Forum Moderators: phranque
I've been kicking around the idea of using one of those so-called "unique content generators", in fact I downloaded a trial of one but the output of such, after I entered in a paragraph for example of a property description (hotel) came out making no sense at all, as if the person writing it was a babbling lunatic!? LOL...sorry just the analogy that came to mind. So if I had to edit all of that what's the point?
It's left me thinking with hundreds of property pages that need to be unique, what else can I do? I am not in any way a great writer and have trouble with coming up with phrases off the top of my head for such.
I could hire someone but doesn't that even get expensive?
You see free unique content articles for use online, but isn't everyone ELSE grabbing those same free articles, so how could those be UNIQUE?
So far the rankings for our site have been not good at all. I am sure this is why. Our travel site is very professional and enticing and not tacky in the least. I feel it looks just as good as some of the major travel competitor sites but staying in limbo due to the content issue and only getting maybe 50 to 150 hits a day. As far as UNIQUE VISITORS, it only gets 30 to 75 a day.
I am listed and coming up for Yahoo searches, not too much in Google (that one is the worst) and primarly in MSN, Ask and some generic search engines.
Its been up for almost 2 years. I am sure what seems like duplicate content for the descriptions is whats killing us here.
Have been working on inbound links and do have about 40 in place. Added a spa forum lately and a newsletter signup box. That hopefully will help. But we have to get visitors here to begin with.
We thought of trying some banner advertising as it seems pretty affordable but at this point Google Adwords are not in our budget.
So this is our dilemma. Is there a content generator out there that would make sense or are these basically one big rip-off?
I am so confused...
No doubt there are some out there with "artificial intelligence" capabilities, but whatever or wherever they are, the individuals or companies will keep them in-house for their own use.
Another point to consider is that what may possibly get by search engines may or may not be enticing and compelling enough to lead to conversions.
Study other travel sites, travel magazines, get a Thesaurus, maybe hire a college student to sit down and write with you.
It's left me thinking with hundreds of property pages that need to be unique, what else can I do? I am not in any way a great writer and have trouble with coming up with phrases off the top of my head for such.
Don't the spas and resorts themselves have some kind of advertising or copy they can send you to get you going?
Surely the 100's of different properties must be unique in some way.
Why do the descriptions have to be exactly the same?
See now, I don't find it strange at all. There are plenty of people highly knowledgeable in their chosen endeavors who are not writers and have no special gift for it.
>>How did you come upon this as a career?
Well friend, not only is that kind of impertinent, but see the above. Being a writer and being a businessman in a niche are not necessarily congruent. Website copywriting is a specialized skill
You are right on. I am completely inspired but not as a writer, persay, otherwise I would be writing travelogues! LOL
Anyhow a writer has a special gift for that. Just as a travel agent has another gift. Plus it requires TIME and being a full-time agency owner, it doesn't leave allot of room for writing.
I have been a travel agent for 12 years and supplied with text from the spa properties themselves but what they send me is NOT unique, it's also what is on their own website for same, as well as everywhere elsewhere. So its appearing as duplicate content unfortunately. Thats the problem. When you have hundreds of property its just hard to keep on top of it.
I don't know how people do it. The site is so nicely put together but due to this its just not making a mark.
;0(
I always thought so, though sometimes, I have to say, I feel like I'm in the minority.
The web is a medium based on written documents, a medium based on writing.
Much like newspapers, brochures, books, magazines, pamphlets, fanzines.
So it seems that either you need to write or you need someone on your team to write.
Coding markup and designing graphics has always seemed to me very much secondary to writing text in the creation of a website. Perhaps that's just my perspective?
Oh there's alot of content on my site however, as I said, it's not original as far as the property descriptives. Therein lies the problem.
I have a spa vacation travel site and lets just say that I am having a difficult time with coming up with unique content in my descriptions for each property, one by one without sounding like all the rest
Gosh I hope so, if thats the case, working on inbound links now.
Frankly, I think you probably have bitten-off more than you can chew. You aren't going to be able to compete with a large site that has a dozen or more editors that can take the time to look into each property individually, and write compelling and accurate copy, get permission to use the spa's marketing materials, etc, hire well-known travel writers, etc.
Why don't you try specializing in a smaller number of properties, that you can manage better? A particular geographical area, a particular type of spa, etc.?
You are certainly not going to increase the quality of your site by using a "unique content generator".
