First off, why would you want to build content-rich websites?
The short answer is “Because it keeps people on your site for awhile,
it makes them come back, and they tell their friends about that
site.”
But why? Well, for one thing, people will stay on a content-
rich site because it takes awhile to read an article or two. Thus,
while they’re reading the material, their peripheral vision (off to the
sides) notices little ads that happen to surround that articles.
And if people start to realize that a certain site has good
content that they like, and in particular, different content that
constantly changes and is updated, then they’ll check back to see
what’s new.
The worst thing in the world to have is a stagnant website
that never changes. People will visit it exactly twice—the first time
to check it out, and the second one to see what’s changed—and
when they find out it hasn’t changed, they most likely won’t come
back. Ever.
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2.1 What are Content-Rich Sites and Why Have One?
A content-rich site is one that has lots of informative articles
up at it, usually centered around a theme. Most sites can’t quite
pull off being WikiPedia, so they specialize. For instance, you could
do a site for dog owners. Possible articles on that site would cover:
How to figure out what kind of dog you want
Where to get a dog
How to deal with a puppy
Life stages of a dog
House-training puppies
Dog training
What to feed dogs
Whether to get more than one dog
How to socialize dogs with other dogs and with cats
Exercise needs of dogs
Training dogs to do tricks
Treating fleas
Common dog ailments and when to go to the vet
Dog nutrition
Taking your dog on a trip
Getting a pet sitter or boarding your dog if you don’t
take him on a trip
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The articles you’ll want to have on your site should be short
enough so that someone can read them in about 5 minutes. This
means you want to stick to articles of 250 to 750 words, with 300 to
600 words optimal. To give you an idea, a single page in a
published novel has about 300 words.
Of course, your real purpose in putting up all these nice little
short articles and changing them out frequently is not to just put
information out into the world. It is to have a site that people will
come back to so that they will see the Google AdSense ads, and click
on them, and then you will get checks in the mail.
That’s a key point, so I’m going to repeat it:
The purpose of having a content-rich website
is to attract people to it, again and again, so that
they will see the ads and click on them.
You might think it’s lots of cool graphics and colors that
make a site attractive to a visitor, but it’s really the content. In
order to make money from Google AdSense, you need to grasp that
concept. Believe me, you could run a wonderful advertising
campaign and develop all sorts of viral marketing tools and
attractive affiliate programs.
But unless your Website is content-rich, the traffic spikes
that you get for your efforts will only be temporary. The very best
way to attract and retain an online audience is to provide content
that’s useful, valuable, informative, educational or just downright
funny as hell or entertaining in some way.
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What does a content-rich website look like? Here are a few
examples.
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2.2 How Do I Build One?
I know the notion of creating your very own content-rich
website might be a little intimidating, but you can do it. It’s not
hard. You don’t have to be a good write to have good content on
your site. In fact, you don’t have to be a writer at all. There are
plenty of successful people who make a lot of money from Google
AdSense and they don’t write a word of that content. We’ll talk
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more about that later, but you can hire writers, or have guest
writers—it’s not hard.
Anyone can create a content-rich Website by following a few
key points:
Have some discipline—maintain your site.
Update that site often. Having a schedule is best.
Be able to beg, borrow, or commission content
Discipline is key
To create a content-rich Website, you need to hone your
focus and your self-discipline. I don’t have to tell you how
incredibly easy it is to waste hours, even days, just surfing around
the web from one site to another. You can’t let yourself get
distracted like that or you won’t accomplish anything. Start with
setting a limit to surfing for fun so that you limit your searches to
sites and resources that are relate very directly to your site's subject.
Discipline also applies to creating creation. Successful
writers can’t afford to wait for inspiration to strike before starting
work. Instead, they develop a writing schedule for themselves and
they stick with it like it was their job—since it is. As one famous
writer said, “I write when I feel like it. And every morning at 9am, I
make sure I feel like it.” Schedule a time for yourself to sit down at
your desk and write.
And you’ll need to develop another schedule for when to add
content to your Website, and follow that schedule religiously. Make
a commitment to yourself and follow through with it.
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And remember—if you just simply can’t write, or you find
yourself making too many excuses not to write content, just hire
someone.
Go to Elance.com and post a project to write 20 articles of
300-600 words each for $5 to $10 each. You’ll find someone.
Regular updates are critical to your site
Nothing is deader than a website that looks like somebody’s
forgotten about it. Regularly updating or modifying your site
content gives you a big advantage over the competition. Web surfers
will keep on coming back to your site if they notice that there’s
always something new to see, learn, or enjoy each time.
2.3 What Kind of Content Should I Put Up?
Any kind you want, of course, since we’re talking about the
internet. But seriously, you’ll want to give this topic some
consideration, since there’s more interest in some topics than
others.
You know the people who are your audience, since ideally
you’re talking about something you know about. For instance, if
you’re talking about Ultimate Frisbee, it’s because you play it. So
you know what other Ultimate people are like, and what they want
to know and what they find entertaining.
Once you know that, you can decide about which types of
content will best serve their needs and how to go about finding or
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creating it. Here are some general categories to get you started with
your brainstorming:
Editorials
Feature articles
Political opinion
News stories
Art galleries
A conglomeration of the best content
Reviews of movies, books, music
Interviews
Interactive features - polls, feedback, discussion
groups, forums, chat
Editorials
Editorials are the opinion of someone who’s seen as an
expert in the field-- (either you or a guest contributor). This makes
good content because people like to respond to it, either by agreeing
with or opposing the writer. This can make for an exciting page, and
you’ll probably have to moderate it.
