I wrote a post a while back entitled – Top 10 things bloggers debate about . I want to focus on the age old debate of – Is Content really King? I know what you are thinking…not again, I have heard all of this before. Don’t worry; I am going to approach this from a slightly different angle.
I have been blogging here at TycoonBlogger.com for 18 months now and I have gone through many stages and I have learned a lot along the way. When I first started blogging here, I was compelled to write new content every day. I was living the “Content is King” mantra. I would put a lot of pressure on myself to produce fresh content on a daily basis. It did not take me long to start to show signs of blogging stress. I then switched over to the thinking that content was important but Blog Promotion is the true king. After all, if no one knows about your stellar content, what good is it? My two –three hours a night of blogging time was spent mostly submitting my posts to social networking sites, forums, blog directories, etc…
I guess you can say I have evolved into the third stage of thinking. I realize the importance of content and promotion but I think the real King is ENGAGEMENT. The ability to engage with your readers and build a community around your blog is what ultimately separates average bloggers from great bloggers. I will be the first to admit that when I first started blogging, I would keep pushing out content and I did not focus as much on engaging my readers. I left many comments unanswered and I could have visited many more of the blogs of my visitors and engaged with them on their blog. I will be making a conscious effort to make Engagement my top priority. I feel that sometimes I spread myself way to thin, I will pull back a little and really focus in on:
4 major components of my Engagement First strategy.
- Respond to all most comments. I crossed out most because I do not want to have to say “Thanks for comment” if I have nothing else to say.
- Visit and Engage everyone that comments and engages with me here on this blog. I will be putting this as a top priority as sometimes this falls off due to a lack of time.
- Be Better on Twitter – A couple of months ago, I cleaned up my Twitter account and I am now only following 90 or so people that I am truly interested in . I will selectively add to list and more importantly, I will strive to engage more on Twitter. An extra 15 minutes a day could go a long way.
- Engage more on select social sites – Instead of spreading myself out, I will make an effort to dedicate more time to a select few social sites. At this point, I have decided to spend more time engaging and adding to the community at Blog Engage .
[stextbox id="info"]I know the whole: Content vs. Promotion topic is a hot topic, so I am eager to hear all of your comments on the topic. Do you think my new strategy makes sense or do you think I should churn out the content and keep the marketing engine revved up?[/stextbox]
I like the component of your engagement, I try my best to follow it, I actually visit the commentluv link if it's left behind!
Some blogger who are so picky or pretend to be picky "I hate the word Picky!!" don't give attention to this promotion ways and they don't care to connect with anyone unless there is some benefit from it, mostly direct benefit, and I really .. really hate that attitude which they think that there content will save them from what they call tom wasting (commenting on other blog!)!
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I hate that attitude as well. My blogging time is limited but I realize that engagement is extremely important and will be carving out more time for it. Your are a great example of a great blogger Hesham!
My recent post If Content and Promotion are not King – what is?
Thanks Dan, I actually have limited time these days as well, but I try to make up things for my fellow bloggers as much as I can so they don't feel hate me when I took time to visit them back
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The Engagement is surely important as well as marketing and content.
For me, content first and then I do engagement while try to market my content.
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Hey Dana, I know you as an engaged blogger, more power to you buddy!
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I agree Hesham, Dana has been a lot time contributor here.
My recent post If Content and Promotion are not King – what is?
Ya know, you're absolutely right.
You could have 10,000 followers on Twitter, 50,000 RSS subscribers but if only 10 or 20 people regularly comment and engage with you, there's something you're missing, ya know?
The content will always be perfect for your audience, you don't really need to promote if your community is strong. Engage your readers and everything will take care of itself
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Thanks for your comment Murlu. The good thing is if you have an engaged community, they will help promote your blog for you.
My recent post If Content and Promotion are not King – what is?
i believe all 3 are very important…if you slack in doing any of the 3 ,your blog will suffer…
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Agreed! BTW, I really like your blog content development series!
My recent post If Content and Promotion are not King – what is?
I agree that engagement is king. No one is interested in a blog that just churns out info for the sake of it, you need to connect with the readers and listen to them, otherwise blogging is pointless!
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You are right. You myself start an article directory instead
My recent post If Content and Promotion are not King – what is?
Bravo! Engagement is incredibly important. It's is probably the the most effective thing that you can do to promote your blog and build your readership. That being said, high quality content is still paramount to a truly successful blog. If you manage to produce quality articles on a regular schedule your audience will return regularly too. Especially if you have built a good relationship with them by commenting and engaging with them on various social sites. Daily content is not necessary. I am finding that 3 times per week is a minimum number that works for me and my blog.
Thanks Blog Angel. I am on the same 3 day a week schedule and it seems to be working well on this blog as well as my other.
Anyone who knows me, knows beyond a doubt, engagement/personability is what I'm all about; top of the list!
As for content vs. promotion, I'll say it again….I don't see how it can be anything more or less then 50/50.
Yes you have to promote your stellar content, but if its crap content why waste time promoting?
