You may be concerned to hear that there is in fact a problem for affiliates using data feeds because they are on the surface such a convenient way of producing loads of information on tons of different products, and the simplicity and wealth of information is shared by the content widgets that some affiliate networks (and innovative affiliates!) create for their users. However, as most of you will know it’s not all about cold, hard information, especially when that information is necessarily replicated across the internet on other affiliate sites who share the same widget or data feed as you. The best way to attract traffic to your site and improve your ranking and indeed your attractiveness as a potential link partner is through unique content. Getting unique content that will actually help rather than hinder your cause is easier said than done, but the right content is out there waiting to be written.

You may well have read other articles online proclaiming the.shall we say regal nature of unique content, and despite the ulterior motives that may have been lurking beneath the surface, stressing the importance of unique content is always a good thing. Sadly there is a good and a bad way to go about getting unique content, and as with many things in life it ultimately comes down to a question of money, both how much you’re willing to spend and how much the ‘unique’ content is being sold for.

The Bad
There are companies out there in the pitted wilderness of the internet who will offer content to you for pennies and there is a great temptation to take up what seems like a bargain just to get your site filled with vaguely relevant text. However, this is probably an indication that you’re about to get some badly written content, either from a non-English speaking worker who cannot form whole sentences without making a grammatical error or spelling mistake, or worse from an automated content spinner that provides a terrible electronically generated rehash of a good piece of unique content from elsewhere. These are all quick fixes that ultimately have been proven to work against any SEO you’ve been attempting, as search engines can penalise sites with duplicate, badly written or poorly replicated content.

The Good
So what should you be looking for in a piece of content to determine its worth? Well, the obvious point to make is that it must be unique and well researched. Copying and pasting things from online encyclopedias is easy but it isn’t effective, so finding writers who use their own knowledge and common sense to produce content that is always unique is essential, and finding a company that pools the talents of similar, well educated and experienced writers is even better. A writer of good content shouldn’t just be able to form coherent sentences but should have the skill to fill those sentences with search engine-friendly words and phrases, tailored to the specific requirement of a brief set out by the affiliate and even formatted to your own requirements. Building relationships with writers or writing firms and keeping them informed of the basics of your business plan is also essential in good content creation as well as a great way of keeping writers that you trust on board for as long as possible.

What You Can Do
The best thing that you can do to ensure that your content from any source is both well written and unique is simple to check it thoroughly before you add it to your website, either by hand or by running it through anti-plagiarism resources such as copyscape. A reputable writing firm will do this for you before releasing content to you. Few things can hurt your search engine rankings more than content that is identical to that found elsewhere, and performing simple checks can take a matter of seconds and ensure both great content and piece of mind for you.

The Purpose
Content is not just words or images, it is the delivery of the promise that your website makes to its visitors. Say that you’re site is called ‘newcars4u.com’ and it is filled with links, ad banners and pages that are in no way linked to car articles then you’re never going to build up a base of returning visitors, and it’s always the first impressions of a website that determine whether someone is going to come back or leave forever. If you fill your site with richly written, unique, well researched and interesting pages of content then hooking customers will be so much easier and you will be able to see the money you invest in content paying dividends at the other end.

Whether you write it yourself or use a reputable firm to handle it for you (remembering that outsourcing is one of the main strategies of most successful super affiliates), content alone isn’t king . . . .but unique, relevant content is!

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