Finding content for your website is not so much about quantity as it is about quality. And quality content can be hard to find.

So where does quality content come from?

First things first,  lets define “Quality” in this context. Quality content is any information that your target audience will find of value and therefore want to read. Quality content can come from many sources but the best person for the job can largely depend on the subject matter. If there is a great deal of information already available on the subject, you can choose to turn to free sources (which can vary depending on the subject) or to license content from another provider. Although these options will provide you with information to fill the holes in your site, it is not likely to win clients or influence sales the way you were hoping for your online venture.

You may be the right person for the job.

If you sell a specific product that you know better than anyone else or have a great deal of experience in a certain area, you may be the best person to write your own content. The problem is that you may not have the writing chops to turn your knowledge into effective content for your prospective clients and I am not just talking about grammar and punctuation either. Sure, you need a decent grounding in those things to communicate effectively and not make your company look bad in the process but the larger issue is the ability to make the information interesting for your average intended reader. If your prose read like stereo instructions, you will lose more people even if your information is the best available source for it.

To write or not to write – that is the question.

Many people can communicate well and in an interesting fashion in text (even the ones like me who have a tendency to write like they talk) but there are an equal or greater number of people out there who should “Just Say No” to writing their own content. Once this realization occurs, it is time to bring in a professional. There are varying degrees of skills out there just waiting to be found. You can find writers with skills ranging from basic press releases all the way up to the ability to write full on technical white papers with web content specialists falling in between. And many of them can do it all end to end so you if find the right person, you can get everything you need all in one place. The thing to keep in mind though is that what you need for web content is a writer who understands how to distill information into easily consumable blocks of content while understanding enough about SEO to help increase the keyword density in your pages. Just because you find a highly skilled writer, does not mean they are automatically skilled at web content.

When it come down to it, the right person is relatively subjective, but if you are going to make the investment (be it with time or money), you have to make sure that whoever you chose is  the best one  for the job.

When developing a brand for a product or even for a new company, there are a number of things to consider. It is not as easy as just sitting around with your friends after a few too many and deciding that you just came up with the best brand name ever. I suppose it can be but it would be the very rare exception. Too many times business names assume too much of the market they are going after, especially in the age of the internet when anything you put out can go global. And it is not just small business that make this mistake.

The textbook case happens with Chevrolet way before the internet was even considered in its current form. Their new car the “Nova” was going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. And what a Brand, the positively stellar name brought to mind POWER and SPEED..that is of course until they decided to go after the car market in Mexico. The car sold like gangbusters in the US, but south of he border the sales were flat. Why you ask, because they failed to consider the language issue when branding the product. In the US, people saw Nova, but in Mexico they saw No Va or No Go and who wants to drive a car that doesn’t go.

This is just a tiny example of mistakes that are made when developing a new brand.

A brand can be a very complex thing. It is less about singling you out amongst your competition and more about showing potential customers that yours is the only product or service that can satisfy their particular needs.

A good brand will:

• Clearly deliver your message
• Define you as an authority in the marketplace
• Speak to your prospects on an emotional level
• Motivate those prospects to buy
• Build customer loyalty

A ready to be branded?

If you are then make sure to keep these 5 things in mind as you start the process.

Think – Before you do anything else, know your audience and yourself. Think it through. Make sure that you are talking in a way that prospective customers can understand you. And make sure the brand name is meaningful for both the product and its target market.

Plan– Consider all of the angles and try to put yourself in your customers shoes. Think like they do, not like your technical team does, too much jargon will turn people off. And don’t be overly clever. An inside joke only really works for people on the inside. If it is that important to use it, make sure to explain it so everyone can enjoy a laugh.

Commit – Once you have decided on a course for your brand, stick with it. Changing things up too often leave customers confused. And a revolving door of logos makes you seem indecisive and lessens the power of and brand penetration.

Maintain – Above all else you have to maintain your brand. There is nothing worse than having an incredibly identifiable symbol that peopl are not sure is yours. Set standards that everyone should follow when dealing with your brand so you are represented consistently across all mediums.

Repeat – Make sure you thoroughly consider any changes that are made to existing brands and then go through the process over and over to make sure what you are doing will have the desired effect.

Keeping these things in mind as you begin thinking about your brand whether it be a business, product or service will help guide you to better decisions along the way and don’t be afraid to ask for help along the way. You don’t have the budget for ad agency, no problem, there are a great number of experienced consultants that can ease you through the process of branding from company/product naming, to logo design and promotional development at very reasonable rates.

Business owners, no matter their size, are encouraged to develop a logo or some kind of identity when setting out their wares in the open marketplace. No matter whether you offer good or services, are a man or a woman, have 100 employees or are a sole proprietor, you need a way to be identified. Everyone seems to know they need it but many are not sure why.

So what’s a logo good for anyway?

Here are my top 5 reasons to have a logo for your business:

Identity is everything to a business but a logo may only one part of a larger picture. If you are in need of a full branding campaign to get your company where it needs to be and have the budget to support it, an Advertising Agency is the best place to start because they can offer end to end service across a variety of media. But if you are just wading into the waters of the marketplace with a new business, there are a number of online companies that can design the perfect logo for your business and augment it with other identity materials for a very reasonable costs and you will never have to leave the comfort of your own computer desk.

Welcome to the new frontier. Now that you have made the decision to make the leap to the web, what is the next step?

It seems daunting. Instead of just marketing your products or services to locally or even across the country, you now have a global audience to deal with. This can present a set of problems that many small businesses are not sure they are ready to handle.

Fear not. Although Internet marketing can encompasses the world wide web, e-mail, wireless digital media,  management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management you can ease your way into it with just a few enhancements of existing business standards.

Just like with your existing offline marketing, branding is the most important thing you can do to differentiate your business online. Everything starts with your logo.

A well designed logo will help you stand out against your competition and help augment the position of your products or services in the global marketplace. But an identifiable mark is is only the beginning. The cornerstone of any good brand is the differentiation of your product. You need to explain to people what makes your company unique and this is when you begin to realize that when it comes to internet marketing content is king.

Once you have made your mark and identified your strengths, its time to tell people about it.

Like with the offline marketing collateral you have always used for sales support, you will want those same materials for online. But when you place them online they can now take on new and exciting forms. Not just as downloadable versions of the existing materials (although those are good), but as new interactive versions that help you truly differentiate yourself from the competition.

The most common interactive form of these materials is a website. Here you can extend your offline identity into a more complete online experience for potential customers. Instead of a flat boring experience that talks about a single product or service, you have the ability to bring your entire business right to your customers in a way that can service them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But just putting the information out there is not enough, in order for it to be useful, it needs to be seen.

Once you have your brand and online identity set up, the real work begins. Cutting through the clutter.

Stay tuned to learn different ways to enhance your online marketing efforts with topics including logos, branding, websites, search engine optimization, social networking and more.