Resurrect Your Content Writing

In the airport today, I picked up the New York Times, that’s right, the non-digital, dead-tree version. In the Business section was an article about companies who posted song lyrics on their websites, some of which are now making a lot of money. This is a great example of two things – (1) how older content writing can ride the wave of convergence, and (2) plain dumb luck.

Right place, right time

When I hear a song on the radio I like these days, I scribble down one of the lines of the lyrics. When I get to a wifi connection, I Google the phrase, plus the word “lyrics.” Up pops the title of the song. I can then go to iTunes and buy it. Why, you might ask, are these steps necessary? Simply that radio stations realized that the time they spend announcing song titles and artists could be spent running commercials to pay for their dying business (radio ain’t doing so well these days). So they leave it up to the listener to figure out what the song is.

This lack of song titles, plus the existence of lyrics websites, plus the wonder of Google means that these websites could attract a healthy audience, and advertisers willing to buy their eyeballs. Now the more entrepreneurial of these lyrics websites are running ads. One of these sites, MetroLyrics.com, reported $10 million in revenue in 2009.

Lyrics as content writing

If lyrics are drawing eyeballs then, in my book, they’re content. And suddenly, with the above mentioned convergence of events, they’re able to create a new source of revenue for all involved. There’s a little problem with that in this case. The original creators of the content writing aren’t in on the money. The song writers are being left out of the revenue stream of this new income.

Do you have an untapped revenue stream?

Think about all the content writing your company has likely created through the years, especially if you’ve been around a while. You’ve got old brochures that you don’t use at all – did you know PDF format brochures and sales sheets are searchable? – and you need merely to place them out on your website and link a page to them to get the search value out of their content. Are they out of date? Consider marking them as “out of date” and putting them in a “history of the company” link and posting them anyway. Find a way to monetize your written assets.

One of my first jobs was for Davidson’s Mens Stores in Roanoke, Virginia. The company has been around since the very early 1900s. They have tons of old newspaper ads that would make a wonderful historical section on their website. They have old TV interviews, radio commercials, and magazine articles. Much of this would add to their search success, their credibility and their website readers’ enjoyment.

• That’s not just an old ad. Why, if you’re turn that into one of those newfangled PDFs, you’d have yourself a searchable asset there, fella!

On a personal note, where’s that great unfinished novel you were threatening to publish? My dad has one and I bet he’s not alone. Post it with a low cost fee to access it. You’ll be amazed when a few people, or more, find it and buy it online. Those genealogy notes your mom kept? Publish them on a small website and get on a web banner program. You won’t generate enough money to travel to the mother country, but you’ll make a few bucks. Content writing has real value and there’s tons of it lying around dormant.

Don’t view your content writing as disposable

Your company likely paid a good deal of money to get that brochure written. I’m always amazed how few companies have a process in place to automatically put such assets onto their websites in PDF format. The same is true of print advertisements. They could add to your search success, but only if you fully value the content writing they contain.