Zagging is the Shiznit!
You know that old saying – while everyone is zigging, it’s time to zag. It holds true in online marketing as well, and the search engines know it.
Think about it. How quickly is the SEO game changing? Hint: really quick!
To me, zigging is repurposing content and passing it off as yours. It’s metatags and link building and on and on. And on the surface these aren’t bad strategies, especially if you don’t have the time to think up something really original, like composing content that’s interesting and timely and that people really want to read.
Everywhere I look I see bloggers extolling the virtues of article marketing, but it all sounds strikingly similar. When you read original content you know it. You lean into the screen. It absorbs you. It entertains you. It offers you knowledge.
Cheap, repurposed content doesn’t offer that. And it rarely fools the search engines either. Even giant sites like Yahoo! and AOL have authority domains and plan to monetize staggering quantities of backfill content at lower levels on their sites.
Another form of zigging — encouraging people to repurpose your content. That’s what the get-rich-quick crowd is doing; persuading people to outsource their article-writing to the Philippines, or using article scraping software to create even more content. And it’s a huge industry. Content mills like DemandMedia.com and AssociatedContent.com are growing like crrrazy. (AssociatedContent.com is now owned by Yahoo!)
All this has wanting to zag, and not as part of a cunning marketing plan. My position on quality content is the real me. It’s fun to take a contrary position when you believe in it. And when you know you are right. : )
About the Author: Joe Franklin is a copywriter and online marketing strategist that lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.
