3 Reasons Why Content is Priceless

…. or maybe it’s just gold.

But whatever you say about “content” …. text-based, practical, highly-readable, linkbait-able writing … it’s worth more than people suspect.

After more than four months of advertising online and two years of blogging personally, I’ve realized our advertising money would be better spent developing our own content, on our own sites.

Here’s my rational for why I believe content is priceless … or pretty darn valuable anyway:

1. Content is a one-time investment with long-term residual payoff

This is what I was getting at in my post on the Long Tail of Blogging.

On the web, there is really no expiration date for great content. Well, I guess content can grow old, or stale, or go out of date for some subjects. But as long as it resides somewhere on a server and is accessible from the web, you can reap the rewards — in terms of readers — forever.

That’s what I love about well-written, indexable content.

And the beauty is … you pay for it once — in dollars or time.

2. Search engines are content banks

Often, I search for various niche keywords on Google and regularly find articles that were written 2 or 3 years ago ranking at the top, coveted spot.

The bulk of this content is still great, timeless writing …

This makes the search engines a 24/7 vault for great content, accessible to anyone with a web browser and keyword phrase.

Again, for a one-time time or monetary investment.

3. Content is still a bargain.

Because great content isn’t valued, in some marketing circles, as much as advertising, it means good writing is a bargain. There is a bunch of blogging job boards out there ripe for getting good content written for you and your company.

I’m starting that search now myself.

I was at one time a newspaper journalist, then later transitioned to be a part-time freelance writer. The numbers I hear for blog-type writing are quite lower than what I was paid to write.

But unlike others, I still value good writing. And I’ll pay for it too. Especially if the writer is an authority in their field.

Now, if you’ve followed my thought here, and agree … the million-dollar question becomes …

How do you as a small business owner leverage content for marketing?

I’ll talk more about that in the future, but I’m eager to see how you’re doing that now … leave a comment on this post and let us all know.