“Content is king”, but what’s the big deal about it?
Let’s talk about content. Yeah “content is king”. Everyone has heard that, but no one listens to it either. I was like that when I started out, myself. Then I came to realize that every page with content is a Landing Page!
Okay, but what is a landing page?
A Landing Page is a page that is targeted by the search engines and thus, visitors “land” when they click-through to your site from the search engine result pages (SERPs).
Types of content, formatting and elements
Let’s get back to the content thing we were talking about. If we have to classify content by types and effectivness it should look something like that (1-best; 5-worse):
- Formatted original and useful content with stock images in it
- Plain text original content
- Pre-written content with stock images
- Pre-written content
- Copied content (equals ban from search engines)
Before we discuss the types of content any further, let’s have a look at the page elements we can use to add a more interactive look to our content. Such page elements are:
- Videos
- Images
- Flash objects (embedded mp3 players, slideshows, etc.)
Those three are the “heavy artillery” of article publishing. Use them wisely and you will not regret it. Confused where to put them? Why don’t you get yourself a newspaper and see how it’s done. 
Your readers will always appreciate a well formated and entertaining piece of content.
[note: if you are planning to use such page elements on an affiliate article check first what resources you have been provided by your affiliate program, such as MoreNiche. In case you are using it, you can check right away (links open in a new window) by logging in or registering.]
Some good places for stock resources (that is, stock resources out of your affiliate program) are YouTube – for videos; Stock Exchange – for photos/images; Widget Box – for flash and other interactive objects. The types of content you plan to use must co-respond to a certain aspect of the work on your website. If you preffer to work on the marketing, SEO (search engine optimisation) you should use re-written content either formatted with stock images or just plain text.
If your don’t feel like exchanging links 24/7, optimising your site, etc. you should start planning out some fresh content for your site. Either way you will get visitors from search engines and, eventualy, you will start selling right away. You can read more about search engines in the SEO category. I’m classifying the types of content because there is no point in over-working yourself doing full-time both types of website works.
Original content
There is nothing like fresh and new thing to learn when visiting a site. This can get you a lot of backlinks (depending on how useful it is) or at least a lot of visitors. Remember that whatever site you have, your visitors won’t need always to come over and buy something. You gotta convince them that your site is a good place to hang out.
Starting out with original content is not always the best idea. Beginners, always save your content on your hard drive, because if your marketing efforts fail and your site is no longer worth working on (get’s banned from Search Engines, etc.) you will delete it, start a new one, but your precious content will be long gone before you realize it. Always keep a backup copy of your original content. If you decide that you have no further use of it sell it, heck, you can even sell it on eBay!
But enough bullshit, let’s go over some tips on writing down an original content. Because you will be writing on a content that is relative to your niche, product you are promoting it might not always be so interesting to write about. Make sure that you choose a niche to work on that has something to say about – previous life experiences or personal expertise.
Choosing your niche to work on wisely will be a big bonus when you start creating your content. Other good thing to keep in mind is to be actual. No one is interested in reading on topics that are outdated. Even if you run a pharmaceuticals shop, make sure you create a blog, get links exchanged in between, and write down something original for your visitors. Don’t feel shy to write down something you’ve seen the other day (for example), because clients/visitors love seeing a chief figure getting down to earth and speaking to the average folk.
Pre-written content
Pre-written content is a great thing for people just starting out or all of you marketing/seo gurus out there. It takes me about an hour to fully transform an article I’ve scraped from the net, and believe me, this is the easiest way around. Just think about it – if you spend 2 hours per day (or two articles), 5 days a week (ten articles) and every month you’ll have FOURTY new articles on you website.
That’s great but the key to success is doing something often, even if it’s for short period of time. On the average a good website has around 2,000 pages of content on it, excluding product catalogues, etc. It is the size that gives popularity. Just like putting your local news stand against a mall. Remember, though, it is better to be quality than quantity.
A good article resource I use for my affiliate sites is Article Geek.com or Ezine Articles.com.
[hint: if you login to MoreNiche and go to the "guides" category there is a ebook on "fast and effective article re-writting" which I highly recommend.]
Copied content
Scraped, copied and duplicate content. There is not much to talk about it. No one likes to see a rip-off of someone’s hard work. Additionaly, you can easily get banned from search engines. Don’t think it’s a low price to pay – it will kill nearly 50% of your traffic.
Just don’t be an asshole and play fair, ok? 