In my Making Money From A Blog – December Recap, there was a comment stating, “Content is silver, links are king.†This statement is incorrect. Without content, there are no links. Content is the foundation of traffic. Everything starts with content. You have no content, you don’t have a blog. So let’s take a look at the art of creating content.
Source Of Content
There are many places and ways to get content. Back in July, I wrote a post call Pumping Out The Content, which list eight different ways for keep content flowing on a blog or site. Chances are, many of you were not around in July so you may want to check the post out.
I write all the content for this blog myself and if you’re doing a blog then you should do most of the article – nothing says MFA (Made For AdSense) like a blog with free articles on it. I’ve made over 600 posts since I started this blog. Many people have asked how I keep up this level of content generation? It’s really not that hard. This is how I go about it.
The Blog Comments
Much of my content ideas come from blog comments. This article is in answer to requests made in the comments of the blog. Producing content this way is really the best because you know this is the content your readers are looking for – you can’t get better targeting than giving the readers what they asked for. Chances are, this article will lead to future articles as readers comment on it.
If you don’t have a reader base yet, then your method of creating content will have to be based on what niche your blog covers. When I wake up in the afternoon, I really don’t have an idea on what I’m going to write about. The first thing I do is read the blog comments, as this is my best source for article ideas. After that, I surf the list of sites in my bookmarks. This is my second biggest source of article ideas. I also get article ideas from magazines and newspapers.
Surfing For Content
When surfing, I’m looking for stories which I think would interest my readers. The object is not to just repost the stories, which would be too easy. I want to put my own spin on it. If I were to just repost a story with a link, I haven’t added any value to it. For example, in my Firefox – A $50+ Million Cash Cow post, I added to the story by offering a clear explanation on how Firefox generated its $50 million. I personalize the story by showing how much of the blog readership use Firefox.
Blogging is about adding your personal touch to a story. While sites like News.com just report the story without emotion or opinions, bloggers are expected to get down and dirty with it. Make the content your content. Don’t be afraid to state your views or piss people off. The worst that can happen is they ban you from Digg.
BTW – I reposted the Firefox story on The TechZone and it made the Digg front page. Ban me will they?