How to Write Good Content?

I am going to switch things up a bit today. I think we have all heard the rallying cry, have good quality content and people will flock to you. Question is what is good content and more to the point, how do you begin on making it?

(WebHost Blog) It is fairly vague is it not; “content sells,” “focus on making quality content,” “content is king,” etc. these are all well and good concepts, but how do you go about writing quality content or finding the subject matter for quality content? Even myself, with some 14 years of journalistic experience in total, will have problems finding good topics.

What to Write About
When it comes to writing quality content the first step is choosing what to write about. There are a few methods to choose what to write on. The two methods I use the most is I write on things that I want to know more information about. An example of this was the blog I wrote on data center tiers. Actually I wrote this more for myself since I was sick and tired of reading about a web host’s tier 3 data center, blah, blah, blah. In the end, the article garnered a lot of hits because there are probably a lot of people out there who feel the same way I do. This blog is also about putting down some information that is hard to find. Most places tell you, you need content, but they don’t tell you how to go about getting it.

The second route is to write something that interests you. Some articles I’ve written have been born from conversations I’ve had at a bar. Their topics interested me and so I wrote about them. I have a blog coming up about reinventing the wheel for fun and profit. To get this topic I thought about conventional wisdom and what happens when we turn it on its ear. I focused on “don’t reinvent the wheel” because I have seen that we all do it. I saw a few examples that have reinvented the wheel and from there I moved on the next step.

How to Write it
Stay on topic. Staying on topic is very important and unfortunately for myself and everyone involved, I rarely do. But if I did, my blogs would be shorter and easier to read and probably a bit more popular. But I digress. You want to be on topic and you want to research your topic. Nothing worse than having something to write about, but not having anything to say. Don’t start writing your article/blog/pamphlet/whatever on the day its due. Instead do some research, write some notes, and write a few paragraphs a week or so in advance. This gives you some time to read it over, remove sentences that don’t work or are uninteresting or are even off topic.

Testing Quality
If you have an idea for content that you think will bring it a lot of good traffic and will live up to all of those odd monikers for content success discussed earlier then you should probably have people you know read it before it gets published. Let the readers know you want objectivity and to not pull any punches and you also have to be able to take a great deal of abuse on something you have worked long and hard on. Absolute candor and objectivity is a must when determining article quality. Revision and building on the ideas your editors discussed will get you further to honing your words.

Putting it All Together
So I first thought about conventional wisdom. I thought about various quotes like work smarter not harder, a penny saved is a penny earned, the early bird gets the worm, etc. Although the last one of those is a good topic I might write on (who needs to get up early when you can have Google get your worm for you), but I ended up zeroing in on don’t reinvent the wheel. I brainstormed what the phrase means and the different ways innovation has come out of not following this age old axiom. Then I picked one of those ways to talk about. After that I wrote about it and how the wheel was in fact reinvented over and over again, with each successful build even better than the previous one. So I wrote it up and shelved it. I went back to it last week and read it over to see if it flows off the tongue. This week I am picking out some pictures for it. I gave it to a few friends of mine, both in work and outside and I await what they think about it. After that takes place I will go through and revise it then I will send it back to my friends to look over again.

Pick your topic, research it, pick an aspect of it, get it edited. That is how you make quality content.

About David Dunlap: Over the past ten years David has been a prolific author of hundreds of blogs, commentaries and reviews found here on WebHostBlog.com , as well as WebHostMagazine.com and other sites around the Internet. David manages the daily operations at both WebHostBlog and Web Host Magazine & Buyer's Guide, and as the head editor, David uses his unique analytical skills to ensure that both sites maintain their integrity and tough, but fair minded, reputations. Prior to his active career analyzing the Web Host industry, David specialized in networking and communications for the U.S. government. David's expertise in traditional marketing and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) has helped boost companies both inside and outside of the Web Host industry.