A favorite buzz phrase right now is “website content curation.” Actually, the use of the word “curate” isn’t quite appropriate, but there’s not another single word that seems to say it better in relation to websites and content. Basically, it’s locating content and “re-packaging” it for your website. Of course, you’re not copying it, and we’re not talking about “spinning” articles or using software to change the words to get around copyright or duplicate content problems. We’re talking about re-publishing a portion of someone’s content with your own personal commentary or as news for your site visitors.
Let’s say that you’re a marketer doing well in the “camping” niche, making a lot of affiliate commission income from sites that sell camping equipment and other items related to tent and RV camping. However, this example will work just as well for any sports related content, technology hardware, software or anything really. All of the normal affiliate marketing strategy is in play, attracting as many visitors as possible, offering them calls-to-action to get clicks, and getting paid when you deliver them to an advertiser. However, now we’ll take a look at another way to draw new site visitors by providing them with interesting news and information related to our camping niche example.
The steps involved in locating, packaging and delivering the content that works are not rocket science, but they can be way too time consuming unless you can automate them. However, automation can’t take the place of quality content selection, as we’re doing this primarily to draw and hold onto site visitors who will become customers. I’ll tell you about an added very valuable SEO component as well, but let’s stick to making your visitors happy.
- locate content that will actually interest your site visitors, and cause them to return.
- efficiently view, evaluate and select the best content.
- bring summaries of content and links to it into a blog post efficiently.
- easily add your own comments in the process.
There are numerous software and online resources for content gathering and publishing, including Scoop.it, CurationSoft, and others. However, there’s one free software package that can automate the entire process for bloggers, including actually posting from the software directly to your blog. It’s Blogbridge. Here’s a screen shot to give you an idea of how it looks and presents your RSS feeds to you, ready to post to a blog:
You select RSS feeds from sites you value, or you can create searches to locate feeds and news with keywords. Once they’re delivere, you simply decide which you want in your post and the software pulls your selections into a post with images and links, gives you a chance to add your comments and text, and posts directly to your blog.
About that SEO benefit. Users of Blogbridge have seen immediate traffic on key phrases in these content aggregation posts. You see, though you’re taking summaries and linking back, the combination of these summaries into a single post becomes “original” content. Check it out.