Content,
Content, Content
Content, Content, Content
Much like the old adage for real estate: location, location, location
- the adage for the internet should be: content, content, content.
And as in real estate, many Webmasters don't put enough weight
on this adage, often opting for cool interactivity and flashy gizmos
that certainly dress up a site, but don't add to the sites real
value.
There are far too many sites on the Web today that have no real
content. What many Webmasters and site operators don't realize,
though, is that good content does more than just keep your visitors
interested and give you a good site. It can also help you to promote
your website.
Increasingly search engines are ignoring the traditional method
of reading the META tags for keywords and descriptions, as these
are often abused by users. Instead, search engines like Google now
read the whole web page and use it to generate matches. It stands
to reason that, the more pages and words you have, the more chance
you have or being returned as a search result.
Similarly, if you have well written, quality content, other websites
may link to your site which will help increase your traffic. Links
to your pages will help boost your ranking on Google, which tracks
links to your site as a measure of popularity.
How can you get good content on your website?
Create It Yourself
Without a doubt, the cheapest way to generate content is to write
it yourself. For a number of reasons, though, this may not be the
easiest way to do it. Writing quality content takes a lot of time,
and you will need a good knowledge of your subject to be able to
produce effective content.
If you have the skills and time to generate content, though, this
is really the best route to take. You will be guaranteed to have
exclusive content and you will know that you have copyright permission
to publish it.
Find Others to Write It
You can ask friends, relatives or employees to write some content
for you or you can hire an author to write content - many people
online have excellent content-writing skills and are more than willing
to work for you - for a price. If you need a lot of good quality
content quickly, and you have the budget, this may be the right
choice for you.
Have Your Site Visitors Submit It
It has become common recently for sites to invite their visitors
to contribute in various ways. This could be in the form of user-submitted
news or articles, comments and feedback from readers or even a forum
or discussion board. This is inexpensive to do and will save you
time and money, but requires a significant number of visitors to
make this worthwhile.
Syndicated Content
Another good source of content is to use syndicated content from
other sites. Many news organizations will provide free news feeds.
Often, just a simple snippet of HTML or JavaScript is provided for
you to paste into your pages - the result is self-updating news
headlines on your site. Because the headlines link to the sources
pages, they are willing to do it for free.
There are also many authors who write articles which can be used
in exchange for a byline (a small paragraph of text and a link at
the bottom). This is common in many newsletters, where guest authors
write featured articles. There are a number of sites that are dedicated
to cataloging and distributing these types of resources, an example
is www.ContentMart.com.
Regardless of how you choose to generate or collect content for
your Web site, eZine, eMail or Newsletter, you must remember that
it is the most vital ingredient for success. So Give the people
what they want: no matter how flashy your site, no matter how fast
- people want fresh, good quality content - and you should give
it to them.
About the Author By Jeffrey Ellison
is founder of a Web Development firm, and ContentMart.com. Get free
and affordable content for your Web site, eZine, eMail or newsletter
at ContentMart.com.
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