Why Content Curation is BS (or at least overrated)
Tweet
When I see internet marketers pushing “content curation” my BS meter automatically goes off. Beep .. beep .. beep!
Today is no exception.
When I first heard of the term “content curation” it was from internet marketers. I immediately thought of content scrapers, plagiarizers, list makers and the like trying to game Google to get a better position in the SERPS, increase traffic, build authority and to ultimately make money.
Nothing that I’ve read since has changed my mind.
Let’s be honest .. that’s the name of the game isn’t it? Getting more traffic from the search engines, blogging friends or the a-listers that we suck up to.
After all, why else would the marketers be pushing “content curation” so hard. For fun? (That’s a rhetorical question).
The term “Content Curation” is being promoted by internet marketers to justify content theft. Their feeble remarks are used in a very narrow context and don’t take into consideration the rampant list makers, plagiarizers and copyright infringers who are abusing OPC (other people’s content) to rank well in the SERPS.
If someone changes my words a little (paraphrasing) to obfuscate their crime (which happens often), or even if they link directly to my article and rank better in Google than me (which is why they do it) — why on earth could you possibly think I would be happy with that?
Of course if someone wants to quote me and intelligently discuss what I’ve written (and link to me) .. that is a completely different matter. But just making lists and/or copying and pasting is complete and utter BS.
It is wide open to abuse and “content curation” unfortunately opens that door. You would never get away with that in the printed literary world so why should blogging be any different.
It is my intellectual property that is being ripped off and it is for this reason I can never condone so-called “content curation”. It is a lazy person’s way to write content, build so-called authority and rank well with the search engines.
My advice is internet marketers should use their brains to come up with something original to write or go find another hobby. BUT please leave my/our content alone!
I can’t stop the content curators but they certainly won’t gain my respect, and I will be in their face .. count on it.
Content curation is just a fancy term the marketers came up with to obfuscate the fact that it’s another way to game the search engines, build authority and to make money.
Just to be clear, I’m not talking about news aggregation here. Newspaper clipping services of course do it all the time and there’s no harm or foul there.
What I am talking about is stealing, ripping off the intellectual property of another writer for profit. A simple analogy might be the difference between quoting news copy as opposed to editorial content.
As an ex-journalist I can tell you there’s a HUGE difference between news aggregation and “content curation“.
We are bloggers, which also means we are writers. We need to have some boundaries when it comes to making money. Don’t we?
Am I right?
Funny how we used to revile “content scrapers”. Now they’ve polished it up into a business and given it a new name to make it legit.
But there’s a huge difference between “content curation” the marketers talk about than just adding to the conversation (without an ulterior motive) don’t you think (another rhetorical question).
Here is what Wikipedia has to say about curating content:
The act of curating, of organizing and maintaining a collection of artworks or artifacts; The act of curing or healing; The manual updating of information in a database
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/curationDigital curation is the selection, preservation, maintenance, and collection and archiving of digital assets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_curation
Seems to me that’s what Googlebot already does. Surely we don’t need any more help from the internet marketers (yes … another rhetorical question).
I can think of better, more ethical ways to get traffic than leveraging off of someone else’s sweat equity.
Like say, for example … writing great, original content? Now there’s a thought.
Just sayin…
P.s.: Within the first 24 hours since publishing this post I have been targeted by dozens of splogs scraping content from here. Thanks for proving my point assholes.
If you enjoyed this article jot down your email below and I'll send fresh brewed content to you the moment it's published:
Filed under: Blog Ethics, Blog SEO, Blog Tips, Featured Articles, Make Money Blogging Tips, MythBusters
Keep it real with the 'original' Blog Bloke. New readers can read more about me here. Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have or if you would like to be a guest blogger. I hope you will take a moment to keep in touch and subscribe to the newsfeed, share this article with your friends and leave a comment below. Cheers.
Tweet
Subscribe to the Newsfeed and get real every day
Follow @BLOGBloke on Twitter for more Tips, News, Commentary
What Next? Here's more from BLOGBloke:
Speaker's Corner (be real - add a comment)
Video
Call it what they will, its stealing. Just because Google indexes it doesn’t make it okay.
I really like the background of your blog. Nice!!!
[
Reply..]
@Curtis, thanks buddy. Now watch them copy that too.
[
Reply..]
@BLOGBloke, Yep! They just might.
[
Reply..]
@Curtis .. might?
[
Reply..]
@BLOGBloke, Copy what I said in the first comment. They just might copy it.
[
Reply..]
@Curtis, copy that
[
Reply..]
@BLOGBloke, I have seen copies of comments on my blog taken from time to time.Then there is also these splogs that scrape sites like Yahoo Answers I am not sure if they ever get index but I have come across some of the Answers I posted in the forum.Another thing I think I discussed briefly with you on twitter was that if someone copies my content and pastes it in a forum that forum will outrank my original content.This is Googles way of Ranking sites I guess.
