Why “Content is King”

The Internet Marketing educator who has most influenced me is a gentleman named Ken McCarthy, who is well known for his work producing the System Seminars.  Back in 2004, I attended my first seminar, where Ken and several other speakers offered up a basic rule that underlies successful commerce on the Internet – namely that “content is king.”

• Content is king because your clients/customers/site visitors expect that your site will educate them
• Content is king because clear, thoughtful and education content functions as currency and your customers will trade their time and their business for that currency
• Content is king because new content is constantly being added to the marketplace of ideas – if you put up a 10 page web site three years ago that has not been touched since, there is absolutely no reason that anyone will assign any value to that content
• Content is king because very bright people working late at night are constantly devising new distribution channels for that content – Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Digg, etc.   Content is so valuable to the publishers that the owners of these distribution channels will host your content at no cost to you because they know that the public demands fresh content.
• Content is king because the Internet is primarily an educational tool.
• Content is king because clear and concise writing is rare.
• Content is king because human beings yearn to learn and to connect and the Internet offers a place for both.
• Content is king because the Internet is like a television with tens of millions of channels – and good content helps you get found.