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Top of the list indeed! I must say Dennis, nobody comes close to you in regards to engagement!
My recent post If Content and Promotion are not King – what is?
You are definitely the KING OF ENGAGEMENT Dennis, I often wonder how u find the time.
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Y'all can look forward to some interesting changes once my 6-blog network is up and running.
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I have to agree that engagement is an important factor. If one doesn't care about his readers' opinions, then he should quit blogging for good. Promoting your business can bring fresh traffic, but engagement is really what builds a community out of it.
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Good point Daniel.
My recent post If Content and Promotion are not King – what is?
Surprisingly enough, content and promotion are not king, queen,…. or even prince. I used to think so. Even wrote articles in support of it.
Then, one day I realized that it was:
1) Brand/Online Reputation (Transparency, Credibility, Trust)
2) Developing relationships
3) List/Subscriber Management
4) A product
5) Site design (Yes, a new, shiny WordPress theme DO make your articles shine brighter!)
So, there you have it. (sort of a preview to an upcoming article… I guess?)
That puts content and promotion far from… the throne?
Source Blogger
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Awesome insight. Repuation management is huge. Looking forward to reading your post on the topic.
My recent post If Content and Promotion are not King – what is?
Yes, I like your mantra King is ENGAGEMENT. Social networking sites are helpful for engage with our friends and community.
I really like your post. I think it's not about being King or not, but more of a perspective you take on both Content and Promotion. In fact, I think you've inspired me to write a short post of my own in reply to yours – give me some time to digest and I'll post a comment here when I'm done.
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There you go – my reply to your post. Now, that's engagement
http://b6s.net/blogging/blog-content-promotion.ht...
I still believe in "content is king", if you want your content to do the magic, the content have to be unique content. Unique content will make Google to visit your site from time to time and other search engine will love to see what is happening in your site as well. Unique quality content will bring lots of traffic and new readers and you will get lots of track back, bookmark and lots more from unique quality content.
That is why I still believe in Content is King, it is nice to engage your reader and commentators, but I don't think it is the best to reply every comment you received, when you can use that time to research on next article/post or promotion of the blog. Which ever way, I think you are doing fine, all the best.
I agree! I believe you need all 3 to make it works. I really like your 4 major components strategy. Thanks for sharing. Keep up the awesome work.
Great minds think alike, because I've pretty much narrowed my work down as you've outlined.. except because I love to write, I rarely get burned out.
The only thing I'd add is this:
IF you have a choice with your Blog theme/topic.. you might consider going 'Local'.. I did this with my latest Blog and found it to be great fun. I live in Austin, TX & my newest site is about concerts in Austin! If you're in Chicago and you want to write about making money online (which is super saturated BTW) .. but still, if that's your passion, think about putting it out there that you are a resident of Chicago.. you love Chicago.. and write about running an internet business.
The internet is getting so crowded, I think the more we can 'niche it'.. the better off we'll be.
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I'll like the way to mention all the useful tips in a post, before reading post i was thinking if content is not king then what is it? really!!!
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Wow, never thought of having engagement be king!
If you aren't getting your readers active, they won't be part of your website. Without your readers, who will click your ads, comment, or advertise your content? Just you and only you.
Keeping your readers involved will make them a real part of your website! Great post
I think you got the point engaging is one point but content is the main thing which i understand and admit that without content why would be there blogs if there is content there are websites, blogs and promotion both are in relation with each other.
Like Justin said you really do need all three. Without promotion no-one will find you, without good content no-one will care and without engagement no-one will stay!
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Hi Dan,
It's really great to hear you say this because it makes me feel like I'm on the right track. Although, I've had an online business for a couple of years, I've only start "blogging" about 4 months ago.
It was important for me to produce quality content so I opted to posting 2-3 per week and focused heavily on not only engaging on my blog but on others as well.
Also what you say about Twitter is so true. I wonder if people think I'm a snob when I don't follow back, but it's important for me to create a Twitter community that is relevant to my goal and that allows my followers to get value from this community.
Thanks for sharing the great article!
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Completely agreed that engagement is really important. Building a community not only helps in promotion, but we can learn new things and ideas from the community which further helps in making our blog better.
I have just started a new blog, and right from the beginning I am trying to engage with the little amount of visitors that I am getting now.
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First off, I don't have a blog so I can't say either or; but I will say that since starting my new site, I think they are both just as important.
Personally, I take 6 hours out of my work week (25 hours) to build links, social media marketing, etc. That said, content wouldn't have a big impact if there weren't any traffic to view it.
Flip side: If you build a SEO'd page that has awful content, and it reaches the top ten SERPs (which is very possible) your bounce rate would be sky high! So it really defeats the purpose.
Content + Promotion = King. In this equation, king is your $. In my ever so humble opinion, the combination of the two is what makes your website/blog work.
I totally agree with you, the fresh content and the promotion should continued along each other. If you have fresh and good content and you have not enough visitors on your website, then your content absolutely went to trash.