Fourteen Tips to a Successful Content Site

I have built and ran a successful content site on volunteering abroad for three years and while I might not be an expert at web publishing, I do have some experience. In preparation for launching a new site on technology in the developing world I wrote the following fourteen tips for creating a great content site:

Tip One: Go Girly!

First thing you should do is go to supermarket and buy every girl/teen magazine you can find. This might be embarrassing for 50% (or more) of you, but it will be one of the best investments you make.

These magazines are the bible on how to write online content. They are overflowing with catchy titles, "10 best ways to..." style articles, great teasers, and upbeat writing style. Study these articles intently, you won't regret it. Supermarket magazines spend enormous sums of money every year studying the best way to pique passing grocery-store shoppers' interest, learn from their example.

Check out these great teasers on the cover of a popular magazine:

1. Your Period, What's Normal, What's Not 2. Sexy Summer Hairstyles 3. 7 Surprising Keys to Happiness 4. How to Turn Him On In 10 Words of Less 5. Dangerous Love: 3 Times a Boyfriend Can Become Violent 6. Do You Make Men MELT? Take our Quiz!

These pull the reader in by teasing a person's sexual drive (2, 4), personal health and safety (1, 5), personal happiness (3), and self image (6). They scream at the passer-by: "Read me! This can change your life!"

Let us take these titles and apply them to apples.

1. Ripe Apples, What's Normal, What's Not 2. Great Summer Apple Recipes 3. 7 Surprising Keys to a Great Apple Pie. 4. How to Make a Great Crust in 10 Minutes or Less 5. Forbidden Fruit: 3 Times You Should Never Eat Apples 6. Do Your Apple Pies Make People MELT? Take our Quiz!

Obviously I don't know too much about apples, but this is just an example of how universally powerful these teasers are.

Tip Two: Keyword Centric Entries

Keep each article around 500-750 words and centered on one keyword. For example, don't write about "The Best Apples and Oranges" but instead split it up "The Best Apples", "The Best Oranges", and "Apples vs. Oranges". Each entry is a doorway to your site, the more doorways you have the more people will enter.

Although this method has been branded by many as spam, when done correctly it helps the visitor tremendously. The point is not to grind out as many entries of mindless dribble as possible but rather to produce highly focused content to increase the chances a visitor will find an entry closely matching their specific interests or needs.

Tip Three: Soft Launch First

Write 10-15 entries and bring your site online, but do not advertise or promote it except submitting to the big search engines. This will let any sandbox timer start while you write the rest of your content. When you have around 50-100 entries then you can officially launch and start promoting your site.

Why? Because, one of the most important things for your site is link exchanges and you only have one chance to make a first impression. For this reason I recommend only hard launching when you have a "full" site.

Tip Four: Link Exchanges

Do not spam requests link exchanges and do not use link exchange services/circles.

I have found there are two ways to get great links.

1) Interviews. Find other webmasters/companies in your field and ask them to do an interview. Interviews are excellent because (1) you get some free content and (2) because you begin the build a personal relationship.

After they have completed the interview ask them kindly for a link to your site. They will be much more likely to accept now that you are not an email address and unknown website but a fellow in their industry.

2) Case Studies. The small software/script companies generally have great page rank. Buy one of their cheaper products and after a month offer to write them a case study. Almost always they will say yes and will include a link to your site. I have gained many great backlinks this way.

Tip Five: Site Design

Speed! Speed! Speed! Brett Tabke is right; speed is everything for a content site. Use CSS and small background images to provide great speed while adding a graphic feel to your site.

Remember to use color! Most sites sadly restrict themselves to one or two colors in the layout. We live in living color; use it to your advantage! For example: make the front page blue, the forum green, the site news pages purple etc... Your users will quickly learn to use colors to help situate themselves on your site.

Tip Six: Know Your Visitors

Every three months write a questionnaire for site visitors and have a $100 sweepstakes for those that fill it out. This will be the best $100 you'll ever spend.

