AOL bloggers get their orders

A leaked email from an editor at AOL reveals how the service wants its blogger-journalists to get the job done. One way is to focus to an extreme on using keywords that Google likes: "Our aim is to be in the first three pages of Google listings on any term on a real estate story....check out your search term on Google and see who else is there, how your story can be better than theirs', and what you need to add to advance the story. Then keep sprinkling the words throughout your story without changing either the story or your voice. One keyword in every graf is a decent metric but avoid slavish repetition." More tidbits:

Write it. Don't hesitate. This isn't print. So do it fast. We're looking for colorful, concise, opinionated analysis that always expands the consumer viewpoint. We're not Gawker, so be friendly and authoritative, but on the other hand, don't be afraid to take sides....

Link promiscuously based on major points in your story. Make your story good enough that someone won't want to lose you. Link to important search-engine-optimization keywords. For the drywall example above: Drywall, rot, fungus, mildew, construction might all be keywords that would need to be linked in a story. Try not to link to Wikipedia but to other sources, even smaller ones. Create a virtuous cycle between you (AOL) and a smaller site from which you may be capturing a story. Linklove is real. Use it.

Headline: Make sure the first few words and first graf contain the critical keywords: "Now,US Drywall Rots, Sucks. Eats Your Home." That's a good head. Provoke the reader to click, and to think.

AOL, a big employer of underpaid journalists these days, has 500 fulltime and about 2,500 freelance editorial staffers on hand to produce 80+ content sites, says Business Insider.