Customise and Curate : Two content ideas to grow your business

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Too much information

There is a lot of information online. A lot. Maybe even too much in some cases. Too much information leads to confusion, and where there’s confusion there are opportunities.

I’ve posted here before about the fact that you don’t need to be the creator of great content to make it work for you – being the curator or a personal guide to content that already exists can make you a useful, trusted resource too.

A good example comes in the form of OffBeat Guides, a new service from Technorati founder David Sifry.

By combining information from the best websites with a stable of authors and some local knowledge, Offbeat Guides allows you to create a personalised travel guide based on your interests and itinerary. You can buy PDF versions of your guide for under $10 and print-on-demand versions for around $25.

Custom Content – Matching Customer Needs

Customers clearly want information that is as close to a match to their exact needs as possible – “travel search that worked for me, rather than something that made me work hard to collect all the information on my own.” as one blog post puts it.

So how can you put this to use in your business?

1. Start with the customer, what info do they want? Can you help them find it?
2. Remember, the value is not always in creating the information but in it’s presentation and customisation for your audience.
3. Use a blended model. Offbeat use a combination of Creative Commons information found on other sites alongside “information from established authors and thousands of locals”.
   
4. Ask how you can add value to content in the public domain. Interpretation, explanation and editing are all valuable services.
5. Can you bring relevant content to you? Think like a publisher and be the place that people bring their content to be disseminated. Junta42’s recent articles section – submitted by users – is a good example as is Springwise’s Springspotters network.

What do you think? Do you have any other examples of customised (or curated) content? Share them in the comments below.

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Tagged as: curator, custom content, David Sifry, digital curators, junta42, offbeat guides, print on demand, springwise, technorati