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An ongoing challenge for webmasters today is to provide fresh content that gives
visitors a reason to return to their site. Unless you have a full-time staff dedicated
to creating regular content, the time involved can be crippling.
Wouldn't it be great if someone else would write timely, relevant content for
you? Sure, but what are the odds of that happening? Well, many webmasters are
already enjoying this phenomenon, and I'm happy to count myself among them.
Set it up.
Whether your site has a catalog of products or a collection of articles, you
can design your pages to allow visitors to post reviews of whatever is featured
on the page. They can share their experiences with items they've bought or post
comments on the information in your site. Don't confuse this powerful tool with
a discussion forum. You create the topic of each page, and encourage visitors
to post updates with the latest information in this area.
The more information you provide on your site, the better service you are providing
to your visitors; but they aren't the only ones who benefit from including reviews.
It's also a boon to you as a webmaster. Even if you never wrote another line
of new copy, your pages will continue to grow with relevant content. Granted
you still have to spend a little time reading the reviews and moderating what
appears on your site, but the time required is much less than you would spend
writing original content.
Why someone else will create content for you.
While the advantages to the webmaster and reader may be obvious, you are probably
wondering what incentives exist for the reviewer. A few lucky souls have enough
free time to share their opinions online for the mere satisfaction of seeing
their own words, but most will need something more tangible before they invest
the time to write a useful review. The onus is on you, the webmaster, to create
an appropriate incentive. The importance of link popularity in search engine
rankings provides a powerful clue. At AffiliateScreen.com, I allow my visitors
to post reviews of their experiences with online affiliate programs. At the
bottom of their review, they have the option of including a link to another
page that supports what they've written (or they can simply include their affiliate
link for the program). AffiliateScreen.com gives them the additional credibility
of their expertise appearing on a third-party site.
Look at this from the reviewer's perspective. Here's a unique opportunity to
gain an external link pointing to the reviewer's website, but this is far more
valuable than a random reciprocal link. Search engines are determining link
popularity by examining both the quantity and relevance of links. The page with
their link is loaded with keywords related to the product or service, and the
reviewer can include additional relevant keywords in their post. The reviewer
actually has a hand in creating the page that will link to their site. This
is extremely powerful! Can you begin to see how anyone looking to increase traffic
to their site would jump at the opportunity to create content for your website?
Now you may have some concerns that allowing anyone to add content and links
to your site is inviting your competitors to steal your traffic. If your site
has detailed reviews of products on your site, anyone who leaves your site to
visit a competitor won't spend much time there before realizing that your site
has useful, original content that they can't find anywhere else. If that doesn't
put your mind at ease, though, there's nothing to stop you from including a
disclaimer when someone submits a review. Explain in this disclaimer that direct
references to your competitors will be removed to keep the reviews informative
and to avoid marketing hype. You are the webmaster, after all.
You can draw even more traffic by allowing visitors to rate the usefulness
of each review. Many reviewers will encourage people to visit your site so they
can read and rate the review. More important than just being a gimmick to increase
traffic, rating reviews allows you to sort them by quality and expose your average
visitors to the best possible content first.
Promote it!
Once you've got the code in place, it's important to publicize this new feature
of your website. If you have experience or know someone with experience writing
press releases, you may be able to garner attention from news and niche media.
Another highly effective form of publicity is to mention the new feature above
the fold on the main page of your site.
If you have a newsletter, promote the review process in your next issue. In
fact, as you begin to accumulate reviews, they can serve as great additional
content for your newsletter. Simply include the best reviews in each issue.
As with the reviews on your website, you are providing valuable content for
your audience, giving your reviewer great exposure, and saving time for yourself.
It's a win-win-win situation.
About the Author:
Copyright (c) 2003-2004 Clay Mabbitt.
Clay Mabbitt writes articles about online income opportunities. He is the founder
of a community of Internet entrepreneurs sharing knowledge and experience at
http://www.affiliatescreen.com |
