If you are trying to drive traffic to your web site and have researched your options, you have probably reached one conclusion. Content is essential.

They say content is king and that mantra is oft-repeated for a reason. It’s true.

Content is a key component in driving top-notch search engine placement. Content attracts visitors and keeps them longer. Content can help to reinforce your sales message. For those involved in affiliate marketing, content can fill space and increase the perceived legitimacy of a site.

You want traffic and you need content. You have three means of acquiring it. You can author it yourself, purchase it from someone else, or cull and use free articles widely available on the internet.

Self-authorship offers some appeal. After all, who knows your business the way you do? However, the significant amount of time and energy required to develop the written content you need may very well be disproportionate to its benefit—especially when you remind yourself that you are an entrepreneur, not a writer.

Odds are that you would prefer to leave the monotonous process of authoring articles to someone else while you made better use of your time fine-tuning the other aspects of your business.

You would prefer to have content authored by a genuine writer—someone who knows how to use the written word to maximum effectiveness.

The decision between purchasing materials and using free content may seem relatively simple. Free articles have many benefits.

They don’t increase your overhead. They are easy to find. They cover topics related to your site and products. There is no delay—you can access them immediately. Free content has some immediately visible advantages.

However, free articles have a significant and often-overlooked downside.

Initially, the competitive arena of the internet is populated by thousands like you who are looking for a content edge. Those who may be in direct competition for your traffic are thinking about content and may be reaching for free content, too.

The result? The same free content appears over and over again at site after site.

The reason content is so important is because it gives you an opportunity to attract surfers and keep them at your site. They are attracted to content that provides them with information they cannot readily find elsewhere and materials that are engaging and unique. A chief component of content’s power is diluted by its repetitive use in hundreds of locations.

Additionally, free content is generally advertising in disguise. Unfortunately, it’s not your advertising. Authors of free content are not writing out of love—they are writing for their own profit.

Take for instance, this free article. I am seeking to provide you with information about free materials and their weaknesses. However, I am not

All free articles are advertising copy, in a sense. Do you really want to use someone else’s advertising on your site? If your visitors read the content, and the content is well-written, it should spur them to at least consider leaving your site to find out more about the author, the ideas the author mentions, or the products and services to which the author alludes.

Content should serve to make your site sticky—keeping surfers on your site. Free content may perform the opposite function by drawing them to other venues.

Third, free articles are not written with you in mind. Free articles may have been written with particular keywords or concepts in mind, but they were not constructed for your site with your specific needs under consideration. Their tone and content are unlikely to be a perfect fit for your needs, further decreasing their effectiveness.

Using a custom content provider allows you to receive all of the benefits of great content while avoiding the pitfalls associated with free materials.

You can hire a professional writer to produce entertaining and informative content that is completely unique to your web site. The result is better search engine placement and a reason for visitors to come back again and again—and to stay longer when they do.

Custom articles also promise a complete commitment to your site and your needs. The author can produce exactly what you need and do so in a way that reinforces your message and your objectives. It can blend seamlessly with your site and help pre-sell your product or service in ways free articles never could.

There are costs, of course. You will need to pay your writer and you will have some period of brief delay before your content is ready. However, if you work with an effective content provider who understands the nature of internet business, costs should be reasonable and turnaround quick.

Free articles seem like a wonderful solution to the content gap from which so many sites suffer. Unfortunately, free articles fail to deliver the full advantage of great content and may actually reduce the effectiveness of your site. The alternative, a professional internet content provider, is the best way to insure your content will do what you need it to do.

C. Brackney is an internet content provider. Content One provides unique custom content of all types for web sites.
http://content1.bravehost.com
content1@myway.com
Copyright 2005 C. Brackney/Content One. All rights reserved.