Content is a tough gig, there’s no hiding from that fact. As website owners and affiliate marketers, we all face an immense battle in what is a vast and ever expanding ocean of words, pictures and videos.

Thousands of blog posts, articles and new websites spring up everyday so upping your game and delivering fresh content regularly to ensure prime rankings and earnings is essential.

To some, the sheer volume of content already out there in your market will make you want to close your laptop and flee the scene in panic. For many of you (myself included) your immediate reaction is how can I stand out? How can I do this content thing differently – bigger, better or smarter? What will make my site and my content stand out?

Simple – give them what they want. I could dress up the content business and tell you what a complex beast it is but why make this more complicated than it needs to be?

Contrary to popular belief, consumers are actually quite a rational bunch and relatively easy to predict. People know what they want and if you spoon feed them, they in turn will probably do what you want.

I’m not saying consumers are ‘dumb’ because we’re all consumers but we are logical beings. If we are searching for something then, believe it or not, that is actually what we are looking for so just help us solve it and we’ll do whatever you want us to. Like an extremely informal, anonymous but emotional bond.

In my opinion, the internet is a far simpler platform than many proclaim, the system seems to operate a little like this:

1. Near enough all internet adventures kick off via a search engine

2. Someone searches for ‘how to find cheap kitchen appliances’

3. They find your website because its relevant

4. Turns out it actually is relevant to them (not just Google)

5. You offer them a solution (how to article with affiliate link, ‘how to’ article with high CTR AdSense code, blog post leading to your product page featuring cheap kitchen appliances, article with kitchen newsletter email opt-in.)

6. Your virtual till starts ringing, Google & Bing continue to love you and more importantly the user has found what they are looking for, so leaves contented.

7. You’ve established some brand equity and authority. These people may never come back to your site but there again they may tell their friends, or they may visit you again when they need some more kitchen advice. Either way, you’ve become an authority and you’ve added value.

Seems simple, so how come so few website owners do it? Well many website owners create content for their own purposes (SEO, dumping affiliate links, a few AdSense pennies) forgetting that the end user is the REAL customer in all this.

Many people forget that shady tactics like scraping and spinning another website’s content just isn’t that valuable so don’t expect to make a killing. You may get a few clicks but in the long term the only way to create a sustainable business is by constantly adding value to the equation – otherwise you are just taking from it.

PS. Be careful about giving them ‘the manual’ though otherwise they have little reason to click your ads/affiliate links and somebody merrily solving their problem for free using content on your site is unlikely to pay for that dedicated personal server you just shelled out for.

Author Bio: James writes all sorts of articles about SEO and founded provider Affordable SEO

Category: Marketing
Keywords: SEO, content marketing