Case Study: The Value of Content

I’ve written about TextBroker.com before, and now I want to give you an example of why it’s very important to have unique content on your websites.

I pay around $4.70 for most unique articles I have custom written for some of my websites. The articles are around 200 words in length, and I proofread each of the articles, add some personal insights or ideas, and write additional commentary based on my experience. I also generally add a related photo from Flickr, a stock photo website, or from one of my photo albums. These articles drive great (targeted) traffic that would be expensive for me to purchase.

Here’s an example.

A few weeks ago, I realized that many people would be searching Google and Bing to see if they need to give a tip or a Christmas gift for their dog walker. I had two articles written by TextBroker, and I also used my own experience to add more information.

One article was written about tips for Christmas gifts for a dog walker and the other article was about Christmas tips for dog walkers, and I posted them on DogWalker.com. I also did some minor SEO work with the help of the All in One SEO plugin.

These articles have received over 500 visits from search engines, and the cost was under $10 and about 30 minutes of my time. Had I paid for this traffic with Adwords (which I also use), the cost would have been much more. Additionally, once a particular campaign ends, the traffic stops. With custom content, traffic will continue to come as people search in the future.

Whether you write your own content, hire a third party, or do a combination, it’s important to have unique articles on your websites, which will help drive traffic to your sites.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

25 COMMENTS

  1. I just submitted my first project to textbroker based on your past couple of articles. I actually put in for a “4” level, and the charge was $10.00 . I did ask for 400 words or so, thus the added expense. Hopefully not an overkill, just a lot of information needed for the article.

    On a side note, do you think readers “value” 150-200 word articles? Just an honest question, no insult meant. I am interested in your thoughts on this and may be swayed to try the 150-200 word articles.

    Sincerely,
    Jason

    • @ Jason

      It really depends on the topic. There have been times I’ve asked for 300-350 and it seemed to ramble. I generally pick 200-250 because I generally add some information/insight, which makes the articles longer.

  2. Can you expalin how to use flikr photos? I was trying to find images for my sites, but I wasn’t having to much luck finding good images.

  3. I build many of my sites with 300 word articles and have no problem in google or search engines. But if the topic is more competitive more content can never hurt.

    I also always add a little to articles I order normally around 50 words.

  4. I have tried to use Flickr in the past for photos, but when I select “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content ” and then “Find content to use commercially,” I usually get 0 results. I can find lots of great stuff in the Creative Commons, but the none that is available for commercial use. As most of my sites have some commercial components, I really haven’t found it that useful. Do you know of any workarounds?

  5. @ Josh

    Search more broadly… for example, if I was looking for a Burbank golf course and couldn’t find something that specific, I might search for a generic golf course that could be Burbank.

  6. Thanks, Elliot. I’ll give that a try.

    If you have never used it, photoxpress.com lets you DL 10 photos per day from their free section, which actually has some pretty good stuff.

  7. Elliot,

    Can you share the type of instructions you provide textbroker to get acceptable articles?

    specifically, do you specify keywords, phrases

    and do you chose keywords mostly on frequency of search, or cpc value?

    tx, keep up the good work

    wishes for a productive, joyous new year

    tom

  8. Great advice Elliot. Article marketing is the way to go.
    On some webmaster fora you can get quality articles inclusive of submission to various article directories like e-zine too for similar fees you mentioned.

    cheers

  9. nice post Elliot . I’m curious how that traffic converted for you vs. traffic you’ve paid for on Adwords. Were you able to track?

  10. Elliot, What do you think of ezinearticles? I just stumbled across it, it looks like free articles to use, you only have to keep the signature file, and all original content intact. Any pros/cons to this?

    Jason

  11. @Jason (and Elliot if it is OK with you..)

    If you use the exact articles of ezinearticles and the like, you will most likely run into duplicate content issues and as a result, Google may not rank your page well. Search engines like unique content.

    You may be able to spin such an article but
    1) it is against TOS
    2) the original author will not appreciate it
    3) it’s probably not worth the effort compared to writing something unique.

    Just some ideas.

    Cheers

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