How To Get Better Traffic: Invest In Unusual Content

We all know that audiences crave for new stuff all the time. What made them click one day soon becomes boring the next. What you need to do is to create content that is nothing like the ordinary. Your visitors need something different once in a while to break the pattern.

Creating unusual content is not easy though. You won’t be able to hammer these things out in one sitting (like how I did for this blog post!) and you’ll need to research and plan for it before taking action. Here are some unusual content that you can make:

Videos

Good videos are hard to make, even with all the tools available like Animoto or hi-res smartphones. The good thing is that when you make a good video, it gets shared time and again.

Even better, you now have some content on YouTube, the second largest search engine in the planet. One thing to remember though: get the script right since it’s the linchpin of the entire video. A good story will boost both the shareability of the content as well as the stickiness of the message.

Long form articles

I’m talking about 4000-word articles that can take a couple of hours to read. These are not just blog posts compiled into one megapost, but really well-thought out content that people in your niche love.

The benefits are threefold: 1) search engines love long form content, 2) you build your authority in your niche just by publishing a comprehensive piece like this, and 3) long form mean engaging readers for an extended period of time, and we all know that increased engagement leads to increased chances of converting visitors to customers.

Guides

Guides are another way to build authority and attract visitors, especially if you give it away for free. People tend to collect these, especially if they are available in downloadable form like an ebook, so your business can be remembered even months or years down the road.

Since this is a type of evergreen content, you can always share it when you create new content. It’s also useful when you need to publish something new; just update the guide, no need to rewrite everything.

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Events

There’s nothing like meeting people face to face to really make them remember you and your business. Yes, this is kind of heavy on logistics and planning but the upside is you can launch a lot of related content out of an event.

Create videos, blog posts, reviews, tweets, and more out of a single seminar. One smart way to do this is to invite speakers instead of you doing the talking. It eases the workload as well as showing that you’re not after just personal gain.

Podcast

Talking comes naturally to some people and if you’re one of them, this is definitely a medium you should explore.

Since you’ll be reaching people via their ears and not their eyes, this might just open you up to new audiences. Also take note that podcasts usually take at least 15 minutes to consume, a lifetime in terms of website engagement.

Now before you dive into making your own unusual content, first ask yourself a few things:

1. Will the payoff be enough for the effort I’ll be putting into this? Even a lower chance of success for a large reward is worth pursuing.
2. Do I have the resources to pull this off? You can plan it and just get help from sites like us for the execution and creation of the content. And yes, make sure to look into your bank account to see if you have enough funds as well.
3. Can I reuse the content? Most unusual content can be repurposed into many things for more bang for the buck. Webinars can be turned into blogposts, videos into GIFs, long articles into infographics.
4. Does it fit my niche? This one is important since some forms of content really won’t do well for certain audiences. For example, if you’re a mobile game studio, skip the heady long form and go for the walkthrough.

Got other unusual content ideas to share? Sound off below in the comments!

Other articles in this series (will be updated as more are published):

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Photo credits: 2005tigarn and finbarro

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