[Content site] GuruContent.com / GuruContent Studios

[Bookewyrme]

This smells like a scam to me. The problem is, I can't find ANYTHING about it when I search, just the websites themselves.
It is two urls (one redirects to the other it appears) gurucontent.com or nationofcontent.com

Somebody from the website approached me on Twitter via DM. Their Twitter handle is CamWLewis and their DM said:
"Do you get paid to write and share your content with the world? If so, we're launching a new web content portal!"
There was a url attached. The url takes you to a page telling you nothing about the site except that you could get paid for your content forever and ever etc and the only way to get anywhere is to click the "Sign up now" button.

Anyway, if this belongs somewhere else please move it, or shut it if there's a thread already, but I couldn't find one with searching. Also, I am not personally interested in this, but it was brought to my attention and I thought I ought to share it.

 

[Chris P]

Yeah. Sounds like a scam to me too. My guess is it's targeted at people who want to get paid to blog, and they sign up, providing all sorts of info they really shouldn't. It's amazing such a scam still works, but it must or they'd stop trying to pull it.

 

[JulieB]

It's gurucontent.com. Whois info is private. This is their first newsletter. They've apparently been looking for venture capital.

According to the stream on the Twitter account referenced by the OP, revenue sharing is via Google ads.

Legit or not, I'm wary of startups that make big promises and deliver little background information on who is behind it or their relevant experience. Frankly, there are so many content sites out there that I have to wonder where one more will fit in.

Just found one more thing. Their blog is down with database errors, but here's a Google cache.

 

[Momento Mori]

Why would anyone want to get on board with this?

It's a 3 man operation run on at least 2 continents without any formal offices, no apparent capital behind it and no real business plan that it's shared beyond "providing content" plus it's having to spam people to ask them to provide the content that it needs to run its site.

MM

 

[Deleted member 42]

I don't think it's a scam; I think it's cluelessness. An awful lot of the content mills have "revenue sharing" as a payment model. That means they embed ads in content and the content creators get a percentage of the ad revenue.

The problem is that with content on line people think if you build it, they will come, and they will gladly click on ads and purchase items.

Only mostly, people don't. So for the fraction of a percent of visitors who do click to generate any actual revenue, you need hundreds of thousands of mad-clickers.

This is, btw, exactly the model of most of the content mills/SEO/write for hire sites.

 

[veinglory]

There are plenty of established content sites with good page rank and active communities, so I don't see the advantage of contributing to a start up.

 

[Deleted member 42]

There are plenty of established content sites with good page rank and active communities, so I don't see the advantage of contributing to a start up.

I've seen ads from four startups this week alone--all with equally vague revenue sharing plans, all essentially duplicating what established sites with five years or more of content are still struggling to make really work.

 

[Bookewyrme]

Thanks for chiming in everyone. I didn't realize it was a blog-related thing. Granted it was pretty hard to tell WHAT it was from the thing sent to me. Grr. I think I'll block that user from following me on Twitter now too. And thanks for changing my title to something easier to search for.

 

[GuruContentCam]

Hey everyone! Cameron here from GuruContent.

Let me start out by saying "Hello!" and that I'm quite surprised that as an avid writer myself I cannot believe I've never been here to the forums.

GuruContent is a content portal that is currently under development. We don't see ourselves as a "Content Mill" yet a place where anyone can join us and contribute their knowledge with the world. We want GuruContent to be a place where you can come and contribute and earn some residual/passive income in your spare time. Being that we will not be paying members directly, users will be able to add their Google Adsense Publisher ID into their profile and have their ads served on their uploaded work. We believe this helps us save time by not having to worry about accounting issues and payout errors by paying out ourselves to the members. It could turn into a mess and we believe our future members will be better served by Google.

We have a sound business plan and yes the team consists of 3 experienced entrepreneurs. We do think it adds a bit of international feel to the site by having one of our administrators located in Australia. We do have an office in New York.

Some people are a bit frustrated that we have been somewhat vague on the website's details, but we'd like to keep our competitive advantages close to our vest until we launch. GuruContent will be sbout the writers and not our profits. We are taking this project very seriously, crossing every "t" and dotting every 'i".

Im quite sure I missed out on some of ya'lls questions or concerns, and if you email me at cameron at gurucontent.com, I will be more than happy to assist you in any possible way that I can.

All the best!
Cameron

 

[GuruShawn]

GuruContent.com

Good afternoon and thank you for posting your question here to check and see if what GuruContent.com is offering is a scam. I know you don't know me from Adam but let me echo Cameron when we say that what we are trying to do is build a successful online business that features writers.

Our History
Cameron approached a few people initially about the idea a few months back and both Tim (our techical director from Australia) and myself (a freelance print & web designer from New York) started working on GuruContent.com in May of 2010. We have been developing the site and using social media to attract writers who may be interested in generating money from submitting their articles.

In the next few weeks GuruContent.com will establish itself as the newest online content portal. Our beta test will help us work out any kinks in the system and we expect the site to be fully operational shortly thereafter. We realize that content portals only generate large amounts of money with a large amount of traffic and getting that traffic is certainly the main focus of the marketing team.

What Makes GuruContent.com Unique?
Has the idea of 'content portal' been done before? Yes.
Were the other businesses structured like GuruContent.com? No.
What does GuruContent.com plan to do differently? Work for our writers instead of vice-versa.

Our Goal, In a Nutshell
Besides creating an excellent site that is a valuable source of online content, our primary goal at GuruContent.com is to actively publicize the writers that place their content on our site. We want to reward them through revenue share, allow our readers to contact them directly about employment opportunities and we offer referral bonuses so that our site can continue to grow as we make a name for ourselves in the online world of content.

Current Interest From Fellow Writers
I believe at last count we have over 1,100 people that have signed up as interested in our project and following the beta test that they will participate in we will open the doors to the public. I encourage you to create an account, post a couple of test articles and roll the dice. We will never sell your information or intentionally spam your email with dozens of letters. Our goal is to help our writers - not hinder them.

Contact Information
For questions about GuruContent or for more information please do not hesitate to contact our New York Office at (315) 307-3359.

Respectfully,
Shawn


--
Shawn R. Tooley
Director of Communications
GuruContent.com

 

[CaoPaux]

Shortly after a last plea for partners: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1944672, activity ceased in Oct '10. All three sites (guru-, nationof-, and unioncontent) are gone.