Anyone can create a content-rich Website by following a few key points:

· Be disciplined
· Update your site regularly
· Know how to create content, or where to find it

Discipline and Commitment

To create your content-rich Website, you need tunnel vision and a laser sharp focus. In a word; self discipline. Don’t let yourself be distracted: limit your online content explorations only to Websites and resources that are directly connected to your site’s subject.

Discipline also extends to content creation. Successful writers do not wait for inspiration before beginning their work. Instead, they develop a regular writing schedule, and they stick to it. Whether they feel like it or not, they sit down at a desk and write.

You too must develop a schedule to add content to your Website, and follow it.

Regular Updates to your Website

Nothing is worse than a Website which is stale and not updated.

Regularly updating or modifying your Website’s content gives you an edge over the competition. People will keep returning to your site if they notice something new to see, learn from or enjoy each time.

Creating Your Content

You know best – or should – what your audience wants. It then becomes an easy task to decide about which types of content will best serve their needs and how to go about finding or creating it. Here are some suggestions:

· Editorials
· Feature articles
· News clips or stories
· Art galleries
· Aggregating the best content
· Reviews
· Announcements
· Interviews
· Interactive features – polls, feedback, discussion groups, forums, chat

Editorials

Editorials are the opinion of a perceived ‘expert’ in the field. And they make good content, because they invite reader response, either endorsing or doing critical appreciation of the writer. This can make for lively debate. Give your readers an avenue to make their views known – by including a bulletin board or guest book on your site. People will return back to your site, at least to read other responses to their comments. And you can use this feedback from your audience by incorporating it into a follow up article in the future!

Full-length Feature Articles

A feature article is the most common – and one of the best – forms of content.

Depending on the nature of your site, the articles may be long or brief, formal or chatty, technical or entertaining.
Here are some tips:

· Articles shouldn’t be too long. While there aren’t any rules, it is perhaps safe to keep feature articles below 1200 words. If they are longer, convert them into multi-part features.

· Articles should be relevant to the topic of your Website.

· They should educate, entertain or inform. Try and limit the message of each piece to one or two new ideas.

· Don’t simply rehash an article you’ve read elsewhere. By publishing something that hasn’t been already featured elsewhere, you enhance the value and credibility of your site.

There are several ways to get original content.

- Write your own features. This assumes you write reasonably well. If you can’t, or don’t have the time or inclination then getting someone to write articles for you has benefits to both you and the author.

Reprints

Reprint articles written by others, but you must always obtain permission. All work, from the moment it is written, is copyright and owned by the author, whether it is marked with a copyright symbol or not. Content is not free. You can, however, make reprints interesting and personalized by putting your own ‘spin’ on the content. Write an introduction to the subject, or comment on the author’s opinions or conclusions.

Take care to avoid ‘editing’ the original article without the author’s permission. Avoid articles that have been reprinted many times before on other Websites and electronic publications.

The News Desk

Your Website can become a source of the latest developments and happenings in areas of interest by providing timely news on topics of interest to your readers.

Create a separate section of your site to deal with industry news. Or you might devote an entire Website to news updates.

There are many ways of presenting news:

· As a feature article
· As short news clips, with a link to the full story
· As news stories, where each item is explained at length

Whichever way you choose to present the news, make sure to stamp it with your own personality. Make it interesting, personal, chatty, fun, unique, or all of these – with your style of writing, or by adding your point of view.

As with feature articles, news clips should be

· Relevant
· Useful to your reader
· Timely. Remember, old news is no news!

There are many resources out there to help you find news stories to feature. You could:

· Subscribe to eZines on your topic
· Sign up for news delivery services that send updates periodically by email
· Register to receive press releases on your topic
· Actively hunt for newsy items during your Web surfing
· Read newspapers, magazines and books on your subject
· Attend conferences, workshops or seminars and write about your impressions

The Content Aggregator

By making your Website the ultimate content resource on issues related to your topic, you would attract and retain a loyal audience. Your site will become a destination for anyone seeking information on your subject.

As an expert on your topic, you can evaluate sites and other resources (eZines, directories, books, offline publications) for the best, and then list them along with your rating and opinions.

The Art Gallery

Text is not the only form of content. Sound, music, pictures, photographs, video clips – and soon maybe smell and dreams (!) – can be attractions on a Website.

