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Please give suggestions ...
At present I found a lot of sites which are giving free article for publishing to bloggers. Is it good to publish a lot of (free) articles of medium quality or to publish fewer but high quality content ? Which will make the blog better - the quality or the numbers of articles ?
But it is a fact that sometimes quality articles doesn't meet the needs of the people. But if you make a lot of articles then probability increases of getting more readers !
The important thing is not the quantity of the articles you publish. Arguably, it's not even the quality. What a blog needs is to be (i) original; and (ii) relevant to your audience.
If you simply copy articles from the site you mentioned, your blog will fail both those tests. The simple truth is that if you want a really good blog, you must either develop your own content, or commission someone else to do it exclusively for you.
Mike
Why not combine the two, provides your site with a lot of high quality articles. It needs a lot of hard work so you probably need to hire good writers.
If I have a website, one of the things that I'll make sure of is the fact that it has quality content. I wouldn't care that much of the quantity of the content I post there; what matters to me is that the people get to read high quality stuff on my site whenever they expect it. That being said, I would also take note of the consistency. It's not just in the timing or the schedule, by the way. Being consistent in terms of content creation means that you're posting good stuff while following your schedule. Those two work hand in hand; take out one of them, then it's going to be hard to reach your goals.
• If you don't follow a schedule for posting content, there's a chance that people may not notice that you're actually posting good stuff on some days. Some of your good content will get the hype, but it won't be as long lasting as you expect it to be.
• If you don't post quality content, people will just hit the Back button, or close the window even if you follow a good schedule.
The one thing that you have to take note of when you're writing quality content for your website is to know what your target audience wants to read on your site. There are times when you think you're writing something so awesome because you think it's just that, but people think otherwise. Don't be afraid to ask around for other people's opinions before you actually write something down. You would be thankful for the tons of good ideas that may come from the people you interact with.
Oh, before I end this, do take note that I've been using the second person (you, your) in my reply. Having said that, you (there I go again) really have to make sure that it's YOU that they see in your content. Remember that first impressions last; the first persona that you show is the one that's going to stick in the minds of your readers. Fake it once, then it's going to be hard for you to build up the real you.
making a lot of articles can be automated with many tools, this lead Google to take action against low quality content hence the algo's such as the farmer update or panda which penalised duplicate low quality content.Originally Posted by tanjilovi
Just a reminder: Please keep your questions and responses on topic with the thread as well as within the range of the forum. This area of SitePoint discusses creating quality content for visitors, nob bots. Search Engine discussions have no place here. If you want to discuss SEO, please visit the Internet Marketing forum.
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Linda Jenkinson: Content Team Leader
Creative Web Content
"Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean." ~Unknown
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After reading all the comments in the reply I get the expression that high quality and high quantity both are needed to be successful. I learned one thing and that is "Publish high quality contents in regular intervals " . And it is not that easy. :|
Thanks everyone for replying.
There are something over half a billion websites on the internet ... there's a lot of competition out there, for pretty much any subject or niche! So yes, if you want to compete, you need to have the material to do so, and that means quality.
Two other things to consider. First is the regularity that you post new articles. Yes, you probably want to front-load your site and get several articles up there quickly so that there's enough to sustain people's interests when they find the site, but after that first flurry, try to post at a regular interval, whether it's daily, weekly, monthly or whatever. The more you can stick to that schedule, the more likely you are to get people checking back when there's a new article due. If your publishing frequency is random and all over the place, people will get bored if they keep coming back, not knowing if there will be anything new and finding that they're isn't – or finding that you've posted half a dozen articles and they've missed the main bulk of comments and discussion.
Second is the level of competition. It's all very well to write an article that you've written all yourself, well-researched and top quality, but if there are hundreds of other established sites with an article covering the same topic, it's going to be an uphill battle to get a loyal readership. If the topics are already well covered, you need to try to give your site a unique flavour, whether it's just a different tone (eg more humorous) or a new take on the idea (eg a different point of view).
But at the end of the day, yes it's hard work, hard work and more hard work. There's no getting away from that. If you enjoy writing and have a good bank of ideas to write about, it can be enjoyable and rewarding, but even so there are no shortcuts.
Any posts I write in Arial are on my mobile phone, so please excuse typos etc.
Any posts I write in Verdana are on a PC, so feel free to berate me mercilessly for any mistakes
You know there are lots of blog on internet as same as yours, What we want with our blog is "readers" , So for this you should post a unique articles in regular interval, however the interval may be a day, week or month. If you do copy paste of an article which get already posted then you might be lose your regular readers. So my suggestion is go with unique article, it doesn't matter how frequently you make new post, the matter is what you post is unique.
I am only in the game for a year and 1/2...but I understand it is not as much about the quality, but more about the originality...
But there are a lot articles of the same issue. Say, I made an article by researching. I use the help from different blogs and write the article using my own words. After checking the copyscape it say no result found. That means the article is unique right ? But this unique article sometimes get rolled under the wheel of high page rank pages. You also mentioned about originality. What do you mean by originality - Are there other ways to make original articles other than researching and re-writing ?
Thank for the reply it was helpful.
If all you're doing is taking other people's work and re-shaping it then you need to question what value you're adding. Yes, it might legitimately be "research" using a range of source materials, synthesising them all into one article that draws on a dozen others, bringing together the key points from each and writing it yourself ... that's perfectly valid way of generating an article, but you have to ask yourself what the point of it is, when there’s nothing new there.
