While searching for some information on kitchen cabinet trends the other day, I came across this gem on a site full of advertising:

In recent times White kitchen cupboards are getting more and more well-liked in households who want a nice and contemporary hunt for their kitchens. it can be indeed factual that the white color is actually pleasant on the sight and offers high temperature to a home. Kitchens can be a awfully central a component of any household and for that reason picking out or redesigning or maybe remodelling of kitchens desires plenty of end result of diverse ideas.

I didn’t link to it because I didn’t want to reward them with traffic from this post – but trust me when I say it doesn’t get any better for the next 8 paragraphs. While the Internet is full of garbage like this – well-written, helpful content that is thoughtfully optimized for keywords is still the only thing that survives the many Google updates.

While spurious “link-building” schemes are continuing to get gutted by Google, those who publish – well and often – are always going to win over those who want to just write a check, not think about it, and turn over their ongoing website marketing to some third party offering a super-cheap price.

So – what can you provide by creating your own content that the nice folks overseas can’t?

Authenticity

While we may all laugh at the bad English in the example above, what’s really missing is authenticity – a single voice, a person with a real life and real emotions and a real opinion. The article was clearly written for search engine purposes by someone from a different culture who couldn’t give two sh*ts about kitchen cabinets. When you create your own content, your voice can’t help but shine through – unless you work REALLY hard to sound like you are stuffed with sawdust – how you feel about the subject at hand will reveal itself.

Bias is a GOOD thing, if you’re not a journalist. As members of the social species known as humans, we want to know how others feel about a subject – in the midst of all our fact-gathering. Articles that give both facts AND a conclusion born of the writer’s inherent bias are always the ones that get comments about how helpful they are.

Revelation

While you’re busy giving great facts and perhaps sharing how you feel on the subject at hand, consider revealing something of yourself in the process by telling a relevant story. I had a coaching client the other day ask me – “Should I reveal to my bankruptcy and divorce clients that I myself experienced a painful and financially devastating divorce and had to turn to bankruptcy before it was all said and done?” My answer was – absolutely.

Rather than thinking less of you, your prospective clients will know that you aren’t judging them for what they are currently going through, and that you understand all of it on a cellular level. It’s so tempting on the Internet to act as though we’re all so perfect and together and professional – when what that really does is make us Teflon – prospects slide right off of our shiny facade and go find someone it’s easier to connect with. Don’t be afraid to reveal the thing that could lead to that connection – even if it isn’t so pretty – especially if you’re in a profession that expects its clients to reveal themselves in return.

Responsiveness

When you’re comfortable creating your own content, the questions people ask over and over will start to jump out at you as blog post titles as you’re conversing with them, and you will immediately start framing the response as a blog post in your head (or maybe that’s just weirdos like me). Don’t waste that opportunity – regardless of what’s on your “publishing calendar,” get that answer out there into the world so it can help more than that one person. Hard to do that on a dime when you’re buying bad canned content.

Feel the Pain

You’ve probably been doing whatever you do long enough to know what it is that’s bugging your prospects. If you’re fortunate, you have the fix for that – you can make the irritation, the uncertainty, the pain go away. Talk to the pain – rather than about your fabulous service. If you focus on solving the pain point, it becomes stupid easy to bring up the product or service that does that by the end of your piece.

On that note, I can’t stop myself from concluding with this bit from The Princess Bride: