2012 16
Content Isn’t King Anymore!
This guest post is by Joe Boyle of the Website Begin.
I’m going to go against everything you’ve ever been taught and tell you something pretty interesting – content is no longer king.
Free eBook: How to get Blog Traffic!
|
I know, I know. It hurts to be told that. You’ve grown up your whole blogging life and have come to believe that content was king. The problem is, is that you’re missing a small detail.
Perhaps I shouldn’t say small. It’s a large detail. A pretty significant and large detail that you’re probably overlooking.
I’ve seen all of the Pro-bloggers/A-Listers/Gurus/Whatever-we-are-calling-these-people-today go on and on and on about how content is king.
Watch Out For the New King – Great Content
Remember when I said that content isn’t king, but it’s close? You were missing one pretty significant detail – the quality.
There are thousands of pieces of content released on a daily basis. Blogs, magazines, music. It’s all of the same type – content that is distributed to the masses.
What is, though, the difference between that article released on a nobody-blog and the song She Loves You by The Beatles? The quality, of course!
What is the difference between a product from Apple and a product from HTC? The quality, of course!
It doesn’t take much to realize that the quality of your content is what will determine the success of your blog, website, or whatever else your medium may be.
What is Taken to Achieve Great Content?
I have found that great content comes down to three simple factors:
-
A divine passion for the subject
-
A small investment of time
-
Some thought
I’ve come to be extremely passionate for electrical technology. Computers, phones, airplanes. They fascinate me, and I often am indulged in their construction.
The thought of a creating a large sum of niche sites for means of making money always confused me. Why would somebody invest time in something if they don’t enjoy it?
I’ve found that those who don’t enjoy the topic also aren’t very good at profiting from it – probably because it takes passion to create great content. It’s not too easy to just drop into something and make money off of it the same day.
To have passion for a subject generally implies that you will be happy to work with it, with or without any financial gain. That should be a key part of your mindset while trying to create your great content – “I’m doing this because I like it”.
If you take a look at the cutting-edge device [of its time], the Apple I, you’ll notice something pretty interesting. The device was built by Steve Jobs and Steve Woz for fun. They wanted to create something unique and new that didn’t already exist – a personal computer.
It wasn’t until after the construction that it was even thought to be sold. That’s a pretty unique story, isn’t it? You don’t hear much of that in today’s society.
Closing Thoughts
There’s a reason why a poor quality product will generally never sell as well as a great quality product (unless you, of course, have the marketing budget of Google). That is because quality sells – always.
It might take a while to create that great content (and then do it often), but it will generally always lead to a better outcome in comparison to the regular content that we’ve come to believe is king.
Do You Write Great Content?
 |
|
Buffer
Wasn’t sure where you were going with this from the title
Great post. QUALITY content is king.
by Sara on August 16, 2012 at 6:40 pm.
Yeah, same here Sara.
He does an excellent job explaining the difference between mediocre and great content.
Excellent job Joe!
Samuel Pustea recently posted..Top WordPress Plugins To Reach The Top!
by Samuel Pustea on August 17, 2012 at 1:28 am.
Thank you, Samuel. Thanks for accepting the post. ‘To the future posts
Joe Boyle recently posted..Top 12 WordPress Plugins of 2012
by Joe Boyle on August 18, 2012 at 5:31 am.
Oh Yeah
by Samuel Pustea on August 21, 2012 at 1:39 am.
Hey Sara,
You could almost say that it was a quality post. And that it was royal. Almost king like. Eh, eh?
Thanks for the comment! 
by Joe Boyle on August 18, 2012 at 5:30 am.
Hey Joy,
I must agree with you on this because content is something which everyone can create and are creating, but what makes the difference is quality content.
Thanks for writing on this.
Ehsan Ullah recently posted..Build Online Stores In Minutes Using IzzoNet
by Ehsan Ullah on August 16, 2012 at 7:37 pm.
Reminds me of the song “Nobody Told Me” by John Lennon.
“Everybody’s talking, and noone says a word… There’s always something cooking, but nothing in the pot.”
Be a yardstick of quality. Be original, and get things done!
Joe Boyle recently posted..Top 12 WordPress Plugins of 2012
by Joe Boyle on August 18, 2012 at 5:33 am.
Yeah that is right. When we say “Content is King”, it’s a general term, so any form of content is considered king.
Great Content is the “real” King!
Donna Spears recently posted..The Benefits of Choosing Timber Windows When Repairing Your Residence
by Donna Spears on August 16, 2012 at 11:56 pm.
Well using the rule that content is king, does that classify any old post as worthy of being called king? John Lennon and Justin Bieber are both musicians, but I wouldn’t classify them both in the same respect. I wouldn’t call any old music great just because it’s music, just as I wouldn’t call any content great just because it’s content
Joe Boyle recently posted..Top 12 WordPress Plugins of 2012
by Joe Boyle on August 18, 2012 at 5:41 am.
Keen tips Joe and Samuel. Great trumps average each time. Thanks!
Ryan Biddulph recently posted..Network Marketing Mastery – 6 Simple Steps to Become Friends with Influential Online Entrepreneurs
by Ryan Biddulph on August 17, 2012 at 4:28 am.
