Rich Content Websites Are Loved By Search Engines
Why do people visit websites? Because they're looking for information. That word "information" is the key. If your visitors don't find what they want on your site, they'll head off to the next one on the list and you'll never see them again.
So you need to give them what they're looking for - information. And that means talking to them one-on-one about different aspects of the thing that interests both you and them. If you've picked a subject for your website that you really don't know much about, that'll come across and your readers will know you're just blowing a lot of hot air.
What they will recogize is someone who knows their subject. And that means they'll either identify with you or they'll see you as an expert in the field (because you know more about the subject than they do.) Anyone who knows more than you has probably already set up their own website anyway.
How Not To Add Content
Don't make your site just page after page of links to other sites. It's fine to have some pages devoted to off-site resources, but you still need to provide something of value to your readers. If you've nothing to offer but links, they'll just end up bookmarking one of the linked sites instead of yours.
Your visitors aren't looking for products either - if they were, they'd be off visiting Amazon.com or some other online retailer. That may be different if you're offering a service. But whatever the case, don't try to hard sell them on products you may be trying to sell through your website. Seduce them instead and try to pre-sell them (the Site Build It! philosophy - yes, I'm on about them again!) by providing great site content and embedding product links within the text so they don't appear as blatent advertisements.
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But what do you do if you don't think you're a good writer? Or you don't have the time to be cranking out page after page to build a decent sized website? Well, that's where free content comes in.
Use Free Content!
There's quite a number of what are known as Article Banks or Article directories that each contain thousands or tens of thousands of articles on a huge range of topics. All you need to do is go along to them, browse them for articles matching your websites topic and use them on your own website. Here's a short list of some of them:
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.certificate.net/wwio
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.netterweb.com
http://www.jogena.com
A Word Of Warning
While the articles are free to use, they must be used verbatim. That is, you can't edit them. So no removing paragraphs, sentences or links, and you can't add your own text to them.
Almost all such articles (if their authors aren't completely stupid) have a resource box attached which gives information about the article author and any blurb they've attached which will usually include a link to their own website. This must be included with the article as well. You can think of including this blurb as the fee you have to pay to use the article.
Aside from those conditions, you can modify the colors and page layout to suit your own website - in effect you're badging them with your own website's look and feel.
Tip: Use PageBuilder Elite to save time building free content pages. You can embed your affiliate links at the click of a button.
What Can You Expect From Free Articles?
These free articles can be written by anyone so expect some really badly written ones as well as prefessionally crafted articles. Don't just rely on the article title as an indicator that it would be good for your website. The actual content may be crappy, have bad grammer which will shout "amateurish" to your readers or never have been proof read, so it contains spelling mistakes, lousy grammar or even incorrect information.
Remember that any articles you do use will reflect on your website so use only the best artcles you come across. If you do find one that's badly written but contains useful information, you could contact the author to see if a more recent version is available or suggest that you'd like to use the article but that it needs to be cleaned up first. Some people easily take offence when they receive any kind of criticism so be ready for a "snappy" comeback from someone who don't take your well-meaning comments or suggestions on board.
People write articles to get exposure for themselves and their websites. If you'd written a bad article, would you want to know that it was putting people off visiting your site so you could fix it or would you rather tell the person who took the time to comment to just "take a hike!"?
Why Use Free Articles?
Free articles build content on your site fast. All you need to do is format them for your own website. But if you feature articles from many different writers, each will have its own "voice". If you want your visitors to identify with you as a person, even as a friend, then you do need to write your own content as well.
Use free articles to fill in the gaps by all means but don't just make your website out of free articles. It'll just end up being a mini-article bank with no real individuality.
Good content will keep visitors at your site and they'll spend time looking around the different pages. And if you provide great content that gets added to frequently, they'll have a reason to come back to your site. And that means potential repeat business for any products or services you're promoting through your website.
