The day almost got away from me before I realized I hadn’t posted this week’s open discussion topic, and this week it’s a good one:
My question/discussion topic this week seems very simple, but the more you dig into it, the more difficult it becomes. Everything you read about how to make it online pays homage to the idea that we must create “great content.”
But what does “great content” mean to you? And how do you think it should be created?
Looking forward to your insights. 
I blog about and read blogs about leadership and management. Great content to me pushes the envelope and is evidence based. I loath fluffy bullshit. I also hate stunts designed just to get a reaction. Tell me something I did not know, something so good I can't wait to go share it with others.
Bret, I think your last point is key to any blogger regardless of topic.
People forget they should be trying to get the reader to DO something.
Great content is something I can never seem to nail online. I know it when I see it, but I have the damnedest time figuring out how to make it.
The whole thing reminds me of that old definition of the purpose of art (as if art needs a purpose): to instruct and delight.
I think great content goes beyond simply instructing and delighting. It may do either or both, but it has to do so in a way that is totally beyond average. A good post might give me a bit of information that I can use. A great post catches me off guard with a cool application of that information, engages my imagination, and inspires me to use it. It should also create an emotional response or connection to the issue.
That's why having a passion for your topic is so important. It's possible to get millions of readers writing average content, but average content doesn't affect people in any lasting way.
Andy, many people feel the same way you do: great content is easy to
recognize when we see it, but hard to produce. As writers or bloggers, we
should analyze WHY a piece of content is great.
Good content is hard to describe because is not only one thing, you have to combine several things. From personal, to teaching, learning, opinion all together is what creates great content, that's why you need to love what you write and you need to write more than one post.
Gotta be interesting, gotta stir up some emotion, gotta make you look at the world a bit differently afterward.
Great content can turn a light bulb on above my head, light a fire under my butt, or make me laugh out loud. It can cause me to linger over it with a cup of coffee or challenge me to drop a long-held belief. And always, it makes me think, “I have to share this.”
I appreciate many of the comments here, but for me it's 2 things – a visceral impact and content that is based in research or current events. I'm bias as a journalist, but there's no fakin when you have that ah-ha moment while reading a good post. As @virginbloggernotes said – it's that light bulb above your head – but I would add it's that gut feeling that you've struck gold and make you want to take the storyline forward in your own writing.
I know that my content is best when I am truly trying to share information with my peeps and keep them up to date. That involves my opinions and information but ALSO includes links to other people who have a different take on what I am talking about. I get the best responses when I am informative and helpful not salesy and preachy.
Great comment makes me say “Yes!” (or sometimes “No!”); it sparkles with the writer's unique personality and insight, and it makes me want to take action
I wish I knew, because I still can't figure out what people want on a daily basis
From a reader's perspective, it's something that I don't read all over the place, that makes me think, gets me fired up, or simply goes beyond surface level details.
I could write a piece that I think is perfectly brilliant, but if no one else does, then it's not great content. What's great and what isn't is really up to each individual reader to decide for him/herself, but we can assume that if the majority of our readers like it, then it's great.
I think a writer/blogger has to know their audience, and if they've been at it a while, know them well enough to know what they want and will think is great, and give them that. Not in a formulaic rehashing of what they already know, but in a way the brings them something new, or a new perspective. The content I like the best is that which teaches me or makes me reconsider what I think I know.
Great content is that which interests enough people to make writing it worth doing.
If you're doing it for joy, that might just be you; if you're doing it for joy in the form of cold hard cash, that's easier to quantify.
Bottom line, if people go to your blog, and then discuss your blog, BINGO!
G'Day Michael,
Whatever great content is, it has one defining characteristic; only the recipient can decide whether it's “great.” If pressed, I'd add that it must, yes must, be easy to read.
There's lots of good advice available on writing stuff that's easy to read. The best way to find out whether you content itself is “great” is to ask the people who receive it. You can theorise all you like. But generally speaking, the customer is always right.
One other little thing: don't take too much notice of others' opinions—unless they are genuine prospects or clients. And as I said, learn to write with clarity and brevity.
Regards
Leon
For me great content is about something that reflects the spirit of the writer and that also provides something practical for the reader – the old “how to” do something.
I've just set up my blog, so now it's my job to create this.
I do really enjoy the Remarkablogger posts
Great content provides original ideas, is inspiring, and is easy to understand. It is also accessible to all types of users.
Great content to me is original and inspiring. It's something I haven't read before, it's different. And I learn something from reading it… on the other hand, if it's on the web and text, I don't enjoy reading more than 500 words. If it's audio or video, no more than 5 minutes.
I enjoy short blog posts (text) more than audio and video.
Great Content – Thoroughly engaging, sincerity, honesty, non-pretentious voice, and flawless English/Grammar/Spelling (Call me harsh but if I see a post where “it's” is used instead of possessive pronoun “its” and “their” and “there” used interchangeably, I leave in a flash and never return. If it happens to be a truly potential blogger and a person I have developed a connection, I find a way to contact them privately to let them know but not taking the time to clean the content is a huge turn-off for me. Excellent topic!
Great content is inspiring. Gives me an a-ha/eureka moment. It also has something I can learn from. If I constantly refer to an article, then that is great content too. Taking the time to print something off the internet, could signify great content. It's “really great” content if I implemented/used some of the stuff said in that particular “really great” content.
Great content is inspiring. Gives me an a-ha/eureka moment. It also has something I can learn from. If I constantly refer to an article, then that is great content too. Taking the time to print something off the internet, could signify great content. It's “really great” content if I implemented/used some of the stuff said in that particular “really great” content.
The best content teaches something new that I can really use or need at the moment, that solves a problem in my work. Great content can be entertaining or funny, tell a story, well-written, thought-provoking or truly original. It's not hard to recognize, but definitely hard to master.
It is so thought-provoking, funny, original, you feel intellecutually stimulated, inspired, or entertained. I think sometimes it is so truthful, it makes you wince.
intellectually, I meant
Great content is anything that not only catches your intended audiences interest but engages them to act, react, or come back for more.