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Content is King . . . But His Queen Wears the Pants in the Family

by Steve B
16 replies
Everybody says "content is king" right? It's a direct quote from none other than Bill Gates back in 1996. Few would argue that it's become a cliche, but no one really seems to dispute it.

I was snooping around BuzzFeed today minding my own business as one of their 80 million unique monthly visitors, when I found an interesting quote. Jonathan Perelman, a VP of Agency Strategy at BuzzFeed, (who, by the way, spent six years at Google) said the following:

"Content is king, but distribution is queen and she wears the pants."

BuzzFeed is the leading media company for social news and entertainment and insists on delivering high-quality original content to its viewers. But it seems that VP Perelman, the BuzzFeed strategist, recognizes the critical importance of distribution of his content to the BuzzFeed success. He is keenly aware of web trends and the importance of connecting the day's hottest content with his hungry subscribers.

So I ask you, fellow Warriors, is content really king when it lacks distribution to the right audience? I think not.

What are your thoughts?

Steve
#content #family #king #pants #queen #wears
  • Profile picture of the author clever7
    I agree that good content alone is not enough. If nobody is finding this content and reading it, or if those who are reading it are unable to evaluate its superiority, nothing has any meaning.
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    • Profile picture of the author DTGeorge
      Originally Posted by clever7 View Post

      I agree that good content alone is not enough. If nobody is finding this content and reading it, or if those who are reading it are unable to evaluate its superiority, nothing has any meaning.
      Summed up clearly and concisely.

      The best written content is useless unless it's being seen.

      The idea that great content will magically be shared without any marketing effort is a total and complete myth.

      The most popular content is usually the content that the owner/manager has worked tireless to promote.

      If you're not marketing, you have little to no chance of your content even being seen.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Steve B View Post

    So I ask you, fellow Warriors, is content really king when it lacks distribution to the right audience? I think not.

    What are your thoughts?
    I agree with you (as ever).

    An example: I think that publishing content - however good - just on your own site isn't much of a traffic-generation plan at all: all that can bring is a bit of gradual, eventual, search engine traffic ... and not many people are getting rich from that.

    Although content on your own site is obviously part of "marketing", I think using content successfully and exploiting its potential well, for marketing, is more about taking your content to the places where the targeted traffic you want to attract is already looking/reading/visiting (after publishing it first yourself, to secure the initial indexation-rights, obviously!). It isn't so much about how much content you have: it's about who reads it. "Good content" is content that publishers in your niche, who already have access to the traffic you want to attract, want and choose to share with their own subscribers, readers and visitors (either by publishing it or linking to it). That's a very simple, practical definition of "good content", but I think it's a useful one because it relates directly to how content produces income.
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  • Profile picture of the author harrisonrader
    It's all relative, really. Content is only king when read by the right person / people. It could be the most incredible (say) blog post ever written on the subject but if the reader has absolutely no interest in the topic being discussed then the content is less than nothing. And when I say "less than nothing" I mean that. A blog post can be thrown away, but "nothing" can't be.
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    • Profile picture of the author Devid Farah
      Hi steve,

      of course not. I totally agree here.

      We hear this a lot of times "write outstanding, outrageous content and they will come"

      A big NO.

      Content is king when you have an high targeted traffic website.

      You can have the absolute best content in the world, but its worthless if it cant reach the right people.

      What most people still dont get is that its not the "outstanding" content(or the product) that makes the difference, is MARKETING and TRAFFIC that does. Its how much time you dedicate to drive targeted traffic to your website/offers and market to the RIGHT audience that will make all the difference.

      If you have content that is good enough you are in the game now you should focus on getting visitors to your website/offer and learn some basic copywriting skills.

      Marketing is the art of finding buyers to your offers and, as a marketer, you need to master this aspect if you truly want to succeed.

      Plus, your content can always be properly repurposed to generate traffic to your website/offers. Theres plenty of ways to do this.(articles, podcasts, videos, mini pdfs reports etc.)
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  • Profile picture of the author JRJWrites
    I totally agree. In fact, marketing my content and distributing it is something that I'm having trouble with right now. Needless to say, that's definitely affecting the overall success of my online business.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stuart Walker
    Epic content is nothing if you don't get that content in front of your target audience.

    So many people here on WF keep saying "just post good articles regularly to your site and you'll get traffic" but that's nonsense. No one will magically send it to you.

    You need to get out there and promote it.
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    • Profile picture of the author dalegolden
      Originally Posted by RockingLastsForever View Post

      Epic content is nothing if you don't get that content in front of your target audience.

      So many people here on WF keep saying "just post good articles regularly to your site and you'll get traffic" but that's nonsense. No one will magically send it to you.

      You need to get out there and promote it.
      I totally agree with you. Content is the king and content marketing is the queen. Distributing contents is equally important as creating high quality content. Getting traffic is never so easy and you can never rely on search engine traffic always.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Douglas
    There is nothing that is something without something else.

    Content is nothing without distribution just like distribution doesn't account for anything if the content is not good.

    If content was so royal, writers would have been on the top of the food chain. The truth is, writers only supply the raw material which marketers then use to build a business.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Rosmer
    Mark Victor Hansen, who is arguably a king of content said a good friend of his who was huge in the distribution game said something similar "content is king, but distribution is the emperor". You need both, the reality is distributors are looking for content that will sell, content producers are looking for distribution, they are both looking for good promoters, who are in turn looking for great content and great distribution, without all three you've got nothing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Geri Richmond
    Hi,
    Great content will get you traffic but, not if you don't put the effort forth to distribute. Distribution is key.
    Geri Richmond
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  • Profile picture of the author illiptic
    I would say both are equally important and intertwined.

    If you have eyeballs but crappy content, nobody interacts and nobody buys stuff.

    If you have the best content ever, but nobody sees it...same thing.

    I would say that content is still "king" in the sense that communication is a far more important aspect of marketing than just taffic/eyeballs.

    No matter what kind of content it is, it is always a form of communication....and mastering communication and influence should get a whole lot more of your attention and time than just mastering a traffic strategy.

    (just my thoughts)
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    • Profile picture of the author myob
      The quote by Bill Gates actually was taken totally out of context, and originally was not in direct reference to the written word. However, the mighty power of content in general has been well-known for centuries.

      "Content makes poor men rich."
      - Benjamin Franklin
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  • Profile picture of the author createyouwealth
    You can have great content but if you don't distribute it to the right audience no one will be interested. So yea distribution is definitely a key factor in this.
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  • Profile picture of the author BudaBrit
    Surely the whole basis of content being "king" depends on how well it speaks to its audience. For it to speak to its audience, it needs to have one in the first place...

    I'm working with someone at the moment who doesn't seem to grasp this content, despite my attempts to bring it to his attention. We'll see.
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