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Where's Your Content?

by: Richard Keir

Copyright 2005 Richard Keir

Once again, it's being made clear that the old isn't old at all. Google's latest update seems to make it clearer than ever that actual website content continues to be a vital element in creating a successful website. Of course, there's lots more to it, but what we do know is that all search engines like content, especially when it's new, different and unique. Static sites where new content is not being added on a regular basis, become stale and their rankings often drop.

Solutions that involve large amounts of content from RSS feeds or search engine results are now looking like a good method to get you dropped from Google. Scraping is illegal. While imitation may be a form of flattery, stealing the full content from a site or blog is just criminal. If this seems even slightly tempting, forget it. You won't last long and the consequences aren't worth it.

So where is your content? The absolute best source of content remains articles you write yourself. Why? First, they're unique. Second, you can submit them to article directories for links and wider distribution. Third, branding. The people who write and publish good quality information become known.

The downside? It all takes time and you have to do your research. Few people can write quality niche content without doing at least some research. However, if your plan involves a long-term business in a niche, it's well worth it. While all the information you use in your articles might be easily found with a little searching, the reality is that very few people will do that simple search. By doing it for them and creating articles and content based on your research, you become an expert. Your time investment can pay off in a major way as you become an acknowledged expert in your niche. Your site becomes an authority site. It doesn't get a whole lot better than that.

No magic, no instant solution. We keep buying books and tools that promise quick easy solutions. But a little thought should tell you that if they existed, the owner certainly wouldn't be selling (or at least not until they stopped working well). Everything requires learning, testing, modifying and just plain hard work to get the best results. No matter how you go about it, you need to invest time, and writing articles is a great investment for long-term success.

If it seems impossible, start with the simplest kind of article. Gather tips, hints or tricks about a niche subject. Write each one as a separate paragraph. Write a short introduction - a paragraph explaining the subject and the type of hints or tips in the article. That's your first paragraph. Next come the tip paragraphs. If you need to, add linking or bridging sentences like: "Here's another way to improve your whatever-it-is." This kind of article is meant to be simple, clear and easy to understand. Nothing fancy required, just plain straightforward text. Use a spelling checker, use a grammar checker. Hey, if you need to, use a speech to text processor, just get that first one done and submit it. Believe me, it gets a lot easier after the first time.

It's a rare marketer who can write enough articles to provide the full content of a new site. Over time, however, more and more of the site's content could come from your own unique articles. Meanwhile where else can you look for high quality content?

PD (Public Domain) materials offer great possibilities. Sure, you have to make certain that the content really is in the public domain and it may involve scanning, editing and proofing, breaking the materials down to suitable size and then making the appropriate pages and articles. Still, depending on your niche, you could find unique PD content that has never appeared in the SEs and which will be highly attractive to your site visitors. Aside from using it to create pages, you can create articles, viral PDFs or eBooks, products to sell, autoresponder series, newsletter content -- you are really only limited by your imagination.

Membership sites offering private label products are also a valuable source of content. With this sort of content, you'll probably want to do some rewriting and rearranging, adding some new content of your own and so on. Naturally, the more you modify the content, the more unique it will be. Since the rights to different products may vary, make sure you understand what you can and can't do with any particular item before you begin working on it.

Other sites offer packages of ghost-written private label articles. Some you might use as articles pages, others you might rewrite and submit as well as put them on your site. Again, check your rights to be clear on what is permitted (or required).

Another alternative is to hire ghost writers to produce content specifically for you. A great deal of the information on a lot of sites and in a lot of info-products has been ghost-written. Content produced exclusively for you should definitely be unique. This may be more costly than other alternatives, but you are paying for the time saved, the uniqueness and for full rights to the content produced.

Third-party articles are another source for added content. By including your own introductions before and/or comments after each article, you can differentiate your site from any other publishing the same article.

Use a mix of the ideas in this article, and you're on your way to creating a valuable and sticky site that visitors will find useful and want to return to. And your site will be attractive to the search engines. Keep in mind that this is on-going process. Don't stop. Adding new and unique content regularly is one of the very best methods of guaranteeing a successful and long-lived web site.

