8 Myths of the Zombie Content Apocalypse

8 Myths of the Zombie Content Apocalypse

Reader Comments (35)

  1. This post makes me excited for the Walking Dead to come back from midseason break…

    Anyway great post Geoff. What really resonated with me was the fact that you *don’t* have to be a superstar in order to write content that people enjoy. I think that if you write great content and market it properly, that you will eventually be able to attract engagement and drive behavior.

    You’ll also be able to survive the content apocalypse!

  2. I absolutely agree with your Geoff — although I love social celebrities like you appearing on my blog recently. I built my blog from scratch and I was pretty much an unknown when I started (since I’m an academic weenie). But, you’re right. Good content wins and gets attention. And, my site, Hausman Marketing Letter, is now PR 4 and under 100,000 Alexa, which shows there are rewards for consistently creating great content.

    Instead of Google punishing good content, I think it’s clear that EVERY update rewards good content. So, let’s keep out the zombies!

    • I agree with that, good content does work well. I have my issues with Google updates of late (wholesale kills on guest posts like this one, for example), but in general, I agree, they are working to achieve success. Congrats on all of your successes! Wow!

  3. “Bad content fails, sponsored or not.”

    Great point. Just because you paid for it that doesn’t make it good or worthwhile to your audience. Great content gets attention, bad content does not. It’s really as simple as that.

  4. I always hate to toot my own success horn because I’m convinced that the second I do it’ll all come crumbling down. But the reality is this – I’m a copyblogger devotee. I’ve been following your advice basically from day 1 and that, combined with a bit of luck, has resulted in a blog that reached over 1.5 M people last year.

    I’m a SAHM and managed to get there on a scant few hours a week. I don’t have celebrity blogger friends, I’ve never paid for advertising, and I’ve never guest posted anywhere (that last part is not a strategy, just the result of no time – I’m actually very pro guest blogging).

    So 1,000 yes to everything here. The zombies aren’t going to eat your brains. Stick to the high ground where they can’t get you 🙂

  5. Google has definitely raised the content bar over the last few years, especially in 2013. That’s good for quality content creators to break through the noise and capture attention.

    This is an ongoing interesting debate in the industry with experts on both sides of the content shock fence.

    Shel Holtz’s post was a rebuttal to another post by Mark Schaefer. Mitch Joel brings them together to discuss the “Content Shock” or, in Mitch and Shel’s view, the lack thereof.

    Don’t usually post links (spam-me-not) but readers of this post will find Mitch’s podcast from this past Sat both interesting and informative. Plus, its fun to hear what some of the authors you follow online and whose content you share actually sound like 🙂

    http://www.twistimage.com/podcast/archives/spos-393—content-shock-with-shel-holtz-and-mark-w-schaefer/

  6. “By the way, content that is not native advertising also falls to the wayside if it is not entertaining or useful.”

    I just read a great entertaining post on someone’s blog about spam. It made me laugh, as he posted spammy comments he’s received on his posts. If you want to read it, here it is: http://www.black68.com/spam-spam-glorious-spam/

    Although our content does need to be useful to someone, it does help to have some entertaining content as well. Sometimes we just need a good laugh.

    Thanks, Geoff, for the reminder to keep creating unique content to avoid turning into a content zombie!

  7. I love this post, Geoff! (Admittedly, I’m a sucker for zombie analogies). As always, it comes down to creating great content. Maybe if more marketers focused on that, instead of stressing about what everyone else is or isn’t doing, they’d have more success! Food for thought!

  8. Hey Geoff,

    Always enjoyable to read informative posts with humor … got me thinking … plenty of people can write article type posts but the blog style is where the personality can be shared openly … making it uniquely your style. There are a lot of training courses for marketing out there where “everyone should have a blog” but most of these guys a researching a little and regurgitating material from 2 or 3 pieces of content – literally – thereby being Zombies. I personally like point 8 (not that I AM a content zombie!!) – If you love writing – improve your craft and you will enjoy immunization. Hey, that turned into a short novella – sorry! Cheers Lyn

  9. Love the bit about “Native” Advertising. I agree that people are confused about promoted content. It seems like this same concept gets re-cycled with a different name every few years or so to keep the advertorial concept pumping money into the publishers.

    As far as the content apocalypse is concerned, I think you’re safe as long as your goal for creating content isn’t: “I would like two do-follow links.”

    • I agree. When links become the primary driver behind content instead of the actual reader, there is an immediate problem that will almost always undermine the whole initiative.

  10. To me, nothing of what you’re writing here is new. I appreciate the fact that you wrote it, Geoff, but the fact of the matter is that it’s troubling you HAVE to, that people honestly think that quality content won’t stand the test of time.

    It’s like saying Shakespeare’s works or Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are going to be lost to history and never seen again. Right. Sure.

  11. Geoff, this is a fantastic post! I’m definitely sharing this!

    I really like what you said in #6. Most people think that by paying for sponsorship, they’ll rise above the “noise,” but like you said, bad content is still bad content whether you paid for its placement or not.

    Very well said!

  12. Great post Geoff! (as many of your posts are….)
    There are two factors that are more important than numbers of readers or numbers of comments: bounce rate and subscriptions.

    Here’s why readers and comments are NOT that important: There are marketers who say they get X numbers of comments–but the comments are mostly spam comments. They “trick” (more or less) unsuspecting, unknowing clients by simply showing them the comments and playing up the numbers. LIkewise with reader numbers. A whole lot of people can come to a blog but not really read it…

    And that’s where bounce rate and subscriptions comes in. Bounce rate shows you effectiveness of your content. Are people coming to your blog and actually reading? or are they bouncing out? If you end up getting traffic on random weird search terms and no one stays to read, your content isn’t effective–although there are, again, unscrupulous marketers and unknowing clients that think big numbers are what it’s about.

    Not if they’re not reading.

    Subscriptions too tell more than comments. When people subscribe, it means they’re coming back. And they like you. Comments are great when they’re not spam, but there’s always more spam than actual comments. Subscriptions don’t lie about what they like.

    We have a whole lot more specialized niches now with all the new, specialized social sites, so reaching the people you want to reach has to be a well-thought out strategy, leveraging great visual and search-friendly headline content. But trying to get clients to understand that hitting a bullseye with the right arrow is better than the BB gun approach is another thing entirely.

  13. What a great piece! There are so many important points that were touched in this blog post that can ought to be further elaborated on in more blog posts or even a book.

    Two of the more important myths, in my opinion, is #4: The zombie moans are too loud and #5: Only a superhero can beat the zombies.

    Myth #4 addresses the need to create quality content while Myth #5 addresses the abuse of “influencers.” Myths #4 and #5 prove that being a quality content creator results in real influence; which also means that being a poor content creator will also demote credibility.

    In my opinion, even if any individual (such as a politician or celebrity) is extremely “influential,” if he or she promotes poor content or abuses his or her “influential status”, the audience will eventually realize that their attention is better spent on other things.

  14. This week’s posts on Copyblogger were all sensational. This was no exception.

    My own (very personal and subjective) metric for the evaluation of a blog is COMMENTS. Not the sheer number as much as the quality. And not even the weight of one particularly insightful (or incite-full) poster, but the conversation.

    This blogger, this blog, and this community truly amazes me. How can anyone doubt the strong heart beat present here?

    Thanks, Geoff.

  15. You rise to superhero status, Geoff, with this thoughtful, insightful piece.

    This post should strike fear in the un-beating hearts of marketing zombies but give a much-needed boost to anyone who thinks “quality” is more than an ooze-filled buzzword.

    Excellence distinguishes itself. Always.

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