Quality Content

[TerrelShumway]

commentary on http://www.v7n.com/quality-content.php

Lots of people tell you to make quality content, but they fail to ever define what quality is. What quality are people talking about when they say make quality content?

Short answer: It all depends.

Long answer: It depends mostly on two things:

1) your audience

Most people write to communicate. So you need to know who you are talking to. The better you know them and understand them, the more effective your communication will be.


2) your purpose

If you don't have a purpose in writing, stay home and watch TV (or whatever) instead.

Seth Godin's purpose in writing might be 1) to help business leader be more effective communicators and marketers and 2) to fill his karma bank so full that no one will ever be able to dislodge him from his undisputed role as "permission marketing info god"

Corey Rudl's purpose in writing might be 1) give people information to make them more effective marketers, and 2) fill his money bank account so full he can chose exactly what work he wants to do.

I think both have achieved their purposes. I'm not going to speculate on who has the most toys in this life, or who will be better off in the next, but they have both done what they set out to do.

As we look at Web Page Content we see "High quality web content impresses people and search engines. Learn how to get your message across clearly and quickly."

If you create content to impress search engines, the search engine algorithm writers may eventually discover your fraud and dethrone you. If you create content to impress people, people will still find you even after search engines cease to exist (don't hold your breath) just as they did before search engines existed.

In a perfect world, search engines would be able to tell the difference between so-called "smart pages" and real pages created for a human audience. In the real world, it takes a while for them to identify spammers.

I still vote for impressing people. Let the consequence follow. Your mileage (and karma) may vary.


my ,
-- Terrel "content-is-not-king" Shumway

[awall19]

Originally Posted by TerrelShumway

Seth Godin's purpose in writing might be 1) to help business leader be more effective communicators and marketers and 2) to fill his karma bank so full that no one will ever be able to dislodge him from his undisputed role as "permission marketing info god"

Corey Rudl's purpose in writing might be 1) give people information to make them more effective marketers, and 2) fill his money bank account so full he can chose exactly what work he wants to do.

I think both have achieved their purposes. I'm not going to speculate on who has the most toys in this life, or who will be better off in the next, but they have both done what they set out to do.

yup. I guess my point was that as far as search engine marketing goes, karma spreads easier than "make me money."

I have met customers who read Corey Rudles book and were still failing until they met me. I have met Seth Godin in person twice and even hung out at his office one day. Seth is part of the reason I am successful. I am way more likely to spread the word about Seth than Corey.

Money can make many affiliate marketers push your products, but at the end of the day I would rather have karma. Exponential karma growth with a force of free honest marketers of your product is huge.

Rarely do I ever find myself giving away a bunch without somehow getting stuff back.

[TerrelShumway]

Originally Posted by awall19

yup. I guess my point was that as far as search engine marketing goes, karma spreads easier than "make me money."

definitely.

Originally Posted by awall19

I have met customers who read Corey Rudles book and were still failing until they met me.

(surprise, surprise. 97% of people trying to sell stuff online are "still failing". And it's not because the programs don't work. Howtos are useless without persistent, focused action. I'm glad you were able to help them take action.)

Originally Posted by awall19

I have met Seth Godin in person twice and even hung out at his office one day. Seth is part of the reason I am successful. I am way more likely to spread the word about Seth than Corey.
....
Rarely do I ever find myself giving away a bunch without somehow getting stuff back.

I don't think Corey understands the principle of "gifting". Many of his peers do, and use it to achieve good results. I don't promote his stuff either, because he doesn't give anything without throwing in a sales pitch for something else. His system can and does work, but the information he sells is not unique -- you can get it for free from other sources (but you have to work harder).

Another reason Seth is successful is that he focuses on principles instead of on techniques.

Originally Posted by awall19

Money can make many affiliate marketers push your products, but at the end of the day I would rather have karma. Exponential karma growth with a force of free honest marketers of your product is huge.

(OT: maybe the rest of this belongs in the SEO forum)

Perry Marshall is another person who uses karma instead of a paid affiliate program. A while back, I put up this page, just because I think Perry is straight and what he has to say is valuable.

http://terrelshumway.com/affiliates/perry-marshall/ [PR=3]

This page (currently) shows up as #8 on a Google search for "perry marshall" Overture shows 97 searches for "perry marshall" last month. I got 8 visitors from the Google search in June.

Obviously this is not a competitive phrase, because I did nothing to get this ranking.


http://www.perrymarshall.com/ [PR=5, 33 IBLs]

I think Perry deserves more than this. What should he do?

[note: Perry does have an affilate program now, but it's very new]

[ccarte2]

agreed