December 18, 2007

"Three indisputable ways to create valuable content for your website or blog."

Matt Linderman of 37signals recently talked about marketing and what some of the best practices are for getting quality attention. His advice can be incorporated into an online marketing strategy for your website or blog, specifically this tidbit on marketing:

". . . Marketing is asking for someone else’s time and attention. You need to provide something worthy of those valuable commodities. . . When you educate or entertain other people, they’ll pay attention. If you bore them, they won’t."

Matt makes a great point that all webmasters need to take note of, and never forget: provide valuable content and you will get valuable web traffic.

But how exactly do you generate valuable content for your website? Here are three indisputable ways to create valuable content for your website or blog.

1. Don't repeat content, make it unique.

If you have ever written down, or tried saying a word, over and over again, you know that the word begins to not make much sense, or appears wrong. Go ahead and try it right now if you have a minute: either type, or say aloud, the word "blogging". After a few minutes, the word will start to look funny, or sound completely wrong.

Web content is the same way: if your visitors read or view the same content over and over again, it starts to look wrong or sound funny, which is the last thing you should want for your website or blog content.

Repeating something that has already been said, or doing something again and again, is wasting your visitors time, as well as yours. Don't repeat content, make it unique by adding your own personal opinion to it, writing something new, or thinking up a new way to present something old.

2. Educate, educate, educate.

Repeating things that have already been said is not only boring, it's also useless to your visitors. You can avoid useless content by creating unique content, and also by educating your visitors.

Educating your visitors doesn't have to take a lot of time and resources, simply stating something new with statistics, providing personal insight, or being unique - as stated in the previous point - will mean your visitors can learn something new and be educated.

Your providing valuable information that your visitors can learn from, rather than wasting their time and attention on useless crap.

3. Stay up-to-date on buzz.

Other than avoiding repeated content and educating your visitors, another way to create valuable content for your website or blog is to write a unique or educational article on the latest buzz.

Whatever is currently featured in the news, or whatever people are obsessing over online, is practically guaranteed to become valuable for your visitors; as long as you remember not to repeat what has already been said on the topic, and as long as you educate your visitors on some aspect of the topic.

As you can see, creating valuable content for your web visitors can be easy. By avoiding duplicate content, educating your visitors, and staying up-to-date on the latest buzz, you can create content that your visitors will be happy to view.

But if you find yourself wanting more insight into creating valuable content, you can subscribe to Internet Hunger and get valuable insight almost daily.