One of the major hurdles to starting development of domains I hear is that content is hard to find. It is especially hard to find quality content that will attract the much treasured one way inbound link. I want to share one idea that works very well for me and requires minimal effort.
The Census
Ever filled out a census form? Wondered where that data went? In the US, this data is published on the web and is available to everyone. There is an amazing wealth of information on all kinds of subjects. Some of it is in reports that are easy to digest. These are the easy pickings and you can rewrite or use portions of the reports to help add content to your website. Graphics in the reports can be used also.
Copyright Free
Hold on, you say! What about copyright? By law, Title 17 U.S.C., Section 105, copyright protection is not available for any work of the United States Government. Thus, the Government is precluded from copyrighting its publications. Consequently, you are free to reproduce census materials as you see fit. They do ask you put a credit line to the US census bureau but that’s all. There are a few reports that may have copyright material from 3rd parties but those are clearly marked and very few and far between.
Facts for the Holidays
They have even put together “Facts for Features” that can be little gems of information. For example:
$493.3 million
Sales by U.S. Christmas tree farmers in 2007.
Source: USDA Economic Research Service <http://www.ers.usda.gov/>
20 billion
Pieces of mail the U.S. Postal Service expected to deliver between Thanksgiving and Christmas last year. The busiest mailing day was expected to be Dec. 17, as more than three times the average daily volume of cards and letters were to have been mailed (more than 275 million versus 82 million).
Source: U.S. Postal Service <http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/welcome.htm>
The great thing is that they give you a link to the source which can give you even more information for website content.
Digging for statistical gems
If you roll up your sleeves, you can find interesting topical data buried in reports that are in table form and that no one would give a second glance. These can be the truly valuable gems. Lets say you have a domain relating to human relationships. There are large amounts of data in the census on singles versus married couples and these will be split out by age, income, job type and so on. These sit in horrible looking tables so it is time for you to change that.
Graph the data
OK. Hopefully you remember how to do pie charts and bar graphs and can lay your hands on some graphing software. There are some free packages but I tend to use Excel. I can often cut and paste the data into Excel and then use the graph wizard to produce attractive graphs. These can then be used along with corresponding text from the report as content on your website. Much of the text is dry but can easily be reworded to be much more readable.
Why graph?
A good pie chart is very recognizable and easily read by anyone. It is colorful and breaks up blocks of text while often communicating complicated statistics.You can also use it as link bait or as a branding tool:
- Embed the name of your website in the graph and allow others to copy and use it and now you have a branding tool
- Allow others to use the graphs if they provide a link to your website
I often provide the graphs in Powerpoint and Adobe PDF file format as well. Powerpoint files are loved by teachers and students making presentations. Embedding your website name in each slide helps spread the word. PDF files are much easier to print and again you can embed your website name.
Do graphs work as link bait?
The emphatic answer is yes. Graphs I created from census data are now being published in university texts by the second largest publisher in the world with a credit line to one of my websites. Because graphs make data accessible I have found incoming links to another of my websites from a political forum arguing over what the data portrayed in the graphs meant. Some graphs even take on viral properties being passed around in emails from one person to another.
Graphs give authority
Graphs especially those reflecting high quality data such as census data lend an air of authority to your website. Your website becomes a reference site for such data and this builds greater trust with your visitor. In turn this helps you market to that visitor and gives you a greater chance of turning them into a customer.
Others blogging on the same topic are more likely to reference your data and thus link to you. As i have said, I have found links from the most diverse sources.
International statistics
The US census is not the only source I have used. You can also visit similar sites in other countries. You do have to abide by the copyright and permission laws in that country but some other counties may require only that you register electronically and you have immediate permission to use the data.
Content for websites
So now next time you are having trouble finding content to develop a website, try looking to the census and see if you can match any of your domains to this data. Grab your free content and get to work.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Great Insight into this information for mini-sites etc.
Regards,
Robbie
Founder
RegFeeNames.com
Hi Robbie,
Yes, it works for mini-sites all the way up to large sites. I think in my next post I will work through a specific example to show how this can work.
Barry
What an outstanding article! great ideas about using the census data, in addition to other government content. Our tax dollars pay for this content so we should make the best of it.
I am excited to see your specific example I think that would be great.
Nice write up and advice.
It takes a while to gather the data, organize and then publish it so it looks all pretty and makes sense but every so often it is well worth it just to keep things interesting and unique. Having tons of graphs and charts presentations without anything else is a whole different story and will probably scare everybody off unless your visitors are geeks who are all about numbers.
A good site has the most important piece of information immediately stand out. Graphs are a way of instantly drawing attention to em and doing so…they get the message across quiet well.
Best,
Mike
http://www.wannadevelop.com/
Absolutely agree, Mike. Graphs should complement and enhance the text and the message being communicated to the reader. I keep to 1-2 graphs per page at most. It can take a while to find and collect the data but i think it is worth it more often than not. They make your article standout, they attract links and if you keep the message simple, they can be as addictive as those factoids you find on cereal boxes, shampoos and under the lids of certain drinks. I really do want to run through an example as soon as i find the time.