Test Driving AOL's SEED.com

Since the hiring of CEO Tim Armstrong last April, much has been written about AOL's business strategy, particularly with respect to its media and content delivery efforts.

TechCrunch wrote in July 2009 that AOL had 500 full time writers and editors in the newsroom, plus another 1,500 freelancers, for a total of 2,000 full and part time contributors. And by the summer of 2010 AOL could have 2-3x that number.

So as AOL slowly amassed a who's who of mainstream media, everyone was asking the same question - "what's the ultimate plan for employing such a large staff of trained and perhaps, untrained, journalists?"

Well, look no further than SEED.com which was launched earlier this month, and from my perspective, the most unique and interesting piece to Armstrong's new puzzle**. And as soon as I heard that veteran New York Times reporter, Saul Hansell, would be SEED's programming director, I had to take a look. And, ultimately, had to take it for a spin (more on that later).

From the first sentence of SEED's About Us page:

SEED assigns, buys and distributes work for all of AOL's properties: more than 80 of the Web's most highly trafficked and respected websites, including the world's leading sites for music, style, TV, tech and more.

Great, but what exactly does that tell us? Let me briefly translate for you:

SEED is a content platform which funnels approved, community created blog posts to its network of sites. The game changing twist is that AOL's algorithms determine and predict the types of stories, videos and photos we, the public, want and what advertisers are willing to pay to promote their products alongside that content.

So no more inefficient, non-revenue generating morning news meetings. No more expensive focus groups. Just let AOL spit out the topics, create the marketplace, have the writers "Claim" the topic, and off they go to write.

The writers are provided general guidelines on length, tone, keywords to use and deadline dates. Most importantly, AOL assigns a payment price should the writer's article get approved and ultimately published. The compensation plan also has performance elements, such as traffic metrics, to it as well.

I was intrigued enough that I decided to take SEED for a spin.

A few weeks ago, I created an account and perused the hundreds of "recommended assignments" across the topic areas. The assignments range from "How to make free calls" (writing assignment which pays $25) to "Calculate Your Roth IRA" (writing assignment which pays $30) to "Woman Eating Apple" (photo assignment which pays $30).

Then, one topic jumped out at me, "How to Cope with the Loss of a Pet." Rather morbid topic, I know. The guidelines required 500 words, two expert sources, a picture and that the article be conversational in tone. Oh, and it paid $105, if accepted. One of my friends is a veterinarian so I figured she would serve as one expert source. The other source would come from the Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement. Yes, there is such an entity and the doctor and I briefly chatted with was extremely helpful.

Long story short, I wrote the brief article watching my New England Patriots outlast the Carolina Panthers and hit "submit." A few weeks later I received an email congratulating me that my work was scheduled for publishing on AOL's Pawnation.com. Hopefully it gets a bit of traffic and I can retire...

Overall, even though it remains in Beta stage, SEED has done a fine job at helping freelancers take off the training wheels and get started through its SEED Academy. I simply jotted down a few initial observations to make it even better (more to come in future posts as I continue to write and become more immersed in the effort - I'm now writing about Global Belly Laugh Day on Jan 24):

• There's no feedback loop so when I submitted the article, I did not hear anything for three weeks until I received an email saying "Congratulations, you're published." Suggestion: in similar fashion to tracking a FedEx package, SEED should show on your dashboard the different editing stages.
• The process to search assignments is clunky. Suggestion: add search capability and categorize writing, photo and video assignments. Also, highlight the new assignments in different color since the user's last login.
• The guidelines are confusing despite a FAQ section. Suggestion: I understand SEED may be overwhelmed with submissions at the moment but it would help to have a real person/editor respond with answers to email questions.
• The Sports topic area is 95% wrestling and 5% poker (all writing assignments). I'm not kidding folks. "Best WrestleMania Matches," "Hulk Hogan's Toughest Opponents," "Bloodiest Wrestling Matches," and "Poker's Biggest Earners of All Time." Suggestion: Where do I begin? How about some NFL topics as we head into the post season? Hot stove Major League Baseball content? Fenway Park to host NHL's New Year's Day Winter Classic between the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers.
• Finally, since the Pet Loss article hasn't gone live yet, I don't know how the page views/traffic graph works, but hopefully it will tell the author where the traffic is coming from and who is reading the article. Much like the Wordpress dashboard.

Anyway, as I mentioned, I'll continue to keep you posted in 2010 on SEED though one writer's prism - mine. And if you have any questions or comments, do let me know, be  interested to hear your take.

**(DISCLAIMER: this post was not intended to address the elephant in the room raised by AOL's new strategy: Do stories that are continually churned out on demand qualify as journalism? This topic will be addressed in a future post)

Comments

[Saulhansell.blogspot.com]

Hi Rich.

Saul Hansell here. Thanks for contributing to Seed and for the helpful ideas. We're working on a lot of what you ask for and a whole lot more.

I think you'll find it a rewarding place to write and millions of readers will discover even more interesting articles, photos and more on AOL's network.

One word of caution, don't believe all what you've read so far about Seed. This isn't some sort of game to use machines to stuff search engines. We're trying to create the most compelling journalism at a mass scale ever.

Best
saul

[Rich Young]

Saul,

Thanks for the feedback. Already starting to see a few more tweaks to the interface and usability, so that's great.

Rich

[Vahl]

I may be crazy, but why do I need seed.com when I can post on my own blog?

I'm pretty skeptical of the dollar amounts they're paying out. Seems unsustainable.

Seems like a lot of effort in order to wait for approval three weeks down the road.

It sounds like a great idea ... I just don't know if it will work on the 'Net.

[Mel]

Vahl, print (and many web) magazines and newspapers have been paying far more than $25/article for decades. Quality writing from professional writers usually requires paying professional writing rates, and while the model has had to change somewhat with the web, $25/article is NOT a huge, unsustainable fee. It's a very low fee that most professional journalists won't write for.

Seed.com may get some decent writing, but quality journalism, the kind that requires hours of research, field visits, and talking to multiple sources? Probably not a lot of that. And not because they pay too much.

[Allena]

Correct me if I am wrong, but the problem with SEED is that you are basically writing fully on spec. SEED doesn't remove your selected title when you select it-- any number of freelance writers can write the same article. The editor then gets 5-10 and selects 1-2, and you've done work for which you don't get paid. Sure, you did well on this one, but I wouldn't risk my hours, personally. Plus, that pay rate is EH.