Content Curation Software

Content curation is the practice of collecting a wide array of relevant data to a specific subject and then recreating content based on this knowledge to deliver it to your target audience. In a sense, this practice is nothing new to the world. In fact, schools have been doing this for hundreds of years.

Any time you wrote an essay about a given subject has been the same as creating curated content for websites. You are basing your knowledge from fact and tailoring the content to fit your target audience, in this case a teacher.

• If this is truly what great content is supposedly based on, then why does it need so much attention?
• Shouldn’t all websites that focus on truth practice this form of content manipulation?
• Or is it just a way to get around plagiarism?

Finding information about Google’s official view of content curation practices is next to impossible. All we can do is look at the facts based on what others have experienced in recent changes according to their own traffic and search engine rankings. Although Google’s own official blog provides snippets of information on how to increase your page rank, they seem to be introverted with their information on how to succeed.

1. Links – What many found works well within a website are links to other relevant content that reflects or adds more basis to your own. These links can be internal among your website or external to cite your sources. Regardless of where they are located, the links need to be relevant to the content represented on the origination page.

Some believe this is Google’s way of weeding out the spammy websites that offer nothing for the reader except copy and pasted content from a separate viable source. They seem to want to give credit where credit is due and not to those who simply copy content for their own use.

2. Unique – Exactly how many ways can the same information be created before it starts resembling other websites? This is probably why blogs do so well. A blog can incorporate an author’s opinion regarding the subject matter which can provide a unique aspect.

However, how long will this practice last before too many people share the same belief within the same information? If you can incorporate something different that no one has done before, your website could do well according to Google.

3. Informative – According to various blog posts listed in Google about content curation, many successful site owners are informing others to provide as much information as they can when creating content. This should be another obvious point to make for anyone creating content.

The more information you provide, the more likely you are going to fill someone’s need. This aspect works with anything in life. More information equals less misconception and misunderstanding.

4. Citations – Much like linking above, if you can cite your information then your pages will perform better in the search results. Well, at least according to various bloggers it does anyway. It is a strong belief among many that citing your information is linking relevant content with each other, which is what Google wants; relevant content to be featured in a search result.

Does that mean that our articles need to be the same format as a WikiPedia.com page?

As humans, we have to label everything in order to make it sound more politically correct. Content curation has been a practice of many for years and is nothing new. However, we have to give it a label in order to make it sound more professional. It’s a method in which we make ourselves seem more than we really are.

We are humans that have the capacity to regurgitate information and wording it in a unique manner to set it aside from those written by others.

Ken Myers is the founder of LongHornLeads.com and has learned over the years the importance of focusing on what the customer is looking for and literally serving it to them. He doesn’t try to create a need, instead he tries to satisfy the existing demand for information on products and services.

You know that you need to create amazing, high-quality content if you want to keep your visitors happy, but it’s super time-consuming.

Even huge companies like HuffingtonPost.com, AllTop.com, and CNN.com use a way of creating content that “samples” parts of other content called “content curation”. Here is a content packed webinar on content curation we did with Mike Thomas not so long ago.  Enjoy!

Content curation is now fast catching on as a method for creating authoritative and useful content. Creating quality curated content is an art and with any such activity there are things that you should and should not do. Here are nine content curation best practices that you should try to follow so that the content you create is nice to read, useful to readers and fair to the creators of original content.

1. Make use of your creative abilities

Many people think that a content curator is just a person who finds and arranges other people’s work in an interesting and useful way. While that is essential, significant value addition is important in terms of opinions, recommendations and commentary. Curated content is actually an interesting and useful blend of collected content, original opinions and contributions from others.

2. Identify content that is related to your website, but interesting to the readers

Always keep the interest of your readers in mind. They are looking for something that is useful to them. Try to find content that will be very interesting to your readers, but is related to your website in some way. For example, if your website is promoting baby strollers, look for articles that the owners of baby strollers will find interesting. For example, tips on using baby strollers, reviews of popular baby strollers, feedback left by buyers of specific strollers, advantages and disadvantages of stroller features, statistics reflecting the popularity of different type of strollers, etc.

Try to develop a collection of sites which regularly publish such material and bookmark them so that you can periodically check them for new content. You can also subscribe to their RSS feeds or follow them on social media so that you are alerted when useful content becomes available. Content curation tools such as Curationsoft are excellent for finding related content.

3. Regularly publish new articles or posts

Your readers will find your website or blog useful only when there is regular useful content coming in. While even one article a week is good enough, try to publish it on a particular day of the week so that your audience will know when to expect new content from you. A great article is nice to attract attention of new readers, but regular content is what will make them regular visitors to your site and encourage them to bookmark it or share it with others.