Now there might be very good reasons for doing that. You might find source material that is badly written or extremely technical and so difficult for a lot of people to read an understand ... if you can re-write it in a more readable and accessible format, that’s great. You might be looking at source materials that take completely opposing viewpoints and trying to find some common middle ground or a compromise between them ... and that’s great too. But if you’re just re-hashing the same ideas that hundreds of other people have already without any kind of USP, why would someone want to read the article on your site rather than the original source?
So, what else can you do? How about some original research ... if you’re writing about, for example, a piece of software, then give us your own experiences. Try it out yourself, tell us what you think about it. Try to make it specific and relevant, rather than generic. Inject some of your personality into it.
Above all, think about what you would want to read in someone else’s article. If you read two articles from different websites on the same topic, what would encourage you to go back to one website rather than the other? What else would you have liked the author to include? Critically analysing your own writing is hard work, but it’s a valuable skill if you are going to create worthwhile articles.
Any posts I write in Arial are on my mobile phone, so please excuse typos etc.
Any posts I write in Verdana are on a PC, so feel free to berate me mercilessly for any mistakes
I thought of that. And yes if I make a real effort to search the web and bring something new it should be called research.So re-writing and mixing things up , right ? :P
Your suggestions were really cool. Thanks .
Hey..here are some Essential Elements of High-quality web content...
- Truthful headline & strong hook
- Beautiful typography
- Subheaders and bulleted/ numbered lists
- Clear,lean& engaging writing
<snip>
Last edited by Shyflower; Aug 14, 2012 at 05:01. Reason: removed fake signature
Thank you for the reply. What do you mean by good typography ? Does it mean to have a good font in the posts ?
Subheadings, bullet list clean lean writing is very important. I always try to follow these.
Thanks again.
Typography on the web is about more than just fonts. Although the advent of sIFR and web fonts has made it easier to display a website in your chosen font, even if it isn't widely available on visitor's computers, that still isn't practical in a lot of cases and many fonts are not licensed for this use. And so the vast majority of sites stick to a small number of common fonts – such as Verdana, Arial, Georgia, Calibri, Comic Sans and TNR (although the last two are not recommended!)
Other significant factors in web typography include:
- increasing line-spacing to create extra white space and make long paragraphs more readable
- choosing between appropriate serif / sans-serif fonts for body text and headings
- increasing letter-spacing for effect in headings
- ensuring that you use correct typographic punctuation, such as m/n-dashes where appropriate, curly quotes and so on
Any posts I write in Arial are on my mobile phone, so please excuse typos etc.
Any posts I write in Verdana are on a PC, so feel free to berate me mercilessly for any mistakes
true and make sure you proofread. when i see something cool but then i notice some mistakes it ruins the whole impression. i start thinking that if someone is unable to write a sentence without mistakes s/he is able to guarantee 100% smth...so always double-check)
s/he is able to guarantee 100% smth ???
that made no sense whatsoever
maybe you should've double-checked it
Do you means things like: not starting a sentence with a capital letter; using a lower-case I instead of a capital; using a closing parentheses without a matching opening parentheses; not ending a sentence with a full stop; and using obscure abbreviations ( like "smth") without explaining what they mean?
I'm sorry, Rudiemartin. I know you're trying to make a valid point. But there are some things I just can't resist.
Mike
Recent article written/edited:
More than ever are people asking to be a "Guest blogger" or give a "guest post" to you. Thing is, if you cannot control the quality of those guest posts then you are hurting yourself. Sure, it may be a FREE article but the quality will not be there unless they are really pushing some link and/or product of their own. My point is, it is best to hunker down and get your own writers or compose your own blog posts to keep up the quality and keep it fresh and interesting for your readers. The last thing you want is a bunch of guest posts flooding your site with uninterested content. This is my two cents and I am sticking to it.
I've had a number of guest posts on one of my blogs, but I always let them know that I have the right to edit their posts before I agree to accept them.
Linda Jenkinson: Content Team Leader
Creative Web Content
"Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean." ~Unknown
March Photo Challenge. "Blue" Poll is open. Vote NOW!
April Photo Challenge - "A Piece of Paper"
Websites are either used to inform or make money. Regardless of either without visitors the website flounders. When writing content yes it needs to be original, but it also needs to be something visitors want to read. By definition this requires the writing to be excellent quality otherwise no one will bother with it!
Never lose sight of why you are writing and it is not to entertain yourself! Those who are only interested in money and not what their visitors want will probably crash and burn.
Yeah, you're right in a general sense. But if you're just going to think that writing with excellent quality is the way to go, you have to do a little bit of reviewing. Quality content can bring you far, but what if that kind of quality isn't something that your target readers are looking for? Yes, there might be some people who will be hooked to what you've written, but are you really sure that they're the audience you're looking for?
Quality content is a must. It will obviously get you more viewers because if one person likes it, he would probably recommend it to someone and so on. Content should be according to the interest of your target audience.
Maybe you have to focus on quality content and getting the correct exposure through SEO and SMO. More is always better, but if what you're writing about is hogwash, then it's little time before people will steer away, much like a fast-food joint selling terrible food (you might be the passers by, but can you make a living on those?). Try to have content that people want to read. Google Keywords Tool is brilliant for this. For grammatical mistakes WordPress has a good plug-in called "After the Deadline", presuming you're using WP.
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