How Long Does It Take to Create Your Content?

Appreciate the feedback. Good points, indeed. You are right on. Realize that my blog doesn't really have a unique voice or personality. That is what will draw readers in. I need to change this.

If I move away from dry facts about China and start saying incorporating humor into my posts, I am afraid that I might offend people and namely the Chinese government. My goal is to move to China to do some drop shipping, learn the language --- who knows what else.

Think that my target audience is going to be people that want to learn more about China in general. Realize that this is pretty broad but because China is in the news all of the time, think there will be a segment of the population that seeks to learn about China's culture, people, places, etc. But who wants dry facts, when they can get that from Wikipedia. They want to be entertained in the process. Time to spice things up with a little humor.

It's entirely possible to have BOTH though.

If one does it right, you can have very lengthy content that can captivate an audience for a very long time.

Remember, there can be positive search engine implications to 1) keeping people on a page for longer, with high quality content and 2) humans naturally integrate elements of latent semantic indexing when you simply write, in detail, about a topic. You begin to naturally capture words that search engines link to other words and, as a result, place inherent value in your writing. This can further reinforce a brand, but, of course, it can also become a permanent source of high quality traffic.

Length (i.e. quantity) can be a double edged sword, though. You can have lengthy content that is of a very high quality, but, then, you can have lengthy content that is garbage. I do believe that search engines want to see originality, as well as, the meshing of other forms of media (pictures/video/etc). With that said, I generally like my content to be NO SHORTER than 1,000 words. One of my recent articles is over 7,000 words right now. For my intentions, that has worked out best for me. I know that other Warriors, in other threads, have indicated that they shoot for a similar word count.

Of course, content also can have a "purpose", tied into knowledge of an audience's needs and desires, which may make it more suitable for a lesser actual length. If your target market is 12 year old girls, chances are that they don't want to read a 1,000 word article about something. They'd likely would rather watch a video or read a much shorter article. It's all about knowing your audience, as well.

I have to head out shortly, but Nicole is right on the money about coming up with better titles/compelling headlines.

I'd HIGHLY recommend downloading this, reading it, then reading it again:

52 Headline Hacks: A "Cheat-Sheet" for Writing Blog Posts that Go Viral
Boost Blog Traffic - Getting You the Traffic You Deserve

(You'll have to submit your email to receive the report, but it is a report that has immense value.)

Think my site is interesting because it covers a variety of China topics. China is going to be the next superpower of the world and it will be essential for average Americans to know about it.

True the site is not really news and it may be a misnomer in calling it China Newz but really don't think the title of my blog will deter readers. Agree to some extent the content is a bit recycled but hope to add my own voice to some of the content now and try and spice it up. Check back in a month or so to see the change.

My site will hopefully give readers a single URL to come to and educate themselves about China. Whether it is travelers, business people, students interested in studying abroad or just someone interested in Chinese culture. The articles will serve as a teaser for China related products/services. Right now, am limited to what I can right about because my only source of material is via Google searches.

China related topics are my passion. I am a China junkie, so I feel that this is a topic I will be forever interested in. I have been to China for an extensive period of time and traveled to a handful of the cities.

Have been posting in China blogs, China forums, China social bookmarking sites, using Chime.in.

Want to connect with China travel sites so that they can post there ads on there. Also, hoping to go to China. Maybe travel around, find interesting products, like Chinese tea or porcelain and sell it through my site. Want to go all the way with the language. Will always be the foreigner that says silly things in bad Mandarin but that will lead to some good comedic material, make some people laugh.

Appreciate your feedback.

Some very good points here. I would definitely recommend writing about china from your perspective as well. Your thoughts, why it interests you... everything you love and hate about it... You mentioned you plan to go and live there, it would be cool to do a video diary of your trip or even a dairy in your blog. You can even write about your plans before you go and what you plan to do there.

Here's my first impressions:

I'm not sure if this is because of my script blocker, but I'm seening no "Read More" indicators at the bottom of the posts on your main page. It just looks like you're posting these insubstantial 1-2 paragraph blurbs. After I finally clicked on I saw you had longer articles on the pages. You might want to changes themes or add a plugin that will fix that.

To me, your content seems rather light and and fairly untimely. You don't seem to be trying to be a real news aggregater. If I was following China news I wouldn't subscribe to your site. China's a huge country that's producing a constant stream of very provocative news. I can't see attracting much attention with stuff like "Non Essential Rice Facts and Figures". You need to think more like an old time newspaper editor. What kind of articles and headlines will compel people to read it? Even better, what will keep people coming back? Your site's theme is awfully broad in scope. I would take some sharper focused aspect of the concept and concentrate my efforts more. You might not even narrow your subject, but just narrow the way you deliver it.

The best way to do this is to look very closely at your market and study them. See what they're getting now and how/where. Look for gaps you can fill in their needs.

My friend, there is more passion and personality in this post than in your entire site. Write like this on your blog, link out to the generic backgrounders where it will actually add value, and you won't lack for visitors.