Content and Value

[dezzo]

I have been working on this for a long time and I feel I am making it more difficult that it really is,.. BUT...

What are the "nuts 'n bolts" of creating valuable content?

[schola]

It comes from the heart. It comes from a deep sense of empathy you have for your reader, and a desire to give them something valuable.

I don't think it can be broken down into a formula, because once you do that, it's not genuine anymore.

[DavidDavidDavid]

What do you mean by "nuts and bolts" in this context?

You can't analyze the situation with logic alone. You can prove anything with logic (like how you can use "statistics" to back up most anything). If that's what you mean by nuts-n-bolts, step back away from the keyboard....

Seriously, you may be just getting distracted if you are having difficulty creating valuable content. You know, a performance-issue hang-up...or your intuition is telling you that you really don't know much about what you're writing.

Just remember that anything meant to be happens naturally -- but it doesn't mean that it happens totally on its own, either!

[Buddy]

What are the biggest problems your market are having in terms of your product? Really address those problems and give a general solution, but one that helps without revealing the exact solution. Then market the specific solution (your product). Give them what they absolutely must have.

[Jonathan Mead]

When creating value I think there's a couple of good points to keep in mind:

1. Only create content about things you have a consider amount of knowledge in (this one should be a no-brainer).
2. Who are you marketing to? Keep the reader in mind at all times.
3. Try to offer content that is genuine.
4. Go for the "harder to pick fruit." Other people will more likely go after things that are easy, but you can make yourself stand apart by choosing to work on areas that others leave alone because of their difficulty.

[Nelson]

1. Select a topic
2. Find out exactly which part of that topic people are searching for
3. Write an article based on your findings

Imagine your topic is "Puppies". You would find out what keywords are the most used by your target market.

You find out that the most searched keyword is "best puppy food" - you could then write an article reviewing brands of puppy food, the benefits of organic puppy food over regular puppy food etc.

If you know a lot about puppies and puppy food it's going to come naturally. If you don't you should select a different topic.

[dezzo]

Wow I really appreciate all of this.

Maybe I should talk about my situation to give you guys a context. I have a big interest in spirituality, entrepreneurship and NLP. I have studied English Literature for about 3 years, I'm 20 years old and I'm about to finish university. From here the value I have to offer is that I can absorb and discuss key ideas from a text really well. Of course, after taking the PhotoReading Course it seems anyone can do this. (There goes 3 years of my life!)

So naturally I thought of blogging. I really like the idea of solving really big problems, and picking the 'harder to pick fruit'. I have thought about the biggest problems in entrepreneurship, spirituality and NLP, but I don't see problems, I just see these subject areas growing and evolving. It seems I have to really focus on the customer's point of view now. So I thank you guys for pointing that out.

I'm concerned with how to structure text in a blog to make sure it's legal. I've read a few posts and have skimmed a few copyright law books and I have become even more confused than to begin with. The barrier between "an idea" and "the expression of an idea" seems really ambiguous to me. How can I just WRITE about the idea without worrying about all the copyright laws, etc? Is there a legal strucure I have to follow in writing about ideas? What if I write about something and it happens to be really close to the way another expert had expressed it? Do I have to read every single book in a subject area just to make sure I don't accidentally copy someone else's expression of an idea? I hope I'm mistaken, I'm obvously not aware of something. What makes this even more confusing is that I'm in the UK, and laws keep changing.

[Tayrak]

First off no one can copyrite an 'idea'. Just about anything you decide to write about has been done.

Sounds like bad news. Take the writing industry, how many vampire stories have been written? Basically they are all the same, the writers have used different angles or twists to make theirs original, but it's basically the same story over and over.

where you hit infringement is if you start to copy word for word, entire sentences, paragraphs. Also you know you can't write about smerfs, but elves are open territory.

Writers find different angles on subjects, you'll be doing the same thing. Even if you pick the exact topic and iterate the basic same thing, you will be doing it in your own voice. you'll be saying it your way--and that's all you have to do.

How many ways can you tackle procrastination? Huge topic that never seems to run out of mileage. You are basically saying the same thing--get her done (that could almost border on infringement except now it's considered a "saying" and folks repeat it all the time, just like Nike's Just do it. Though you know if you put a huge banner on your site with Just Do It highlighted you are asking for trouble.) If you feel you are infringing then reword things. But as far as writing articles about procrastination knock yourself out.

Here is an example that caused some waves. A writer used "100 words a day" that was her slogan. Someone wrote an article based on writing just 100 words a day, not a big problem. Someone else put in big headlines 100 words a day to Success and was shut down for infringement. What's the difference? One was generically referring to writing 100 words, simply an amount, the other was specifically promoting 100 words which belonged to someone else.

Keep in mind these aren't always won one way or the other. Steve has "Personal Development for Smart People" trademarked, you'll notice the TM, if you use that you're going to get smacked. But, you can still use Personal Development, it's considered generic.

Let's pretend I decide standing under a waterfall to get ideas flowing is the greatest new creative wave. I write an entire book on it (lol, that'd be quite the trick) As far as I know no one has thought of this exact idea, so it's mine right? Actually no. water therapy has long been accepted as legitimate. I can write this book and Joe Neighbour can write one on the exact subject and we'd both be unhappy but unable to do a single thing about it. Now, if I wrote that you should stand under this waterfall exactly 15 minutes at 2:00 in the morning under a full moon while wearing a pink tutu, you couldn't write that, (Not that you'd especially want to) because I could say that you infringed, the idea is no longer generic, but specific. You would have to say do it at midnight, naked, with some friends and you'd be fine-and likely having a lot more fun and get more interest going to boot. Even if I know you copied my 'idea' I can't touch you. The reality is if you come up with an unique idea and it really takes off, people will be copying you and in most cases there won't be much you can do about it.

If you do happen to infringe and are given notice simply take the offending page down and keep going. It usually never goes farther than a warning and now hosts take your entire site down if you don't comply.It has to be pretty blatent infringement and you'll know if you're doing that.

Tayrak

[dezzo]

Tayrak, that explanation was the shiznit loooool thanks a lot, I really appreciate it.

So I can talk about the general idea, but when it comes to specifics, I have to be creative. Great. I'm sorted

Thanks again, man that was everything I needed to know

[Buddy]

I disagree that content can't be made by formula. Obviously you need to be able to write but for my part I love Andrew Hansen's Article Speed Writing as a great tool for quickly churning out quality content quickly.


Buddy

[Faron]

Originally Posted by schola

It comes from the heart. It comes from a deep sense of empathy you have for your reader, and a desire to give them something valuable.

I don't think it can be broken down into a formula, because once you do that, it's not genuine anymore.

Couldn't of said it better myself. Write about your passions.