[
Reply..]
@roezer, Google gives more weight to the bigger sites with scraped content because of the sheer number of links they get. It’s also a reason why I can’t stand the Ezine directories.
That is the tragedy of Google’s algorithms because it does not selectively weed out the “scrapers” from the original content writers. Unfortunately the content “scrapers” know this but so do we, and that is why I take every opportunity to call out the phonies.
[
Reply..]
Many internet marketeers are dumb enough to think that coining a new term will make a ‘niche’ group such as bloggers warm up to them.
This is not a case of the White House Administration or Fox news coining new terms to describe their enemies - and get away with it - because the general public are not an ‘experts’ and do not know any better (ie the truth).
Besides no one else has the right to “content curation” except if it is their *own* work !
[
Reply..]
@Jaffer, some marketers might be low on the ethics scale but you gotta give them points for creativity.
[
Reply..]
I write blogs for some other folks. Last night I did a search and found an article I wrote copied onto 12 other blogs, with only one of them not posting it word for word, but they might as well have, as they only added a link to something else periodically. If it had been my blog I’d have pitched a fit, but I still didn’t like it.
[
Reply..]
@Mitch, of course they will try tell you that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
[
Reply..]
Playing with Copyscape search for stolen content. Check out the results for one post I wrote 2 weeks ago http://www.copyscape.com/?q=http%3A%2F%2…
[
Reply..]
RT @BLOGBlokeTips: Playing with Copyscape search for stolen content. Check out the results for one post I wrote 2 weeks ago http://bit.l …
[
Reply..]
A content curator collects the best of information and showcases it at a single place. No more frustrating search expeditions.
In a sense, content curation is an offshoot of the minimalism trend. We are trying to get the clutter out of minds, closets, lives and of course, our browser. This link here has got a good analysis why people crave curated content - http://www.brandpilgrim.com/2010/08/why-content-curation-is-here-to-stay.html
[
Reply..]
@anne potter, with all due respect that’s nonsense. I read the link and it is unbelievably arrogant to say content curators are “leaders” and that we need them to find content for us. Only sheep would agree to that. As for the rest of us who can actually think and search for ourselves we’re not fooled by the rhetoric for one second.
[
Reply..]
I completely agree with you! Content curation is a flimsy practice at best and will eventually be blacklisted. You will never win trying to trick or beat Google. You are much better off coming up with a dedicated blogging plan to create your own remarkable content.
[
Reply..]
@Mike Ewing, I hope you’re right about the blacklisting and thanks for the comment and dropping by Mike.
[
Reply..]
@BLOGBloke, Your article got me fired up … so I wrote my own content about it
http://www.ecommerceinboundmarketing.com/automated-content-curation-is-a-mistake/
[
Reply..]
I agree that content curation is stealing. Would you be willing to play in a paradigm where you were paid for your posts and given full attribution? Similar to iStock for images?
Great post and sentiments btw.
[
Reply..]
Nice site, nice and easy on the eyes and great content too.
[
Reply..]
Took me time to learn all the comments, but I actually loved the article. It proved to be very helpful to me and I’m positive to all of the commenters here!
[
Reply..]
I fully disaggree. Content curation is about adding value by,
interpret the story in the bigger picture or to indicate whether the source is reliable or not etc.
[
Reply..]
@Christian Schneemann, I agree with both Christian Anne. Content curation has been around as long as the internet. Some in this post seem to think curation is new to the internet created by lazy internet marketers to steel positions.
AOL just recently paid $315 million dollar for the curated site the Huffington Post. CNN just paid a few million for a site because it was a curated site.
Google loves curated sites. The problem content curation has is that like anything else in internet marketing there are those who will exploit this viable and effective means of internet marketing selling half prepared courses with little regard to their success.
None the less, curated sites will continue to prosper because they are extensively used by the public, them meet a specific need, and because Panda likes them as well.
[
Reply..]
@Pete Bolduc, please reread this statement from above:
“Just to be clear, I’m not talking about news aggregation here. Newspaper clipping services of course do it all the time and there’s no harm or foul there. What I am talking about is stealing, ripping off the intellectual property of another writer for profit. A simple analogy might be the difference between quoting news copy as opposed to editorial content.”
[
Reply..]
