Lots of intelligent people realize, at some point, that the web represents an ideal media to publish their educated (and sometimes less educated) thoughts regarding just about anything. Furthermore, if it’s done right, there might even be some financial incentive in doing so.
This is wonderful news for both the aspiring web publishers who will enjoy the excitement of making their ideas « public » and the targeted visitors who will have access to newly available knowledge (usually, for free).
To make your web publishers’ efforts worth their while, here are a few « common sense tips » for those who are getting warm to the idea of e-publishing:
Focus on human-sized challenges – Even if your favorite subject is as expansive as « technology » (for instance), make sure to break up your work in smaller chunks so you don’t choke on the amount of content you’ll want to publish.
Become a specialist – Being different isn’t enough, in the age of online publishing. In fact, specialists will inevitably have the upper hand against the army of generalists who aren’t as knowledgeable on given issues.
Web visitors rule – Whatever you intend to inform your visitors about, keep in mind that visitors who like your content have the means to easily make it more popular (through social bookmarking, for instance) so treat them with due respect.
Monetize your hard work – Creating unique content makes a fertile ground for getting enough visitors to, in turn, justify adding « monetizing zones » throughout your published work.
Explore the many « pay-per-click » publisher programs, including Google’s AdSense and stay away from « pay-per-action » schemes (unless you’re a pro) as they’re usually much harder to « convert » into revenue.
Of course, getting paid for your work is always nice.
Update often to add more value – Your initial content is probably fine as it is -but- the world changes and perhaps, at some point, it’s a sound idea to revisit your previously published work to update it, in the hope of adding more value, for your visitors (and the search engines).
Blogs help this occur « naturally » through the addition, over time, of user-generated comments. Publishers will, nevertheless, usually get extra credibility points for doing this, on their own.
Make your own rules – This tip applies to your online publishing work -and- to your life, in general. Doing anything because you’re told to is bound to make you miserable, at some point. The online opportunities are so numerous that it’s hard to imagine you can’t become a happy publisher without following your heart.
There’s never been a moment in human history when publishing to such a vast audience was this easy. Providing information online for other people to learn from is basically about sharing the wealth of knowledge you come across. Obviously, there’s a lot of merit in web publishing.
Bonus tip – If you’re publishing highly unique content, consider making it multilingual using specialized automatic translation tools (and services) which may easily interface with your favorite blog script. Whenever possible, specify the translation is « automated » so that your foreign readers don’t judge your syntax too severely. Multilingual content creation will multiply the potential readership for your content which, by all means, is a good thing for you.
Good luck in your web publishing ventures!
Tags: web publishing, web content, blogs, wikis, web pages, monetization
