Content Is King of the Internet
When I first started writing for the Internet with the intent of making money from it, I wanted to focus on what kind of writing I might do if I were writing for a magazine, or laying down plot lines for that magnificent novel or short story.
My views have changed a little bit over the course of the last couple of years or so as I have begun to recognize something that I think is important. That is, volume of content.
Don't read me the wrong way. Quality is still something that I strive for when writing anything on the Internet. But when it comes to Adsense, and more specifically, any ad program offered through any revenue sharing site like WebAnswers, Blogspot, HubPages, Squidoo, or any other place where there may be the potential to earn money through writing, the key really is clear.
What you write may have less to do with what you earn ultimately, than what words you write that may tie themselves directly to generating ads that people will find by finding what you've written. Heck, put another way, what you write may not even be read at all.
A person has conducted a search for something, and the content you have provided has found its way into that search, and the person seeking the information, and perhaps a particular product or service finds what he or she may be looking for as a result inside of the page where you've provided the content.
If the reader has found what they are looking for, all they need to do next is click on the ad, and suddenly you have made a little bit of money simply by being in the right place, at the right time, and having provided the right content to get you there.
In light of what I said in my opening paragraph, I have always viewed those who rely heavily on keywords and SEO harshly. I have scolded many a writer for focusing on these tactics rather than simply just focusing on writing great content that people will want to read, that is put together clearly, with good syntax and grammar, and that attracts readers back in to anything else you might write.
But, when it comes to providing content on the Internet with the intent to be linked up to revenue generating ads, it isn't really the faithful reader that will drive home the income potential, really. Is it? That reader is going to be looking for that next great line from Stephen King, or Bill O'Reilly that sends them off looking for the next latest masterpiece. It is always nice to have faithful readers...if we're talking about writing anywhere else.
But this is not Random House. And I am not necessarily looking for a faithful reader, am I? Again, don't read me wrong. I want people to enjoy anything I might sit down and take the time to put to words. I want faithful readers who like what I have to say, who hang onto every word, and who eagerly anticipate anything else forthcoming that I might have to say.
That's the writer in me.
But if it is money I am after, then I cannot consider myself as simply a writer, or an author. In fact, I don't consider myself either of those things. To anyone who may wish to correct me, I will be flattered, and thankful. When it comes to writing on the Internet, with the intent of having what I write linked up to ads which will provide a source of income I need to consider myself as only one thing.
A content provider.
In a sense, I work for those folks at Google who are trying to have their ads find customers with dollars in their hands. Ready buyers. So are the sites like HubPages who have an ad program of their own. They are looking for ready buyers to find their ads, and generate sales for those who paid to have them here. In turn, HubPages gains. The content providers gain. And everything stays on the ups.
Sellers are linked with buyers, and content providers such as myself get to share in the prize. All HubPages need to is encourage me to continue to provide content which gets the buyers to the sellers.
And so we're right back to volume of content, aren't we? What is my job as a content provider? To write the next great masterpiece? Hardly. My job is simply to choose my words carefully. My job is to provide the content to connect the buyer and the seller. Those words, no matter how I may necessarily place them onto the page is not what the search engine is necessarily particularly interested in. It's a computer. It's an algorithm. It is a program that connects the dots and makes the link.
If I want to sell books, or if I want to entice Redbook to buy another article from me, then my focus is on the editor. My focus is on building the faithful reader who will buy another copy of Redbook because my name appears in the table of contents. Or buy my next book because my name is on the cover.
If I want to make money writing content on the Internet, I simply need to focus on providing as much content as I can, and my job really is not to be read at all. But to be the link between the person who wishes to buy something, and the person who has something to sell.
The more content I can provide, the better my chances are of making that connection possible. The more places my content shows up, the more viable it is that I earn anything at all. Content is king. I can't remember who may have said that. But when it comes to the Internet and making money from it, it is the absolute truth. Content is king. And I am more than happy to be called a content provider than a writer or an author, and let the checks keep rolling in.
I guess back in the day, and in the traditional writer's world, we would have called guys like this hacks. Maybe content provider is just a fancy term for a hack. But there was a hack I actually knew when I was an editor who told me, "The money I make as a hack let's me afford to work on that bestseller. Otherwise I have to do real work for a living."
These days I can understand that statement more than I ever did before. Now it all makes sense to me. Perfect. Exactly. Yes. I can feel you. We're all hacks of sorts when it comes to paying the bills. I guess hacking as a content provider is just as well, and besides. It's not like I'm still not writing. So, in an odd way, it could easily be described as perhaps the best of both worlds.
And of course there is a consolation of sorts I suppose to this whole idea. It still takes a writer to come up with all of that content volume. Whether it's just content, or that masterpiece, you still have to write something.
