How to Curate Content for Your Blog
WriteCollective
Blogging has become essential to building an online empire. A blog adds value to your website; it allows you a ready means of optimization, gives you a platform to prove your authority within your field, and brings in traffic to make conversions. But before you can gain traction as a blogger, you need to know how to curate content for your blog.
The key is going about it in such a way that you’re not putting more time and effort into curation than you would into actual blogging. If you focus too much on the curation process, you will quickly find that you have lost hours of your week with little to nothing to show for it.
Here are several tips that will help you succeed at managing your blog without falling prey to the common blunders that plague other bloggers. After relaying our tips, we will reveal how you can outsource blog writing to make curating your content library even easier.
Subscribe to Industry Blogs
Content curation revolves around finding the best content for your blog by sifting through what others in your industry are posting. This means searching for the most relevant, timely, informative, entertaining, and engaging content to impress your current readers and catch the eye of prospective customers.
Part of proving your expertise is picking and choosing what to feed your readers. The best way to do this is to subscribe to blogs that consistently deliver high-quality content your readers will appreciate.
Follow your favorites on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. By doing so, you can easily get updates on current content at a glance.
You’ll still have to read the postings that interest you. But this is a great way to begin finding the targeted content you want to curate for your blog without having to set aside time each day to visit industry websites and blogs in search of new trends.
Use Curation Tools
The biggest hassle for most blog owners when it comes to content curation is the sheer time that could be committed to sifting through information. There is a simple solution: curation tools. In addition to signing up for feeds from preferred industry blogs, use tools designed to sift and find suitable content for you.
Popular aggregators like Digg and Reddit can be a good place to start, thanks to features that allow you to select your favorite topics in order to be fed relevant posts. What makes them truly useful, though, is that articles are ranked in popularity by readers, so you’ll have a good idea of what is most relevant to your audience.
Credit Sources
When you engage in content curation, it is important to give credit where credit is due. In many cases, you’ll simply post a link to content you think your readers will enjoy. But if you plan to repost content in any measure on your blog, you must make sure to credit your sources.
There are two reasons to do this. First, you don’t want your readers to find the same content elsewhere and develop the impression that you’re a plagiarist. Secondly, you don’t want the source to learn you copied their work.
In most situations, plagiarism is not a crime, but there could be serious consequences. Provable instances of plagiarism online are likely to get you delisted or banned. Your online reputation could be ruined. And promoting the work of another as your own could result in a civil lawsuit, which can cost you money and distract you from your business.
All of this hassle can be easily avoided by simply crediting sources. Not sure how to properly cite your sources? We suggest using a reputable citation generator, like this free tool available through Grammarly.
Add Your Spin
One of the best reasons to blog is to add value for current and prospective customers. You can certainly use content created by others to your advantage, but if you want readers to view you as an authority in your field, you must add your own flavor to every post, even when the content is not unique.
There are a number of strategies you can employ to this end. You could, for example, create a short summary of the content as a tease to interest readers in delving further or clicking the link to an article.
You might also start a conversation by inviting readers to peruse the content and then posing a question for them to answer. Asking for readers’ opinions is an excellent way to engage with your audience and open the lines of communication. Don’t forget to encourage readers to share any content that they find interesting, informative, or entertaining.
Trade Services
There is no shortage of newbie bloggers looking to build portfolios. Many of them are willing to go the extra mile to help you curate fresh and engaging content for your blog.
In most cases, they will bring you ideas for posts based on the latest industry trends. If you approve, they’ll create original content for your blog using available information. Not only can you get the curated content you seek, but you can also get a unique spin on it simply by offering a byline or link to the writer in question.
Need Great Content for Your Blog? Write Collective Can Help
Curating content for your blog can be a daunting process — and there are never enough hours in the day as it is. But is blogging worth it? Absolutely. Blogging is a wise investment for any business that needs to get noticed.
However, managing your own blog may not be the best move for you. The good news is you don’t have to. Instead, you can use Write Collective’s blog content writing services.
When you outsource content creation to our talented team of writers, you get access to the content you need without the hassle of curating your own blog library. It sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right? We think so, too!
On that note, check out our content marketing packages and see how we can help you grow.