Comments on: Wordpress Realizes It’s All About Discovery

By: Anonymous Tipster

Anonymous Tipster — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

100% it’s a paid placement. Just like the other plugins and widgets that are installed by default on all new Wordpress.com sites.

Rumor has the cost pegged at $15,000 / month.

By: TimDineen

TimDineen — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Didn’t AOL just buy Sphere? With AOL in charge I’d think ads will surely be inserted.

By: Corvida

Corvida — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

From the looks of it, sounds like Sphere is definitely paying Wordpress. I wouldn’t see it as a bad thing though and I hope they do disclose if any ads will be in place.

What I don’t like is that blogs that turn Sphere off will be losing out on a few SEO/Traffic related things. That’s damn unfair of WordPress.

By: Adam Gershenbaum

Adam Gershenbaum — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Either paid or perceived added value.

It’s like a strategic partnership. So say company A endorses company B. In return for company B’s endorsement, company A makes sure to co brand company B in their upcoming radio, tv, print, internet, email, or billboard campaign creating results for both parties while not exactly exchanging money.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve heard from a number of sources that it’s paid placement. When Wordpress.com meets with 3rd party services they indirectly communicate that inclusion in the widget tab or default status is a pay to play proposition, on a per quarter basis.

By: Dr. Mike Wendell

Dr. Mike Wendell — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This is not the first time that it’s been rumored that Automattic has taken money for something like this.

By: Matt Mullenweg

Matt Mullenweg — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have it on good sources (being actually involved with the deal) that your anonymous tipsters here are completely wrong. If anything we should be paying Sphere – they’re doing a ton of work and giving us a lot of data with no branding or promotion besides a mention in our announcement post.

P.S. Mollom thinks I’m spam.

By: centernetworks

centernetworks — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks for clearing the payment issue up for me - I appreciate it!

As for Mollom, I just installed it yesterday. Will run it for a week or so and see how it goes.

By: Yaron Galai

Yaron Galai — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Allen –

Regarding your comment about outbrain (”I’d like to see the recommended posts appear on every post, not just on a few”) –
A service that *always* shows related links is simply a service with a very low (or non-existent) quality threshhold. This kind of coverage might seem to pay off in the short term as people click on links, but – when the readers find that the recommended links were un-interesting they will start ignoring those recommendations altogether and CTR will fade away.

At Outbrain we strongly believe that setting a high quality threshhold on the links we recommend will pay off in the long term. Whenever we have a choice, we pick quality over coverage. We want to make sure that readers trust our recommendations and look for them and click on them over and over. In the long run this approach should benefit you and the readers over forcing (’spamming’?…) all the pages with links.

Eventually the proof will be in the numbers (in clicks, PV’s, etc). I think the numbers you posted recently on outbrain traffic was nice proof that our approach is working out nicely for CenterNetworks readers.

By: Spotback

Spotback — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Allen,

Give Spotback a try. We believe that you will find that the recommendation and discovery system gives very good results.
See: http://spotback.com/widgets/intro
We suggest using the “Spotback ALL-IN-ONE widget” which can be customized to look and function the way you desire.

The Spotback Team