Demand Media raises $120 million for a bunch of shell Websites

Updated

Here’s news that former MySpace.com chairman Richard Rosenblatt, has raised $120 million to create a company called Demand Media to buy up or create a bunch of generic Web sites that have no staff generating real content of their own.

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Rather, they will exist simply in hope you will land there either by mistake, confusion or idle curiosity — and to make money when you land there by having advertisers (provided by the likes of Yahoo and Google) pay for your click through to that site. The company is now also busy buying up cheap ways to feed content into the sites, and hopes to rely on the public to produce stuff too.

The financial backing comes from Spectrum Equity Partners, Oak Investment Partners and Generation Partners, according to the WSJ.

One example mentioned is www.flashgames.com, which doesn’t even have games. All it offers is a list of links to other game sites. Yet it earns revenue of more than $150,000 a year selling online ads, or so the article says. Ridiculous, if true. No word on where this company is based.

(Update: 5/3, added the link to the company’s Web site above. The company is based in Los Angeles, with offices in Seattle, according to the site).