Knowing your visitors can be the difference between $5 a day and $50 a day. Use the questionnaire to tweak the subjects of your future entries and the types of advertising you display. You might think your site is for middle aged businessmen when it turns out 60% of your visitors are young housewives dreaming of starting a home business.

Tip Seven: Intertwine Advertising with Content

For a long time I had a 3 column layout. The first column was for site navigation, the second for content, and the third for advertising. This layout was very logical to me, but it became apparent after a few months that my CTR was much lower than it should be.

Old Layout:

Nav-----Content-----Ads Nav-----Content-----Ads Nav-----Content-----Ads Nav-----Content-----Ads Nav-----Content-----Ads Nav-----Content-----Ads

I conducted a visitor survey and asked specifically about the layout. From the responses one fact stood out: the visitors never looked at the third column. After a few times viewing the site, the visitors consciously or sub-consciously learned that the third column was only advertising and ignored it completely.

To correct the situation I took an idea from TheKnot.com and merged my first and third column. An example:

New Layout:

Content-----Ads Content-----Related Entries Content-----Ads Content-----Author Bio Content-----Ads Content-----Related News

The result was a jump from 0.2 CTR to almost 4.0 CTR. The viewers were drawn to the new merged column by the related entries, author biography, and other content. There was a much greater chance their eyes would move over the ad blocks and one or more would attract their interest.

Tip Eight: Blueprints of Entries

Create a blueprint of your site. Imagine you have a staff of 100 writers, what entries would you want them to write? Organize the entries in a hierarchy. Example:

Apples: * Best Apples in Maine * Best Apples in Florida * Apples Stop Cancer? * Apples Can Help You Live Longer!

As you find what types of entries your visitors want, expand those areas in your blue-print.

Remember to split up article topics as much as possible. In general, three 500 word entries are better than one 1500 word entry.

Tip Nine: Evergreen

This should go without saying. Make sure your entries are on topics which never lose relevancy and appeal.

Tip Ten: Domain Names

Follow Brett Tabke's 26 steps and choose something generic. Your site's overall topic will drift as you learn which topics pay and which don't. You might launch thinking your site is going to be about apples and oranges, but after a few months you realize the real money is in mangos. This is why your domain should be Fruonia.com not ApplesAndOranges.com.

Tip Eleven: The Scratch book

I carry a small scratch book around everywhere with me. When I have a few minutes I outline an article or write a blurb for a link. Just by working on your site during your free moments throughout the day (lunch breaks, coffee breaks, subway home etc...), you will be amazed how much you can get done before ever sitting down at the computer.

Tip Twelve: The Logs

Study your logs intently. Find out the cause of any special variation. Does your traffic dip on the 31st of every month? Why? How can you use this information in the future?

Just like the visitor surveys, the logs are the key to understanding your visitors. From this goldmine you will begin to understand exactly who is visiting your site, what they want, and how they try to find it. Exploit this for fun and profit.

Tip Thirteen: Push Forward

The site should be as low maintenance as possible. Every minute you spend maintaining your site is a minute you do not spend making new content and growing. Make sure to not get bogged down answering emails and tweaking your layout. Content is king and the more content you have the more money you will earn.

I believe many people spend too much time trying to SEO their current content instead of writing new content. If an entry is horrible don't update it, instead write "version two" of the article and publish it alongside the first. Content = money.

Tip Fourteen: Directing Your Visitor

You want your visitor to hang out at your site as long as possible, never tell them "the end" but instead use lists of related entries and crossing link to say "Done? This is what you should read next!"

Conclusion

I'd like to end this article with a quote I have taped my monitor by Rob Malda, the creator of Slashdot. This is pretty much everything you need to know about being successful on the internet (and life).

"Slashdot is successful for the same reasons anything else is. We provided something that was needed before anyone else did, and we worked (and continue to work) our butts off to make it as good as it could be"

Happy publishing!