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Is Content Really King?

by Kunle Olomofe
2 replies
Well, Yes... and... No. So, which one is it?

You see... Content is King only if...

A) You plan to make money online the way Google does.
B) Your Internet business is more a hubby than a profit machine.
C) You really hate to market your services UP FRONT 'cos you don't like being called a "salesperson".

Yeah, if you fit into any of the above, then please dump as much free content on your site as you possibly can find. If a customer can visit your site and find what they want to buy in less than an hour, you've failed at your job and should be smacked about just a tad (no, I'm not advocating violence, so please don't go smacking any failing employees around, you will get sued, or smacked right back... but seriously... if instead...

Content is King for you when...

You use small valuable tid bits to attract prospects in their hundreds to your site so that you can...

D) Market your products and services to them.
E) Generate revenue that you can re-invest for more profits.
F) Generate profits that you can spend on the finer things in life.

... Then the answer is Yes for you too. You see, without good free valuable content to attract listeners and viewers there can be almost no way to get them primed up enough to even talk to you for longer than a minute. Everyone likes to be given something for nothing. Now, where you shouldn't go is too far to the right or left... You do not want to give away so much content that your site looks like a big fat copy of War & Peace. You also do not want to give away so little that you sound and look like a sleazy good for nothing "used ANYTHING sales man" only out to close the sale and be done with the customer.

What you want to do instead is to decide what kind of prospects you want to attract and what kind of business you really want to be in...

If you fall into the A, B, C categories above, then fill up your site till your host warns you of a possible hard drive meltdown.

If you fall into the D, E, F categories instead, then add just enough mind enriching content to get your prospects in the mood to talk shop with you.

In the end, Content Is King, the question is... in who's Kingdom?
#content #free #information #king #promotion
  • Profile picture of the author Sarah Harvey
    Ah, it depends in what niche you are.

    Let me tell you...my niche of gamers would be running from you in a few seconds if you were trying to sell them in any form.

    There are some niches ...and I am not talking about selling games... there are other niches in the gaming market too you know... that are not interested in being sold, but would rather prefer solid information and in this case...they would love a good story.

    Have fun.

    Some of the best sites in the online gaming arena has thousands of pages that offer information. They are no.1 for a reason.
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    "Find the problem and provide the solution."
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    • Profile picture of the author Kunle Olomofe
      Hi Sarah,

      Thanks for your response. But I both humbly agree and disagree.

      It's like you say...

      It all depends on what niche you're in.

      If your niche market reacts well to being sold, then why hide behind tons of content?

      You SHOULD share content, but you SHOULD do so with a sensible strategy in mind.

      Most people appear to pack their sites with "free content" BECAUSE they don't know how else to approach the problem of getting visitors to visit again. Correct me if I'm wrong but that seems to be the case.

      In any case, there ARE ways to attract repeat traffic without building a size the site of a War & Peace novel and I will be happy to discuss that in later threads.

      For now, if you're in a niche market that does NOT react well to being sold, then give them what does work. If that's 100,000+ pages of free content and little/hidden/no sales pitches/ads etc, go right ahead

      If you are in online marketing for advertising revenue like Google et al, then content away, too. As long as you can generate the advertising revenue with ease.

      Frankly though, for most small businesses and home based businesses, a thousands of pages of free content no matter how great the content are usually unrealistic to build and/or maintain. Far too much time and energy will be spent maintaining such sites that could be put to better use like promoting your business, or enjoying yourself....

      In the end, it's like I say...

      YOU own the site, YOU decide what you want to go with.

      If you're in a niche that CAN be sold to with upfront sales pitches, don't be afraid to sell.

      But also don't just sell, interact with your visitors as well in ways easy to manage, moderate and maintain as well as make money from. The warrior forum is a great example of great free content and marketing/direct selling properly combined. Allen doesn't have to build the content and he has moderators and users to help maintain it, so he either promotes (or gets people to promote it) and enjoys enough time to relax and have fun too.

      That's ONE sensible strategy for building content rich yet direct selling related sites for small and home based business owners. There are others.

      Finally, I really hope some day small and home based marketers will stop directly comparing their sites to big sites that are run by dozens, perhaps HUNDREDS of people (majority of whom are likely to be on a regular salary by the way).

      If you can afford to hire the hands to maintain huge sites and you have a way to drive traffic to that site that either buys what you do showcase or so that you can sell ad space and you CAN locate willing and regular advertisers etc, go for it.

      If on the other hand, you're a small "mom and pop" web business and you have limited time to build and maintain sites and market/promote your sites and don't have an easy way to attract HUGE amounts of site visitors that will buy and/or advertisers that will pay to be in front of that kind of traffic, then you're hurting yourself trying to build MASSIVE free content oriented sites. The income you earn will probably never outmatch your input.

      Also, if you can build big gaming sites and make money doing so, don't let me stop you

      If you can't, do what you ARE capable of handling and profiting from.

      That's all there is to it.

      Just as an aside, with regard to gaming... I can pretty much bet that a gaming related site that had simple sales pages with just enough free content that sell the products being showcased can do just as well in front of the RIGHT kind of gaming audience... I'm not talking about people who love to play games free online, but people who are happy to pay $19.95 or $49.95 for a fully registered PC game for example (Novalogic http://www.novalogic.com) springs to mind here (in fact I just bought a PC game off them moments ago -- if the site was so content rich I couldn't find the game I wanted easily and how to order easily, I would not hang around long enough to search for and find it, I'd look elsewhere, fast... I'm sure I'm not alone in that regard).

      Lastly the DESIGN LAYOUT of your site matters too, and I will talk more on that in another thread.

      Live free!

      Kunle Olomofe
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      Celebrity Marketing Formula - How To Quickly Become A Celebrated Authority In ANY Industry/Niche... Coming Soon.
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