If you are a professional photographer, you could create a display of your snaps. If you are a music group, you might offer some of your creations for download. Amateur moviemakers can use the Internet as their low-cost global distribution channel.

As broadband connectivity becomes more widely accessible, we might soon see the majority of Websites converting to such interactive and dynamic content models.

The Reviewer

Use your Website to recommend the *best* products and services to your visitors – books, websites, music, movies, artwork, web designers, restaurants, anything. You, the expert, tell them what is good and what isn’t.

Share something that will be of interest and benefit to them. If you read a great book, or surf into a wonderful Website, then tell your visitors about it. Reviews help build credibility and trust for your site.

· Products and services can also be grist for your mill. Just remember to stay within the guidelines – relevant and useful to your reader.

Announcements

· Has your company done something new and innovative?
· Have you developed an improved version of your product?
· Are you privy to insider information in your industry?
· Do you follow the rumors and gossip in your field?
· Do you track swings and developments closely?

If you do, announce them on your Website. People love to feel informed and up with the latest gossip and happenings.

Interviews

An interview with an expert in your field or a famous person makes exciting, valuable content. And it is easy to conduct an interview via email or over the telephone.

Choose an expert or guest you think will be of interest to your readers. Learn more about your expert – special interests, experience, achievements, status in field, etc. This allows you to create pertinent questions.

Decide upon a topic for the interview. Prepare a set of questions you’d like to ask. Then contact your guest with an interview request.

Most people would be happy to participate in your interview. Send a copy of your questions to the guest by email, make a phone call or even arrange a face-to-face meeting. Once you have your copy, make editorial changes so that it reads well. This might mean re-arranging the questions so that there is a smooth flow of thoughts. And by intelligently interspersing additional queries and comments, you can make it appear as if the interview was carried out in person and make it more interesting to read!

Ask additional questions, or for clarification when necessary. Finally, make sure to get your guest’s approval for the final version of the interview. Then go ahead and publish it on your site.

Interactive Content

Why should you interact with readers?

· You can establish closer, more personal relationships with visitors
· You can find out about their preferences, likes and dislikes
· You can listen to their complaints and suggestions
· You can request their feedback on your performance
· You can collect valuable demographic data on your audience

AND…. you can get fresh content to use on your site!

All of this allows you to make improvements, additions and enhance the value and utility of your site to visitors. By employing interactive tools, you can generate content to use later. There are many different ways to do this. Here are a few ideas:

Polls and Surveys

Survey your readers. Ask a question. Request a vote on an issue or topic.
It could be about

· An article on the site – “Did you find this week’s feature helpful?”
· Current events – “Will you vote for the GOP in the next election?”
· A controversial issue – “Do you believe in religion in schools?”
· User preferences – “Would you like to see this site updated daily?”
· Demographic data – “Do you have young children?”

Some guidelines:

· Be brief. Ask no more than 7 or 8 questions

· Offer choices. Frame the questions to have a YES/NO option

· Provide an incentive to reply. A discount, a freebie, a trial membership

· Make the results available to respondents. Your readers will enjoy hearing about what their peers think and feel about these issues.

· Show that you are acting on the feedback received

Feedback

Reader feedback is extremely valuable – if you listen to it with a mind open to change and act on it. Criticism can stimulate you to improve standards. Questions and requests can indicate areas where you must provide content that helps your reader. A good feedback loop between Webmaster and site visitor is very valuable.

Make it obvious that you welcome feedback.

· On every page offer a link to let visitors write back with their comments, opinions and suggestions for improvement.

· Provide an email address to write to or use a feedback form

How do you turn feedback into content?

Use your creativity to come up with new ideas. Here are some suggestions:

· Write a feature article that answers the questions your reader asked

· Print out the questions or comments your reader sent in, and answer them. Take care to request their permission before quoting them. Most often they’ll agree – especially when you promise them a moment in the spotlight by mentioning their name or Website URL on your site!

· Act upon the suggestions readers make; then write about these changes

Discussion Lists

While feedback is a one-to-one communication, a discussion group permits many-to-many interaction, since every email sent to the group is distributed to each member.

Here’s what you can do:

- Create a discussion group using one of the free or pay-services.

- Announce it on your Website and eZine and invite everyone to participate.

Readers could debate controversial articles and news stories, discuss other issues related to your topic and share their views and opinions with other readers.

The material generated in such lively debate could again be used as the seed to grow content for your site.

