Are you wasting your reader’s time?

Before I start with the article let me acknowledge, like you must have done already, that the title sounds fairly radical. The prompt question that must have sprung up in your mind must be – Why would someone waste their reader’s time? But before we draw conclusions let me cruise you through the reality and I am sure you will end up feeling that we are all sailing in the same boat, since we have experienced the same thing at some point of time and are still doing so.

For those of you who got the hint right, I am referring to those half baked articles we read on blogs these days and it is not only restricted to scrapper sites. Infact I am not even considering scrapper sites and autoblogs here. I am referring to authentic blogs managed by people like you and me which dish out, ‘less than useful’ content, in the most polite terms of vocabulary!

How often have you searched for something on Google, landed on a site for that keyword, read the post only to realize that the post only conveys something that can be classified as common sense and does not prove to be any useful to you? And then the same cycle continues and this leads to frustration and not to mention, kills a lot of time and patience. So, this was about other people who technically waste your time. But are you doing the same?

In a bid to keep up with the frequency of posting regularly and making the content keyword rich for search engine traffic, people lost track of the real underlying value of content and forgot that people will not appreciate the content if it’s not even remotely helpful for them. Here I am listing 3 reasons why you may be producing rehashed content.

1. Ignorance: Most of the times I have noticed people who engage in this kind of blogging don’t do it intentionally. Infact they are not even aware that their content might already be covered by someone else in a ‘more than appetizing’ way and that what appears like ‘content’ to them might be irking their readers. Mind you there is a different kind who do it intentionally which fall under the category that I have covered next.
2. Keyword Race: There is a difference between ignorance and intentional content rehashing. These are the kinds who want to keep up with the maximum keywords that they can cover in their blog to get keyword targeted traffic and most probably already know very well that their piece of text is not going to impress or help anyone but still garner traffic from the search engines. They are into a vicious circle which I have termed as ‘Keyword Race’.
3. Insecurity: These are the third kind of people who are insecure of their competitors achievements. Hence, they want to load their blogs with more article to get more traction and not to mention they are doing it the wrong way in a bid to get ahead of their competition. They usually are victims of both the tendencies I have mentioned above due to their insecure nature. These are the kind of blogs which often go one step ahead and contribute to plagiarism due to the very same reason and not to mention, they don’t stick around for too long for very apparent reasons.

Research: This is more of a habit than a remedy. Researching blogs and other content sources in your niche will help you stay informed of what is happening and what is being said about the topic you are going to cover. It always pays to weigh both sides of the concept you are going to cover and if you find out that you seem to be disagreeing with something that is being said, then you can very well cover that in your blog post. This will not only make it more authentic but also add to the discussion and attract more readers who were in similar thoughts. Simply writing the same stuff in your own language does not inspire any glory, infact it would be nothing more than manual spinning and this kills credibility.

Intent: Always be sure of your intent for not only creating your blog but also for writing each post. Each post must serve a purpose, which can range from an informative post to gaining social traction, to an infographic for viral link baiting. If you are still in the mindset of writing just because you have started a blog, then let me tell you, that it does not work! There are just too many blogs around each niche these days which dish out excellent content and if you want to stand out then each post needs to be custom crafted for excellence.

Outcome: This is the cause and also the solution of the problem if seen from a deeper perspective. Most bloggers are not firm with what outcome they expect from their blog. Many start blogging as a source to unwind and when they find out that their competitor is making money from it, they start amending their ways and in the deal they lose authentic readers and end up in the same rat race for keywords we discussed above.

Conclusion: Its no big secret that you are killing your brand if you are dishing out scrapped and hashed content which even a newbie blogger could figure out after few weeks of blogging. This will only result in stunted growth and slow death of the blog and that is a scary thought for a serious blogger. Content is the life of a blog, be it feeding the search engines, getting social media traction or pleasing your readers and ‘just fine’ is not a valid adjective as far as serious blogging is considered, the content has to be no less than ‘simply awesome!’, otherwise it would not leave a mark. If you have experienced that you were being a part of the keyword rat race or on a different note, you are irked by the rehashed content blogs floating around, then do let me know what you did to tackle the issue. I would love to address all your concerns.

About Rohan: I do not make millions from blogging, and I don’t claim to know ‘the secret’. What I share is scalable seo strategies and advanced blog marketing etiquettes to help serious online businesses, just like you, to leverage their online presence multi-fold.