Content is King.
Always add value.
Make your blog sticky.
I hear these things come flying out of my mouth when I’m teaching. Check into almost any blog on social media, and you’ll find those words somewhere in the posts.
But why???
The answer is relatively simple: it’s getting harder and harder to get a foot in the door.
Advertising, as I see it, is pretty much dead. We have TiVOs and PVRs that edit out commercials for us, if indeed we even have cable in the first place. Increasingly, folks are turning to the web for their entertainment needs. We have spam filters. We don’t even notice billboards or bus shelters or ads in newspapers.
So. In order for an ad, especially, to get our attention, it has to be attention-grabbing. The Old Spice guy, for example, certainly grabbed our attention. On the other hand, the new series of ads where Microsoft sets up computer stores in people’s living rooms has done absolutely nothing to make me want to switch over from a Mac.
In order to get a toehold on people’s psyches these days, you must be perceived as something that has value. You have to give them a reason to come back. That’s why content is king: he who has the best content is the king of the castle.
When I use the term “value,” I’m not necessarily talking about information, although that’s the way many businesses and bloggers are going. Value could be entertainment. I was literally in tears last night reading the latest Oatmeal comic, I was laughing so hard. I found out about the latest Oatmeal comic, because I subscribe to their e-newsletter. I want to be on the cutting edge of Oatmeal.
Certainly your king content can be information. It could be how-tos or educational info that you have learned and are now sharing. It could be your own unique curation of things you read, watch, listen to, and then synthesize.
When I think about the blogs and websites I subscribe to in my Google Reader, the ones I really make a point to read, sites like Mashable, ProBlogger, IttyBiz and UnMarketing, those are sites that I go back to because I learn such good stuff from them.
Getting excellent information makes me come back for more. And then you start to build up a relationship with that blogger, you begin to see them as someone who is an expert, someone who knows what they are talking about. And then, when an email for a book or a course or a membership site lands in your inbox, you’re open to maybe opening your wallet.
For more on this topic, listen to this excellent podcast by Mitch Joel on his Six Pixels of Separation podcast.