For this blog post, I thought that I’d go back to basics. After speaking with a few friends, I thought it was about time that I came out and wrote down what I have to share about creating web content:

• Don’t undervalue content. There are a lot of people out there that think anyone can write good content, and the only thing that matters is to get it up. You can pay people from third world countries to write up a storm, but any boost that you might get may be short lived. If you want repeat traffic, then you need to give people good, grammatically correct, well-written information.
• Write so people can understand what you have to say. Depending on your audience, people shouldn’t need a doctorate to read what you write. I’ve been told that the best content is written for 11th grade reading level. It’s also a good idea to use short sentences. It’s not that you have to talk down to people, it’s that you shouldn’t make them work to hard to understand what you’re trying to say.
• Do not use copyrighted materials without citations. That’s not only bad, it’s illegal. Make sure that you cite all quotations and give people the credit they deserve. You wouldn’t like it if they did that to you, would you? Adding links to the source is also a nice touch and is an easy way to let people know that you value what they have to say.
• Plagiarism is an academic issue. When you were in school, you had to worry about plagiarism, and for good reason. It’s a huge academic no-no. The same is not true for the real world. I often tell my editors that if they read a bunch of articles on a subject and come up with a combobulation of facts, they don’t need to cite each of the sources. This is perfectly legal. Even though they learned what they know by reading other sources, when they sit down to write they are writing from their own brains. (Note: In The Pet Wiki we’ll often add an external link section to articles so that people can see important sources.)
• Content goes beyond text. There are so many forms of content that are being used on the web, like pictures and videos and audio and presentations. It’s a good idea to mix it up to keep your readers engaged. Words are good and important, but in the ADHD world we live in, you can make a bigger impact and make it more exciting with a little bling.
• Find your voice. Each of us has a unique perspective of the world and a voice that’s all our own. Use it and write about your passion. It’s a lot easier to do that than to write about things you don’t really care about.
  I know that I already said that you should write so that the reader doesn’t have to work hard to understand you, but there are some exceptions. For example, the great blogs that a bunch of my anipals write. They write in cat, dog and ferret talk, which is remarkably close to human speech, but can be a bit difficult for humans to read. If that’s your readership, go fur it (pun intended). It’s a great voice to have. Omer, my cat, and the author of Omer’s Scratching Post decided to use more human friendly talk. It’s still got cat-titude, but us lay people can read it too.
• It’s OK to be SEO savvy. SEO has a bad name, because too many people think it means things like writing the same keywords over and over again. Make sure to write titles that will let search engine users quickly know what your article is about. Also, it’s important to use the keywords so that your content will rank, just don’t go crazy with it. If your potential readership calls something a litter box, be aware that you won’t rank for that name if you omitted it from your content because you chose to call it a cat toilet.
• Read what you write. Even better, have someone else read it. It’s important to proof everything that you publish to the web. Someone else maybe able to catch mistakes that you just wouldn’t notice. If you don’t have someone else to do it for you, take a break and then re-read your stuff. Time will give you a fresh eye to catch mistakes.

I think that this covers the basics. I’ll try to get a list of resources together too. If you have anything to add, please let me know.

Image by richardjingram Some rights reserved.

Creating Valuable Original Web Content

There has been a lot of talk about content lately. Well it isn’t really lately, there is always a lot of talk about the importance of content. Heck, without it, the internet would be a very boring place.

Recently Demand Media and Answers.com have been on the hot seat for being content creation engines. Demand Media has the audacity of creating content that people want to read just so that they can sell ads. Well, duh. There may be some newspapers and TV shows that fit that description too. They are in the business to make money, just like most of us. If they want to help people, by giving people the information that they are looking for, who gets hurt?

I get it, people are worried that content is not going to be written by professionals. That only people who are considered experts in a subject have the right to express themselves and make money from it. By systematically creating content for consumers, the whole idea of expert goes out the window. Demand Media is using the global market of freelancers to get people for far less than the experts get. Is the content lower quality? I’m not sure.

Demand Media isn’t doing anything wrong. They actually have pretty high standards for their content. There’s nothing wrong with “farming” content, as long as you have checks and balances in place to assure what’s getting written is accurate. Demand Media does.

I think that the experts are grasping at straws, trying to figure out ways to protect their statuses. I totally get that. If there’s not much of a learning curve to become an expert, what does that leave them? Don’t worry guys, there will be people who will look for you too. And for those who don’t, there’s plenty of pie to go around.

Most content out there is not life and death content. If it is, as the content consumer, make sure that you check where your sources are coming from before you act on it. You wouldn’t accept medical advice from someone whom you just met on the street. Why would you accept it from someone that you haven’t met and that you can’t even see? Don’t rebuild your motorcycle engine with me. But though I haven’t tried it, an article I write about building motorcycle engines is unlikely to get through Demand Media’s quality assurance.

Some people say that in the world of search engine optimization there will be more low quality content. Sorry, I think it’s the opposite. There’s always been bad content. There have always been middle men who try to connect you to content, and whose interests aren’t totally aligned with yours. Google’s not perfect, but they’re probably the best company we’ve ever had at connecting people to quality content. If Demand Media is really low quality, their success on Google will be temporary.

Who am I to talk about content? I worked at Answers.com as the Director of Content. I am now running The Pet Wiki and having fun building quality content there.