New content can be the life blood of a website but obtaining new text and photos can be very time consuming. Too few people actually think to simply ask for new content. Everyone has a digital camera and photo web sites abound. The number of new authors has grown and many are clamoring for attention so why not give them some “air time”? Here are three simple ideas.
Books and authors
There are plenty of authors out there who are looking to market their book. You can go out and find some suitable books related to your web site topic and contact the author or the publisher. Let them know that you would like to feature their book on your website and ask them for some copy. It could be an excerpt from the book or a short blurb about the book from the author. Perhaps they will even do a short interview by email.
Then you can feature their book through the Amazon affiliate program and you have original content and a product that you can sell.
The digital camera age
Everyone has a camera and who doesn’t want to be published? Most photos or snaps are not usable but go to any photo web site such as Flickr and you will see many good photos. Contact the photographer and stroke their ego.
Tell them how great their photo is and you would like to publish it on your website with their name. Make sure you use the word “publish”. It triggers a good reaction! If you want throw a small amount of money their way, it can also be a good incentive. Tell them you will keep them in mind when you are be publishing more photos.
Conferences and meetings
People organizing conferences and meetings need to get the message out and you can help. If your web site topic is closely related, then this will amount to free advertising for the organizers. Look for text to use and ask if minutes or abstracts of the meeting will be available for you to use.
Done well this can build a bridge between you and the meeting organizers and could lead to a paid ad over time.
Web site statistics
The worst that can happen when you ask for something is that you are turned down. The reason I get most often from companies is that my web site audience did not match their intended target audience. Closely matching a company’s intended audience with your web site is critical
Some photographers are greedy but there are so many out there now with digital cameras that you can simply move on to the next photographer. This technique works quite well and with practice, you will improve your odds of success.
Reach out to the smaller players first to build up some credibility and as your web site traffic improves, capture as much visitor information as possible and then use those statistics to promote your web site to the bigger players. As your web site becomes more successful, these can become paid ad placements.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
That is some good advice, but, I’m surprised you didn’t mentioned any of the wiki sources
They are some of the best when it comes to free content… Both editorial and media.
Best,
Mike
http://www.wannadevelop.com
The problem with wiki sources is that you have to extensively rewrite the content. If you use the content as it is, it will be seen as duplicate content and the wiki will usually rank for that content and not your web page.
Also as I mentioned previously in the leaked Google spam document post, using wiki content is a signal for a spam web site if content is just lifted from the wiki and ads put on the page with no original content.
With all this in mind, I do not use wiki content and wouldn’t recommend others do unless you completely rewrite it. This defeats the original purpose of the post which was to obtain original material without extensive writing.