“The two words ‘information' and ‘communication' are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through.” – Sydney J. Harris, Born Sep. 14, 1917.
A lot of people who market things on the internet care about having a “content strategy” as a way to draw prospective customers toward them.
To that end, they generate articles that contain information, and SEO keywords, and specific ranges of word counts, and sophisticated link structures between them.
And that’s fine. If you want organic traffic from search engines, I believe it’s still true that there are technical things that can be done to appease them and earn their favor.
But machines are not people.
People don’t want information – not anymore. Decades of widespread access to the largest repository of information in human existence has largely made people numb to plain information.
They can get it anywhere. And anyone can share it. But that doesn’t make it true or trusted. Information is abundant and cheap.
What people want now is KNOWLEDGE. They want information that has been tempered by experience, presented by someone who has applied that information and created something REAL.
You can’t just find knowledge anywhere. It can be proven, and therefore is true and can be trusted. Knowledge is rare and valuable.
Create new knowledge for yourself by consuming information from other sources and APPLYING it. Report back to your audience on the outcome. Reveal any obstacles that arose. Outline the solutions to overcome them. Provide any missing details that weren’t clear to you when you took action.
Et voila. Instant knowledge. When information is imparted in this kind of “story” format, it breaks through the clutter. It’s no longer noise, but SIGNAL for hungry human minds looking for TRUTH about your core topic.
When your content is built THIS way, THEN you worry about keywords and word count and link structures or whatever else the gurus of SEO and traffic tell you will work for that.
But first, set yourself apart by having content that COMMUNICATES instead of just plopping some info down in a vulgar, useless, unoriginal, cheap and rehashed way.
Break through. Impart your knowledge. People will want more, and you can charge a premium.
Colin, great knowledge bombs. The important take away for me is the implementation part where your experience going through the process and then report back on your own findings based on the work you're doing. Another great nugget was that you pick a couple of sources so as to come up with your own hybrid process to implement.
Great read! Thanks.
Glad you like it, man. Happy to be helpful!