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I am having a problem with content. My niche is glass doodads.* I thought I’d be able to have a site that revolves around doodads and sign up with some merchants that sell glass doodads. I looked on other sites and their content revolves around: how to care for your doodads, description of various doodads, how to create your own doodads, how to choose the right doodad for you, etc. I want my site to stand out, but am wondering where do I get information for my content?
I am not an expert on glass doodads, but discovered this niche and I think it will be profitable. Would it be advantageous to pay someone for original content?
What I would do to gather content for your site is use these other sites for inspiration as far as what kind of topics you could cover, as well as, of course, going to your keyword list for topic ideas. Then I would read up on those subjects around the web and write your own articles with the knowledge you’ve gained. If you’ve read a good variety of info from other sites (or from magazines or books, any source you want), you should be able to come up with your own original articles, worded in your unique voice and from your viewpoint. Don’t worry that just because someone else’s doodad site has an article on how to care for the doodad you can’t have an article on that same subject. Just make it your own.
You definitely don’t have to be an expert. That’s why I suggest in the course that the topic be something you are interested in, so that the research needed in order to become an “expert” isn’t drudgery for you. If you like what you’re writing about, you will enjoy researching it. And compiling articles from your research will actually make you more of an expert in the subject than 99% of the general population!
To make your articles, and therefore your site, stand out, try to come up with creative ways to present the information, such as making charts or diagrams or using photos to make the information on your site more enjoyable to read, more helpful than anybody else’s. You may not be able to surpass all other sites in every respect because I’m sure some of them have nice photos and graphics too, but I’ve found that an awful lot of the other “Internet marketers” putting up niche sites are not really doing that great of a job.
A lot of them are scraping content from others and doing just the bare minimum to get a site up and running, paying no attention to accuracy or presentation whatsoever. It shouldn’t be too hard to do better than the majority.
Think in terms of what YOU would find helpful if you were searching for information on the topic. If you think of an idea for a helpful article but can’t find anything about it online in order to get inspiration for you to write from, then BINGO, that probably means there’s an opportunity for you to provide something that no one else has.
If you have the money to pay someone for original content, that’s great, but keep in mind that if they’re not already an expert in the subject, they’re just going to do the same thing as you to find information—the research that I mentioned above. If you’re crunched for time, having someone write for you is great, but if it’s just a matter of you not feeling like you know enough to write about it, don't worry about that. Your writer is probably going to feel the same way until she does the research, unless you are able to find a writer who already specializes in doodads.
Here's an older article from this blog that might help too when you're stuck: How to overcome writer's block in Internet marketing
*Not really. Niches have been changed to protect the innocent.
I LOVE my “job.” Affiliate marketing takes work, but it doesn’t feel like work.
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