Content is King, but a King Needs an Army!

The King needs you to drive his content!

Getting Started

While content is the focal point of any website or blog, writing even the best content for your niche markets is only the beginning.  How are people going to find your content if they do not know about your site? A few ways to promote your content is to utilize social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Let people know you exist! Here are some of the services I recommend submitting your content to and engaging in

Social Networks

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Plurk
• Identi.ca (utilizes the dofollow attribute)

Social Bookmarking Sites

• Digg
• Del.icio.us
• Reddit
• StumbleUpon
• Google Bookmarks

Blogging Networks

• Blog Catalog
• Networked Blogs (requires a Facebook account)
• My Blog Log
• Technorati

These are great ways to incite the masses and bring new (and hopefully recurring) traffic to your site.  Remember, though, social networking thrives on building relationships, and healthy relationships aren’t one sided.  Engaging with prospective clients and others in your field can not only build friendships, but loyalty.  Once someone is loyal to your cause, it is likely that they will also work to promote your content.  Eventually, you’ll have your own personal army of loyalists that aid in spreading your content.

Finally, starting a campaign from scratch can be a rather daunting task, especially if you’re new to the game.  Start out with networks you are already familiar with and go from there. Take things slow at first and develop a workflow that works best for you!

Bringing New Visitors Back

Whenever I write a blog post, I try to focus on a specific problem and a solution that works based on my experiences and situations.  Many times, my posts pertain to specific problems in specific realms of computing, which many times doesn’t result in repeated traffic.  While there’s nothing wrong with this, it’s always ideal to write and promote compelling content that gives the reader the initiative to subscribe to your blog and to dig through more of your content.  A few things to consider:

• Is my current content compelling enough to want to bring back repeating visitors?
• What makes my content stand out compared to competitors?
• Are there multiple posts on my blog that are in some way related to one another?
• Who am I writing for?

All of these questions are important to ask yourself whenever you evaluate your current site or blog for the first time.  If my content isn’t currently too interesting or unique from my competitors, what can I do to spruce it up a bit? Can I add some photos, embed a video, or elaborate on certain topics and sections that are vague?  Enriching your content by adding appeal and unique discussion can get new visitors hooked instantly!

A good rule of thumb is to always keep an eye on the competition and the community you are part of.  By doing this, you will not only gain insight of the latest trends and topics, but you will also be able to allow a little more creativity with your own site or blog.

Have you written a series of blog posts that relate to a specific topic? For example, writing three separate blog posts about shampoo. All three of the posts pertain to shampoo, so why not link to all of them in each post? Internal linking throughout your site is very helpful for when new visitors read a post and would like to know more about a topic.  If my blog post about the best name brand shampoos is a fairly popular post, why not link to my blog post about the worst name shampoos on the market (hypothetically speaking, of course)? You, as an author, are keeping people on your site and are giving the visitor multiple opportunities to continue reading your content.

If Content is Published, it Doesn’t Make it Dead

The common thought process of publishing content is that once the content is published, it’s not supposed to be edited or revised frequently, if ever.  Such a mindset is far from the truth in the sense that information is changing at a constant and content therefore changes.  I’m not saying that old content needs to be updated daily, or even weekly, but maintenance and fine tuning are always helpful steps to keep older content fresh.  It also shows new visitors that may find your content that you take the time to follow up on previous articles if something changes within that subject, which can also help the visitor find a solution to a problem faster.  Taking some time to freshen up old content can also be beneficial in terms of SEO.  If you find that some of your content isn’t getting targeted or the results you wanted, revising and editing the original content could change how search engines view and rank the article.

Final Thoughts

Many of the points outlined in this article might seem intimidating to those just starting out, but remember: it’s all right to start at your own pace and work your way up as you become more comfortable.  Seeking advice also helps.  Building traffic and distributing content is a long term process that equates with the phrase: “you reap what you sow”.  The more time and effort you put into your content and its distribution, the better potential for results you will see.