Jan van der Crabben, CEO of World History Encyclopedia, is sounding the alarm about the impact of AI on his website's traffic. Late last year, his site started showing up in Google's AI Overviews and ChatGPT, and subsequently, its traffic plummeted by 25% in November.
The crux of the issue lies in the changing dynamics between publishers and Google. Van der Crabben explains that there used to be an implicit agreement where Google would scrape and analyze content, and in return, send traffic to publishers. However, with AI-generated content on the rise, this arrangement is no longer mutually beneficial.
To make matters worse, World History Encyclopedia relies heavily on advertising revenue, which accounts for 70% of its income. With dwindling traffic, the site's revenue is taking a hit, putting its ability to produce new content at risk.
Van der Crabben is exploring alternative revenue streams, such as a membership program, which has garnered over 2,000 paying subscribers. He's also considering book publishing and app development to reduce his site's dependence on search traffic.
