I can’t get over how many people are still trying to churn out content for their websites that is just, well… crap. Recently I read two posts in my Google Reader that really stirred up the ‘great content‘ issue. The first is one by Joe Hall talking about creating great content or to hardcore porn. I love the in your face way that Joe talks about creating great content for your website.

That was followed up by another great post by Nick Stamoulis over at Search Engine Optimization Journal about writing great content or go out of business. And I love the way that Nick explains it.

“But, seriously, if you are so lazy and cheap that you’ll use a free service to ask someone for free advice on how you can get more traffic to your blog with less work and less-than-great content then you don’t need to be producing content. Imagine a business owner planning to start a laundry service in his neighborhood asking the home owners in that area, “How can I build a great laundry service without great laundering machines?”

Great Content IS Your Site’s Lifeblood

Anyone who is thinking about a new website or blog needs to think about the content they are going to be putting on it. It needs to be good. Maybe not great, but at least readable and enjoyable. There is way too much content on the Internet today. Every affiliate marketer is overloading places like EzineArticles.com with short articles that really don’t say anything. And they want this stuff to send traffic to their site?

Great website content is the lifeblood of your entire marketing. It doesn’t matter if it is an article, a report, an ebook, email ad, or even social marketing presence – you need to have something good for people to read. It’s just that simple.

Create Great Content

Before you go ahead and hit that publish button, or submit your article, take time to read your article or post. Is it any good? Does it make sense? Will people want to read it? If not, then change it around, rewrite it, or hire someone else to do it for you.

Your content should do three things to be valuable as website content or content for traffic.

1. Inform – Your article, or blog post, should inform the reader about your topic.

2. Presell – This is where you article works for you. You need to write it in a way that will get the reader to want to visit your site, read more information, or buy your product.

3. Establish – With the content you write, it is not just for a one time shot of traffic. The content is to establish you as an authority on the particular topic.

Does your content do that?

Of course, the one piece of the puzzle that holds it all together is that your content must be good!