Yes I do original research all the time, every day. I beta test apps, I assess pre-release versions of apps from many leading publishers, I explore and test new functionality, or getting more out of existing functionality, I jailbreak my devices at times to see what more they're capable of, and so on. The AirPrint subject is a good example. I did not just 'scour the big blogs'. Before AirPrint was ever released, when many people believed it was impossible to print from the iPad, I did an article that proved quite popular that explained that you absolutely could print from the iPad, via several good 3rd party apps. When AirPrint was released along with iOS 4.2 I wrote several pieces criticizing it for being lame and worse than half-assed compared to what Apple had touted it to be. I wrote articles on how to use AirPrint, how to get more and better features via 3rd party apps, and how the list of supported printers has grown at a snail's pace. And yes, I also posted on the tweak that eventually came out to extend AirPrint's own functionality. Not because I was following the big blogs, or anyone else, not because I jumped on the AirPrint bandwagon late in the day, but because I had been covering the subject extensively all along.
My 100 articles a month and were they all quality posts: Yes they were and are. Is every single one of them a new in-depth app review or how-to post, No. I sometimes write shorter pieces offering my opinion on a major bit of iPad news or similar. I sometimes write lighter pieces, about anything from iPad-related humor to how my big goofy Labrador is my work colleague. I think that provides a nice mix of content for readers.
If Apple announces the date that a new iPad is going to be released, or that they are finally going to support subscription plans for iPad magazines and newspapers, that's of interest to me and to my readers, so I mix in a small percentage of original news coverage as well. The fact that many sites may cover the same story does not mean that mine is not original or professionally written content. When there is a major news story, it is covered by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other quality broadsheet papers. When there are major political and economic stories, they are all covered by Time, by Newsweek, by The Economist, and so on. Does that mean that none of these titles are producing original or professional content? When any of these big titles pick up stories from the AP, Reuters, and smaller local news outlets, does that mean they are suddenly low-quality titles? I'd say absolutely not. And when a small %age of my posts cover major news, it doesn't mean I'm a low quality site either. I always have my own take any iPad related news or rumors that I choose to write on. I don't 'borrow' anybody else's take - I write my own thoughts on the very few news or rumor items that interest me.
On the how many people write about Justin Bieber question, there are not a lot of sites that focus solely on the iPad, as mine does. And very few indeed that do so and are quality sites - the majority are scrapers that just continually ripoff content from sites like mine. Mine is one of the very few sites that covers only the iPad and does so with 100% original content.
Could I become an affiliate for Apple? I have no desire to be one. That's not at all what my site is about and it's not at all relevant to this discussion. "Why should Google allow a site to advertise for Apple products?" I don't do that at all. I am often critical of Apple, of App Store policies, of iPad related decisions etc. When I post App Store links for apps that I cover, I don't even use the affiliate links that many sites do, I just use straight-up links.
Am I really an Apple expert? Yes. And particularly an iPad and iOS expert. Again, I've written for the leading print title (iPhone and iPad Life Magazine) in this space since its debut issue, I've appeared on ABC World News and various radio programs and podcasts as an iPad and iPhone expert, I've been working with mobile devices since back in the days of the Palm Pilot, many leading publishers come to me to beta test and assess pre-release builds of their apps, Robert Scoble lists me among his most influential tech writers. I've also worked in tech support, network management, and IT consulting for over 15 years. So yes, I'm very confident in saying I am an expert on the very tightly focused subject I cover.
On the footer links, I honestly didn't even realize what kind of links they were. I have used the Thesis theme for years and Rackspace for hosting for years. I think very highly of both of them, so I was happy having a small link to them. I've made exactly zero dollars via those links. I took them down when I saw it mentioned here that they are not a good idea.
The only one of them I've clicked on before is ipads101.com, because they so flagrantly rip my content every single day. None of the others are sites I've clicked on before.
My main point here is that my site doesn't match any of the criteria for getting slapped by Panda. It's a site that has its content ripped off a ton, and every time I report the offending spam sites to Google there is no response at all.
I'm the guy whose site this is all about - iPadInsight.com. I only used that specific search in the forum thread because I discovered that was the single point on which the Adwords reviewer had judged that my site didn't produce original content. I sent back the results of the same search showing that links were either from legit aggregator sites (like alltop.com) linking back to my original review, or from a number of scraper sites that rip my content. Even when the review was overturned for Adwords I was told it would leave a black mark against my site because it had already been marked that way. Great system.
Soon after all that hassle, my site suddenly lost 60% of its traffic. From what I can gather, mine is one of the quality sites that produce original content that has been mistakenly penalized in the Panda / Farmer / Whichever Other updates.
Among the reasons I say my site is a quality site that produces original content, in accordance with this post at the Google Webmaster Central Blog (http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-guid...) and with all the logic I can apply to the subject, are:
-- The site contains over 1,700 posts published in the last 15 months. I wrote around 1,550 of them myself. The remainder are written by three other occasional authors, who are colleagues and friends of mine. There's no 'outsourcing' of content creation or anything of that ilk.
