Content is king

Suze Bragg -- Home Accents Today, 5/1/2007

One of the golden rules of maintaining a Web site is updating it often with relevant and interesting content. This can be relatively easy when it is your main focus, but when you manage a store and have minimal Web experience, it can be a burden.

Your customers search the Internet for ideas, product details, best places to shop and latest trends. If your Web site doesn't have what they're looking for, they will seek it out on your competitors' sites.

To keep ahead, there are three ways to update content on your Web site: Write your own copy, hire someone to write it for you or find existing content to use. Most retailers prefer using content that is obtained elsewhere, either from manufacturers, media, through licensing deals or other sources such as free syndication sites.

Using free content or licensing content is becoming easier. According to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, content found in encyclopedias, dictionaries, textbooks and artwork may be used if it has no legal restrictions. Free material encompasses all copy and content in the public domain, such as syndication sites that advertise their articles as free, or material the government created for public use, and any copy developed before 1923, plus copyrighted works whose licenses honor using it on your Web site.

When a document is copyrighted, with permission, you may use it with its original wording and give credit to the author. On a lesser degree, free content may also be copylefted through reciprocal or mutually agreed licenses. This allows the author to impose some, but not all, copyright restrictions on those who want to use the piece.

You can make minor edits to the article or blog, provided it does not modify or change the tone, intended meaning or general context of the original. Whether the content is marked as copyrighted, or is simply copylefted, unless stated otherwise, you most likely will not need a full licensing agreement. To be safe, large publishing houses require a licensing agreement before allowing you to use their material. Visit their site's copyright link to find out how to obtain permission before lifting the copy of their site. You can link to it from your site, but to copy and paste the material may get you in trouble.

The best way to find free content is browsing through a Web site, magazine, blog, newsletter or the wholesaler or manufacturer of your products. Contact the owner of the article, or the publisher of the site, to request permission. More often than not, you'll receive a positive response to move forward.

For more information on free content Web sites, please visit creativecommons.org, ezinearticles.com, certificate.net/wwio and freesticky.com/stickyweb.

Watch this space every month for Business Memo. Our experts will present ideas and examples to help you be more successful in operating your own business.