4. Go where your audience is

Gone are the days when readers bookmark and visit sites. There is an information overload and scarcity of time. Most people have a few sites that they visit regularly including social media sites or YouTube. Find out where your audience is coming from and places that they visit regularly. Try to create content there and then gently bring the visitors to your site. You could do this by interacting or writing guest articles on popular blogs or social media websites.

5. Use platforms judiciously

When using multiple platforms, it is important to understand that a major part of your audience could be using more than one of those platforms. So if you are using multiple platforms to inform your readers about some interesting piece of information try to space it out. Sending it out together could hit the same users multiple times at the same time, which is a bit of a nuisance. Spacing out your tweets or comments will also serve as a reminder even if the same reader gets it again.

6. Always give credit to the original content creator

Irrespective of the platform and irrespective of how little of the information you quote, always give credit to the original author. This is an essential courtesy and the author will appreciate the gesture. You are also making your article, post or comment more useful because readers will be able to click the link to get more information. When we say original author, it is the first person who put that content in the public domain. So if your source is itself quoting someone else, you should find the original source and give credit to them.

7. Don’t create duplicate content

When you quote someone else, quote only the part of the article that is relevant to your discussion. Copying an entire article will most likely get you penalized by the search engines for creating duplicate content. Try not to quote more than 15 percent of the original article. Quoting an entire article could also be seen as copyright infringement unless you have the permission of the original source.

8. Be careful with graphics and videos

Many content creators who put up graphics on sites such as Pinterest appreciate your quoting them. However, creating graphics and videos involves a lot of work and not everyone will like you to copy their work to your site. Check the copyright notices carefully and when in doubt get the permission of the creator of the content.

9. Encourage discussions

Interactivity is a great advantage of the web and you must encourage reader interaction by allowing comments and responding to them. You should also interact and comment on the website or blog of the original author. This can also be done on social media such as Twitter, but be careful to read the linked content before you decide to re-tweet it.

Content curation is a nice strategy for content marketing and creating nice curated content is an art. Try to follow the nine content curation best practices discussed above and you will soon be creating valuable content which your readers will appreciate.

We stumbled upon a fantastic review of CurationSoft with results posted that demonstrate what this incredible software can do for your traffic.

Anyway, the reason I’m telling you Kate’s traffic success is because I’m personally amazed at the huge traffic increase it’s given her. I thought it might help a bit, but in a month her visitors have more than quadrupled. And get this – she hasn’t added any new articles, and she’s not done any backlinking. -Phil Wiley

On Phil’s CurationSoft review post, he shows the traffic increases and gives his impressions of how quickly his daughter saw improvement in traffic levels.

(To see the results, click the graphic below!)

The more people you have in your social circles, the more people are exposed to your pages in search.

You’ve likely seen the changes in Google’s SERPS over the last several months as they’ve adopted and adapted to social media signals and networks of friends.  In searches you can see how friends in your network have interacted with pages.

It is a very different thing than what you see when you are not logged in to Google or using an incognito window.  The latest addition is “Search Plus Your World.”  Do a search on your own name and, if you are even moderately active on Google+, you’ll see something that really doesn’t look at all like the old search results.

The bottom line is this:  when people use Google Search, and you’ve circled them on Google+, you can find all kinds of information related to them and you.

“Search has always brought you information from across the web. Now, search gets better by including photos, posts, and more from you and your friends. When signed in with Google+, you’ll find personal results and profiles of people you know or follow. You can even expand your world by discovering people related to your search.”  Search Plus

Remember when you were told that prospects need to hear a message up to 7 times before they take action, on average?  With social, you can now reach out and touch people multiple times by doing nothing more than making friends and remaining active.

Other ways Google uses social to put you and your followers in touch through search…

How to Use Google+ Direct Connect for SEO – Be On Page 1 Blog

beonpage1blog.com1/1/12

How to Use the Google+ Direct Connect Function. Every week, a representative from Black Box Social Media, LLC, will be sharing with readers and fans of Brian Horn how to use social media in order to improve SEO for their website. No question that … People can use Google+ Direct Connect feature to navigate to a Google+ Page from Google search, by simply typing the keyword prefixed with “+” symbol. For example, if you type +Pepsi, you could be taken directly to …

What Google Search plus Your World means for the Social Media …

www.radian6.com1/11/12

And since every Google product you use is connected to your account, Google could feasibly enable us to search within our own Google docs, Calendar events, Music library, Contacts, Gmail messages and more. In essence …

Social Search Part 1 – Connect All the Accounts – 1500 Word MTU

blog.inuus.com1/10/12

1: Connect All the Accounts. Social search uses your Google identity plus your extended social graph to help you find personalized content. The extended social graph is found via links everyone adds to their Google+ profile. …

Google Search gets more 'Social and Personal'

www.buzzom.com1/11/12

Google's Social network Google+ might not help the company make it big in the world of social networking, considering most of us still use Facebook more than Google+, to connect with friends and family. However, Google+ …

Image by marcopako ? via Flickr

Apple has put forth some design ideas for Samsung to help the company steer clear of Apple’s patent infringement claims. How nice of Apple!

