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Content is the king

“Content is the king” is a statement for every blog, and I subscribe to that. Unique content will almost immediately stand out on its own, even without prolonged marketing efforts. Writers who want to sustain their presence online will need to adapt their skills and insights in order to produce content that readers cannot find elsewhere. This will enrich writers perspective, gain credibility, constant readership and most important, loyalty. Though meaningful and unique content takes a lot of energy, time and creativity, one must be committed to offer all that.

The main discussion so far was about speed versus quality. By speed, I mean tons of content written only to increase the volume of information indexed by search engines. By speed, I mean tons of content written for marketing purposes, only to reach a decent number of words on a given topic. In my previous articles, I’ve engaged writers in becoming supporters of quality and joining a somewhat revolutionary approach: basically saying a big NO to poor, garbage content.

But, just quality content isn’t enough to find the best way to deliver great ideas to your audience.  You actually need to learn how readers are reacting to web content. Remember, you write for “them” not for you! This inevitability means bumping into to Web Copy tips, sooner or later. And in all respectable Web Copy tips there is one rule that you don’t pay so much attention to. The human eye doesn’t really read web content, but just scan, scroll and selectively distribute attention.  This not only brings into discussion text formatting rules (short sentences and paragraphs, lists, bolded words, etc) but moves it a step further.

How important design really is in a blog like post?

At the first glance, the matter doesn’t seem to be worth taking into consideration to seriously. It is clear that a design filled with red and yellow colors along with some banners scattered all over the place is not the way to go. Not if you want all the attention on your content. It is as equally as obvious that an outstanding design, but with a boring content, with no value whatsoever for readers, on the long run, will cause no returning to that site.

So, if the human eye only scans a web text, maybe the setting up of a site and the way content integrates with other elements (colors, banners, ads, etc.) is as important as the content itself.

Here are some other facts to consider:

• Web Design specialists talk a lot about ergonomics of the elements on every page.

• Most of the blog services offer premium templates that have a professional look&feel, but are not for free. Some of them are quite expensive.

• A big part (some even say half of it) of any good presentation if the way the information is presented.

Since I’m not a design specialist, but the matter is important enough, I will turn this in a discussion. Feel free to participate and comment