Top Rules of Quality Content
This hub is written as a fictional dialogue between a Newbie Hubber, aspiring to write great content and an experienced Hubber. The main points covered in this fictional dialogue revolve around the following:
- UNIQUENESS
- AXIS
- INTEREST
- MECHANICS
There is no particular reason for choosing a dialogue as a medium, but it should bring some change, as most hubs are article-oriented, if I may say so.
Newbie: Wherever I go, people talk about high quality content though no one has taken the time to show me how. Do you have some guidelines on how I can write quality content?
Hubber: Perhaps I can help, though you’ll find different approaches to the same question. Let’s consider your content as your own children. They are unique, meaning they are neither the children of your closest relative, nor the children of any far-related acquaintance.
Newbie: Well, does this mean I should write about something no one has written before? Is it that what you meant by unique?
Hubber: Yes and No.
Newbie: *shrugs*
Hubber: Being unique doesn't mean peculiar. When I compared your content to your children, I had my reasons for drawing such comparison. Your children are unique because they are yours. However, they are not aliens.They do not have green skin and long antennas.They inherit your physical traits, your genes etc. The same natural rules apply to your content.
Newbie: How?
Hubber : What you write on your own words has to be drawn from your experience, from your own point of view, from your own educational background. No one can write something like it verbatim even your twin. Simply because no one had the same education, experienced the same feeling, held the same opinions at the same time as you did. Your opinions evolve through what you experience daily, even momentarily. This is something impossible to replicate.
Newbie: I got it. But how far should I dig into a topic? I read somewhere that the deeper I go the better it is.
Hubber: Please, don’t take everything you read at face value. Going deeper doesn't mean losing focus. Your content doesn't need to be a mishmash of unrelated topics or subtopics.
Newbie: Will that be OK as long as I stay focused on one topic?
Hubber : Exactly. Your content should revolve around one topic that attract relevant details to it. Suppose you are writing about the history of 18th century fiction then, out of the blue, you get into a time machine and move to science fiction screenwriting of the 21st century. Although the two topics can be hooked together under a boarder topic of creative writing, it is best to deal with them separately.
Newbie: So, it’s impossible to link two topics within a broader one.
Hubber: It is not impossible. If you have to do it, then do it with subtlety. Your reader shouldn't feel any force-feeding on your part. Your reader should feel that any element put into your content goes into a stable orbit around your main topic.
Newbie: hmm…I have another question. If I do all that, will this guarantee that my content is really interesting?
Hubber: It really depends. When you write, you either write for yourself or for somebody else. It doesn't matter if you write for yourself, since you are your own reader, but it really matters with an audience in mind. Know who you are writing for. Spark their interest with relevant information. Make your content visually digestible, appealing to the reader, by adding informative headings, compact paragraphs, pertinent images, bullets and emphasis etc.
Newbie: In a word, I shouldn't be boring.
Hubber: True. Keep in mind that a large portion of your readers will not read everything. Use this drawback to your advantage. Make your content skimmable. Give them a choice, a selection of what they want to read. Remember, your goal is to make them interested and not bore them to death.
Newbie: Phew! , I am glad we covered it all. Wait! Is there anything else I should care about? Things like the headaches of spelling, grammar, or whatever?
Hubber: With the best content you might come up with, discounting the reader’s experience will ruin it. Good grammar and spelling are a brand of trust. If you write an excellent content with poor grammar and horrible spelling, at best you’ll get angry comments.
Newbie: Is there anything worse than that?
Hubber: Of course. How about losing your readers’ trust for good? Nobody is going to read your articles anymore because they will think your content is manufactured elsewhere. They will think you are a bad plagiarist who can’t separate the wheat from the chaff. Edit your content more than once and use a spell checker. At least, care about their feelings even if they don’t say whatever they feel out loud.
Newbie: Thank you for these guidelines. Looks like I have a long way to go before I can write anything of note.
Hubber: Then you will end up writing nothing at all. Start now! Great content comes with experience. You will learn as you go. Everyone makes mistakes, but don’t let that discourages you. After all, nobody is perfect.
