Content Creation Series: Definitions

Depending on your niche there may be some technical or niche related jargon that readers may not know. Internet marketing is definitely one of those niches, but so could be mountain bikes. There is a ton of bike lingo ~ as well as technical words that I was clueless about when I started riding. A resource that provided the meaning of them would have been very helpful.

Think about your niche and see if there are some words/parts/lingo that could use explaining?  If you find there are (and there really is in a lot of niches if you think about it) go ahead and do a post that defines these terms.

This type of post may not be right for every type of blog, especially if you are doing a small microniche site. If your site only has a few posts you want to keep it strictly product related, but if you are doing a bigger niche blog there’s nothing wrong with becoming a resource in the niche. It’s also another great way to get other people to spread your content. If you provide great resource information people will share it with others, this is the EASIEST way to get your blog to grow.

How to write a definitions post

There’s no right or wrong way to do it.  (am I starting to sound like a broken record?) You can do a short post with just the definition. You can do a longer post with a definition and some examples or a story included. You could do each definition on one post and have a definitions category where you keep them all or you could even do a definitions page that shows up in your navigation bar. You can add to it each time you come across another word that needs to be defined.

If this is a niche you are quite familiar with look back to when you first got into this area. What were things/terms/lingo that confused you. Create a list, and start at the top. You can use this for days you get blogger’s blog, you’ll have some ideas to get your post started, or you can create the whole thing in one day in one post ~ you can point people to that post from forums/twitter/facbook/yahoo answers to help people out as well as let people know about this resource you’ve created.

Let’s look at some examples:

Yesterday I was talking to a friend about getting a fish tank. She’s had fish tanks forever and quite frankly there was a lot of the conversation I didn’t understand. Someone could easily do a definitions post/page about fish tanks, cycling, nitrogen levels etc.

Back pain ~ there are many words/phrases that come along with this niche. Think doctor lingo ~ go ahead and define those words, even link to great articles about them to provide even more information.

Biking ~ single track, all the parts of a bike, century, cadence, recovery etc.

gardening ~ lasagna garden, soil testing, organic, genetically modified, compost etc.

kids toys ~ gross motor skills, fine motor skills, creative play ~ there are a lot of things that could be defined in that area. While you may think people know them you might be surprised!

tools ~ oh man ~ you could define just about everything in that niche

I hope this gives you some ideas for writing definitions in your niche. If you’d like to do some more brainstorming about your niche we can do that in the comments or over at the facebook fan page. Feel free to start a new discussion.