This happens to be my first blog post ever since I chose to write for Dignited.com. I don’t enjoy talking about my past successes and failures, yet this background gives perspective to whatever I seek to write about. One of the things I am most known for, is being one of the Co-founders of www.bigeye.ug
When we founded BigEye.ug, I wrote 99 percent of the articles that appeared on that website, at least for the first three months. I must confess, I had no prior background writing Entertainment articles, I had not the slightest idea on how to source those articles, yet those articles I wrote in those months set the foundation for the popularity of www.bigeye.ug as a website.
However, looking back, I have a couple of regrets. My biggest regret is that I didn’t write many timeless articles. By Timeless, I mean articles that never grow old with time, you can read them ten years back or ahead in time and they will still make complete sense. Most of the articles I wrote back then, focused on the current news events. I know this was the fastest way for the website to grow, but it’s not the best way to build a foundation of content that lasts for years.
Timeless content doesn’t seem to pay off in the short-term, yet looking at it from the long-term perspective; it’s more worthy a path for a blogger to take. Since then, I have changed my strategies. I now focus more on creating Timeless content and focus less on content that would fade with time.
Let me give you an example of two articles; “Desire Luzinda’s Nude Pics Leak” and “Why Nude Pics leak, the phenomenon behind?” The former article will definitely do better than the latter in the short-term, yet in the long term, one would prefer that they wrote the latter than the former.
Thus, the very reason my personal blog www.ortegaian.com has not grown faster than www.bigeye.ug did is because my personal blog focuses on timeless content. It takes time to build a following of people who are addicted to timeless content but when one finally does, the after-effects are just amazing. For example, for most of the questions people ask me, all that I have to do is to share a blog post from the archives of my timeless content and the post will answer all their questions. This is not the case with articles bound by time.
Thus of late, I am doing less of time bound content, I am writing less on current events and choosing to write more timeless content. I am aware that even after I am dead, people may have to read some of the things I wrote. Today, you will comfortably read the writings of Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius and many great men and philosophers that lived back then because they wrote timeless content.
I write for the generations to come. I love to write articles that would still be very relevant thousands of years from now. Perhaps a young child in future will be perusing the internet somewhere in 4000 and land on my articles from 2014 and be very inspired by the wisdom and knowledge that did flow in the millennial times.
I tend to ignore fads and current events in my writing. Wars, natural disasters, and corrupt politicians have been with us for thousands of years. There are plenty of others who are compelled to write about those things, so I’ll leave that coverage to them.
Will the content you’re creating today still be providing real value in the year 2010? 2100? 4000?
Writing for future generations helps me cut through the fluff and stay focused on the core of my message, which is to help people grow. As long as there are people (even if our bodies are no longer strictly biological), there will be the opportunity for growth, so there’s a chance that at least some of what I’m creating today will still have relevance. And if I can write something that will be relevant to future generations, then it will certainly be relevant and meaningful today.
In terms of traffic building, timeless content connects with people at a deeper level than time-bound content. The latter is meant to be forgotten, while the former is meant to be remembered. We forget yesterday’s news, but we remember those things that have meaning to us. So I strive to write about meanings instead of happenings.
Even though we’re conditioned to believe that news and current events are important, in the grand scheme of things, most of what’s covered by the media is trivial and irrelevant. Very little of today’s news will even be remembered next week, let alone a hundred years from now. Certainly some events are important, but at least 99% of what the media covers is irrelevant fluff when viewed against the backdrop of human history.
Ignore the fluff, and focus on building something with the potential to endure. Write for your children and grandchildren.
So for any blogger reading this, there is great value in timeless content. Because we live in a generation that lives majorly for the NOW, you may be compelled to want to focus more on Time-bound content, but you can never always be the best at giving the breaking news, someone will always do it better than you. Yet with timeless content, an article of 1900 is still relevant in 2000. Write something that would make sense while reading it years from now, and you will thank me later if you take that longer and harder path, yet more fulfilling.
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First and foremost, allow me congratulate and thank you for becoming an ignitor. We are glad to have you on board. When I think of it, I should also learn to write entertainment among others so that I write for BigEye as well but we shall discuss that later. Now back to the article, we’ve debated this for a long long time until we made a decision to go for timeless rather than short shelf life articles. Of course we create an important balance between the two but focus on content with a longer shelf life.
Like you said, it amazes me that we can read different works of authors who lived hundreds of years ago and truthfully that wouldn’t have been possible if the content was for only their times. With this kind of wisdom we together shall build a vibrant Blogging Eco System very sooner than later. Awesome article, keep the wisdom and insights coming
“Even though we’re conditioned to believe that news and current events
are important, in the grand scheme of things, most of what’s covered by
the media is trivial and irrelevant”… i liked this one , your spot on . Ugandan newspapers no longer provide the content that we need. Thanks Ian .
I’ve been blogging for six years next month and I tend to agree that timeless content is the best. However, there is nothing like the immediacy of a breaking story. If you look back through old newspapers, if the story is well written – and the action is gripping enough – that in itself makes it timeless. It’s the quality of the writing that endures.
I agree, nothing feels as great as breaking a story. But to create a balance, Ian’s advise must be taken in
I am happy about the direction you have taken. I never break stories on my blog, I do a lot of education blogs and now days I am more into the call to action blogs because that is information that is long lasting. Keep on this path.
So true! We also call these “content pillars”, which results in evergreen content. The articles that perform the best on our website are those that can be repurposed and don’t become dated, which means they are always relevant.