I hardly need to waste words stating how important it is to come up with quality content for your website. It is, to say the very least, the glue that holds online business together. Provide your visitors with the value that they want and need and you have a chance of succeeding online. On the other hand, if you fail to provide much (if any) value to your website visitors, then you can take solace that your website won’t be the first to fail online (nor the last).

So clearly, content is King (or at least a high powered minister in the cabinet). But what next? I mean, now that I know that I need quality content, what do I have to do to actually provide quality content? Put otherwise, I now know what I need to do (create content of value), but I still don’t know how to do it. The goal of this post is to help get you started on figuring out how to create quality content. Think of it as an introduction, or direction, on how to create the type of content that your site visitors crave.

With that said, let’s not waste anymore time and jump right in.

1. Answer their questions. Regardless of your industry, your customers have questions. For example, imagine that you are a grandmother looking to buy your grandson a camera for his 8th birthday and you go online looking for something appropriate. You probably aren’t too interested in a list of features or the result of a laboratory test demonstrating whether or not this is a good digital camera. Those aren’t your concerns – you don’t care whether or not a camera can take good photos in low-light conditions. Your concern is whether or not an 8 year old can use and enjoy the camera. In other words, you have a question – what are the best cameras for kids. As such, you would readily read an article or blog post which talk about the top 10 cameras for kids. That’s the article that tries to answer your question, and thus that is the article that you are interested in. Flipping sides for a second, if you can figure out what questions your customers are asking, then you can start to write content which addresses those questions. As such, one of your first tasks is to do whatever it takes to learn what questions your customers are asking.  
2. Take them by the hand. Sometimes a simple answer does not suffice. Sometimes you have to actually demonstrate to your customers exactly what it is that they need to do. In other words, they don’t just want information, they want a presentation. This is where screenshots and PowerPoint and/or Camtasia (e.g. video) demonstrations can be very helpful. As an example, when I wanted to figure out how to use Windows Movie Make, I found a site with step-by-step tutorials which showed me in less than an hour exactly how to use the program. I have since returned to that site to use some of their other tutorials. Likewise, you should spend some time figuring out what products or issues confuse your site visitors and figure out ways to clarify the product or issue for them. 
3. Solve their problems. Let me take a second and explain the difference between a question and a problem. A question has an answer, a problem needs a solution. For instance, let’s say that you are getting bombarded with spam –you would probably be interested in a website that provided you with a tool that stopped spam from getting into your inbox. In other words, you aren’t so much looking for an answer as you are a tool. As such, creating tools and other resources which solve your customers' problems is another form of quality content. That means that you should also spend some time trying to figure out what problems your site visitors and/or customers have.  
4. Make their virtual life easier for them. Let’s face it - there is just too much stuff online! That’s why the search engines are so popular--they help us navigate this worldwide mess. But, as we all know, the search engines help only so much. As such, people are looking for other ways to find the type of information, product, or service that they are looking for online. Therefore, it is worth spending time trying to figure out what types of websites your site visitors are looking for and how you can help them find them.  
5. Keep them up-to-date. Most likely, there are important (as well as not so important) changes going on in your industry. New products, news, services, ideas, websites, etc. Your site visitors may not be aware of these changes (in which case you can inform them), or they don’t know what to make of these changes (in which case you can help them to figure them out). Either way, keeping abreast of your industry allows you the opportunity to keep your customers up-to-date.  
6. Be a facilitator. In addition to information, solutions, answers, guidance, etc., people also need a (virtual) place to meet and learn the latest information, solutions, answers, etc. Forums and online conventions (like eComXpo) are two great examples of facilitating the creation of content. If you notice that your niche lacks such a space, why not consider providing it?  
7. Make them laugh (or at least entertain them). Life’s hard, life’s boring, life’s this, life’s that. Whatever life is, make it more enjoyable for people and they will flock to your site.

I think the common denominator in all of these tips is the need to understand your customers. The more aware you are of their questions, problems, and issues, the better you will be able to provide them with the exact type of content that they so very badly want to read. Of course, once you know your customers' problems, questions, and issues, you then need to be able to answer, solve, or address those problems and issues. But that’s a different topic for a different time...