Forum Moderators: phranque
Recently, I have had some time on my hands and am litterally killing myself (well maybe not literally) ... but I am completely exhausted trying to do my best to add valuable "photo" and "editorial" content to my site.
I have been spending 10 to 12 hours a day (for several weeks) trying to produce a photo gallery of my tiny part of the world. So far, nobody else has done this and I am already finding my efforts to be of value as increased traffic is being realized.
However ... I have to question how realistic it is to produce one page per day as Brett and others have previously recommended? One page every three or four days is my norm and that is going full tilt!
Do the majority of members find you are adding content for content value from which your clients will benifit ... every single day ... or do you add content strictly for keyword and traffic value?
If for the latter ... does it pay off for you. Am I waisting my time and energy doing this photo gallery, which is an enormous ... and I'm talking, "elephant sized" ... pain in the rear?
Is there an easier way to add pages to a subject which I have already virtually exhausted ... or is a photo gallery the way to go?
I have a travel site and am very curious how others approach this sort of thing. Man ... I've got to tell you that photo galleries (for someone who has no training in photography) are really tough! I am my own worst critic and tend to throw out more than half of the photos I take.
It makes it tough when you live in a place with more than 60 islands and cays. The cost in time and travel is horrendous! The mistakes and just plain lousy photography on my part make it twice as frustrating.
You considered comments and thoughts are appreciated. :)
If not - that will save you lots of time, and let you concentrate solely on the writing.
Is there an easier way to add pages to a subject which I have already virtually exhausted ... or is a photo gallery the way to go?
If you haven't already, sign up for Google News alerts for your keywords. I find the best way to continue to get new ideas is to read, read, and read. Having articles delivered to your mailbox every day makes that easy.
Read all the books you can find on your topic as well. Travel, history of your area, politics in your area, types of food grown in your area, whatever. Again, mucho reading really helps. Show me a writer, and I'll show you someone with more books than can fit on their shelves.
Many thanks to all! :)
On one site, I can write a short, one-page article in twenty minutes or so. I'll take one or more news items, examine their implication for my audience, and write it up in one pass. I won't be mistaken for John Updike, but I'm generating new content and providing my visitors with timely and relevant information.
Start thinking like a newspaper reporter on deadline and don't try to be an essayist or novelist (unless you are doing it for the pure joy of writing). You'll be surprised at how quickly you can write decent copy.
The Photo Gallery option is really mandatory in your situation. This phrase has been beaten to death but it applies...
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
In your case, you need to develop those thousand words since the search engine spiders don't get a visual. ;)
I would look at all of that existing content you have and start thinking about breaking it down. If I had a 100 pictures of a particular area, I'd guess that I could generate at least 10 categories and 10 pages for each category.
Look at your site like it is family. You have mom at the root level and then you have all of the children below her. The children will spawn their children (grandchildren) and so on and so forth.
By the time you are done organizing, you'll have an an entire family tree to work with.
Ended up playing Solitaire, completed it three times in a row.
I managed to write two articles and update the news section in the end. I update the news section at least three times a week and add a new page every other day, the new page could be an article an interview or just views on a subject.
The new page could be an article an interview or just views on a subject.
I usually find that many one page articles can easily be broken down into additional pages. Within articles there may be references to additional information that would naturally spawn a related page.
Also, many articles I've seen are very lengthy. Those articles should be broken down into multiple pages. I'd also suggest using the link rel tag to interlink the multiple pages within a single article.
<link rel="prev" href="http://www.example.com/articles/page2.asp">
<link rel="next" href="http://www.example.com/articles/page4.asp">
<link rel="start" href="http://www.example.com/articles/page1.asp" title="Title of Original Article">
I will spend more time writing about each place and local characters ... there are lots of characters on this particular island, so that should be easy enough.
I don't know anything about blogs or photo gallery software. Everything is being done manually. I download my camera, pick the best photo of a given subject, size it, stick it on the page and then write something about it.
As many of you know, I am not a professional webmaster and I'm lucky that I am able to create pages which actually work! (Thanks again Dave)
I do however know what sells and I drop in from time to time on the online chat rooms to see what people are tsaying about the islands and what they want to do and see while they are here.
My site does very well and I often overhear people in local bars or restaurants (who don't know me) that they found this or that on that "great site" ... and then they name my site. It makes you feel pretty good to know you are providing useful information.
I now have several concepts rolling around in my head on ways to improve the photo gallery from my initial plans.
I don't see how it will actually save me any time, in fact it will likely take more time ... but I can already see the future benefits, so I will stick with it. I'm just going to have to pace myself, because I can't keep up this pace for an extended period of time! (Getting old ya know!) :)
Anyway, thaks again for all the great advise. I will certainly read and reread this thread several times before deciding on the ultimate format.
All depends on your definition of 'exploit' really. Nike doesn't think it's 'exploiting' the people who make shoes for 15 cents a day. After all, they'll take the money and make the shoes.
Actually it is quite different. The factory workers don't have any choice - there is the factory in town and that is where they work if they want any money for the most part.
Outsourcing to people in America through elance etc. who have a vast choice of 1) jobs in their locale 2) jobs available online 3) the ability to go to school or learn something new to change their job - are in nowhere near the same situation. They are also not working in poor conditions, and certainly not for 14 hours a day at age 10.
It doesn't even compare.
Bottomline - exploitation is in the eye of the beholder.
P.
However, I go on a binge every once in a while and write 6 or 8 articles in a day. These are original articles, hardly ever "keyword driven" though they are highly on topic for the sites.
I know several of the industries my sites are in very well now, so an article takes maybe an hour to do. Its not datafeed or auto gen and this content has had the site recognized by authorities within the industry several times now.
That said, I outsource whenever I can now. Problem is that I'm a perfectionist, which doesn't mix well with outsourcing - but I'm learning to release the control grip of death a teeny bit more every month ;).
