Google Takes On Wikipedia (And Why It’s Great For Marketers)
By Anna Johnson on July 25th, 2008If you’ve got it, chances are Google wants it. Well, that is if you’re Wikipedia and attract enough web visitors to make you the 7th most popular website on the Internet (according to Alexa).
And so, Google has launched its Wikipedia beater “Knol”. Knol the website aims to deliver “knols” the articles – authoritative articles about specific topics.
Like Wikipedia, it will allow anyone to contribute useful information. But unlike Wikipedia, articles on Knol will allow contributors to include their bylines. Authors can also get paid by allowing their knol to include ads from Google’s AdSense program and receiving a revenue share from the proceeds of those ads.
Why is this great for marketers? Well, if the penny hasn’t dropped yet, Knol provides an avenue for you to submit articles that include YOUR byline.
Yesterday, I outlined a strategy for generating traffic from Wikipedia. This equally applies to Knol. Now don’t be surprised if links to external sites are required to have the “no follow” tag but, heck, if Knol takes off, your article could be seen by THOUSANDS of people.
But please don’t expect to be able to submit hypey, vacuous articles or rubbishy PLR articles. This is Google remember.
Sources: Eric Krangel, “Google Launches Wikipedia Killer ‘Knol’: Everything You Wanted To Know About Toilet Clogs, Tooth Pain, More”, Knol
