Tim Armstrong’s “secret sauce” for turning Aol into a content-creation machine may include a reverse-auction Web site that would have freelancers competing to see who would produce content for the least amount of money.
The so-called “content-management system” under consideration — which insiders are calling Seed.com — would, Armstrong’s team hopes, generate ideas for stories and farm out the assignments to thousands of contributors.
Under one scenario, freelancers — professional and otherwise — would compete against each other for the chance to write the story for an upfront payment; whoever submits the lowest bid gets the assignment.
Already, Armstrong has swelled the ranks of Aol staff journalists to nearly 3,000 — up from 500. The staff writers and editors would help run Aol’s collection of Web sites.
There is also the possibility of paying reporters additional, performance-based revenue that would depend, for instance, on how many people read the story. The idea is similar to business models employed by Associated Content and Demand Media, which have platforms for allowing pretty much anyone to write stories and produce video for nominal pay.
Indeed, Associated Content, run by former Google executive Patrick Keane, is rumored to be in talks with Aol about a sale.
A spokeswoman for Aol didn’t return a call for comment.