Getting Fresh with Content

Here’s a simple exercise for you. Do a quick search on Google for whatever
topic interests you. It doesn’t matter what the topic is, just pick something.
When the search results come in, click through 20 or so of the results and
make note of what you see. How many times does the same article or group
of articles appear in those search results?
I bet it’s more than once. I research a lot of topics on the Web, and the one
thing that I’ve noticed in nearly every topic is that the same articles appear
over and over again. It’s a phenomenon that happens both in print and on the
Internet, but it’s far more noticeable on the Internet because information is
just a Web search away. In print, you actually have to collect the books and
newspapers together in one place to notice the patterns.
Everyone uses the same articles. Well, okay. Maybe not everyone, but a lot of
people do. It’s content syndication (or article syndication), and sometimes it happens
on purpose — writers work hard to get their articles and stories syndicated
and books published because that’s how they reach wider audiences. Sometimes
it happens accidentally though — an article is placed online (it’s less likely to
happen accidentally in print), and other Web site owners find it, like it, and either
with permission or without, copy it and use it on their own Web sites.
Another reason you see the same article everywhere is because companies
exist that sell packages of pre-made Web pages or even just packages of articles
that you can place on your Web site that are targeted around a specific
keyword or topic. These packages are sold both on Web sites and on auction
sites like eBay, and they’re available to everyone — and I do mean everyone.
The problem with that kind of content is that although it’s easy to find and
for the most part inexpensive to purchase, it’s old. It’s so old it’s bleu-cheese
moldy — which is precisely why you find it everywhere. Nothing’s more frustrating
to someone than clicking through a bunch of links looking for information
just to find that one-third of those links all lead to the same article on a
different Web site.
If you truly want to generate traffic volume for your Web site (and you do,
because the more traffic you have, the more AdSense revenue you generate),
fresh content is what you need. Fresh content is new, different, and doesn’t
show up on 5,000 different Web sites. It’s your own content that you’ve written
or had written for your specific audience to meet their exact needs.
Your Web site visitors will love you for it. Potential Web site visitors are
more likely to stay on your site, reading your articles, viewing your other
types of content, and eventually clicking your AdSense ads if you’re offering
them content they can’t find elsewhere. The only place to get that kind of
content is to either write it yourself or hire someone to write it for you.