There is also a risk with having automatically selected content running for you on your site. That is one of the reasons I don’t use it here. I think the risk is low with this service due to their tight controls on who they let into the service, but there is always a gamble there, that’s the nature of the beast.

I think that a lot of the Web right now, both old and new media, is experimentation. Some ideas are going to do well, including some that appear to stink from the outset, and others will fail, including those that appear to walk on water.

I see Pluck on Demand as an interesting experiment and I don’t see any harm in allowing my content to be used in it. So far I haven’t seen much exposure or much of anything but I’ll keep monitoring it. Right now I just don’t have any content.

I’d welcome any thoughts from those that have had more luck.

I know it doesn’t really answer your objections as I think they have validity, but it is still worth noting that we’re all figuring this Internet thing out…

I also find this type of thing to be kind of creepy and disingenuous. It reeks of a “be lazy and get rich quick” scheme than anything else. Likewise, the narrator’s voice is remarkably creepy (intro vid). As a web content writer, I won’t lie – I have an investment in something like this failing. That being said, as an avid web surfer, I have yet to see one of these things effectively take off. What a keyword aggregator thinks is relevant is often not what a human being thinks is relevant. Likewise, corporate sites beware – if you aren’t screening content carefully, you can have a lot of explaining to do to your consumers through a comedy of errors. Think if you’re a pet product review website or you sell pet products, like cat houses or something, and the key word aggregator mistakes “kitty cat bungalow” for the more seedy type of “cat house.” You have content dealing with something TOTALLY unrelated to your content – maybe an editorial about a man’s misadventures in trying to date prostitutes without having sex with them.

I’m not saying it won’t or can’t work in certain areas or that it’s a bad idea across the board. That’s never true – something will always work well for someone. But as a general rule, I would be very hesitant to add something like this to one of my sites.

Still, a good thought and something I had not considered.

Still, a good thought and something I had not considered.

Still, a good thought and something I had not considered.

The partnership with Kontera is interesting. Like you, I'm now wondering why they chose to do that and what the implications are. It could easily lead to a situation where a site has Adsense, joins POD and then, after Adsense wises up, gets some kind of penalty or worse.

An interesting potential hazard to the service… Thank you for the heads up.

But reading on their parent company site, they've partnered with Kontera (among others) and I'm wondering if this may be a way (for Kontera and website owners) to avoid Google's penalties for text linked ads. An interesting way to go about it, if it is.

Those are just thoughts that popped in my head on reading the news on Demand Media. I for one, have no objection to their plan the way they've set it up. And maybe I can earn a few cents now and then.