You might have read about 'evergreen content' several times while reading about online publishing and are confused about the term. It's an important distinction in the world of online content, so for writers it's a distinction worth going over.

There are basically three types of high-quality writing you can read on the Web - news, opinion and evergreen.

News and opinion writing are both characterized by the following:

• Assumes that the reader is a regular reader of the site, or of the columnist (i.e. "As you remember from my column yesterday...", or "The Business section goes into further detail...")
• The topic has only temporary value-the topic might be meaningless a few months or even weeks later
• Has a huge spike of traffic on the day of publication...and virtually none after that. A flash in the pan.
• Readers come from browsing the site, not from search engines.
• Reader might only have a passing interest in the specific article topic-they are more interested in keeping up to date with the general topic area, or they might like a certain writer's style or opinion
• Because they have only a passing interest in the article topic, readers are much less likely to click on ads or offers. It's more of a "That's kind of interesting" or "Nice to know" reaction.

Evergreen writing, on the other hand, conforms to a different standard:

• Does not assume the reader necessarily understands, cares about, or knows anything about what was published before by the writer, or what's elsewhere on the site
• The topic might not necessarily be "hot" (i.e. it's not breaking news) but people will be curious about it weeks, months, or even years later, in smaller quantities
• Traffic starts off small and grows over time as the search engines learn about it and direct searchers to it
• Readers have an intense interest in the specific article, because they went to Google, Yahoo or another search engine looking for that specific piece of information
• Because readers have an intense interest in knowing as much as possible about that topic, they're much more likely to click on ads. They're thinking "I need to know more" or "I'm ready to buy-where can I get it?"
• Can express opinion (esp. advice-oriented writing) but bases advice on the strength of its own arguments and reasoning, rather than what you expect the reader to know about your predilections and affinities

Sometimes it can be hard to come up with and write on compelling evergreen topics-they're not "hot", and not necessarily "sexy". People won't want to read about them in droves the minute you publish them on HubPages.

However, the gratifying part comes when people are STILL landing on your Hubs months and even years later, and so many more of them are clicking on AdSense ads, and buying related products from Amazon and eBay.

Slow and steady wins the race, especially when you're trying to make money on the Web. The long, steady stream of search traffic is where you will earn your long-term, residual money through AdSense, eBay and Amazon.

Here's an example of three Hubs on the same topic: the Apple iPhone. Take a look at the following 3 article titles, and think under what conditions you would want to read it:

1. Cingular announces official iPhone release date - March 30, 2007 update
2. iPhone, iLuvU - Apple's new phone looks so cool
3. Apple iPhone vs Blackberry Pearl vs Treo :: Comparison

• The first title would be a GREAT read on March 30, 2007...or very, very shortly thereafter. A few weeks later? It's old news. No reads, no traffic, no clicks.
• The second title would be interesting only if you knew (and agreed with) the author's esthetic opinion. Otherwise, it's just another opinion piece about yet another product that everyone's writing opinions about.
• The third title would be interesting if you're close to making a buying decision between the iPhone and one of its prominent competitors. Just looking at the title suggests that they will be compared and contrasted, and you'll read the pros/cons, advantages/disadvantages about each. A well-written article might tempt you to make a decision and click on an ad. Plus, the title and content are likely to pull in long-tail searches like "cost iphone blackberry" or "best battery power treo iphone" for many, many months-at least through the end of this year when all products will still be on the market and competing with each other.

More information at Paul's Hub on this very topic:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Evergreen_Content