Making A Content Site

Writen by Dave Turnbull

Basic Steps

• Find a Topic
• Research
• Domain
• Content
• Media
• Site Design
• Optimization
• Advertising
• Ad Placement
• News Feeds

Find a Topic. Think of what you like, or enjoy. If you have a passion for something you will find it easier to create the site, and will already have an advantage when moving onto writing the content, or advertising the site. You could go the alternative route and find a topic with really high paying keywords, but these markets are usually highly saturated.

Research. Find out how many people actually want information related to your topic. It's pointless to make a content site on something that:

a)doesn't exist

b)no one has heard of

Don't focus on the aspect that gets too many searches though, unless you believe you can get a good ranking still. Focus on mid-range search terms, for highly specific key phrases.

Note! Use variations of your keywords, some people use the term Soccer, whilst others use Football. For a good tool to check out how many people are search for what, click here.

Don't forget to check out your competition, see what they offer, and decide whether you can offer visitors more, or better content. If your site isn't an improvement, why would they visit?

Domain. Looking at what people are searching for and try to include those keywords/phrases in your domain, don't go overboard with something like golfbagsballsclubsshoespants.com – 2 or 3 words is usually a good length for a domain.

Content. The most laboring part of the content site process – the content. If you want the biggest profit you'll spend some time writing the articles yourself – remember clean, concise punctuation and grammar and no 1337 speak. If you: are lazy, have extra money, can't write well, then find an article writing company, you can usually get great articles for $15-$20 per article.

Media. I always like to add a media page to my content sites. Just a page with photos, drawings, diagrams, videos, or even downloads. You may not need one of these, but it's just something I like to do. It could make the users experience at your site more enjoyable also.

Site Design. You don't need to be a pro designer to make something that looks decent. Pick up a copy of Dreamweaver, use Frontpage, or go back to basics with good old Notepad. Make a basic, quick loading design that is still appealing to visitors. If you can't be bothered then just Google for 'free web templates' and you'll get thousands upon thousands of listings. After you have the design integrate all the content etc into it. I usually aim for 5 good quality pages, but that depends on your topic/laziness.

Optimization. Time to get your site optimized for search engines. Here are just a few basic things you can do to help:

• Title Tags: Unique & Relevant Title tags for each page.
• Meta Tags: Unique & Relevant Meta tags for each page.
• Page Names: Use filenames such as buy_golf_clubs.html instead of bgc.html
• H1 Tags: Use h1 tags on each of your pages headings, and then h2on subheadings etc.

Advertising. Find forums, directories, top sites & websites relevant to your niche.

• Forum: Register, and try to be as helpful as possible, add the link to your site in your sig, and traffic will start. Try to get 'respect' in the community.
• Directories: Submit to as many relevant directories as possible, to increase the number of back links to your site.
• Top Sites: Not as common these days, but topsite lists are a decent source of traffic/page rank.
• Websites: E-Mail owners of relevant websites and request a link exchange.

Ad Placement. When you start to receive traffic you can monetize your site. Sign up for a program such as Google Adsense and place your ads within, and above your content. Make the ads blend in with your content & links, and use the channels feature to decide which placements are working well or not.

News Feeds. An extra feature which is good to have is news feeds. Using RSS add some relevant news to your pages to keep your site contents fresh, and give your visitors a reason to come back.

David Turnbull is a long-time blogger & online writer. He owns multiple sites such as Drawing Tips,Wii Gamin', and his blog: Turnbull's Blog.