[…] It is my intellectual property that is being ripped off and it is for this reason I can never condone so-called content curation. It is a lazy/sleazy person’s way to write content and rank well with the search engines. … Here is what Wikipedia has to say about curating content: The act of curating, of organizing and maintaining a collection of artworks or artifacts; The act of curing or healing; The manual updating of information in a database …Page 2 […]
Why Content Curation is BS
I found your entry interesting so I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog
[…] It is my intellectual property that is being ripped off and it is for this reason I can never condone so-called content curation. It is a lazy/sleazy person’s way to write content and rank well with the search engines. … Here is what Wikipedia has to say about curating content: The act of curating, of organizing and maintaining a collection of artworks or artifacts; The act of curing or healing; The manual updating of information in a database …More […]
New Post: Why Content Curation is BS http://bit.ly/9N8FjY
[…] Why Content Curation is Bs It is my intellectual property that is being ripped off and it is for this reason I can never condone so-called content curation. It is a lazy/sleazy person’s way to write content and rank well with the search engines. … Here is what Wikipedia has to say about curating content: The act of curating, of organizing and maintaining a collection of artworks or artifacts; The act of curing or healing; The manual updating of information in a database …Continued […]
[…] Why Content Curation is BS blogbloke.com/content-curation/ – view page – cached When I see internet marketers pushing “content curation” my BS meter automatically goes off. Beep .. beep .. beep! Today is no exception. When I hear the term “content curation” I immediately think of content recycling, plagiarism, list makers and the like trying to game Google to get a better position in the SERPS and […] Tweets about this link Topsy.Data.Twitter.User[’blogbloketips’] = {”photo”:”http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/984624729/bb-head_normal.PNG”,”url”:”http://twitter.com/blogbloketips”,”nick”:”blogbloketips”}; blogbloketips: “Calling all Blokesters! Opinions are welcome http://bit.ly/9N8FjY ” 1 hour ago retweet Topsy.Data.Twitter.User[’blogbloketips’] = {”photo”:”http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/984624729/bb-head_normal.PNG”,”url”:”http://twitter.com/blogbloketips”,”nick”:”blogbloketips”}; blogbloketips: “New Post: Why Content Curation is BS http://bit.ly/9N8FjY ” 19 hours ago retweet Filter tweets […]
@Curtis .. might? http://bit.ly/cFsjvL
@Curtis, copy that
http://bit.ly/cFsjvL
@Jaffer, apparently marketers think we're as dumb as the scams that they're always coming up with. http://bit.ly/cFsjvL
"Why Content Curation is BS" - http://bit.ly/cMAxRg
I write blogs for some other folks. Last night I did a search and found an article I wrote copied onto 12 other bl… http://bit.ly/cFsjvL
@Mitch, of course they will tell you imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
http://bit.ly/cFsjvL
@BLOGBloke, I have seen copies of comments on my blog taken from time to time.Then there is also these splogs that … http://bit.ly/cFsjvL
@roezer, Google gives more weight to the bigger sites with scraped content because of the sheer number of links the… http://bit.ly/cFsjvL
[…] you should not share it. When I was looking for more links to include with this article I found, Why Content Curation is BS, in which BlogBloke rightfully rants that content curation should not be used as an excuse for […]
[…] you should not share it. When I was looking for more links to include with this article I found, Why Content Curation is BS, in which BlogBloke rightfully rants that content curation should not be used as an excuse for […]
@anne potter, with all due respect that's nonsense. I read the link and it is unbelievably arrogant to say content … http://bit.ly/cFsjvL
Content curation - looks like I asked the right question earlier http://bit.ly/bePaPB
Wondering if the term “Content Curation” is indeed being promoted by internet marketeers to justify content theft. http://bit.ly/flDBbg
[…] definidos y la práctica en su conjunto es objeto de un interesante debate ético (ver por ejemplo “Why Content Curation is BS”). En este río revuelto empiezan a aparecer incluso productos como Curata para aplicar esta […]
Amen to that @glasspetalsmoke Why Content Curation is BS - http://bit.ly/cMAxRg via @BLOGBlokeTips
Sure: Why Content Curation is BS http://bit.ly/aKr4l5 @Mitch_M @britz
RESOLVED: Why Content Curation is BS http://bit.ly/aKr4l5 There's a Right Way to Curate Content http://bit.ly/aKNNOT @douglaskarr @dsearls
RT @BLOGBlokeTips: RESOLVED: Why Content Curation is BS http://bit.ly/aKr4l5 There's a Right Way to Curate Content http://bit.ly/aKNNOT
RT @douglaskarr: RT @BLOGBlokeTips: RESOLVED: Why Content Curation is BS http://bit.ly/aKr4l5 There's a Right Way to Curate Content http …
Why Content Curation is Bull S… ! / by @BLOGBloke shared on scoop.it http://t.co/3iCdgBRh [Direct link : http://t.co/v3g6L1nY ]
Why Content Curation is Bull S… ! / by @BLOGBloke shared on scoop.it http://t.co/3iCdgBRh [Direct link : http://t.co/v3g6L1nY ]
[…] Why Content Curation is BS (or at least overrated) on Blog Bloke […]
Why Content Curation is BS (or at least overrated) http://t.co/RF9FvSIw via @BLOGBloke