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Develop Quality Content to Rule the Web
By Sharon Housley (c) 2005

Fresh Content

The age old question keeps coming up, how do you retain website
visitors, how do you make visitors return to your website? The
answer should come as no surprise, fresh content. Content is
truly king, the fresher the content the better the site. What
many webmasters fail to realize is that there is an endless
supply of content on the web that is freely available to
webmasters.

Not only can public domain material be freely used and
syndicated on websites, but a number of content publishers
provide content in exchange for a link back to their websites.
A variety of contents related to the website theme that is
integrated into the website will attract the interest of both
search engines and web surfers. The key to taking advantage of
free content is integrating or including content that is
directly related to the theme of the website.

1. Articles
Article repositories exist that categorize content articles.
Searching the repositories using keywords that are related to
a website's theme will result in a wide variety of articles
available for publication that are related to the site's
existing web content. Articles in the repositories are available
for syndication, which means webmasters can freely include the
articles on their websites as long as they include the author
resource box with valid links.

Use the following to locate topic specific articles:

Free Website Content -

http://www.small-business-software.net/free-website-content.htm
GoArticles - http://www.goarticles.com

2. RSS Feeds
The content of many RSS feeds can be syndicated. The added
benefit of syndicating feeds is that they are frequently updated
which will result in a steady stream of fresh changing content.
In order to reap the benefits of syndicating RSS feeds,
webmasters should use either an ASP script or PHP script to
display the feeds contents as HTML.

Webmasters can navigate categories of RSS feed directories to
locate related topic feeds or search for feeds using keywords.

Search the following directories to locate related RSS feeds:

RSS Network - http://www.rss-network.com
RSS Locator - http://www.rss-locator.com

Free script for displaying RSS feeds as HTML: rss2html.php
- http://www.feedforall.com/free-php-script.htm

3. Shareware Listings
Consider populating a website or section of a website with
related niche software applications. Many software companies
offer applications as free downloads. The downloads allow
potential customers the opportunity to try an application prior
to making a purchase decision. Categorizing and displaying
software that relates to a website theme can generate a lot of
interest. Most developers provide product descriptions and
information in a PAD file which is simply XML. Developers can
locate PAD files using the ASP site and the PAD kit can be
used to display the contents of the PAD file.

PAD Kit - http://www.asp-shareware.org

4. Creative Commons
A Creative Commons license allows creators to place conditions
on their copyrights. Many artists allow other publishers to use
their creative and artwork, occasionally there are conditions
that credit must be given, while others are available freely.
Web publishers can find a lot of unique content, images and
creative using the new Yahoo Creative Commons Search.

The Yahoo! Creative Commons Search service finds content
across the Web that has a Creative Commons license.

Yahoo Creative Commons Search - http://search.yahoo.com/cc
More on Creative Commons - http://www.creativecommons.com

5. Forums
Consider creating a community forum where like-minded
individuals or at the very least individuals with a common
interest can discuss problems, concerns, related products or
ideas. The forum posts will generate a fresh stream of new and
self perpetuating website content.

Free Forum *note be sure to stay current on updates
PHPbb - http://www.phpbb.com

6. White Papers
Provide white papers, customer profiles or endorsements that
detail how applications can be used in a specific industry.
Creating a white paper section that explains how a specific
product or service is used in a specific industry to solve a
problem or increase productivity gives potential customers
insight into how a specific service, product or technology will
help in the course of a day.

Sample White Papers -
http://www.notepage.net/whitepapers.htm

7. Directories
Creating a directory of related sites while time consuming can
result in significant traffic. Directories typically are well
respected resources and rank well in search engines.

Sample Niche Directories :
Podcasting Tools - http://www.podcasting-tools.com
Finance Investing Feed Directory - http://www.finance-investing.com

8. Newsletter Archive
If done properly online marketers see an almost instantaneous
sales or traffic increase when they send newsletters but many
do not benefit long term from the newsletter. Consider creating
a newsletter archive, the content is already built, why not
benefit from the potential traffic and unique phrases used, to
attract new or potential customers?

Sample Archive
Corporate Newsletters - http://www.feedforall.com/newsletter.htm
Software Marketing Newsletters -
http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/articledirectory.html

9. Blog
Ride the technological wave. A daily journal with information
related to product or service launches, specials, technical
tips and new product announcements.

Sample Blog Archive
RSS Blog - http://www.rss-specifications.htm/blog.htm

As search engines combat the problems with artificially generated
nonsensical web content, webmasters must integrate quality,
themed content that is going to legitimately interest prospective
customers.

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Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll
http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing,
publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages
marketing for FeedForDev http://www.feedfordev.com an RSS
component for developers.
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