Developing quality website content which engages your visitors and keeps them longer on your site can be a real challenge, one which takes time and can become quite costly, particularly if you decide to outsource the tasks involved.
The task itself will depend on your online strategy – i.e. focus on one major site, build multiple mini-sites which may / may not link back to a main site, establish your blog as a separate site to your main site, etc.
[Every business is different and so the strategy you choose will depend on how you feel you should present your business. There is no one-size-fits-all.]
Here are some options – and tips – for building and adding quality content to your website/s.
General Content
- Regularly add new content or upgrade existing content to ensure a fresh feel for returning visitors.
- Provide brief summaries on products and services – but always give those who want detailed overviews the ability to get that from your site through links / extra pages.
- Use visuals ( images and videos) as much as possible – but support them with copy as many people still like to read , may have bad bandwidth, or their employer does not allow speakers and / or headsets in the office (a common practice in many businesses).
- Provide free material such as Special Reports and e-Courses– but get people to subscribe rather than making it all available for free. Ideally, your content will be specific to your industry and / or associated needs which you feel your readers may require or be interested in.
- Garner related links – product summaries, articles, etc – for your industry into one or more pages – and write a short summary on each and its relevance to your readers (i.e. make a recommendation).
- Add a support center facility – and include in there a Knowledge Base which addresses common questions. It cuts down on your workload plus creates confidence.
General Tip: Add social media buttons to your website as these are the primary channel for many part time users on the Internet today.
Your Blog
- Post articles as often as you can.
- Make your posts as informative as you can so that your readers want to view more than one post.
- Express an opinion rather than just stating text book facts and figures. People want to know what you think.
- Don’t place a restriction on a Blogs length. Make it as short or long as is required to convey your message effectively.
- Only use professionals with good research and writing skills if you outsource. Low quality articles you can buy for very little are generally disregarded by serious buyers as they rarely have any substance to them.
- Look at your circle of associates and invite them to contribute. Always acknowledge them as the author when you do.
- NEVER plagiarize / copy material from another site unless authorized to do so, When you are authorized, always provide full acknowledgement. [Google are now encouraging all authors to use the rel=”author” tag on their blog content and so if you copy, there’s a good chance that Google will delist your material as the original author has already been registered. ]
General Monetization Options
- Include options such as Google Adsense – but don’t make this a dominant element of your content as many people switch off when all they see is adverts.
- Create your own products – every business should have secondary income streams and info products are a perfect way to achieve this. If you have distributors / resellers, then try to focus on training products which can help them increase sales for you.
- Provide an affiliate program for any products you sell. You can establish your affiliate program on one or more of the publicly available Affiliate networks or operate your own in-house program using software packages which are available for as little as $100.
- Purchase products with resale rights (PLR) – but be careful as most products which have resale rights attached to them are dated and / or are no longer in demand, especially in the Internet Marketing (IM) sector where things move along quite quickly. The better PLR products will cost you $100 – $200 and are available on a limited basis.
Affiliate Offers
- Write reviews on each offer – and if you believe strongly enough in the product, make a recommendation.
- Use the copy which the promoter provides as a base – but modify it to reflect your style.
- Use banners – but don’t overload a page or your website with banners to third parties.
- Focus on offers with a decent payout to justify your time in preparing a review and / or modifications to any copy provided.
- Look for offers which provide continuity as your readers may come back in 6 months time looking for what you provided and if there is no link, you have lost that opportunity.
- Be aware of any time-related restrictions on an offer and remove it from your site when it has expired.
- Avoid offers which are limited to a specific country / region and inaccessible or not available everywhere if your list and website visitors are global.
- Always state you are an affiliate and will earn money if someone purchases from the link you provide. This is now an FTC requirement in the USA.
Network Marketing Programs
- Encourage your buyers and downline to use your site as a point of entry rather than the sponsor site. You may need some special scripts to ensure the integrity of your downlines tracking link, but if your downline is substantial, then it’s worth investing in that script.
- Prepare additional materials which the sponsor company does not provide to assist your downline in making sales – e.g. sales strategies, support materials, news updates, etc
- Include links and / or products you own which you feel may be of assistance in helping them grow their business – e.g. additional training, recommended suppliers such as website developers, etc.
- If you have a big downline, provide support facilities such as online chat, forum, etc plus make yourself visible through webinars and / or Google+ Hangouts.
There are many other options I could have included, but the above will certainly get you started and / or give you some additional points to consider.