I wax lyrical on this blog about the fact that I firmly believe content is not only powerful but essential to micro ISV’s in order to succeed in their endeavour.  I’ve stated before that submitting to download sites is not marketing.  It’s merely a cop out.  And we all adore a bloody good cop out – eh?

There’s no doubt it’s hard work writing content.  But once you start you’d be amazed at how easy it actually becomes, yet few ISV’s ever get to this point.  It’s about thinking outside the box.  Content is merely information about our product or service presented in an informative or even entertaining way.  We technically already have the content – it’s in our brain as we have domain knowledge – or should – in respect of our product or service.

No domain knowledge?  “Yer doin’ it wrong!”

It is hard work, but it’s not impossible work.  It has amazing results, we see those results everyday and sadly fail to consider what they actually are – results.  For example think about your favourite websites.  Why do you visit them all the time?  It’s probably a fair bet it’s because they have content, frequently updated content most likely and that content is related to your specific interest or interests.

Product Sites Without Content Is Like A Naked Turtle – Skin, Bones, But No Shell

On my product sites I have blogs, operating exactly the same way as this one, though not in all instances called a “Blog”.  CDROO calls it “News Releases” which includes articles on new product as they are released and articles related, in the case of that site, to royalty free music, podcasts and videos.  As you probably know CDROO is a relatively new site so the articles there are limited in number.  But the method used on CDROO is the same as the method used on MixAction and the other sites.  The reason those sites rank so well and so easily for a ever growing list of keywords and phrases is the content.  You can actually watch your visits grow as you post articles – content.

Across on CDROO, for example, today I posted an article titled “Music, A Heartbeat For Your Videos And Podcasts“   You can read it if you’re curious by Clicking Here

It’s not in depth, it’s not the same as the kind of articles I write here on this blog.  It’s purely explanatory and offers some elementary reasons for including music and sound in podcasts, videos and other multi media productions including live theater.

If you’re not publishing articles, content, regularly, you are missing an amount of traffic that would surprise if not render you rather aghast.  I wince when I read or hear mISV’s claim they are not interested in capturing clicks for certain key phrases from Google, related directly to thier product, when I, stupidly, contact them to inform them that I’m getting their traffic here on this blog.

What am I talking about?

From time to time I’ll write a little article here for a product produced by a fellow micro ISV.  Those articles all to frequently outrank their sites on those keywords.  The only exceptions are the handful who write content themselves.

But ranking isn’t important unless that ranking leads to clicks – right?

Sure.  But that’s the point, I wouldn’t know those articles ranked unless I saw those clicks in my logs.  I have no reason to go looking for them until I start seeing them month in month out coming here.  In time those results wane as I’ve only written one article and other savvy marketers in that domain marketplace will write articles consistently related to the subject.  So in time they, with no link to those ISV’s and often competing, end up dominating the result in many instances.  Suggesting, clearly, regular dynamic content is not only powerful, but bloody well essential.

I’m sure it’s an experience other bloggers and readers of this blog who do similar things  are all to familiar with.  People are typing sentences into the engines and those sentences will match sites that have matching phrases and prhase combinations.  If you don’t match them – even if you’re optimized for the keyword it’s more often than not the case that somebody else will out rank you in the results.

Why be number 3 when you can easily be number 1?  Why be on page 2 or 3 of the results (or page 157!!!) when you can be page one in position 1, 2 or 3 and in the case of my own products frequently all three positions because of how my sites are setup to cross feed each other when and where such a cross feed is valuable to my markets and my products - together.

Honest – if you’re not writing content, articles, features – you’re not running on all cylinders as a business.  The carburettor isn’t pumping the right amount of fuel and you’re not getting the horsepower your business is capable of achieving.  When our car is inefficient we get it serviced.  Don’t forget to service your business.  A lube job and oil change refreshes your car, it’s a mechanical spring clean.  Spring clean your websites with some content and measure it yourself.

Scott Kane

Quote of the day:
A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future. – Sidney J. Harris

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