Forums

An electronic bulletin board is a Website where a visitor can read messages posted by others, and respond by writing another message on the board. This reply is also displayed for others to read, producing a growing list of discussions on related topics.

After a reasonable period of time, the messages under a particular topic can be encapsulated into a feature article or other form of content on your site.

Chat Rooms

Real-time online chat is a fantastic interactive tool – but with unavoidable limitations. Chat events permit the creation of innovative pieces of content like

- Interviews with participants, especially experts and celebrities

- Discussions on featured topics and issues

- Workshops and seminars for your visitors

Transcripts of chat sessions – edited for continuity and flow of the conversation – make for exciting content.

Be Bold – Experiment

Managing a Website can be a challenging proposition. Innovation is the key here. Keep updating your site constantly in terms of design, graphics, color scheme, audio/video clips etc.

And monitor response to each change. Did your readers like it? If they did, keep it. If not, experiment again.

Most sites grow by such trial-and-error methods. The winners are those who identify successful models and develop them, while ruthlessly eliminating any that fail.

Keep the windows of your brain open and look for any new or innovative element around you. Use it to your advantage in your site. Out of box thinking shall make your site stand apart from the rest on the web. This shall enhance you to become a successful and effective Web Developer.

Before you begin putting your SEO content together you should research which keywords and phrases are searched on a lot and also how heavy the competition is for those keywords. There are many options for this such as Wordtracker or GoodKeywords – invaluable tools in SEO web design. You simply enter a broad keyword and wait for the result. After that you have to look through the resulting keywords/phrases and select the ones that are most relevant to your website. Try and Google those selections one at a time to see how many sites Google can find and stick with keywords wih the fewest results in Google (ie least competition).

The next step is to incorporate those selected keywords (3-5 of them) into your SEO web design by writing SEO content for your website based around them. If the purpose of your website is to sell or promote a particular product it is a good idea that you also think about the meaning of the keywords, before selecting which ones you want to use. The idea here is to find keywords which indicates that the user who entered it in a search is actually ready to buy something. If for instance you are promoting a piece of software, say an FTP client you would ideally want keywords such as “buy ftp client”, “download ftp client” or “best ftp client”. This is because the phrase “ftp client” in itself is very broad so competition will be higher and if you are going to support the traffic generating process with a Google Adwords campaign you don’t want to pay for clicks from people looking for “ftp client review” for example.

There is an alternative to writing articles in the SEO web design process or at least an additional option: RSS feeds. With the use of a simple script (such as RSS2HTML) you can have fresh articles displayed directly on your website. This is good since the feed is “live” and will always contain the latest information. You should select feeds from article directories and of cause relevant (sub)categories within said directories. Now even though you choose feeds from a relevant category it is not guarantied that all the articles you get are as relevant as you would like and this is not optimal for your SEO web design. Fortunately you can get scripts that include customizable filters. In those filter you would put your selected keywords. A good idea is to look for a script that can merge several feeds into one to make sure you get enough articles when filtering. One other important thing about RSS scripts is DO NOT use a Java script for this particular purpose. In order for the search engines to “read” the content of the feed, the script must be executed on the web server and Java code is always run on the client (user’s PC).

Over the past few years, the internet community has been trying to create a set of standards for creating web sites. A new technology called CSS or Cascading Style Sheets has been introduced. There is nothing actually new in the way CSS handles a web page’s presentation. CSS allows the developer to define a style for each html tag element. This is similar to the method developers (programmers) used in the old days when they attached a variable to each html tag defining its style. The major difference is that CSS style definitions can be interpreted by most of the existing browsers available while in the older method the dynamic web page engine performs the interpretation.

The internet standards organization W3C has encouraged the use of CSS by enhancing its ability to control the web page’s look and feel. New style options have been added to the CSS specifications that have not been added to the HTML description language. There’s no doubt that this was a smart move. It has induced the web developers to use CSS to achieve an attractive web page that also supports the principle of content separation. Unfortunately CSS did not find its way into the internet mainstream easily because of compatibility issues with most web browsers. These days CSS is widely supported by most of the major web browsers, while CSS2, an enhanced version of CSS still has serious compatibility issues.

