<buzzword-compliant />

It’s bad enough that mesothelioma, a cancer caused by contact with asbestos, has affected the lives of so many people (and many in my hometown of Baltimore, where Bethlehem Shipyard once was). And it’s bad enough that their suffering enabled Peter Angelos, a personal injury lawyer who specializes in mesothelioma and related asbestos lawsuits, to buy the Baltimore Orioles. But now, as CyberWyre points out, mesothelioma lawyers and “what is mesothelioma” are the two top-paying keyword terms for Google Adsense. Which is leading, of course, to a lot of people with Adsense writing about mesothelioma.

I had two grandparents die of cancer, so I’ve got to say that the idea of profiting from others’ misery is loathsome to me–especially when it’s clear that the kind of things I write about here (application development, Web standards, and general tech company shop talk) do not have the advertising mojo that they once had. Christ, I’ve made all of $22 on AdSense ads in the last year–and I’ve never even seen that money, because Google doesn’t pay you until you hit $100.

But I digress.

If you’re in the publishing business, as I am, you understand the business pressures placed on editorial operations. We like to think that editors shape the content of their publications, and often they do. But on the Web, where everything is measured and moneyballed to death, advertiser demand often plays a significant role in determining what gets covered (especially on business-to-business sites). At less scrupulous companies, it may even determine how it gets covered, but that’s a topic for another time.

So with a trillion “minipreneurs” out there trying to make a buck off a weblog, is it really a surprise that some people chase the ad words? In a way, it’s the way the free market works at its best: supply follows demand, and eventually the demand is met for a reasonable price. So if there’s really a need for information about mesothelioma out there, the least we can do is make sure people get to the right information by Google-bombing the hell out of the relavent links, and maybe someone will reward us for it, right?

Ah, it’s a brave new publishing world. Now if you’re pardon me, I need to go consolidate loans and consider how a refinancing mortgage could help me pay for a tax attorney.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 at 7:33 am and is filed under globals, strategy, search, Google. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

It’s bad enough that mesothelioma, a cancer caused by contact with asbestos, has affected the lives of so many people (and many in my hometown of Baltimore, where Bethlehem Shipyard once was). And it’s bad enough that their suffering enabled Peter Angelos, a personal injury lawyer who specializes in mesothelioma and related asbestos lawsuits, to buy the Baltimore Orioles. But now, as CyberWyre points out, mesothelioma lawyers and “what is mesothelioma” are the two top-paying keyword terms for Google Adsense. Which is leading, of course, to a lot of people with Adsense writing about mesothelioma.

I had two grandparents die of cancer, so I’ve got to say that the idea of profiting from others’ misery is loathsome to me–especially when it’s clear that the kind of things I write about here (application development, Web standards, and general tech company shop talk) do not have the advertising mojo that they once had. Christ, I’ve made all of $22 on AdSense ads in the last year–and I’ve never even seen that money, because Google doesn’t pay you until you hit $100.

But I digress.

If you’re in the publishing business, as I am, you understand the business pressures placed on editorial operations. We like to think that editors shape the content of their publications, and often they do. But on the Web, where everything is measured and moneyballed to death, advertiser demand often plays a significant role in determining what gets covered (especially on business-to-business sites). At less scrupulous companies, it may even determine how it gets covered, but that’s a topic for another time.

So with a trillion “minipreneurs” out there trying to make a buck off a weblog, is it really a surprise that some people chase the ad words? In a way, it’s the way the free market works at its best: supply follows demand, and eventually the demand is met for a reasonable price. So if there’s really a need for information about mesothelioma out there, the least we can do is make sure people get to the right information by Google-bombing the hell out of the relavent links, and maybe someone will reward us for it, right?

Ah, it’s a brave new publishing world. Now if you’re pardon me, I need to go consolidate loans and consider how a refinancing mortgage could help me pay for a tax attorney.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 at 7:33 am and is filed under globals, strategy, search, Google. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.