Demand Media Featured in Special Annual Issue of Time Magazine + Today is the 25th Anniversary of the First .Com Domain Registration

I just received the latest issue of Time Magazine, an Annual Special Issue (cover date March 22, 2010) that featured an article about one of the biggest companies in the domain industry, Demand Media (the parent company of popular registrar Enom.com). The article 

by Dan Fletcher titled "Building the Web's Biggest, Smartest, Scariest Article Machine" focuses on Demand's innovative mass content development operation. 

Demand pays some 7,000 freelance writers $3-$15 per article (depending on length) to feed a vast network of websites that receive over 100 million hits a month - more than any of the digital properties operated by Disney, NBC, ESPN and yes, Fletcher pointed out, even Time Inc. 

For subject matter, Fletcher said the company zeroes in on topics they are sure they can turn a profit on from advertising revenue. Some of their content is also being licensed by traditional media outlets, including major newspaper like the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The strategy seems to be working as Demand estimates it took in $200 million in revenue in 2009.

In addition to paying writers, Demand pays copy editors $3.50 each for proof reading and fact checking articles that are also software checked for plagiarism. A few more cents go to editors for writing keyword rich headlines.  

New March 22 issue of Time Magazine 
features domain industry giant Demand Media

Time noted that the content operation is the brainchild of Demand Media Co-Founder Richard Rosenblatt whom we profiled in our April 2007 Cover Story. Rosenblatt told Time he got the idea after serving as the CEO of Intermix Media, the company that sold MySpace.com to News Corp. for $580 millon in 2005. Rosenblatt said he learned from his experience with social media that people were producing reams of data online, however "only 1% of that was relevant to more than just people's friends." He thought "What if we would find a way to find those content creators, tell them what to write and create a broader audience?"

That is exactly what Demand is doing now and the plan seems to be going just as they envisioned. Even the Time writer said he was penning short pieces for the Demand machine in his spare time! It's is a very interesting article and you can read the entire piece online here. 

One other note today. On Sunday we published our latest monthly newsletter (sent by email to opt-in subscribers, but also available online here.) The latest issue features the first detailed account of a domain industry climb team's conquest of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa just over a week ago. In her own words one of the climbers, Emily Hale, described what it took to scale the 19,340 foot mountain. The grueling 6-day mission raised almost $200,000 for a very worthy charity - The Water School. Check out the story, I think you will find it to be very interesting reading and it will give you a full appreciation of what these selfless people from our industry went through to raise those funds.