Obviously, the separation of content from its presentation deals not only with the styling aspects, but also with browser compatibility issues. The styling aspects were the first to be handled by web developers and web designers. As the complexity of information technology (IT) systems become increasingly more difficult to maintain, the internet community is looking for a solution that will become a standard so that content can be easily be managed. One goal for this standard is to define a “language” that IT systems can “talk” with each other and exchange information. Large corporations have historically used many different software platforms in their networks to conduct business. Internet based applications can provide a single platform that can act as an intermediary between all of these different systems and allow communication between them.

XML (Extensible Markup Language) has been adopted as a standard to present the content itself. OFX (Open Financial Exchange) is a close relative of XML that has been widely used by financial institutions who have been using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) systems to transmit orders and invoices over private networks, intranets and the internet for several years.

The need to present the content in a standard way that separates it from any design elements was so urgent that for the first time in software development history all the three major players (SUN, IBM, and Microsoft) actually agreed with each other and XML become a standard almost overnight and was adopted by many content providers and news agencies.

Yet the concept was not fully implemented. CSS handles the styling aspects while XML handles the document content. What about the webpage layout? New websites are been published each day by thousands. Every day millions of new web pages are being added to the internet’s global database. Webmasters have found that changing the page background color or the font color might not be enough to keep their website fresh and polished to compete with other new websites. However, changing the website layout can sometimes involve a lot of effort because it involves modifying the web page source code. XSL was introduced to solve that issue. Consider XSL a set of rules that can describe a web page layout. Combine it with XML (and optionally with CSS) you will get a valid html file.

XSL is very similar in its mechanics as any other dynamic web page generator. Beside the fact that XSL is platform independent, its biggest advantage is that it can be processed on the client side. The web server sends the client the content using XML format and the layout definition using XSL format. By doing that, the load on the web server’s CPU is reduced allowing it to perform other tasks more quickly. However, XSL was not adopted by all the major web browsers. So unlike XML, XSL has not found its way to the market easily.

Before you run back to your desk and start redesigning your website according to these magnificent standards, you should be aware that those technologies are really not needed most of the time. In fact, using them unnecessarily can cause performance problems. CSS usually will not cause your system to slow down. Just try to keep your CSS file as small as possible. Many web developers maintain large CSS files with lots of unused style definitions. Deciding to work with XML is a serious decision. If your website generates dynamic web pages supported by databases like MySQL, adding additional XML functionality will definitely reduce your website performance. Sometimes you won’t have a choice and will need to upgrade your hardware to maintain your website’s performance. There is no rule of thumb for this issue. The decision should be based on each system and its engineering demands. Try to predict what kind of future services your website will be providing. Plan your website properly at stage one and save yourself lots of effort later.

Whether you run an online magazine, a money-making web site, a private community with memberships, or just a web site with unique, in-demand content, you can earn money selling subscriptions to your web site.

1. Marketing wins over Selling:

We’ve all visited those web sites where, every few lines, we’re reminded that we must pay for access to the site. Phrases like “Sign up Today!”, “Only $9.99 per month!”, and “Purchase a subscription!” are thrown around the web page as the webmaster’s hope of making a sale is made devastatingly clear to the visitor.

In doing this, the webmaster changes the perceived mission or focus of the web site from the subject of the content (such as cars or business) to him/her making money. If you want to sell content online, you’re going to need to show that you have a solid grasp on your content’s subject matter, and confidence in your web site. It’s more effective to create good content and present it in a clean, clear web site than to confuse visitors by bombarding them with subscription links. In this way, you’ll be seen as an expert and not someone who’s just trying to make a quick buck. Don’t create an impression that you are just another sales person trying to induce the visitors to buy from you!

2. Niche Marketing:

Niche marketing is the key to success for many businesses over the years, and it is holds good as far as the web is concerned. A niche subject for your web site is one with a relatively small scope. For example, instead of creating a web site that explains “how to make money”, you might create a web site that focuses on the topic of “how to make money with open source software.”

This narrows the scope of your site, increases search engine traffic, and gives you a chance to gain a much bigger percentage of the total market sales. If you write on too vague or too broad a topic, people won’t be confident that you will continue to write about things that interest them. Don’t cast a big net in the hope that you will catch a few fish; but create the netsize that would catch enough number of the desired fish you would like to catch. Make sure that you understand the exact needs of your target market.

3. Worth of your Content:

Every day, we come across such sites that are trying to sell a product — usually ebooks on how to make money fast (or some other extremely broad topic). The site consists of one page filled with reason after reason why the visitor should buy the product, presented in multi-colored fonts with bullet lists galore. Yet we rarely see a single example or excerpt from the product that we are being sold so fiercely. With all of the competition on the Web, it’s just not realistic to expect to reason someone into buying your product.