Apparently, Apple thinks the rectangle belongs to them. So they suggest Samsung stay away from that shape in their tablets and phones. Along with the novelty of “rounded corners.”

Probably the best idea Apple offered to Samsung was to clutter up their interface. This would be a big difference between the two companies and, I’m sure, would help Samsung’s sales a great deal.

From Slash Gear:  ”Tablets should also not be rectangular or not have rounded corners. They should have thick frames with a front surface that doesn’t lie entirely flat. Also, the profiles should not be thin and the interface should have a cluttered appearance.”

To sum up, Apple basically gave Samsung the plans for going out of business. Or creating the world’s first triangular tablet with a confusing user interface and no rounded corners.

Here’s what the web is saying:

What does it take to stop an Apple lawsuit? Build a horrible device …

androidcommunity.com12/3/11

As part of Apple’s patent case against Samsung in the US, it couldn’t just simply object to the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Apple had … What does it take to stop an Apple lawsuit? … Apple are saying anything rectangular is an iPad copy. …

Apple claims rectangles, round corners and flat black screens are …

www.phonesreview.co.uk12/5/11

You are no doubt aware Apple has been in legal conflict with Samsung for god knows how long over the design of Samsung products that Apple claims looks and feels like Apple products and Apple is attempting to get …

NewsDaily: Insight: Apple vs Samsung lawsuit full of secret combat

www.newsdaily.com12/1/11

The biggest legal battle for the technology industry is playing out in a federal court in Silicon Valley, where Apple is trying to stop Samsung from selling Galaxy phones and tablets in the United States.

Whoops! Apple, Samsung secrets leak from court document – CNET

news.google.com

Whoops! Apple, Samsung secrets leak from court documentCNETFor tablets, Apple suggested thicker frames around the screen, a front surface that isn’t entirely flat, a thicker design, and similarly, no rectangle design. There is no end in sight to the …

Apple’s Worldwide War on Samsung and Android – ZDNet (blog)

news.google.com

ZDNet (blog)Apple’s Worldwide War on Samsung and AndroidZDNet (blog)You write all the above just to show a square rectangular glass panel and claim that this was patent infrigement? Where is the Samsung square app icon and icon dock UI design that yo …

And More…

• Apple to Samsung: Don’t Make Thin or Rectangular Tablets or Smartphones (pcworld.com)

Note: These changes are taking effect November 9th at 12 PM EST.

With 7 upgrades, including 2 major releases, since our recent launch in August 2011, CurationSoft has come to the end of our launch phase pricing.

We’ve done a lot more to the software, a lot faster than we initially thought possible,  to give users a true professional curation app.  Since our launch, we’ve surveyed our customers to find that they really like CurationSoft and have given us suggestions about where to take future versions.  One common request was the addition of RSS feed monitoring, which we added to the current version 1.0.7.

Taking a much more aggressive development schedule than we initially planned means our launch price is no longer sustainable at $39 per one-year license.  While our upgrades have delighted customers (and us), in order to keep pace with a more aggressive development schedule, we’ve discontinued the launch pricing at all levels of licensing.

The new pricing structure reflects more accurately what CurationSoft truly means to our customers:  the ability to spend less time per post or article while maintaining or increasing reader value, traffic, and rankings.  That’s a pretty serious value add to anyone under the burden of the publish-or-perish cycle of content marketing, whether they do curation manually or create 100% original thought in every story.

Here is how the new pricing structure for CurationSoft breaks down:

• $99 full year license for single user  (That’s just $8.33 per month or 28¢ a day)
• 2 users $179 per year
• 5 users $399 per year
• 10 users $799 per year
• 20 users $1299 per year

All active licenses will be entitled to unlimited upgrades during the course of their license period.  As our customers have already seen, we’ve done 7 upgrades with 2 major upgrades in under 2.5 months.  And we don’t plan to slow down on development, though the development projects are getting larger in scope.

Of course, current customers will continue to enjoy full access to CurationSoft for the duration of their licensing period without any interruption.

Image by Frederick Md Publicity via Flickr

Being a massive Google+ fan, I had to get a business profile set up for CurationSoft the moment I noticed they had turned the feature on today.

Now I have a place to put all of my excellent finds about curation and content marketing that I don’t write a post about here.  So by circling CurationSoft you’ll get the goodies I spend a lot of time surfacing from all the junk out there.  Things like links to neat resources for curators and content marketers, interviews with thought leaders that might not make your radar, and generally, things that will help you become a master curator.

So please do circle CurationSoft.

Recommended circle names:

• Badass Software
• Curation Tips
• Content Marketing News
• Time Saving Apps
• The Coolest Curation Software Dudes Ever!