According to Matt Cutts of Google, Internet marketers should avoid the unethical practice of buying links by paying a few pennies to the folks who complete tasks via Amazon Mechanical Turk and scoring free links from their efforts. Let me rephrase that: Google says it’s wrong to pay for other people to link to your Web site, but it’s totally cool to score hundreds or thousands of links – not by paying a professional copywriter to create an awesome resource for you – but by spending about 20 bucks for a handful of people to perform cheap labor for you with Amazon Mechanical Turk. Don’t believe me? Watch this video.

In case you’re unfamiliar with Amazon Mechanical Turk, it’s a place where companies pay unwitting individuals a few cents to complete tasks that can’t be automated. Looking to work from home? As I write this blog post, you can earn a whole penny for taking 10 minutes to answer some questions about a news article. If you do six of these tasks in an hour, you’re making an hourly wage of 6 whole cents! I tried doing these tasks when I was unemployed last year, and even with my efficiency, I wasn’t even making minimum wage.

But according to Google, this is a perfectly acceptable way to outsource crowdsource your linkbait. Matt Cutts talks about someone who paid a total of $25 to get a whole bunch of people to compile a list of adjectives about top Twitter users. This is quality content. And not just any quality content, it’s pure linkbait gold. This is what  Google wants to index. It’s completely within their guidelines for ethical SEO.

As a damn good copywriter, I take offense to this. This isn’t quality content. This is crap. This is pandering to the lowest common denominator for a quick chuckle, and paying slave wages to make it happen. Where is the quality in that? Tell me, Matt Cutts of Google’s Webspam team, why would you promote the proliferation of crap like this online instead of encouraging people to invest in something of value?

Dude, I was a Quality Rater. I know what your quality guidelines are – or at least what they were a year and a half ago. Have you really fallen so far? Do you really want to tell the world that what the Internet needs is another insipid fluff piece about Twitter? I’m sorry, sir, but you’ve just discredited everything you’ve ever said about quality content online.

And what is “white hat” about paying crap wages for something inane that could potentially make your business thousands of dollars? That may not break anything in your Webmaster guidelines, but it certainly doesn’t seem ethical to me. Just because you can get away with paying someone a nickel for 45 minutes of work doesn’t mean that you should. In fact, it would be against U.S. employment laws if there was an employee relationship involved. But that’s a whole different rant about the abuse of independent contractors.

All content is paid for in one form or another. I happen to make a living writing quality content because, during my stint as a Quality Rater, I actually wanted to try and make the Internet a better place. What’s the difference in paying writers (say, bloggers perhaps?) to review and link to your product than paying someone to produce content for you in order to attract links? On one hand, the money goes to the writer to manipulate people into linking, on the other hand, the money goes to the writer who was “manipulated” into publishing the link.

Oh wait, that’s right… bloggers should work for free and shouldn’t be paid for linking to companies in the first place. That’s essentially what it’s come down to when Google instituted this “no paid links” policy. The companies don’t suffer. They’re getting free freaking publicity by not paying bloggers to link to them. Yeah, I’m a blogger, too. It’s ridiculous how many moms I know are working for free so that they can have the “honor” of reviewing a $5 product and not get slammed for writing a paid review. It’s crap.

But Google doesn’t respect content creators. That much is clear. It just wasn’t obvious to me just how badly the search giant wanted to screw content producers until now. Google doesn’t really care about quality content. They just want everyone to jump through their hoops so they can keep making money hand over fist for other people’s hard work.

Google Says Quality is Dirt Cheap, Don’t Hire Copywriters is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

After two months of preparations, it’s finally time for me to announce the launch of my new company – Phenomenal Content LLC. If you are looking for content creation services, you’re no longer hiring “just” an individual – no matter how talented this individual may be.

Any work that I cannot complete myself (due to workload or specialty) will be handled by one of my very capable hand-picked writers. I will serve as editor for anything I do not write before returning it to you. As far as I know, Phenomenal Content is the only content creation company being run by a former Google Quality Rater, so we’re in a class of our own!

If you are in the market for copywriting, blogging, or editing services, please consider using Phenomenal Content!

Announcing the Launch of Phenomenal Content LLC is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

In case you missed it, my name is Christina Gleason. You may be more familiar with me by my former identity, QualityGal. Until February 9, 2009, I was the Content Manager at We Build Pages. Oh sure, that wasn’t my official title. But I created the content writing team from the ground up, recruiting and managing over 250 writers and editors to write thousands of pages of content, so I think it was a fairer description of my job than anything else that was bandied about.

I helped develop a  proprietary writer panel for the management of writer assignments. Sadly, I only got to use the new incarnation for two business days before I was let go. This tool had been in development since July 2008, and I’m sad that I won’t be able to enjoy it without all the bugs.

I developed an online style manual along with two of my editors, Jen and Michelle, which helped promote the quality of the content we produced. I also developed several very basic tutorials about SEO writing.

With the experience I gained from my time as a Google Quality Rater, I’ve always ensured that the content produced by the writing team I managed was valuable to users. User intent is so firmly ingrained in my brain that I would never, ever attach myself to any “content” that could be construed as spam or trickery. And that’s not because Google penalizes spam and trickery; that’s because it’s the right thing to do. I want to help make the Web a better place.

I’m now a solo act. I’m available for freelance work. Keep your eyes peeled for more information about my services and introductory rates.

Formerly Known as QualityGal is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

As QualityGal, I didn’t get much opportunity to write articles myself, but writing has always been a passion of mine. I’m a tiny bit OCD, which is good for the research process, as well as for getting everything just right.

Having created SEO writing guides and my own style manual, I have a handle on how to write Web content effectively.  My specialty subjects include health, mental health, children, family, gifts, special occasions, and product reviews, but I am willing to research many other subjects. I may not be the best fit for a highly technical guide to CSS or Perl, but I could write a page that explains what CSS is and what it’s used for.

If you know what content you need, I can write it for you. If you think you need content but don’t know what exactly needs to be written, I can help you figure that out for a nominal consulting fee, and then write it for you.

My rates will vary widely depending on the type of content needed, the amount of research required, and any special requirements. In general, my rates start at $.06-$.07 per word for general Web content requiring basic research. Large SEO companies or content companies will charge you $.14 per word (or more!) for the same work, and not necessarily return the same high quality work that I would. (I know because I’ve helped set company content creation rates!) By going directly to the source (me) you cut out a lot of overhead, and you know that you’re getting a top rate writer, not a 1 in 200 chance that the writer who works on your project has the same high standards as me. You won’t necessarily need to pay a copy editor to double check my work, either, unless you really want to.

Here is a starting point for negotiation, assuming basic research and no special requirements:

• $35 per article for general Web content, up to 500 words. (Less research needed.)
• $75 per article for specialized Web content, 501-1000 words. (More research needed.)
• $50+ per product review, plus product to review. (I won’t write a review without actually testing out the product. Sorry, but that’s the way I roll. Quality and ethics. Rate varies depending on depth of review.)
• Larger or more complex projects negotiable.
• Print media rates also negotiable.

These rates are subject to change based on project scope and non-standard writing requirements. Please contact me for more information.

Article Writing Services is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC