The simple answer is any kind you want, since we’re talking about the internet.  But seriously, you’ll want to give this topic some deep consideration and is a three part series, since there’s more interest in some topics than others and it is an important issue to cover.

You know the people who are your audience, since ideally you’re talking about something you know about.  For instance, if you’re talking about art, it’s because you are an artist or critic of some persuassion.  So you know what other artists are like, and what they want to know and what they find interesting or entertaining.

Once you know that, you can decide about which types of content will best serve their needs and how to go about finding or creating it. Here are some general categories to get you started with your brainstorming:

• Editorials
• Feature articles
• Political opinion
• News stories (covered in part 2)
• A mixture of the best content (covered in part 2)
• Reviews of movies, books, music (covered in part 3)
• Interviews (covered in part 3)
• Interactive features – polls, feedback, discussion groups, forums, chat (covered in part 3)

Editorials

Editorials are the opinion of someone who’s seen as an expert in the field– (either you or a contributor).  This makes good content because people like to respond to it, either by agreeing with or opposing the writer. This can make for an exciting page, and you’ll probably need to moderate it.

Give your people a way to make their views known; use leaders on your web site to a blog or use a content managed web site which has it all. People will come back to read other responses to their comments. And you can use this feedback from your audience by incorporating it into a follow up article in the future.

For instance, is everybody complaining about a new government travel policy?  Do an article on it, since clearly that’s something people are talking about so they’ll want to read about it.

Full-length Feature Articles

This is the most common and in many people’s opinion one of the best forms of content. Depending on what your site is like, the articles could be long or brief, formal or chatty, technical or entertaining.

Here are some tips:

• Keep it short.  While there aren’t any hard and fast rules, you should keep these articles below 1200 words. If they are longer, make them into multi-part features.  People hate to have to scroll down a lot.

• Articles should be relevant to your site.

• Articles ought to educate, entertain or inform. Don’t overwhelm people; stick to one or two ideas.

• Refrain from rehashing an article you’ve read somewhere else. By publishing something that’s new, you up the value and credibility of your site.

To Get Content

1. Offer to pay guest authors for their work.  A guest author could be someone you found on your bulletin board who happens to write well.

2. Exchange articles with the guest author’s site. Your site visitors benefit by providing them with another point of view. And you might just gain some new regular visitors from your guest author’s site!

3.  Make sure you get exclusivity. When someone writes for you, make sure they won’t submit that same article to dozens of other Websites and newsletters. When your site publishes exclusive content, you have opportunities for syndication in other publications, online and off, and you gain a lot of reader loyalty.  The key phrase in a contract with a writer is that you’re buying all rights, including electronic.

Can you use reprints?

Reprint articles written by others, but you must always obtain permission. All work, from the moment it is written, is copyright and owned by the author, whether it is marked with a copyright symbol or not. Content is not free. You can, however, make reprints interesting and personalised by putting your own ‘spin’ on the content. Write an introduction to the subject, or comment on the author’s opinions or conclusions.

Take care to avoid ‘editing’ the original article without the author’s permission. Avoid articles that have been reprinted many times before on other Websites and electronic publications.

Political Opinion

Using political opinion on your site can be tricky.  People are deeply divided these days and have strong opinions.  If you do run a political site, you’ll probably want to carve out your own niche.  Even then, be prepared for flamers from very different view points.

On the other hand, if you can manage to run a site that actually features a somewhat well-mannered debate, you’ll have a huge hit on your hands.  Be prepared to moderate this type of site.