It was just me for this one, Ryan. Thanks for the comment – you certainly know about quality. I can tell from the blog
Joe Boyle recently posted..Top 12 WordPress Plugins of 2012
by Joe Boyle on August 18, 2012 at 5:41 am.
I agree, even if the whole article is composed of a thousand words but the idea or thought is way too much cluttered then it is one way to consider the blog as spam. We need to produce content – this is given. But we need to create a well-thought of and with quality content.
arsie organo recently posted..Samsung Galaxy S III GT-i9300 Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean Update Leaked
by arsie organo on August 17, 2012 at 4:59 am.
As I said, there’s thousands of pieces of content going live every single day. There’s a reason why you don’t read every single one. Thanks for the comment.
Joe Boyle recently posted..Top 12 WordPress Plugins of 2012
by Joe Boyle on August 18, 2012 at 5:42 am.
It kinda filters itself in a way.
Only the top content made with a purpose gets read the most!
by Samuel Pustea on August 21, 2012 at 1:41 am.
To me Joe, when I think of content I always think of it being quality. To one person they may think that their posts are quality while the reader may think otherwise.
I believe that as long as you love what you share and like you mentioned, passionate about it, that will come through in your writing and show.
It definitely takes more than just good content to get noticed, building relationships with your readers is also crucial so there are more moving parts to this.
Thanks for getting this in front of people though.
~Adrienne
Adrienne recently posted..The Hidden Dangers Of Social Media
by Adrienne on August 17, 2012 at 3:33 pm.
After the gotcha moment, I got into what you’re saying. You are absolutely on the money. I think the reason that many bloggers fail is because of the real work it takes to maintain a blog and to have great content as well.
Susan Cooper recently posted..Fresh Mushroom Salad with Parmesan Cheese & Parsley Recipe
by Susan Cooper on August 17, 2012 at 7:26 pm.
I’m glad I caught your attention, Susan. I noticed you have a few food posts on your blog. That takes an incredible amount of patience and time, I’m sure. I’ve tried writing about food for a friend’s blog, and it’s just so difficult to get everything right. Kudos to you!
Joe Boyle recently posted..Top 12 WordPress Plugins of 2012
by Joe Boyle on August 18, 2012 at 5:44 am.
Hello Joe,
Agree with you.
Now its not only about content. Its about quality, it’s about identity, its about connections, relations and content.
Content was king. But now content needs support to show its full potential. And your content must be high quality and juicy, because everybody can write but not everybody can sync the words together in well manner.
So, start honing your writing skills.
BTW, awesome post. Tweeted it.
Romy Singh recently posted..What You Think About Yourself Matters Not What Others? – Graphic
by Romy Singh on August 19, 2012 at 7:14 pm.
Excellent way you put it Romy!
Regular content was good and was the key to success, but things have changed and some ways are old fashioned (hate to say that!).
by Samuel Pustea on August 21, 2012 at 1:42 am.
Good piece, close to great headline… or maybe great. Like others, wondered where you were going… and now I’m wondering if Google can develop an algorithm for quality…
Thanks
Anne Wayman recently posted..Dragon Voice Recognition For Freelance Writers – a Guest Post
by Anne Wayman on August 22, 2012 at 3:33 pm.
Like the great saying goes: ‘It’s not quantity but quality that counts.’
by LKWatts on August 22, 2012 at 10:11 pm.
So true, LK.
by Samuel Pustea on August 22, 2012 at 11:32 pm.
I disagree, its not “Great content is King” but it should be “Quality content is King”.
Do not focus on always creating Great Content, focus on Quality.
Blogpostproject recently posted..Here’s an SEO tip: Forget about search engines!
by Blogpostproject on August 23, 2012 at 5:57 am.
Quality is probably the single most important thing that comes to content, on the side with creativity.
Thanks for your added info, Blogpostproject
by Samuel Pustea on August 26, 2012 at 1:01 am.
This is really great advice for newbie on-line writers like me. Thanks!
by Rebecca on August 27, 2012 at 1:54 am.
You’re welcome Rebecca!
Thank Joe for the awesome tips.
by Samuel Pustea on August 28, 2012 at 2:23 am.
It is really challenging to create quality content especially if you are chasing time in the process (thinking of what competitors are doing). But if you will give yourself more time to do this one post at a time then writing quality content is going to be easier.
video production Melbourne recently posted..Ways To Make Corporate Video Production Work For You
by video production Melbourne on September 18, 2012 at 5:00 pm.
I agree in theory that ‘content is King’ in reality though SEO is King, you only have to look at the poor quality, off subject results you get at the top of many Google search queries to see that Google is, whatever its PR says, looking for links and other SEO tricks not quality
up2u recently posted..Green fashion is growing
by up2u on October 26, 2012 at 11:05 am.
Actually, I think a combination of actions for your blog is king.
In order to make a king, you have to have all of the working components to make a king.
Thanks for the comment up2u.
by Samuel Pustea on October 28, 2012 at 12:57 am.
Hey Joe, thanks for a great post. Quality content has always been ultra-important, now more so than ever. ‘ve heard loads of different elements called the King/Queen/Emperor and all sorts recently including usability, quality, data, accessibility… So I condensed it all into one post here just the other day.
I hope you find it interesting!
Thanks again.
by Laura on November 6, 2012 at 5:13 pm.