We’ve been talking for over a week about blogging. So far, it’s been the logistics. Why your blog should live on your site, how to get a domain, how to host a web site, how to design your site, and the need to pick a blogging software package. All of that might take a day or a week or even a month for you to get rolling, depending on how much you already know and whether you need to hire out some of the work.
What comes after that? Months and years of blogging, day in and day out. That brings us to the slogan I’ve quoted numerous times on this blog and in my e-zine. “Content is King.”
If you have great content, people will come to your blog, they’ll read your stuff, and they’ll keep coming back. Why? Because good content is unusual and great content is rare.
That’s where you have the advantage, because . . . you’re a writer. And writers create great content. Let’s define that. Great content has five attributes:
1) Valuable
2) Unique
3) Understandable
4) Entertaining
5) Free
Let’s talk about each of those in turn.
Great content is valuable. There are boatloads of crummy content on the web. Stuff people just threw together because they don’t want to give away their good stuff. Give away your good stuff! Give away your gold!
Great content is unique. If everybody else has your content, then why should anyone come to your site? But if you’re unique, then you’ve got a monopoly. That doesn’t mean you need to have top secret information that nobody else has (although that helps). Maybe your style or your attitude is unique.
Great content is understandable. Duh.
Great content is entertaining. We don’t live in the “Information Age.” That’s a fib foisted by the information people. We live in the “Entertainment Age.” If your content is entertaining, you are nine miles ahead of everyone else.
Great content is free. Like I said, give away your gold. Earn people’s trust by showing that you’ve got the goods. Goods that are valuable, unique, understandable, and entertaining. If you do that, people are happy to buy from you when you’ve got something to sell. You know that’s true, because that’s who you buy from–people you trust.
Put great content on your web site, day after day, year after year. If you do that, you’ll build a reputation (or as some call it, a “brand.”) When it comes time for your book to come out, your market will have found you.
We’ll continue talking about that next week.