Many years ago I began creating web sites that began as photo albums for friends and family and then turned into travel guides for trips I took to Jamaica , Napa Valley and the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Soon I created web sites related to cars, dogs, and motorcycles. Later I was turned on to Google’s Adsense program which allowed me to generate enough income from my hobby web sites that I could pay for the overhead costs. I found it challenging to come up with additional content and perform search engine optimization on my existing pages. Occasionally I would hit mental blocks and would have no new content I could add. Whenever this happens I try for the following to help me generate new and useful web site content and hopefully drive my Google Adsense revenue.
Simplify something that is complicated – How many times have you wanted to learn about something but didn’t want to spend the time reading a complicated manual or article. Perform this service for your web site visitors by paraphrasing something into a one page snapshot of your subject matter. The key is to pick out the most important points or actions and present them simply for easy reading. You can use your web site to refer the visitors to the more complicated document and recommend they follow up and read the entire document. Class action lawsuits are great for this purpose. In my work as an IT Manager I occasionally get legal papers detailing the settlement of class action lawsuits that affect my industry. There is nothing more boring than reading the details of a class action lawsuit settlement. In most cases I am required to read and then follow up on the class action claims in a given lawsuit. I find that by pulling out the steps to claim a settlement and paraphrasing the cause and effect of the lawsuit in plain english I not only have quality revenue generating web site content but can provide a useful document for my customers that saves them time. Keep an eye on the news either locally or nationally. Any subject that that might need clarification or opinion is an opportunity for you to generate original content for your web site.
Look for new keywords that spur ideas for additional web site content – When you don’t know what to write about try putting in keywords related to subjects you know about or for which you already have web site content. Many keyword generator tools exist on the web and these typically spit our new and related keywords or phrases that might get those creative juices flowing again. Some such as the Overture bid tool will tell you the relative worth of the keywords. This will help you prioritize your ideas.
Compare Something. This is my favorite. Take two choices and provide your web site visitors with additional information so they can choose between the subjects. I do this a lot with travel web sites especially resorts and hotels that are related. This works especially well if the two things you compare are owned by the same company and are not competing. Simply do the research to provide the differences and let your visitors decide which to choose from.
Review Something – Now that I create web content as a business I review EVERYTHING. I also keep a camera in the car and any business that might be searched in a search engine I snap a picture and write a review. This has been especially satisfying when I can offer tips or criticism that would help future customers get a better experience.
John Gall is a full time IT Manager and IT Consultant in Minnesota. He runs several websites as a hobby featuring content similar to that in this article.
http://www.gallconsulting.com
http://www.sandalspictures.com
http://www.napavalleypictures.com
http://www.winesilove.com