You must give some of your content away for free. Using any one of today’s subscription content management systems, it’s easy to make some content available to members only, while leaving other content open to the public. This allows your visitors to explore your web site as if they were members, while gently being reminded at certain points of the benefits of membership. If you give away some content for free, your content can sell itself. Its like free smapling of shampoo sachets or might be an exclusive coffee. You might get some customers switching to your brand after they try the free samples!

4. Search Engine Optimization:

An added benefit of the business model described in point #3 is that search engines will love your web site. This is important: if your web site can rank high in the search results for your site’s keywords, you’ll receive loads of highly targeted, free traffic. Google and other major search engines have technology built into their page ranking system that can sniff out “empty” web sites, or web sites that only attempt to sell content, yet provide none themselves.

You can gain a higher rank in the search engine results by making some content freely available, and using a clearly formatted web site. By making some content freely available, you give Google the chance to find your site’s keywords while increasing the likelihood that other web sites will link to you (something Google loves). Also, a clearly formatted web site is quickly understood by search engine spiders, which can “read” your content properly.

There are certain techniques that you can use to increase your search engine rankings, and these form the basis of the area of search engine optimization. However, instead of worrying too much about this stuff, advise you to build your web site using a content management system that uses SEO-friendly defaults. These defaults, combined with your quality content, will result in a web site that’s naturally search engine friendly.

5. Presentation is key.

It is true that a web site’s content will sell subscriptions all by itself, but we can’t ignore the fact that a well-designed, user-friendly web site will sell more subscriptions that an ugly web site with the same content. This fact seems to have been forgotten, especially in the subscription web site market. We don’t say that a web design needs to be flashy or filled with images, but if you expect to sell subscription memberships to your web site, you’re going to need to present a professional image.

A professional web site means: a nice logo, clear navigation, and a simple layout with proper content flow. A good subscription content management system should include a default web site design that offers these features. This means that, to get started, all you have to do is add content, change the logo, and change the colour scheme.

You Can Make Money with Subscription-based Content

Many people felt that the open source movement in software would kill the software industry, but as we’ve seen, the software industry has adapted to the open source movement and created the “software as a service” model. In doing so, the software industry, especially online, is bigger than ever.

Now, in the paid content arena, people are again saying that it’s impossible to sell content in a world where everything is free. Yes, it’s true that some subscription web sites haven’t transitioned well into the era of free content.

However, if you understand your site’s visitors and stay in touch with the free content model as these five tips suggest, you could earn loads of money per month with nothing more than a computer and some passion.

The other side to the argument is that the web designer needs to assist the site owner in obtaining original knowledge-based articles to compliment the site. In this scenario the web designer also works with freelance writers to develop all site content. This includes everything from “How To” articles to the “About Us” and “Home Page” sections.

Many web designers are interested in developing the ‘look’ of the website without being responsible for what the content says. However, more and more web design experts are beginning to offer full content services as part of their monthly or annual contracts. Obviously the customer bears all costs related to the content, but many entrepreneurs enjoy less work in site management.

One element to this that you should consider is that the web designer will charge you a content fee. The content request is assigned and purchased from a third party freelance writer at a lesser amount. You could pay 100% more than you might if you had worked with a freelance writer on your own.

From this standpoint it makes sense for web design professionals to provide the service because it provides an added revenue stream for them.

If, as an ecommerce business, you can write or have someone write original content you may actually have greater options you can consider when it comes to web design.

One of the most readily available forms of content is free-to-use article directories. These articles can be used provided you make sure to place all content on your site. This will likely include a brief author biography along with a link to the author’s website. In most cases this is a reasonable exchange for the use of the article.

A secondary source could be adaptable content from a supplier. This information is generally provided at no cost due to your partnership with the supplier.

A third source is to go directly to a freelance writing source to gain your own original articles.

If one or more of these options is workable you may find a template rich web design/host is an alternative that is cost effective and empowering.

You’ll notice I said empowering. This comment was made because of the satisfaction of being able to immediately addressing and altering multiple aspects of the site on your own and without the need for knowledge in html or other coding language can help you take ownership of your own site.

Perhaps it all comes down to your budget and to your willingness and ability to manage the content requirements of your website.