is this quote for real?????

"mr_gofast" (jake_berenshteyn)
05/30/2014 at 13:41 • Filed to: PENIS

Interestingly, the only large car blog that budges the trend is Jalopnik. Maybe because Jalopnik is no car blog. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! The bulk of its traffic originates from schools, Alexa says. "Penis" is a hot search word in this underage demographic, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! The stories in Jalopnik simulate real journalism as much as Gran Turismo simulates car racing. Both do it quite convincingly, and on occasion, Jalopnik is capable of pugnacious dirt-digging. The big car blog downdraft was powerful enough to retard Jalopnik's ascend a tiny bit. Fear not, as long as their readers search for their penis, and as long as Jalopnik is willing to sift through the mud before it slings it, the site will grow. And if you worry about young people losing their lust for cars, Jalopnik can provide that target in spades.

the paragraph was stating that all car blogs are on the downward spiral and that Jalopnik is only staying alive due to having the word penis in its search tags... WTF???

Here is the article in its entirety - all credit to the original author - since the link is iffy

You are here: !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! / !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! / The buff-books are dying, and the car blogs are right behind them

The buff-books are dying, and the car blogs are right behind them

May 30, 2014 By !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Automotive News wrote about mass firings at Source Interlink. The publisher of motor magazines including Motor Trend, Hot Rod and Super Street circles the wagons. 75 positions were eliminated, and from what I hear, it was the good and expensive ones that were fired. When the cheaper talent compares the cost of living in downtown LA with Ann Arbor, more attrition is to be expected. Car blogs usually don't miss a chance to make snide remarks about the downfall of tree-based automotive journalism. This time, the echo is muted. Perhaps because the car blogs that shoveled the graves of the buff books show signs of impending death themselves.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

If you look at the Alexa rankings of major car blogs, you see that they mostly have been going sideways in 2013, a trend that could be observed for the last few years already. On the Internet, treading water means drowning.

Ad prices are trending down, and one needs to increase traffic just to maintain revenue. Too many blogs chase the same dollar. The "race to the bottom" so many bloggers are ready to decry when Daimler sells a GLA, or Porsche a Macan, is taking its toll among the blogs. Like a chicken that is oblivious that it was just beheaded, the blogs stumble on. Even Google "continues to grapple with ad-pricing declines," !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

In 2014, Alexa rankings of major car blogs started to deteriorate, dramatically at some. Seasonality may be one factor (traffic is always lowest in summer,) but I have never seen across-the-board deterioration of that magnitude.

Alexa shows how sites are ranked relative to other sites, reflecting their global market share, so to speak. It is a good indicator of how big a share of the advertising pie a site can command. Of course, there are other ways to look at it. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! charts the number of unique visitors of a site. I never understood why internet metrics favor visitors who come out of nowhere, and why those metrics dislike loyal repeat-customers who read you every day. But who am I to argue.

The chart !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! paints for my former employer looks especially gruesome. Uniques peaked in August 2013, and were down-hill ever since. TTAC's upper management had told me many times that the site never made money. That was when the trend was up.

Some blame Google's ever-changing algorithms for the moribund website traffic. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the standard answer is "the content is poor." Google tries to algorithmically grasp the quality of an article, and if the spider says your story sucks, your rankings will suffer. It doesn't need a highly intelligent spider to notice the sinking quality. Writers are capable to supply quality articles. However, publishers no longer demand it.

If price is the perfect measure for supply and demand, then there is abundant supply of shlock and no demand for quality. Blog writing in America is alarmingly underpaid. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . In America, the going rate increasingly is $ zero, and blogs get what they pay for. Research? What research? "News" are delivered days late, and are clumsily rewritten – if they get rewritten at all. Most of the alleged content is stolen from other sites. Regurgitating something does not make it more appetizing. Even !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! complains louder and louder on Facebook that nobody wants to pay real money for her pictures anymore. Why pay if you can steal, and claim that it is "the work of our hotshot team of spy photographers?"

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Faced with the choice of investing money into better writers instead of buying traffic outright, more and more blogs choose the safe, but shady way. They buy the clicks.

Look at the economics. A story at TTAC brings anywhere from a few hundred clicks to a few thousand. Bought outright, a thousand clicks will be yours for $1 on upwards. Which quickly sets the price of a good article: $3 to $5 per story. The only way a writer can consistently beat the bots is by writing for free. Which is what they do. This is a wide and interesting field, and we will cover it later in more detail.

For years, OEMs have complained that those tree-based professional journalists, people who know the car beat, people who know the difference between on-the-record and off-the-record, are a dying breed. Hopes that the thinning ranks of greybeards will be filled by sharp young bloggers are being frustrated.

Whenever I think about these things, I remember the trip to Wolfsburg, to which Volkswagen had invited the crème de la creme of American auto bloggers at a cost of what I estimated at more than $10,000 a head. They dragged Volkswagen's Über-Ingenieur Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg out of a board meeting so that he could face the eager journalists. Then, nothing happened. The hopes of journalism poked their smartphones and noses instead of asking pointed questions. See picture at the beginning of the story.

