When your business is information marketing, your product is content – lots and lots of content. Trying to slide by without lots of quality content is like trying to run your car without maintaining it – you’ll run for awhile, but eventually you’re facing disaster.

How do you gather content for your business?

Here are some ideas that we recommend:

Do it yourself

If you don’t happen to be made of money, you can try writing your own content. This is a hard option for some, and one that can derail many a beginning entrepreneur with the sheer volume of content required.

Outsourcing to the rescue

You can hire others to write personalized content for you – namely a ghostwriter. Don’t try to do everything yourself, when it’s not your strength. Know in advance that this is a more expensive option…one that can cost you hundreds of dollars for a not-terribly-impressive amount of work. Hey, writers have to make a living too.

Take your time to find someone who you can successfully work with, and who will produce great content for you. You can have your ghostwriter create content from general topics. If you want more specific work, it helps to provide notes and research, whenever possible.

Article directories

Another way of finding content for your site is to go to article directories. There are many to choose from on the Internet, and many of them allow you to use their articles for free or for a small charge. Sites such as Ezine Articles and Article Dashboard can provide content for you. The downside to promoting duplicate content on your website could be lowered page rank in the prominent search engines. Make sure to monitor your results when using content from these sites.

Private label content

Private label content is another option. You find a membership site where private label content is offered. Get what you need and apply it to your website – no writing required. That’s not to say that there’s no reading required, however. Before you purchase pre-made content, always read it first to make sure it’s the right quality level of writing that you require, as well as appropriate to the content you’re trying to market.

You may also want to do a search of the Internet to see how many other areas have the same content you’re considering. If your content isn’t unique, you’re going to have a difficult time drumming up reader interest and having them want to return.

Reconsider the written word for the spoken word

Written words are showing no signs of dying out anytime in the near future, but we have other ways of providing content as well. If you’re developing severe writer’s block when it comes to writing your own content, have you tried speaking it instead? Record yourself speaking what you want to write about, and then simply transcribe your own ideas, in your own voice, or hire someone else to do it for you. What could be more original?

Create a process that is ongoing

Information marketing thrives on newness. Whatever way you get content for your business – whether it’s created by you or by someone else – plan on a regular schedule of updates, to keep your business evergreen.

About the Authors

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed.

Pat and Lorna Shanks are "SPECTACULARIZERS" of great audio content. They teach entrepreneurs, independent professionals and small business owners how to attract more clients and make more money using Spectacular Presentations and Robotic Internet Marketing. For more "Spectacularizer Tips", go to www.PatAndLorna.com or follow us on Twitter.