Imagine Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia all merged into a single comprehensive system ready to help you answer any question you might have. You type in a typical question and receive an informative response, in the form of an instructional video, or a simple article focused on your exact question. Demand Media and its various sites on the Web provide such answers, offering intellectual nourishment to random inquiries that range from instructions for making banana pancakes to running a vintage clothing shop.
Demand Media, Inc., an American content and social media company, developed an algorithm that uses search engine query data and bids on advertising auctions to identify topics with high advertising potential. These topics are typically in the advice and how-to field. For example, the company has learned that the key words "best" and "how" tend to bring in high search traffic and click-through rates. Once the algorithm identifies a search query that is likely to draw traffic, Demand Media crowdsources the production of corresponding text or video content to answer the algorithm-generated search query (e.g., "Where can I donate a car in Dallas?). The average writer earns US$15 per piece for articles containing a few hundred words, whereas a filmmaker receives US$20 per clip, both of which are paid on a weekly basis through PayPal. Demand Media also offers opportunities to copyedit, fact-check, approve the quality of a film, or transcribe. The content is then posted on the company's own sites such as eHow, Livestrong.com, Trails.com, GolfLink.com, and Cracked.com (as well as various other sites, such as YouTube), and Demand Media generates revenue through advertisements placed on these sites.
The volume and exposure that Demand Media creates and receives has been impressive; at one point, its total number of uploads to YouTube was twice the content of CBS, the Associated Press, Universal Music Group, College Humor, Al Jazeera English, and Soulja Boy combined Its network of 45 B-list sites managed to bring in more traffic than Web sites like ESPN and NBC Universal combined. It is no wonder that Internet giant Google has reached out to the company and is now working as Demand Media's top distribution partner, closely collaborating with Demand Media to generate more revenue from the algorithm of profiting from advertisers
Would you be interested in working for Demand Media to produce content? Why or why not?