Instead of talking to Hackenberg, the scribes were interested in talking to themselves, or their friends on Facebook and Twitter. Volkswagen made a mistake and served free WiFi along with free food. Both were consumed with gusto, the Über-Ingenieur was ignored. Hackenberg ended up being interviewed by two troglodytes from the last century of auto journalism, Kevin Jost of SAE Magazine, and Doron Levine of Fortune.

The bloggers deserve to be replaced by bots.

The downspin of the auto sites has worried carmakers for quite some time, and they are working on alternatives. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and to talk directly to the public instead through open-mouthed mouthpieces. Others are rumored to work on similar projects. When Nissan launched its Global Newsroom, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a fixture of the Tokyo auto circuit, complained loudly at the Foreign Correspondents Club that "Nissan wants to put us all out of business." The blogs don't even notice that they are being replaced.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Meanwhile, Motor Trend's is "restructuring its automotive titles under a new branding group called The Enthusiast Network," wrote AN. This should hasten their demise. It's a badly kept secret in the industry that "enthusiast" is a dirty word among automakers. According to lore making the rounds on corridors of major OEMs, those expletive deleted "enthusiasts" give bad unsolicited advice on how to build, brand, and sell cars, they get vicious if they aren't listened to, and the only thing they buy are aftermarket parts for their 15 year old jalopies. To get ad dollars out of the OEMs, ready buyers need to be delivered. Enthusiast and news sites are on the subsistence diet of Google Adwords, or shadier networks. As the charts above show, the lack of calories is taking its toll.

P.S.: Don't ask for our rankings, we have none. We don't take ads either.

DISCUSSION (53)

William Byrd > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 13:42

Penis

(can't be too careful, I like it here....)

BrtStlnd > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 13:42

Where is it from?

mr_gofast > BrtStlnd
05/30/2014 at 13:44

http://dailykanban.com/2014/05/30/the…

$kaycog > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 13:45

Seriously?

#Penis

macanamera > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 13:47

All we have to do is say penis? Done.

macanamera > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 13:48

You should have filed this to: Penis.

Crocket Bernet > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 13:50

Make sure to tag penis in this post.

mr_gofast > macanamera
05/30/2014 at 13:50

fixed :)

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > $kaycog
05/30/2014 at 13:50

Jalopnik: Seriously Penis

Crocket Bernet > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 13:51

linky no worky

BoulderZ > BrtStlnd
05/30/2014 at 13:51

I cut/paste the text in a search, and found it on this site:

http://dailykanban.com/2014/05/30/the…

Which appears to be two guys, who... Well, you can click their "About Us" link if you want. They're experts about the same way I'm a cosmonaut.

$kaycog > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
05/30/2014 at 13:54

A Few Serious Richardheads too.

mr_gofast > Crocket Bernet
05/30/2014 at 13:56

http://dailykanban.com/2014/05/30/the…

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > $kaycog
05/30/2014 at 13:56

Not to mention our politically incorrect Asian representative, Honorable Wang.

mr_gofast > Crocket Bernet
05/30/2014 at 13:56

could be chrome - i have it open on tab - page works..

RyanFrew > Crocket Bernet
05/30/2014 at 13:57

http://dailykanban.com/2014/05/30/the…

$kaycog > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
05/30/2014 at 13:59

I remember him as being too stiff necked.

RyanFrew > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 14:00

Here is the link for anyone who wants to read: http://dailykanban.com/2014/05/30/the…

The article is comically misguided, written by a dude formerly with TTAC, who is apparently old and doesn't have a strong comprehension of the internet.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > $kaycog
05/30/2014 at 14:00

A bit hot under the collar?

mr_gofast > RyanFrew
05/30/2014 at 14:01

thanks :) i posted the entire article up top

$kaycog > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
05/30/2014 at 14:01

He was always to premature with his assumptions.

BrtStlnd > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 14:01

It's Bertel Schmitt's new site apparently... you know the guy that got canned from TTAC for his "dykes" comment and subsequent defense of said term...

http://jalopnik.com/ttac-editor-in…

MPA > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 14:02

it could also be due to the propensity for posting expletive filled articles on the main page. It's not like this is some random car blog - it's supposed to be a professional business venture.

#cockmonkey

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > $kaycog
05/30/2014 at 14:03

Also, not always firmly rooted.

mr_gofast > MPA
05/30/2014 at 14:04

thats debatable - there is a time and place for swear words in a article, even w one on a professional site.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > MPA
05/30/2014 at 14:05

It's not like expletives, obscenity and profanity are necessary, but they sure can be fun.

#droolingasswicket

$kaycog > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
05/30/2014 at 14:06

I definitely think he had a loose screw.

mr_gofast > BrtStlnd
05/30/2014 at 14:08

what a #penis loving ass monkey @ Bertel

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > $kaycog
05/30/2014 at 14:09

In and out, in and out - never made enough available to be worth much.

