europeforvisitors - 12:35 am on May 15, 2007 (gmt 0)

The traffic won't convert if the content doesn't make the sale.

Or if the content doesn't help to prequalify leads by filtering out readers who aren't interested in the products or services being advertised.

Let's go back to Google's example of a camera review. That camera review, assuming that it's legitimate, is likely to deliver more qualified leads than a scaper page does, because the latter merely passes along search-engine traffic. What's more, the scraper site is, most likely, set up to encourage clickthroughs whether or not the user is interested in the product or service that's being advertised. This means the scraper site's leads are, in many cases, the opposite of prequalified leads: They're clicks by users who have no idea what they're doing, not by users who go looking for a dealer (via the AdSense ads) after they've read a review.

A quality site will also tend to draw a more committed audience than a scraper or MFA site does, all other things being equal. Let's say you've got a respected site about cruising, and one of your articles is a review of Elbonian steamboat cruising aboard the SS WIDGETONIA. Thanks to the quality of your content, you attract an audience of people who are serious about cruising and routinely use your site as a place to research their cruise purchases. The quality of your content contributes directly to the quality of your audience and the traffic that you send to advertisers.

What I've just said is nothing new; it's a basic principle of publishing and advertising. It's why publications like GOURMET, CAR AND DRIVER, POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY, and INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY attract better-quality ads and higher CPMs than no-name, low-quality publications do. Quality really does pay off, for publishers and for advertisers.