What makes good content? It’s debatable. But it’s safe to say some principles can’t hurt.

1. Easy to read information
2. Links to additional info, if needed
3. Clear navigation and help if necessary
4. Pictures and videos added if they expand the narrative

If people write authoritatively on a subject, readers will learn to trust the website. If the information is schlock and not up to snuff, the low quality will eventually stop people from wanting to investigate the site further.

Quality web content can be short, though. If you answer a question definitively in a concise manner, there’s no point in going long in an attempt to impress your reader.

It’s not what you think.

Using the “Hourglass” method has nothing to do with putting yourself on a timer to see how many articles you can write in an hour. It is, rather, a way for you to visualize the “shape” your article will take before you even begin to write it.

That’s right! Finished articles have a definite shape, one that frequently resembles geometric or other common shape. You’ll see this shape if you look closely enough at any article after you finish reading it.

Some are shaped like pyramids. Others are shaped like squares or rectangles.

Still others are shaped like blobs — the worst shape of all because a Blob follows no recognizable pattern.

How an article is shaped often determines if it gets read from start to finish, abandoned in the middle or, worse, not read at all.

One of the best article shapes is the Hourglass — thickest at the top, tapering toward thin at the middle, and then flaring out to be thickest again at the bottom.

Beginning today, start to imagine your articles taking the shape of that hourglass
You’ll be able to write faster if you commit to the shape of the hourglass and imagine that shape each and every time you sit at your keyboard. Committing to that shape takes a lot of bad habits and time-consuming things out of play.

For one thing, it’s a means of assuring you’ll put information readers crave (the “meat”) at both the top and bottom of the article. You’ll gain speed because the method forces you to commit to putting the busy reader first.

Putting the reader first means you hit him or her over the head with the most compelling information first and last. In a way, it’s like giving readers a gift when they first enter your home and another gift when they leave.

Readers are people, and people like to receive gifts. Give a reader a gift at the top of the article and he or she just might stick around to see if they’ll get another one.

Commit yourself not to meander. Grab readers in the very first sentence and don’t let them go. This approach takes the worry about excluding the most important facts totally out of play, thus saving time.

Before you begin to write, take a minute to decide what information is the most important. If there are six important things you’d like to share, rank those in order of importance. Imagine your article as an hourglass.

Why is the hourglass shape of articles preferable to other shapes for writing with speed? Because it provides a smooth flow while still leaving room in the middle to provide background, the context of the article.

Commit yourself to placing background in the center of the article, the thinnest point of the hourglass. Background is important for readers to understand the context of the article. But it’s not as important as your key points, some of which are explained in the upper part of the article while others are explained in the lower.

One of the key points, of course, is how to get more information. End your article by telling readers where they can get it. It’s an important fact indeed, especially when you’re the purveyor of the information and can make money with it.

Before you begin to adopt these writing tips, closely read your existing articles.

Try to see their shape. The pattern that emerges may stun you.

Pyramid-shaped articles are thinnest at the top, meaning you’re likely not “grabbing the reader and not letting go” in the very first sentence — a recipe for boredom.

On the flip side of the coin, there are people who constantly experiment and innovate when it comes to approaching the same old problem. Surely they would use tried and tested principals if they were sure they worked.

So if they don’t subscribe to popular notions and instead try something radically different, what does that say about their methods? It says that innovation, of itself, must pay a dividend in a way that repeating old techniques can’t.

If you plan on going Viral yourself, you’ll need some serious firepower. You need to make a web app, a video, or somethinng else that has real and unique staying power, and makes people recommend it to friends. That’s the tough part. You have to be unique enough that people will actually recommend you to others.

There is no limit to how much traffic you can get if you go viral, so it’s always worth trying. But be aware that everybody else is out there doing the same thing, so you have to make your offerings something special.

They think that traffic is something they have to “take” from others. They aren’t looking to build traffic on their own by using proven methods. Instead they surf around the web looking for websites where they can post their URL and “leach traffic” from more viable sources.

The problem with this method, of course, is that websites that actually have traffic are well policed and have been dealing with this for years.

My advice for these folks is to evolve. Give up your attempted scam and get with the program. The web will be a better place when you do.

Another nice factor concerning the cold is that I don’t feel like going outside either. So that sets up two factors for success: I’m in the mood to work and a bigger audience than usual is waiting. You can definitely crank up your traffic totals with these factors in play.

So the next time you feel like complaining because it’s cold out, remember how it’s an advantage to you as an internet marketer!

It’s almost always better to concentrate on daily management, so you can handle your task in small bite sizes. Otherwise, it would be easy to feel overwhelmed by all you have to.

This week I hit a lot of sites I had neglected for awhile, and I was surprised at just how much work I had to do. Oh well, such is the life of an admin.

I won’t be sure what the exact totals are until I gather stats for a week or so, but the basic premise seems to apply. You remind them you exist and some of them return to try the website. The costs are very low, and the possibility of turning them into users is high.

This should be especially useful for people who were involved at some point but have fallen off dramatically. Often the reason is unrelated to the website and a prompting message will get their attention and get them to visit. Things look good, so far.

If you try and attempt too many projects at once, you again run the risk of bogging down and losing focus. When this happens, you begin to notice a decline in numbers, not the required increase. At this stage of the game, it’s time to re-double efforts and get back to the basics.

When internet marketing is the problem, keeping the eagle eye of focus steadily on your task is the answer.

Temporary fluctuations in your earnings are no big deal. You need to understand what causes them. If it’s seasonal, oh well. Otherwise there might just be actions you can take to improve your situation.

In the end, the only way you can break through a plateau is by pushing harder, and mixing up your efforts.

The plateaus may be purely mental for all we know.