How To: Develop Content That Increases Website Traffic

In my previous article I discussed the building blocks to building a successful website.  What I would like to discuss now is how to produce the best content that will increase your websites traffic, which, in return, will help build your community.  The first thing I always think about when making a video, writing a blog post, or posting a tweet on Twitter is me.  By that, I mean, I think to myself if what I am about to do is worthwhile, something of value, or something that can benefit (inform or entertain) people.  If the answer is yes to any of those questions, then I will share it.

Now that is not to say that adding a personal touch here and there is a bad idea, because it’s not.  In fact, it’s a good idea to add a personalized style to your content – it makes it more human.  If you mess up, deal with it.  Unless I completely mess up (such as in a video) where it makes the video flawed in some way, I typically leave my mistake alone.  People like when they can relate to someone.

What kind of content should you be creating?  Well, it depends.  It depends on who your intended audience is going to be.  For me, my audience is a bunch of techies and geeks.  People who are interested in the latest gadgets, tech news, hardware, software, and so on.  So I try and create content that fulfills their needs.  I have found that people love reviews and unboxings.  So if you are dealing with tech record yourself unboxing a product and then record a review of the product.  The key idea is to fulfill your audiences needs.  If you do that, people will come back again and again.  It is also very important (and I can’t stress this enough) that you are passionate and knowledgeable about the topics you are talking about whether it be in video form or text.  People will quickly learn whether you are truly passionate and knowledgeable about what you are doing.  Aside from that, after a while, if you’re not passionate about the topics you are discussing, you won’t enjoy doing it anymore and then where is the fun in that?

If possible, do a full text write up and accompany that with a video.  I have found that video + text content is a very key ingredient to success.  Some people love to watch the video and then read the text (or vice versa), while some like to only read the text or only watch the video.  I found that using social networks to push your content can also be very helpful.  You can find more information on using a service called Ping.fm to push your status updates across multiple social networks here.  Additionally, using websites such as Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon can also be beneficial and bring traffic to your site.  Even if you do not end up on the front page of Digg or Reddit, there will still be a number of people who will see your submitted article.

Lastly, do not be discouraged by anything or anyone.  Also, along those lines is do not be afraid to ask people for things (review products, interviews, to meet up, etc) – the worst answer is no.  And just imagine, if they say “yes” – how cool would that be?  It takes time for people to find you and slowly but surely they will if you put out good quality content.

[Image credit: juicedigitalpr]