Having Great Content Isn’t Enough

One truth that I’ve been learning lately about generating content for the Web is that having great content isn’t enough. You have to understand what your users want and you have to understand the nature of the community that you’re trying to get across to if you want to be successful with getting your voice heard.

Prior to the World Wide Web, there were so few sources of knowledge and wisdom that were speaking. Just being out there and communicating meant that you were probably an expert in what you were saying.

Now, how many new blog posts get written everyday? How many YouTube videos are created and how many Digg.com stories are submitted everyday? There is more user-generated content then any one person can consume. There is such a low barrier of entry for creating content.

I think that everyone deep down has something to say and something that they are trying to express to the world. Everyone should have the ability express themselves and their ideas. The $100 million dollar question is how do you find the good ideas that resonate with you and your community.

There are some really smart people who are working on these problems. How do you find the great Web sites, music, books, blog entries, podcast, or videos among all the rest which will meet your interests? Do you depend on DJs, experts, friends, your community, or a computer algorithm to tell you what you should keep your eye on?