In recent years the rise in popularity of social media websites has paralleled the rise in popularity of blogs. Search engine optimization (SEO) used to be the primary way for websites to draw traffic. Now social media optimization (SMO) has the potential to draw far more visitors very quickly, whereas with SEO there is going to be somewhat of a waiting period while your site gains ground in the SERPS.

One of the biggest impacts that social media websites like Digg and StumbleUpon have had on the blogosphere and the internet as a whole is the increasing need for high quality content. Social media sites by nature reward those who create the highest quality, most unique content (although there’s also a lot of politics and popularity contest issues that affect social media traffic). If you are not creating quality content that draws interest from social media you are missing out on one of the best traffic generation methods available.

SEO doesn’t really require creative content because search engine robots just aren’t the same type of judges as human readers. Social media has helped to make the internet a more interesting and informative resource because it forces bloggers and website owners to constantly create something of value to compete for the huge amounts of traffic that are awarded to the “winners.”

Success with social media websites is just one of the many benefits of creative and unique blog content. Bloggers who are constantly striving to be original and attractive to readers will benefit in numerous ways, including:

Interested Readers.

In order to build a successful blog you have to be able to grab your readers’ attention and hold it. Creative content will allow you to do this. If a blog’s posts are the same as many other blogs, why would visitors want subscribe or come back later?

Repeat, Loyal Readers.

If your visitors recognize that you consistently provide original articles that they enjoy and appreciate, they’ll subscribe or at least return some time down the road. With consistency and quality you’ll develop a loyal base of readers that be the cornerstone of your blog’s success.
Word-of-Mouth Referrals.

What makes you tell a friend about a product or service? Most likely it’s going to something unique and interesting that you don’t think your friend knows about. Blogs are no different. If you’re like every other blog out there you’ll get very few referrals from your readers, but if you’re different and interesting you may get a lot of readers that want their friends to know about you.

Inbound Links.

Gaining inbound links is one of the inevitable tasks of every blogger who aspires to achieve success. Creating original and unique content is a proven method for quickly building inbound links. Social media websites are an invaluable resource for link building. Many pages that become popular with social media will quickly rack up a lot of links from other blogs.

Sustained Traffic.

Building traffic is hard enough, but building consistently high levels of traffic is even harder. If your blog consistently publishes creative content your chances of sustaining high traffic are pretty good. Once people find you, the creative blog posts will keep them coming back for more. This goes hand-in-hand with repeat and loyal readers.

Reputation.

If you want to develop a strong reputation among readers and other bloggers, unique content is a great start. You’ll be successful if you can develop a reputation as being a go-to blogger for great, original information.

Anticipation from Readers.

Once readers come to expect creative blog posts from you, they’ll be eagerly anticipating your next post. This is a very good thing. Most RSS subscribers get tons of blog feeds each day and really read a fairly small number of them. If they’re anticipating your posts, you’ll be one of the few that they actually read on a consistent basis, rather than skipping over your feed to see what’s next.

Trust.

As a blogger you will need to develop the trust of your readers. Building trust takes time, but it’s much easier if you’re providing readers with information that they can’t get anywhere else. You’ll quickly become a trusted source that they’ll turn to first when they are looking for something specific.

Brand Awareness.

Building a successful blog involves a lot of branding. In many cases you’ll actually be branding yourself rather than a company. Brand awareness is all about what people associate with your brand. If readers associate you with original, creative content you will have successfully branded yourself and your blog.

Need.

If you publish unique blog posts, readers will have to come to you if they want what you’re providing. If your content is not really unique, they’ll be able to find it somewhere else. If readers are in a position of needing to subscribe to your blog to get what they want, you’ll easily gain loyal readers.

Easier Marketing.

It’s pretty obvious, but creative content is much easier to market than content that is the same as every other blog. Whether it be social media marketing, link building, word of mouth, it’s all easier when you’re unique.

Increased Income Opportunities.

Advertisers are always interested in blogs that publish creative content because they know their ads will be seen by a lot of people consistently. You may also have special opportunities as others seek you out for due to your blog and its following.
Avoiding Direct Competition.

If your blog is truly unique, other blogs will not be able to offer your readers the same things. Creative content protects you to a certain degree against direct competition. It’s an excellent way to grow and maintain an audience while other less-creative blogs struggle and fight over readers.

As you can see from all of the issues discussed above, creative content is one of the biggest keys to blogging success. If you have unique content that people appreciate, you’ll almost certainly succeed. But if you simply produce blog posts that are very similar to the posts of other blogs, you’ll have a very difficult time standing out and reaching the level of success that you desire.
Content creation needs to be one of your biggest priorities as a blogger. It’s your content that will turn visitors into subscribers and subscribers into loyal readers. Make sure that you have enough time in your schedule to create effective blog posts. Resist the temptations to publish quantity over quality. If you need to reduce your posting frequency in order to increase the quality, do so.

What other benefits do you see from creative content?