When web content gets discussed on webmaster bulletin boards, most common question is, "how much should I pay?" That question is both perfectly logical, and perfectly stupid:

Logical, because biggest expense of any website, with possible exceptions of advertising and promotion, is content. You only have to get web development and design once, but content needs to be added regularly for your site to be successful.

Stupid, because real question isn't how much you are going to pay, but how much you are going to invest. Your content, if it's done right, will make you money. In fact, it can easily make back its cost within a month. So real question you should ask a web content provider is: how much will it make me?

Calculating Your Web Content's Value

Ultimately, your web content is one part of your site that makes you money. The code, design, and even traffic, while important, are not what ultimately get a visitor to take action. You have to tell or ask visitors to take action. Telling and asking take words.

Small changes in your web content can make big differences in bottom line. Take a look:

Advertising/affiliate revenue

Let's say you have a web page that averages $25/day in revenue from advertising and/or affiliate links. You have a professional writer optimize content on page to get more clicks. Watch what happens:

If just 20% more visitors click on affiliate or advertising links, your revenue will increase $5/day, $150/month, and $1825/year. If your page maintains its current level of traffic for three more years, that's a $5475 increase, just for that one page.

1. Ping weblogs.com and other search engines. When you ping a blog, you are telling search engine that you have updated your blog content and that your listing should be refreshed. Weblogs.com is a blog update notification service that many individuals and services use to track blog changes. Pinging your blogs to search engines is fastest way to get search engine robots to visit your blog. Also, many people browse these sites to find something new.

2. Submit your blog address to blog search sites and directories. You can submit your blog's url to websites such as Technorati, Daypop, Blogdex and Popdex. For a complete list of websites where you can submit your url, go to http://www.guidetorss.com

3. If you have some cash you can promote your blog using pay per click search engines such as Yahoo Search and Google Adwords.

4. Set your blog to display RSS feeds and submit your blog's RSS feed to major RSS feed directories online. A good place to start is http://www.guidetorss.com which provides a list of top RSS directories.

5. Put your blog URL in your email signature. If you’re a regular at any online discussion forum, you can also add your url to your signature line at bottom of each message you post.