Everything Is Content But What Is Good Content?
It’s hard to find someone who hasn’t heard the phrase “content is king”, but what exactly does that mean? The origin of the phrase can be traced back to none other than the technology luminary Mr. Bill Gates who said, “Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting.”
Penned as the opening statement of Bill Gates’ 1996 essay titled “Content is King”, these words have proven true over the years while remaining just as relevant today as the day he wrote them.
In his essay, Gates detailed his vision for the future of the Internet.
The success of the Internet, according to Gates, would hinge upon the creation of content to fill its depths with something for everyone.
Those of us lucky enough to be alive today can attest to the importance of content and the potential value it can provide to organizations and consumers alike.
What Exactly IS Content?
You could throw together a 24/7 live stream of your daily life, but unless you’re Kim Kardashian, no one is going to want to sit around watching you run errands. Likewise, a stream of your cat napping all day is unlikely to gain much attention. However, these ideas and others like them aren’t inherently bad ideas for content.
The hardest part of creating content is creating good content and even “bad” ideas can turn into good content with the proper approach.
What Makes a Good Content?
Content should be thought of as something that provides entertainment, information, or (ideally) both simultaneously. The most important consideration to make when creating good content is your audience. It’s impossible to make something interesting, informative, or fun without keeping the audience in mind throughout the entire content creation process.
Perhaps more importantly, you should consider whether the content provides value to your audience in some way. Time is an incredibly precious commodity and it should be treated as such. If you create your content with the value of your audience’s time in mind, you’re much more likely to create something that is worth their time.
This doesn’t mean good content is something made solely for the sake of the audience though.
In fact, creating something that you personally have a passion for is a great way to boost the quality of your content. If you are intimately familiar with any facet of life, industry, or bizarrely specific subculture, that might be the best topic to center your content around.
It may not seem at first that there is a massive audience out there waiting for you to put out a 20-part series on the intricacies of flute making in the 12th Century.
However, if you have a passion and deep knowledge of a topic, you can make it into something millions of people would want to watch.
Good content isn’t all about flashy marketing or high budgets. The History Channel got its start by using archived, public domain footage and simply adding narration on top of it to create hundreds of hours of content with very low production costs.
Using public domain footage and other low-budget practices like how artist Lil Dicky made a rap video by asking people to allow him to film inside their mansions for free are excellent methods for creating great content on a low budget.
Good content is about creating something that you would find interesting or entertaining.
Creating content that entertains while also informing is a surefire way to create something people will want to spend time watching.
Find the Right Home for Your Content
You handle the content. Let TV Startup help take care of the rest. Start your own Internet TV network and avoid expensive cable providers by going over-the-top (OTT). Launch your own Netflix-style service or get your channel on smart TVs, Roku, mobile devices, Apple TV, and more services across the globe.
See for yourself how it works by scheduling a live demo. We work hard to enable great video content creators like yourself to focus on creating amazing content while pocketing the money your hard work deserves.
Get in touch with us today to learn more.