Sep 17 2007
The Methods to My Madness - Creating Content
Content is King! I’m sick to death of hearing it but it’s true and is key to having a website that stands out from the masses. Great content will really set your site apart but writing it can be a monumental pain in the arse at times. Here’s a little overview of how I come up with the content for my sites.
- Write write write - The first thing I do before starting any work on a site is write. Seems like common sense but I sometimes get caught up with things that interest me more like site design and get lazy with my writing. My actual writing process isn’t anything exciting: I basically just open up Word and go to town. I’ll write article titles and write as much as I feel like and then move onto another article and then another. Once I have a good number I’ll go back to them and add things as I get more ideas. Kind of like ho wI writ emy blog posts. After awhile I end up with a bunch of content and divide it up into folders which makes coming up with a navigation system pretty logical. Sometimes I sort of get myself into a little zone where writing seems easy, but other times it can be like pulling teeth, especially if I’m attempting to write something I’m not totally familiar with or interested in or if I’m just not in the mood to write. I just keep plugging away though and eventually get things done.
- Research research research - Writing is easy but writing quality, informative, useful stuff is a lot harder. If you you know your topic well then you’ll already be a step ahead of the pack. if you spend even more time doing some research and expanding your knowledge then you’ll be even further ahead. So grab a few books or magazines and read up.
- Look for gaps in the market - If I’m searching for info on something and the almighty Google doesn’t produce any decent results then you can bet I’ll find that information somewhere else and write an article to fill the gap.
- Find new angles on current articles - If I’m short of ideas I’ll have a look through travel blogs, news reports, and other websites to see if there are ways to put my own spin on existing article with my own market in mind. Don’t copy anything, ever! Instead use the general topic for ideas before writing something that is completely your own.
- Know what I don’t know - There’s no way to know everything about a given topic. There are plenty of things that I know a little bit about but am not, in any way, an expert. In the past I’ve sort of blagged my way through these sections, putting up content based on research and best guesses but without any first-hand knowledge. I’ve begun to realise that first-hand experience is the best content you can get and I’ve decided that it’s worth paying for it if I have to. I’ve done this for the first time with my London area guide and definitely recommend paying people who know their stuff to write for you. I only paid £10 per area guide but the quality I’ve gotten from everyone has been great and a it’s zillion times better than what I could have slung together.
- Create some tools - Content is about more than words and if you can whip up some kind of cool gizmo then that’s just as good. If you’ve got a great idea ask around to see if it can be done because it seems like anything is possible if you can find the right person to do it (and afford to pay). I’ve only done this once for my London price guide but I think it will turn out to be the best $25 I spend.
- Choose the right tone for your target market - There are loads of backpacking sites out there that write with a really sterile, boring tone. Backpackers are a fun lot and will appreciate a bit of humour and won’t balk at the occasional potty talk. If you’re site is aimed at die hard Christians or something then perhaps talking about shagging in dorm rooms or swearing isn’t gonna fly but if you’re aiming at young travellers heading to Oktoberfest then it probably will.
- Have users generate content - Making it easy for readers to contribute their own opinions, reviews, stories, or whatever is a great way to get content. I haven’t had too much success in this area thus far. I’ve started forums but they get attacked by spam. I stuck a form on my Travoholic.com site for hostel reviews and used to get a few now and then but now the whole system is screwed up. I’ve put links on my site asking for content but I don’t think that flies anymore. But collecting user generated content works well for a lot of sites and I’ll be making another attempt at some point in the future.
Sometimes I get lazy with my writing and just stick something up to fill a space but I’m trying to get out of that bad habit. I now know how important great content is because I can see which pages people read and which ones show up high in the search engines. These are always the ones that I’ve put a lot of effort into. Spending time at the beginning to write great stuff will pay off later so lock yourself away during the early day of your website and write like you’ve never written before! Write like the wind! …you get the idea.
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I've been travelling since January 2008 living off earnings from the web. Follow me as I bum around Asia and beyond, getting up to mischief and working online as I go. 
I couldn’t agree more. Writing content is probably the best way of getting your blog seen. I’ve been surprised at the response of my “Track Your RSS Subscriber’s” Article, been really popular, probably because I thought about the article (I get lazy too!)
In regards to user generated content, I have this idea that could work if I only wrote it alone but would be so much better if the readers would contribute. But I myself shy away from requests of contributing on blogs and websites and rarely do so (except comments, they are user generated contendt too).
I think a sit must have a critical mass of readers for it to work. Perhaps one method of deciding when to solicit written contributions would work. It is basicly the same as a software house I heard about operates.
They will create some software and release it. Instead of thinking up all the cool features and functions to be added in the next version, they wait untill so and so many users have actually requested the thing, then they start working on it.
The website equalent would be to wait untill somebody actually asked for a forum before putting it up, and waiting untill somebody asked to if (s)he could contribute, before putting up a contact form along with writers guidelines for that purpose.
I’ve also been thinking about gizmos to attract readers/visitors but I thought it would be out of my range to pay someone to program it. Twenty five dollars seems really cheap, what kind of gizmo is it and how did you find someone to do it for you? If you used elance or rentacoder or similar what type of specialists did you look for and from how many applications could you select?
Oh and good post. I really sat up and took notice, especially on writing untill you have enough stuff to divide into folders that you then model your navigation after.
That’s how you make your current sites and update them, right? Or do you routinely write away untill you have enough content for a new site to lauch into cyberspace?
Plus - when you write about something that you are really interested in, it tends to write itself for you. The ideas generate that much faster.
Excellent. But don’t forget to do it ‘cuz you love it. Too many people are ‘just trying to get seen’ above the masses. But if you love what you’re creating, that could be good enough.
Interesting points about the user generate content WJM. I’ll be launching a forum with my next site but I think I might wait until the site gets to a certain number of users per day or until I start getting emails from people asking questions. I think forums are a pain in the neck mostly but I also think they’re a great way to let people help other people, especially with things I don’t know the answers to. The whole point of the site is to give people information they’re looking for, so having a forum makes sense if other people are able to chime in now and then with info I don’t have.
I’ll write stuff until I have enough content to put the site up without it looking empty. Sort of a bare bones approach just to get it into Google and aging with them. I think getting a site out there as soon as you can is important, but I won’t promote it at all at this stage. I’ll add to it in spurts and once I’m happy that it’s suseful resource that I’m proud of I’ll unleash the promotion fury… which usually isn’t all that furious.
Steve and Mark you’re totally right. The site’s topic should be something you’re passionate about and it will make writing fun. Plus you’ll keep learning new things and if you love the topic then that’s a bonus.