Web Syndication: A Lot of Aggregation
By Larry Olsen and Tom Livingston
Everyone talks about making Web products "sticky." If catching visitors is your goal, content can be virtual flypaper.
Good content glues users to Web sites, intranets, portals, or online communities—whether business to consumer or business to business. If you offer the right information, visitors may get their eyes unstuck eventually, but they'll return to drive businesses that depend on traffic for advertising and product sales. Understandably, site developers want to obtain relevant content in a cost-effective way. Online syndicators can help developers grab the highest level of attention at the lowest possible cost.
Syndicators have a symbiotic relationship with content providers who sell content to help offset the cost of its creation. Providers are always looking for efficient channels of distribution to reach a broad market. "It's really [about] finding buyers and sellers and putting them together," says Elena Salij, marketing director for Screaming Media, a content syndication company.
The drive for market efficiency has created opportunities for a new kind of Web syndicator—an aggregator. Aggregators resell content from a range of publishers and providers, then use sophisticated software to customize content packages. These packages add value to the content because they can be altered to match the audience profiles of all kinds of Web sites.
Aggregators come in different sizes. They're carving out market opportunities for themselves according to their focus, level of sophistication, and unique approach to syndication.
