lack of Content!

Brainstorming ideas for content generation

[cdcaveman]

first post on this website. i'm excited. i have a site that i import a certain widget and its just that and nothing else. i'm not sure how to come up with lots of content on just one product! i'm a little frustrated. what do you guys do to keep from duplicating content yet expanding on the same topic. any ideas? any directions , any avenues of research.

[idolw]

why is it so cool that you decided to import it?
what can you do with the widget?
maybe it is worth to write about activities that can be done with the widget?

[martinibuster]

Go to Amazon and see if there are any books that mention, give background to, give a history of, or are about that widget. If available take a peek inside the book and see what the table of contents may inspire for talking points.

[cdcaveman]

thanks. i'm a skateboard deck importer. but all we have is decks right now

[Beagle]

Skateboarding's an entire culture - lots to write about, I'd imagine. Don't just think "What can I write about my cool widget?" Think "What would be interesting enough to skateboarders to bring them to my site so I can stick my cool widget in front of their noses?"

[HRoth]

That is a great idea about searching Amazon for ideas, martinibuster. Thanks for that. I have started searching Google Books for terms--very helpful for developing ideas.

[cdcaveman]

i hear you can actually get people to write content for you on elance

[danielthepoet]

i wouldn't mess with elance. why share profits with a middleman? you can find plenty of good copywriters by using search, personal recommendations, and even craigslist.

As for what to write about, you would do well to visit <blog link removed> and review his archive of posts on tips for creating linkbait topics. There are at least several hundred directions to take almost any subject if you think creatively.

A few quick examples, each of which could be a unique page:

How many people are using this widget (how popular is it)?
What are people able to do with it?
Name 5 tips to using it.
List and explain 4 ways it can be improved on in the future.
Imagine a complimentary widget/application/service and describe it (heck, invent it!)
What kind of people use this widget (talk about the demographic: i.e. lifestyle, location, profession, etc)?
Create 3 Better Names for X widget.

There are dozens more at least. Not knowing the exact subject, I'll just leave you with those.

[edited by: rogerd at 7:46 pm (utc) on July 20, 2008]
[edit reason] no URLs or specifics, please, per TOS [/edit]

[driller41]

I have found that Elance is OK for very general stuff, but as soon as you want something specific writing with a narrowly focused niche then Elance is useless - unless you pay a writer a lot of money to research your topic - the best person to write indepth articles is yourself I think.

[traveldude]

There are 800+ articles about skateboarding on Helium.com. You can get licensed versions of existing content or get original content to your requirements (400-800 words) for as low as $20USD.

[cdcaveman]

ok i started an account with elance, got alot of proposals but my intuition was exactly as you stated , its very good for very broad content, i was going ot use them on a irrigation, drainage, paver installation company and i just think its way to much. i think reading education and learning the genearl concept then putting it into your words is best. its a real study of linquistics for real. alot of philosiphers studied language for good ready! its represents so much about us.

[SEO Content Provider]

I'll have to defend Elance - there are a few bad writers there (like any writing site) but there are also some excellent ones as well. I've used a few before for my outsourced projects where I've needed more providers for bigger projects than my content company could provide and they were all excellent.

[tangor]

I might approach this from a different viewpoint.

I wake up each morning a different guy. I manage a website since 1995 and each morning I think of one more thing I might say. So far it seems to be working...and to make sure of that I keep a listserv running and skim the ideas exchanged to produce more content. What I have discovered is that a new page a day is not significantly better than updates/expansions of existing pages...and inserting new when there is something NEW to be shared.

Do it yourself generally seems the best way. YMMV