The rumors are true – this quirky site, basically created without much human intervention, is now online: 004Travel.com

One of my business partners and I are discussing the importance of “content” in terms of online empires. I’m experimenting with a new Godaddy service that actually builds a site for you and loads it with articles from around the web based on keywords you select. The cost is extremely cheap – 8 per site one time charge and far less in bulk. It’s a VERY interesting concept that really begins to blur the distinctions between super junky “auto generated” material and “real” but sort of “canned” material that is actually somewhat relevant for some readers.

Google generally frowns (reasonably) on irrelevant content that simply tries to optimize for valuable keywords, but they have always struggled (sometimes unreasonably due to non-transparency) with relevant content that is manipulative of their algorithm. It’ll be interesting to see how the amazing Googlebot treats 004Travel.com , a Godaddy auto-generated site using keywords like “Travel” and “Twitter”.

One humorous side of this is an article about “Time Travel”.

Obviously users are not served if their search takes them to irrelevant content, but much of this is “fair” content by my definition – certainly better than much of the stuff provided by the millions of sites that have no intention whatsoever of providing good material to users. Yes, that’s something of a rationalization here because I love the idea of creating fairly robust relevant websites for a few dollars. Let’s see what happens, OK?!