The Editorial X-Factor
January 28, 2008 – 6:51 amIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
When you think of most content websites, you realize they are, in essence, a collection of articles. At the very core, a content website has amassed a series of articles, generally written at different time intervals, which revolve around a certain keyword concept. In this sense, websites are no different than magazines.
What is the missing factor that separates successful websites from unsuccessful ones?
The same question can be asked about magazines. Magazines take a number of articles around a subject and put them together in a cohesive whole. Many websites fail but a few succeed, transcending time. When you consider what separates the winners and losers, you have to accept the idea that the editors have almost everything to do with the success. The editorial X-Factor is some quality that differentiates a collection of articles and turns them into a cohesive unit.
The sum of the articles in a website, or a magazine, create value. If every article cost $100 and you have 100 of them, you would have a collection of articles that cost $10,000 to produce, but your entire website would probably be worth much more! There is something extremely important about the job you do editorially. This part of your website building, just like the technical end, can’t be scrimped on. You need to devote the time to improving your editorial skills daily.
The best judge of your website quality is your readers. Even if they don’t give you direct feedback, you can still use Analytical tools to deduce whether they enjoy your website or not. Do they stay around, or do the “bounce” immediately. Since you can keep detailed stats, it’s very simple to make editorial changes and then see what effect they actually have on site visitors.
As your editorial skills improve, the visitor experience is likely to improve along with them. You can also expect a boost in monetization as more people find your website to be a reliable source of information.
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