Understanding The Rules of Great Content

When you start creating lots of content you tend to leave something wanting in the consumption arena. So its a hard ball to juggle. Good post Darren.

I think there’s a tiny border between those who “enrich” content and those who “recycle” it. Nevertheless – the difference in the result is huge.

Those who recycle content in my opinion go out, read blogs with good content, but not necessarily a well known blog, get the main idea of any post, and just reword, reformat, and repost it. I’ve seen this happen 1 or 2 times with my own personal blog. But then again – i get only dozens of visitors, so i wonder how will i cope with this when it gets a bit more traffic.

Great post Tony!
Allen.H

I put myself under a lot pressure when starting my blog to create original content, but under the stress of regular posting I decided that my original content was actually suffering due to the time constraints. Now I try to create original content once or twice a week, with the other postings being based on stuff I find on the net.

This way, I think the quality of my original content is a lot higher. At the same time, I never just stick up a link without adding something to it-what you describe as “the hustle”. I think the hustle is a justifiable way of maintaining a high-quality blog without the pressure of constantly being new and original.

This is usually the case with many political bloggers in which punditry is actually encouraged…

And as long as you have an interesting take on the issues, original content doesn’t have to be your master… although, it does make a good mistress =)

The truly great content, and the stuff that will get you a following, is as Original as possible. Original ideas and experiences are what people are looking for over the oft repeated regurgitated drivil found in most blogs.

This post came at a great time for me. I’ve been working towards starting a new information based blog (not quite ready to publish it yet) and recently came across a resource that contained much of what I wanted to say. But I definitely can add and interpret to be part of the 9%, even though I’ll be in the 1% less often than I’d hoped.

Thank you, Tony. I implemented some of the suggestions in this article, and actually wrote something useful, rather than just saying “Hey, go look at this…” Outstanding post.

It’s hard to try to write original content for your site, as there are so many things and topics that are already covered. So with that, I try to write content original to myself.

I try to write about personal experience. If I come across something in life, or on the Internet, or on my computer, I try to think of a way I can express what I’ve found with other people. I tend to use alot of applications in my Web Design, so I compile a list of the top ones I use, do some research on the apps, and I have original content.

Maybe I had some trouble in my IT department networking computers. After I’m done I site down and write my process out into an article.

Stuff like that I find is easier to write about and be good, then pulling new content and articles from thin air.

Good to find Richie here as well.

Tony this was a succint and usable digest. I heard it defined by a journalist guest speaker at one of our live events that we ought to consider ourselves “filters”. It is our obligation to imprint and infuse the information with our own take, ideas, experience, etc.

You make it very actionable, thank you.

Jakob Nielsen reported the 1/9/90 rule in an Oct ’06 useit.com article:

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html

That inequality is not just for bloggers, but applies to the rest of the Internet AND society! That means what we see in Digg, forums, blogs, email threads, etc etc is basically controlled by the most vocal 10 percent of society.

If someone is a “blogger”, then they’re already in the rarified 10 percent level.

Cheers, Greg

Valeria,

I think its a job we should all be doing to a greater or lesser extent as bloggers. Great point. ;)

Cheers
t

Come to think of it, this really is a great post. I myself have been feeling kinda guilty and queasy about just re-wording other people’s posts and putting it on my blogs.(I run a a gadget blog which has been abandoned for a while, but i hope to resume soon). But the 1-9-90 rule has sparked up new ideas in my mind. first of all I’m gonna do a post on it a blog i run with a couple of friends(www.unilagfaces.com), then I’m gonna try out the stuff in the post.
Big ups Tony…Nice one indeed.

Something that might bear on this would be the purpose one started their blog. In my case, I found a lot of co-faculty were totally out of tune with what was going on in martketing today – they were stuck in their pasts and textbooks, so I decided to aggregate information into one place they could find it so they would not have to hunt for it. Consequently, reportage was the main thrust of what I was doing. Over time, I have added some atitude/analysis to those posts, but largely, I blog to provide a service for those who do not have the time, knowledge or energy to do it.

Your post makes a great deal of sense if you are blogging for yourself, but if it is for someone else, then your audience/target market will dictate the way you approach blogging. There is no one rule fitting all situations and, is my case, reportage would be the most appropriate.

Awesome article. The way you write things make it look so simple and intutive. I am actually wondering why I didn’t do that before. This is .like a golden post for me which I can follow when in need. Thanks!keep them coming.

Creating value for your readers is the single most important thing a blogger can do for themselves, and for their audiences. If you’re creating value, then readers are getting practical advice and great benefits out of reading your content. If you follow this advice, your blog will go far.