A Personal Lesson In User Generated Content
Written by Annette Elton
Content is what breathes life into a website. The more valuable and purposeful content you have on your website, the better right?
As such there are many ways to create content including something that’s called “User Generated Content.” It’s a term that has a broad definition, however to keep things simple here we’ll define it as content that is generated by your audience and your community.
Still a little confusing, right? I mean how do they generate content for you? I have a first hand experience to share that hopefully demonstrates one powerful way to find User Generated Content.
My Other Day Job
I am a writer through and through. I’ve been writing since I could put my daydreams on paper. And while I LOVE my day job ghostwriting, I am also an aspiring novelist and am active in the fiction writing community.
With one short story publication and six manuscripts collecting dust on my desk I knew it was time to solve a hitch in my writing process – Revisions. I basically avoided them like the plague. But if you don’t revise and polish your manuscript it’s just not every going to be publishable, right?
So I got online, visited my fiction writing communities, and asked for help.
Boy did I get some great help!
I also received tons of user generated content in the form of people sharing their revision process with me, analyzing my revision process (or lack thereof) and revision resources.
After asking for permission to use the content and promising to link to the contributor’s websites and blogs, I published their responses and information o my website and blog about fiction writing. In fact, I managed to even create a few free downloads for others to benefit from.
Your Community is a Goldmine of User Generated Content
Think about the people you interact with each and every day online. Maybe you’re an active poster on Facebook or you belong to a few chat rooms or forums in your industry. That’s where you find fantastic user generated content. It’s also a wonderful source of inspiration.
Creating content gets a little bit easier when you lean on your visitors, audience, and associates to help you out.
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About the Author
Visit Annette online at AllCustomContent.com
Everybody says "Content is King", but what does that mean for you? 
Michelle Brown says:
Such a great idea! The challenge is to overcome your readers concerns that they are not good enough to contribute – a problem often arising when the blog writer is seen as the expert in the field.
Annette Elton says:
You’re absolutely right. The questions you pose need to be geared toward your audience. So if you’re asking questions on your blog they may be more like,
“What’s your experience?”
or
“What’s your favorite….”
Instead of “What’s your advice” type questions.
One approach may be to have someone you know post a reply to which you respond. This can sort of get the ball rolling so other visitors feel comfortable contributing.
In the experience I shared here, I actually went to a forum of experts, in this case published fiction writers, who were more than happy to share their experiences and advice. They provided a wealth of information for me to use as content on my blog.