referred to showed two bloggers with higher link authority than most of America’s newspapers.
Chris Anderson has a lot to say about these aggregators: eBay, iTunes, Netflix and especially Amazon. He says that Amazon has overcome the “tyranny of the shelf.” What does this have to do with content aggregators like Helium? Helium relies on a tree based taxonomy to “shelve” their content while their search engine is stone age.
Chris Anderson summarizes how to create a thriving Long Tail business when he says “1. Make everything available. 2. Help me find it.”
Niches form where there are people eager to consume niche information or products. Michelles’ comment about hyperlocal news sites is a good starting point. I think there’s room for the right kind of content aggregator. Someone needs to invent it — maybe I will.
Hope I didn’t stray too far,
John
Tim,
Without a doubt, quality does suffer. I monitor the content submitted to non-profit partners at Helium really tightly. The same cannot be said elsewhere.
Ron,
You and John both have great metaphors. And Google probably will.
John,
Get to inventing!
Ann Marie
Brilliant, Ron. Perfect analogy.
*Fire-proof materials tested and in check*
It’s very hard to talk concretely about what flies in the air or through the web. But Helium is more than a website. It is a vast community, and some have had the privilege to build close relationships that form expansive parachutes to support. Each member’s experience is authentic. Those that stand the test of time are most telling.
Some writers look to make connection and form community. Others are lone rangers and rely on their own jet-packs to move speedily throughout the Internet. Different patterns available for each to create.
Which writers are in the best financial shape, positioned well for future trends:
* Those who remain with their feet planted on print newspapers and magazines, in hopes of an ongoing livelihood.
* Those flying solo through the Internet, dipping in, not staying long enough to get all you can out of a website.
* Those deeply connected, who have formed networks that are solid across many Internet venues.
Here’s my preferred answer: All of the above.
Helium’s looking to fill a niche in the publishing world — several niches actually. Our non-exclusive content site looks different and spawns a different breed of community than many “content aggregate sites.” Our Marketplace of 500 publishing partners from print magazines, newspapers and web publishers is unique. Our newspaper Community Gateway partnership program is also unique.
Helium offers a multi-platform publishing opportunity, still evolving, still rising. We offer lots of opportunities for writers now, with the infrastructure laid to offer much more down the pike.
Father time is keeping watch, and we’ll see if the the fire-proofing holds.
Thanks for the opportunity to read and contribute to this discussion.
Barbara
Barbara,
As I said before, my post is an analysis of a particular situation, not meant to judge your company specifically, but the Helium metaphor is apt and unavoidable. Here’s another metaphor: Like Wal-Mart, Helium succeeds through massive sales volume of deeply discounted products, products which they purchased wholesale from indigent manufacturers at an unfair wage. And like Wal-Mart, I can only assume that many of Helium’s customers (publishing partners) are financially threatened or fiscally irresponsible and could not survive without those deep discounts. It seems to me that Helium has found its niche in a cycle of poverty—but who am I to judge? As I said before, I plan to publish something on Helium in the near future, because I think it’s unfair for me to criticize something that I have not experienced for myself—and I think it’s time someone conducted a little scientific observation from the inside. If I find that I’m wrong, I’ll rescind all of my aforementioned analyses.
In any case, if Helium is staffed by a group of individuals like you—as determined, thorough, and relentlessly driven to wipe clean bad press and support their company at any cost—I’m certain that your non-exclusive publishing community will one day rule the written world.
Best of luck to you, Barbara. Thanks for the comment.
Wow. I can’t believe I’m finding this post a week late. Great stuff — the comments, the debate. And the Hindenburg. Perfect.
Jenny
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