About the author:
Richard writes, teaches, trains and consults on business and professional presentations and eCommerce related matters. Visit the blog at for more information on eCommerce sites and eCommerce site building - and for more eCommerce articles.

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Tracking and Measuring RSS Feeds
by: S. Housley

Measuring and tracking RSS while a fairly simple concept, is really anything but. Unlike websites, RSS have the added caveat of potential syndication, making accurate tracking a challenge to anyone but the extremely tech savvy.

It is not unrealistic for marketers to want to know how many subscribers they have, which items in their feeds attract the most interest, or how many click-throughs are generated as a result of an RSS feed.

There are a number of 3rd party providers who focus on tracking the consumption of RSS feeds. Some solutions are rudimentary but likely sufficient for a small business testing the waters with RSS. Other RSS tracking solutions are more complex and while they can come close to being accurate, with syndication there is no solution that tracks with 100% accuracy.

Techniques Used to track RSS Consumption

Small businesses can view web logs to provide information on how many times a specific file (RSS feed) is requested. The logs and information is rudimentary but will give a basic sense of a feeds success. Many 3rd party tracking options have additional tracking information available.

Hosting

The most common method to track the number of feed accesses or individuals accessing a feed is to use a 3rd party feed host. Companies like FeedBurner essentially track feeds based on accesses. The downside to using a 3rd party like Feedburner, is that the url is a FeedBurner url and any PageRank or popularity associated with the url will benefit the feed host rather than the feed creator. Additionally, no distinction is made between unique views or syndicate feeds.

FeedBurner provides a free no frills service to host RSS feeds and they have been proactive in circumventing user concerns. Recently implementing a service that eases users concerns about migrating from FeedBurner. There is a 3 step process for users interested in migrating from FeedBurner's free service, implementing a permanent redirect, and url forwarding.

Details can be found at: http://www.burningdoorc.om/feedburner/archives/001251.html

Some publishers, who were concerned about lock-in or wanted to retain control of the domain and feed urls often resist a hosting service. The new program FeedBurner Partner Pro is not free, but allows for users to point to their own domain, retaining complete control of their feeds without sacrificing statistical tracking.

The downside to using a service like FeedBurner is that some filtering applications used on corporate proxy servers block feeds residing on FeedBurner or other free hosts.

Redirects

Companies like SyndicateIQ have more complex tracking solutions that generate unique urls for each subscriber. The tracking benefits to such a customized solution is obvious. Individual user habits can be monitored and any users abusing their access and inappropriately syndicating a feeds content can have their feed turned off. The downside of course is that the success of RSS is in a large part due to the anonymity. Users don't want their personal habits tracked.

Considering the venture capital interest in these 3rd party hosting services. It is important to note that their value is in the data that they collect. As with any 3rd party service, it goes without saying that publishers should read the privacy policy carefully, be aware of who owns the rights to the collected information, and how that information might be used. It goes without saying that the value in many of the free services currently available lies in their aggregate data.

Uniquely Named Transparent Images

Uniquely named transparent 1x1 graphics can be added to the description field of an RSS feed. Users can use standard web logs to see the number of times the image is viewed and determine the number of times the feed was accessed.

Companies Specializing in Tracking and RSS Metrics

Pheedo - Pheedo creates tools that enable individuals, organizations and corporations to promote, analyze, and optimize their weblogs and content.

http://www.pheedo.com

SyndicateIQ - SyndicateIQ's position in the content distribution chain provides clients a set of analytics.

http://www.syndicateiq.com/

FeedBurner - FeedBurner offers a full range of services to help you build awareness, track circulation, and implement revenue-generating programs in your feed(s).

http://www.feedburner.com

Each individual using RSS needs to make a decision of the extent and importance of the analytics they require. Realizing that any system they employ is not going to be perfect.

This Static Spot is open for sponsor

This Static Spot is open for sponsor