Business Insider — as well as Buzzfeed, Upworthy, and a growing number of others – definitely show impressive traffic numbers, but are they a good indicator of a successful business?

Virality mills are ultimately reliant on ever-increasing page views to deliver impressions to advertisers and are prey to the same pitfalls as traditional publishers seeking inorganic audience growth. Furthermore, virality mills as a business model are no different from any publisher embracing viral content marketing for audience development – write with the singular goal of widespread exposure with complete disregard for a search acquisition strategy

Read the full post at VentureBeat.

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