When blogging it’s all about writing engaging content which engaging your readers. If you can engage your reader, then you’ll have an easier time converting them at a later time. However, I’m surprised at the amount of people who don’t take the time to understand their readers furthermore causing them to write content which is simply mediocre. With that said, I’m a true believer in finding ways to build an audience, provide value then give them something that is NOT available anywhere else. Once you have conquered this, you have pretty much come closer to your bottom line. Next,
There are many ways you can write content to engage your readers. For example, you can create content which is text based, video’s, infographics or even podcasts. Another thing you can do is eliminate the work by curating content. What does this mean? It’s means to write content which is from all over the web bringing it under one location. You go out or have a team which goes out and finds the best content online. This works because your audience doesn’t have to go other places or search online to find what’s trending. It eliminates all the work that people have to do which ends up building your credibility long-term.
When we look at social media networks we see a group of people from different niches all sharing content. However, it’s important to note that social media can be considered a content curator. Everyone is bringing content from all over the web to one location.
Let’s get started now and look at the benefits of content curations. I’ll also be providing tips and some challenges going forward.
Value and Time Saving
One of the biggest benefits of content curation is that it saves time and can add enormous value quickly. If we look at it from a visitor point of view, you are finding all the content you need on one website which saves you the time of having to go through looking through several websites at one time. Next, much of the information you find is valuable and can be from authority websites which will provide you enormous substance within your niche quickly. However, this again will depend on the blog owner and if they know what visitors are looking for. Next, the question is how does having own a blog and following the content curation concept save them time.
First, as the blog owner you won’t have to write content as much because you are pulling content from other websites. This means you just have to make sure your content is always updated and pulling content form the right places. You can save even more time by automating the entire process which isn’t hard considering you have so many applications that will do everything for you.
Next, much of the success of your blog will depend on how much value you provide to your readers. You can understand how bringing all the high value content from around the web will help increase loyalty and engagement.
Social Media
Because you have so much content to share and all of it is pretty much the best available online, it’s a great way to build followers. There are many people on social media with over 1,000,000 followers and they don’t write content nor do they have a personal brand. They simply have a website which curates and shares content from all over the web. Since it provides people with solutions and saves them time, they end up being loyal followers. This increases other people following and even the amount of social media activity you are getting online. However, as simple as you think this is, you still have to be careful over a few things.
First, you want to make sure you curate only the best content because no one will share poor quality content. Low quality content can easily be found online, but it’s the one that provides value that people are most interested in. Secondly, the more people you have the more SPAM you’ll generate. Make sure people understand what your site is all about and make sure they know it’s not your content but you are curating on behalf of someone. Google is very strict about plagiarism and one way where it’s most evident is on social media when people pass content as their own. When curating content, you might run into this problem so it’s should be made clear that when sharing content, it should be shared with a direct link to the original blog. You can also have people link back to your blog to build brand awareness, however you should make sure you have original blog name and author written.
Always Fresh
A couple of years ago Google introduced a fresh update giving higher rankings to those which continuously update their content. The reason for this update because it provides people searching with the best content always increasing the user experience. This also helps Google stay ahead of the competition by providing their searchers with the best results all the time. Google has been able to stay ahead of the competition by doing exactly this: providing people with the best results!
When you are curating content, you are pulling out the best pieces from all over the web. This also means many times, if the process is automated, you can have this done without too much work on your end. I guess this goes with the idea that curating can save enormous time while providing value at the same time.
In the next section, we’ll be discussing some additional tips you should be using if you decide to be curating content. Let’s jump right in and explore some tips now.
Curating Tips & Tricks
Pattern – the cool thing about curating content is that it’s easy to build a pattern with visitors. Soon you’ll automate the process of having people arrive on your website, and when they see your site always updated, it will help build a pattern with them. This pattern will consist of them knowing that you always provide up-to-date content and your site can be a trusted source of information. The cool thing is that overtime the people mind will build a connection to your site and they’ll keep coming back increasing overall loyalty to your brand.
Social sharing – content curation has been known to increase social sharing because it provides enormous value on one page or website. This is why it’s stated that you should have a solid social sharing funnel on your site. What do I mean? You should make it very easy for people to share your content or the one being shared on your page. When you make this process easier, you’re making it easier for you to grow your brand with your readers. You’re also making it easier through social media to attract new visitors to your page.
SEO – make sure your website has been optimized to correctly SEO your aerated content. When people share, they will be sharing the optimized version of the content so this will help with your sites SEO. With proper SEO in place it’s much easier to rank your website within search engines. Keep in mind the important things that matter when optimizing your content:
- Title tag
- Description
- Keywords
Exclusivity – once you get big enough, you can approach all the blogs you are displaying on your site for complete exclusivity. This means no one else can post their content and will draw many more visitors to your page. However, you have to keep in mind this is huge for you and you have to show the why you are the one they should provide with that privilege. From my experience, it’s a good idea to keep reports on your traffic, advertising income, and even engagement. This is what will matter when asking for exclusivity from curating or authority blogs.
WordPress – if you are planning on creating a website which curates content, then I would recommend using WordPress to build it. WordPress has a few awesome plugins you can use to easily get started and this will help you build your site quickly and with very little work. This will especially come in handy when you have very little programming experience. Install WordPress and then do a quick plugins search to see what’s available to you.
Stay active – when curating, you can easily become inactive quickly because much of the work is being done for you through automation. However, to make sure things are flowing correctly, it’s important you stay logged in checking for SPAM or even content which doesn’t meet your value standards.
Final Thoughts
Curating content is a great alternative to writing your own content especially if you don’t have the time or the money to hire someone to do the job for you. This is way many bloggers will choose to curate the best content from around the web into one place. It can be a great way to build your brand and an even better way to attract visitors to your website through constant promotions and sharing. However, if you choose to curate content, please keep the following things in mind:
First, value matters so make sure you provide the best content to your readers. The more value they receive, the more they’ll share increasing your brand and bottom-line. Next, make sure you add the right SEO title and description because this will increase your search engine presence in the long-term. Finally, protect the content listed on your site by making it clear that sharing must be done adding the rightful owners information.