$kaycog > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
05/30/2014 at 14:12

Nobody was able to penetrate his brain to show him the error of his ways.

macanamera > $kaycog
05/30/2014 at 14:13

Who u callin a pencilrichard?

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > $kaycog
05/30/2014 at 14:15

Perhaps we should be softer on the guy, more accommodating. Always under tremendous pressure.

$kaycog > macanamera
05/30/2014 at 14:17

Not you, my dear.

$kaycog > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
05/30/2014 at 14:18

I think everything will come to a head one of these days.

macanamera > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
05/30/2014 at 14:19

Also, he had a small penis.

macanamera > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 14:21

Excellent. I might start filing everything to Penis, just, well because.

desertdog5051 > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 14:21

I'm afraid I miss that demographic by quite a ways.

macanamera > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 14:23

Somebody should share this to FP, it's hilarious. I might be weird but I am almost proud...

Nibbles > MPA
05/30/2014 at 14:26

That's just Jalopnik. Remember the Awesomeness Manifesto? Yeah, most of that has gone to the wayside but they do keep the 'edge' by tossing in words that would get most of the readers' butts spanked (do they still do that? If not, they should) when dad got home

Aya, Almost Has A Cosmo With Toyota Engine Owned by a BMW. > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 14:53

Penis penis penis penis penis penis

So, how about top gear then?

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 15:07

I ABOSLUTELY LOVE the side bar pic that showed when I was reading the first paragraph. Screengrab below!

Kinja'd!!!

Oh, btw, waaaay TLDR haha. Screw the magazines Jalopnik is great because they don't pander to the auto companies.

mr_gofast > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
05/30/2014 at 15:09

haha thats awesome...well done!

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 15:12

Jezza face inception:

Kinja'd!!!

TurnDownForWatt > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 15:13

I'd say spot F'n on. Jalopnik is a kiddie blog, no question.

mr_gofast > TurnDownForWatt
05/30/2014 at 15:16

you are in a distinct minority- only person whose agreed so far. Please explain

TurnDownForWatt > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 15:19

Jalopnik is a hilariously-uninformed site "written" by a bunch of twenty-somethings, half of which don't even seem to own a car. Just this week alone they've got five separate articles on a video game car from Gran Turismo 6. There is a stunning lack of actual automotive knowledge from any of the staff of the site after Ray left.

mr_gofast > TurnDownForWatt
05/30/2014 at 15:28

i would think you are slightly incorrect..however everyone is entitled to their opinions. The lack of car ownership has nothing to do with accumulated knowledge, so i think that point is nullified. The assumption that there is a stunning lack of knowledge is I think stretching that definition as far as it will go. The editors here are fairly good with auto news, the Forza articles are there because Jalopnik has a modpack with forza which explains why they talk about it so much - offhand do you know any other blogs with a community as large and as varied as this one? this has everything between weekend warriors who wrench their own cars to techs to race drivers and professional race athletes. Between all of that the amount of knowledge flowing through this site is rather modest and for the most part intelligent and correct. Youre right that some of hte articles arent exactly pulitzer prize winning articles but as compared to hte grand scheme of things these guys are ALOT better then most sites with possibly the exception of Petrolheads or Speedhunters and even then those are just opinions.

The Compromiser > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 15:42

Hey thanks for tagging this "Penis". I never would have found it if it had been under "Assholes who don't get it."

mr_gofast > The Compromiser
05/30/2014 at 15:48

np...there is also one person within the thread who agrees with the quote...so there is that too.

The Compromiser > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 16:05

I wonder what we should file that person under? Hmmmmmmm.......

un-hipster > mr_gofast
05/30/2014 at 17:11

Kinja'd!!!

Combining our two favorite search terms: 'MURICA! and penis

PardonMyFlemish16 > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
05/31/2014 at 07:01

Hey guys. Do the history on Bertel Schmidtt. He got fired from TTAC for being a homophobic right wing weirdo who pushed his views a little too hard, as well as being a well spoken troll. You don't even have to dig deep to see it. He claims sites are buying clicks. OK, where's the proof? He claims car based blogs are dying. On a car blog he created. After getting fired. From a car blog. Etc. etc.

The only thing he is right about is Jalopnik's demographic, which can be validated with data as well as context clues such as the juvenile attitudes of some posters here, the incessant Oppo "omg i like a girl how do i talk to her" articles and the naive exhuberance of the whole #FuckBeige #CorollaOwnersRScum subculture. Still, if you dig deep enough and pay attention there is quality here, as well as at TTAC. Click bot press release AdSense search keyword garbage like Autoblog deserves to die a swift death though.

saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars > TurnDownForWatt
06/01/2014 at 20:07

Why are you such a dick about everything? The last two articles I've read have had dipshit comments from you dissing Oppo or Jalopnik. Let's keep it positive!