-- I spend tons of hours every day researching and writing the content that appears on my site. Every app review on the site is 100% original content (http://ipadinsight.com/category/ipad-app-reviews), as are all posts published.
-- I do consider myself an expert on the subject my site covers - the iPad. I have been writing app reviews,accessory reviews tips, how-to posts on it ever since it launched. I've appeared on ABC World News and numerous radio programs as an iPad and Apple expert. I've been a contributing author for iPhone and iPad Life magazine (printed publication) since their debut issue - writing expert tips and tricks posts, buyer's guide articles, and more. I'm listed in Robert Scoble's Twitter list of best tech people to follow. Blue-chip app publishers and accessory vendors approach me to write about their products. The Daily (the first iPad only newspaper) contacted me before their app even hit the App Store, as do many leading publishers. I've been a beta tester for many top iOS apps for years. I participate regularly at several leading iPad and iOS forums. I'm not saying any of this to boast, but in an effort to establish that I'm a blogger who is enormously passionate about the subject I cover, and someone who is respected in the area (mobile tech) that I write on.
-- My site is a long-standing member of the Got-OATS group of sites (http://www.gotoats.org/) that seek to uphold and promote the highest ethics in app reviews. We never accept money for reviews or coverage, and add disclosure statements to our reviews to indicate whether we received a promo code for an app reviewed, or a sample unit of an accessory reviewed.
-- I spend a lot of time on every single post, on researching, on testing apps and whatever else I'm covering, on ensuring that spelling and grammar are spot-on, on providing good screencaps of apps in action, and every other detail I can think of.
-- I use a great cache-ing plugin on my site and do my best, with help from a few Wordpress experts, to keep the site fast and clean.
-- I currently have close to 4,500 RSS subscribers and over 3,000 Twitter followers for the site's account.
-- Before my recent sudden traffic fall off a cliff due to Panda, my site had around 80-100,000 unique visitors per month.
As for search results and scraper sites, I am still often seeing horrendous spam sites ranking above me for recent posts. Here is just one quick example on a recent post I wrote about iPad rivals, where several scraper sites rank above mine, including one (ipads101.com) which I have submitted 3 spam reports on via Google Webmaster over the last two months, and had zero response:
My 100 articles a month and were they all quality posts: Yes they were and are. Is every single one of them a new in-depth app review or how-to post, No. I sometimes write shorter pieces offering my opinion on a major bit of iPad news or similar. I sometimes write lighter pieces, about anything from iPad-related humor to how my big goofy Labrador is my work colleague. I think that provides a nice mix of content for readers.
If Apple announces the date that a new iPad is going to be released, or that they are finally going to support subscription plans for iPad magazines and newspapers, that's of interest to me and to my readers, so I mix in a small percentage of original news coverage as well. The fact that many sites may cover the same story does not mean that mine is not original or professionally written content. When there is a major news story, it is covered by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other quality broadsheet papers. When there are major political and economic stories, they are all covered by Time, by Newsweek, by The Economist, and so on. Does that mean that none of these titles are producing original or professional content? When any of these big titles pick up stories from the AP, Reuters, and smaller local news outlets, does that mean they are suddenly low-quality titles? I'd say absolutely not. And when a small %age of my posts cover major news, it doesn't mean I'm a low quality site either. I always have my own take any iPad related news or rumors that I choose to write on. I don't 'borrow' anybody else's take - I write my own thoughts on the very few news or rumor items that interest me.
On the how many people write about Justin Bieber question, there are not a lot of sites that focus solely on the iPad, as mine does. And very few indeed that do so and are quality sites - the majority are scrapers that just continually ripoff content from sites like mine. Mine is one of the very few sites that covers only the iPad and does so with 100% original content.
Could I become an affiliate for Apple? I have no desire to be one. That's not at all what my site is about and it's not at all relevant to this discussion. "Why should Google allow a site to advertise for Apple products?" I don't do that at all. I am often critical of Apple, of App Store policies, of iPad related decisions etc. When I post App Store links for apps that I cover, I don't even use the affiliate links that many sites do, I just use straight-up links.
Am I really an Apple expert? Yes. And particularly an iPad and iOS expert. Again, I've written for the leading print title (iPhone and iPad Life Magazine) in this space since its debut issue, I've appeared on ABC World News and various radio programs and podcasts as an iPad and iPhone expert, I've been working with mobile devices since back in the days of the Palm Pilot, many leading publishers come to me to beta test and assess pre-release builds of their apps, Robert Scoble lists me among his most influential tech writers. I've also worked in tech support, network management, and IT consulting for over 15 years. So yes, I'm very confident in saying I am an expert on the very tightly focused subject I cover.
On the footer links, I honestly didn't even realize what kind of links they were. I have used the Thesis theme for years and Rackspace for hosting for years. I think very highly of both of them, so I was happy having a small link to them. I've made exactly zero dollars via those links. I took them down when I saw it mentioned here that they are not a good idea.