Give your people a way to make their views known; put up a
bulletin board or guest book on your site. People will come back to
read other responses to their comments. And you can use this
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feedback from your audience by incorporating it into a follow up
article in the future.
For instance, is everybody complaining about a new
government travel policy? Do an article on it, since clearly that’s
something people are talking about so they’ll want to read about it.
Full-length Feature Articles
This is the most common and in many people’s opinion one
of the best forms of content. Depending on what your site is like,
the articles could be long or brief, formal or chatty, technical or
entertaining.
Here are some tips:
Keep it short. While there aren't any hard and fast
rules, you should keep these articles below 1200
words. If they are longer, make them into multi-part
features. People hate to have to scroll down a lot.
Articles should be relevant to your site.
Articles ought to educate, entertain or inform. Don’t
overwhelm people; stick to one or two ideas.
Refrain from rehashing an article you've read
somewhere else. By publishing something that’s new,
you up the value and credibility of your site.
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To Get Content
1. Offer to pay guest authors for their work. A guest author
could be someone you found on your bulletin board who
happens to write well.
2. Exchange articles with the guest author’s site. Your site
visitors benefit by providing them with another point of
view. And you might just gain some new regular visitors
from your guest author's site!
3. Make sure you get exclusivity. When someone writes for
you, make sure they won’t submit that same article to
dozens of other Websites and newsletters. When your site
publishes exclusive content, you have opportunities for
syndication in other publications, online and off, and you
gain a lot of reader loyalty. The key phrase in a contract
with a writer is that you’re buying all rights, including
electronic.
Can you use reprints?
Reprint articles written by others, but you must always
obtain permission. All work, from the moment it is written, is
copyright and owned by the author, whether it is marked with a
copyright symbol or not. Content is not free. You can, however,
make reprints interesting and personalized by putting your own
'spin' on the content. Write an introduction to the subject, or
comment on the author's opinions or conclusions.
Take care to avoid 'editing' the original article without the author's
permission. Avoid articles that have been reprinted many times
before on other Websites and electronic publications.
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Political Opinion
Using political opinion on your site can be tricky. People are
deeply divided these days and have strong opinions. If you do run a
political site, you’ll probably want to carve out your own niche.
Even then, be prepared for flamers from very different view points.
On the other hand, if you can manage to run a site that
actually features a somewhat well-mannered debate, you’ll have a
huge hit on your hands. Be prepared to moderate this type of site.
News Stories
Your site can become a news source for the latest
developments and happenings in certain niche area by providing
timely news on topics of interest to your readers. I’m not saying
you can be the next CNN or MS-NBC, because that takes building a
huge operation. But what you can be is, for example, the CNN of
the karate world, or the ABS-News of the bonsai tree hobbyists.
What you’ll want to do is create a separate section of your
site to deal with industry news. Or, devote an entire site to news
updates. There are many ways of presenting news:
As a feature article
As short news clips, with a link to the full story
As news stories, where each item is explained at length
However you decide present the news, make sure you give it
your own personal style. Check out salon.com. Has its own style,
doesn’t it? Now look at drudgereport.com. That’s another style.
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Make yours interesting, personal, chatty, fun, unique, or all of these
– just make it yours.
Make sure your news is relevant, useful to your reader, and
timely. Old news isn’t no news at all, it’s history! So how do you get
news? By:
Subscribe to ezines on your subject or topic
Sign up for e-mail news delivery services
Register to get regular press releases on your topic
Surf the web for new news items
Get news from newspapers, magazines and books
Go to conferences, workshops or seminars and write
about what you see and who you talk to
Conglomerating the best content
If you can make your site into the ultimate content resource
on issues related to your topic, I guarantee you you’ll attract and
retain a loyal audience. Your site will become known as a The Place
for anyone who wants information on your subject. For example,
Harry Knowles has made aintitcoolnews.com into The Site for
movie reviews and advance spoilers.
Since you’re the expert on your topic, you can evaluate sites
and other resources (ezines, directories, books, offline publications)
and sniff out the best ones to list along with your rating and
opinions.
This sort of content is like the old book reports you used to
have to write for school. Read up thoroughly on your subjects, then
hit the high points of a topic. Or, consider writing a summary of
three separate article that have the same theme.
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Reviews of movies, books, music
This is perhaps the easiest category to get content for. If you
have friends who are movie, book, or music fans, they’ll probably
write reviews for free just for the thrill of seeing their stuff on a site.
Also, this is a never-ending source of content, since there are
always new movies, books and music coming out. Contrast that
with dog breeds—once you’ve written everything there is to say
about every known breed, you have to wait for them to come up
with a new breed!
If you want to have some fun, you can review movies
yourself. And actually, if you’re running your Google AdSense site
as a business, you may even be able to deduct the cost of movie
tickets from your taxes. Check with a tax consultant to make sure,
though.
Music is easy, too, especially if you live in a town that has lots
of live music or festivals. If not, you can buy used cd’s online, listen,
and review. In fact, you could even hire a high-school kid to do this,
but check their writing skills first.
Books are a little harder, since they take more time to review
and cost more than cd’s and movie tickets. However, you can
paraphrase what others have said if you’re clever and don’t violate
copyright.
Interviews
This is a category you might want to get a freelance writer
for. Go to elance.com and browse the profiles of Service Providers