What Makes Quality Content?

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Sep 20, 2010 in Entrepreneurism, Internet Mastery | 0 comments

What Makes Quality Content?

“Language is the apparel in which your thoughts parade before the public.
Never clothe them in vulgar or shoddy attire.” ~  George Crane

Whether you write about the virtual assistance industry or scrap booking, there are key ingredients that go into the creation of a good article. Providing quality content involves providing website visitors and readers with information they find useful and informative. While the details will vary, depending on your topic and article structure, there are some common ingredients of quality content:

Answer a question.
People visit your website and your blog for one simple reason. What is in it for them?

• How can you help them find answers to their questions?
• What answers are people in your niche market searching for?
• What are the frequently asked questions in your niche?
• Are there subject areas in your niche for which few articles have been written?

Find out what readers in your niche are looking for and write articles that will answer those questions. Brainstorm a list of questions and topics. Providing the answers that readers (and potential buyers) are searching for will help to establish you as an expert who meets their needs.

Do the research to find out what your readers want answers to.

• Place a poll or survey on your website or blog. Survey Monkey offers a free Basic plan. Google “free online polls” to find other services.
• Send an appeal to your list and ask them what they want to know. People are genuinely disposed to be helpful and you will be surprised how many great answers you receive. Email marketing services like Constant Contact offer online polls as part of their service.
• Go to Facebook, Twitter and Linkedinand do some research on your niche. There is a wealth of information there. Join groups on LinkedIn, Facebook Fan Pages and target people in your industry on Twitter and follow them.

Write clearly and accurately.
Minimizing – or eliminating – grammatical and spelling mistakes is essential to good, high-quality content. Before submitting any article for publication, run spell check and proofread it to catch any spelling and grammar issues. If possible, have another set of eyes look at the article to catch anything that you missed. I always hand off my articles to my assistant to see where I might have missed something. Another tip is to read your work out loud to catch awkward phrasing or repetitions.

Include a compelling title.
If your title isn’t interesting, no one is ever going to get to your beautifully crafted article. Scan a few newsletters and blogs and see what articles and posts grab your attention. When in doubt, consider possible titles that include “5 Ways to…” or “10 Tips for… or “How to…” Such titles always attract readers who expect short tidbits and quick reads for their time. Good titles require some effort, but since the title is the first thing potential readers see, it’s worth your time to craft a strong one!

Be concise.
Online readers prefer short articles, ideally those between 300 – 500 words. There’s a fine line between providing enough content to answer your reader’s quest for information while not providing such a long article that they don’t make it to the end to click on your resource box. If your article is too long, consider breaking it up into a series as I have done with these article marketing tips.

What makes quality content? It’s content that a reader is looking for, that answers questions, offers information a reader wants and promises more of the same if they click on your link. Quality content is what will attract visitors to your website and make your article marketing efforts work.

Resources

Free Report: 5 Steps to a Big-Profit, S.M.A.L.L. Report Business by Jimmy D. Brown

Easy PLRis a wonderful resource that will help you find an ongoing supply of fresh content for your blog or article marketing efforts. However, I highly recommend that you edit and re-write these articles in your own voice. Use them as a jumping off point and then take it from there.

Need an Article. When you need well-crafted and well-written content for business, for website, or for personal reasons Need an Article has the solution to your writing needs. Again, the same suggestions about editing and re-writing these articles in your own voice applys.

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