| When I was in college, the metric was an idol. | | | | increase backlinks to your website, improve your |
| Students focused more on their G.P.A. and their | | | | search engine placement, and increase traffic |
| test scores than on what they were learning. | | | | coming to your website. These are the metrics. |
| They were more focused on taking the right | | | | However, just as the purpose of college is to |
| amounts of credits to complete their major, then | | | | gather knowledge, improving one's understanding |
| on their field of study. | | | | of self, world, and life, so too the purpose of |
| After college, no one asked me about my grades, | | | | articles is to disseminate knowledge. |
| and no one even asked to see my diploma; my | | | | Sticking to the purpose, the metric takes care of |
| potential employers only wanted to know what I | | | | itself. |
| knew and whether those skills would help their | | | | Yet when the metric becomes the focus, the |
| business. | | | | result is an outlay of superficiality. The value of |
| Now that I'm making my living online, I'm seeing | | | | knowledge becomes diluted. When 2,000 other |
| that phenomena once again, the metric is more | | | | people are saying pretty much the same thing, |
| important than the knowledge. | | | | there isn't much value to the content. |
| This is very obvious when it comes to article | | | | Ultimately, this incorrect focus causes a series of |
| marketing. | | | | collapses. As search engine robots become more |
| The original idea is superb-sharing nuggets of your | | | | refined and human reviewers become more |
| expertise to help others. As a marketing tool, it | | | | wary, the articles are cast aside, rejected, and |
| brands you as an expert. Over time, it creates an | | | | the instant expert status is quickly lost. |
| audience and a dedicated readership. | | | | There is another way. Really becoming an expert, |
| Yet article spam is threatening to kill the value of | | | | studying your interests, becoming knowledgeable |
| articles. | | | | about it, and passing on the information to others. |
| It's possible to buy articles in bulk and put your | | | | Thus, rolling out one article after another, and |
| name on it as an author. It's also possible to trick | | | | providing readers with thought-provoking content, |
| the filters, the human reviewers and the search | | | | you're a purveyor of value. It's slower, but the |
| engine robots, by changing the headline and using | | | | branding lasts, and over time, as your articles |
| a thesaurus to change the words. | | | | circulate, your metric improves all by itself. |
| The purpose behind this whole phenomena is to | | | | |