DescentBB

at ZZZonline we have been trying to keep an internal list of all of our competition, with notes about them etc.

i havn't really looked too much into them, i just give them a brief look to see what they do. anyway i just recently came across www.REDNOVA.com . it scared the crap outof me. it looks EXTREMELY professional, and seems at first glance to be everything that ZZZonline is, just with money . my heart sinks everytime i think i see a site like this (a zzz killer, if you will).

i initially came across the site from google, i was researching some stuff (fusion ion drive) and they had an artilce on it.
so after i read the article i figure i'll ahve alook around this REDNOVA.com site to see what they are all about. but at closer inspection of the site i started to notice that they don't have much content, not much at all. oh they have a LOT of stuff on teh website, you can really get lost in there. but they didn't do any of it. i wonder if it's all automated.

their pictures are all from nasa. their articles are all word for word from various other news websites, spacedaily.com etc.

i find NO ORIGINAL CONTENT. even the initial article on the fusion ion drive, google prooves to inform me that it is actually a SPACEDAILY.com article reprinted.


now, at ZZZ we pride ourselves on our original content. i don't even READ other tech websites because i don't want to be influenced by their content when picking subjects for writing ZZZ articles. i prefer us to find things out there ourselves, things that no-one else has covered. so as a result we find ourselves checking out a lot of research institutions and universitys, looking at what they are working on. looking for SCOOPS (and we get a lot).

after this experience with rednova.com today, i feel like i have to go through the many competition sites that we have internally listed, and organise them based on how much (if any) ORIGINAL CONTENT they have.

if a website doesn't have original content. what is it's purpose in even existing? how can all of these sites exist and take up space on the internet if all they are is REPRINTERS of OTHER PEOPLE'S work and research. here i was thinking that there was a growing and growing amount of competition for ZZZonline, but really, it seems that there is just a growing amount of crap sites with no content.

these sites have a bunch of ads (just check out rednova.com), and do nothing but sell stuff. their "cutting edge new technology" sections are nothing more than store sections. it's just a way for them to prostitute themselves to who-ever hands them the product press release first.

your thoughts...

ZZZ owns all other tech and science news sites. 'Nuff said.

"if a website doesn't have original content. what is it's purpose in even existing?"

Ad revenue.

edit:: You answered yourself "these sites have a bunch of ads (just check out rednova.com), and do nothing but sell stuff. their "cutting edge new technology" sections are nothing more than store sections. it's just a way for them to prostitute themselves to who-ever hands them the product press release first."

well, yeah. but still i'd like to think there's more to the answer than just that.

at zzz we are only just starting to play around with the thought of making revenue. from initial experience we see that ads are hopeless money makers. i've been eyeing off the ad company that this rednova.com deals through wondering if i should approach them. but i have a feeling that that ad company is the REAL head of this beast. i have a hunch that the ad company created rednova.com (not rednova.com approaching them).

a site that wants to make money first, then provide content only if it's needed, as an afterthought. that seems all backwards to me. you smell that? it smells like the bastard offspring thinking of a marketing department.


heh, thx TopGun, i wouldn't go THAT far