What are some good pieces of advice for people who struggle to come up with content?

lets say they don’t want to feel as if they’re just recycling information that’s already out there.

Most of the basic information may be out there but adding different dimensions to these information may make it more useful and insightful for your target audience. These “additional dimensions” could be case studies, examples, experiments or research materials.

Another way of making existing content more useful for your audience might be repurposing them into different formats such as audio, videos or PowerPoint presentations. Different people consume information in different ways so this could help you to stand out too.

Depends on the subject and niche. Besides every single one of us has a branded style, almost.

I usually approach writing from basically two major angles:

  1. Coming to conclusions, it involves research and comparisons, analysis, etc.
  2. From the story teller point of view, telling a story, a tale.

Let’s take per example “how to write good content”, you can write an article stating the basics, the priorities, structure, etc. Or you could write it as “write good content without loosing your mind” and telling your experience, not a scientific conclusion.

My two cents.

First its important to correct the existing drawbacks of the content. After that, you need to look at how to improve the quality of your content by using the proper amount of keywords. Note the key points to be edited and what should be added to the content. Once you finalize the key points, its extremely easy to build the content relating to those key points. At the end you can summarize. Later you can improvise that content in different forms that can be used for a ppt, audio, animated or typographical videos.

55408,

I think the best way to not recycle information that is out there is to not use information that you find online. As elviajero mentions, where you get information to make content for your website will depend on your niche as well as the resources you have available to you. Primary research is always a great way to get new and fresh content that no one else has. Primary research is that gleaned out in the real world from interviews, experiments, testing, or real life experiences.

Maybe you’ll find these tips to be of some use,

Best,

Shawn

Well, if you’re having a hard time with creating content for your website, why not try incorporate videos? animated videos can add a twist in your website, making it more exciting to browse.

To come up with unique content than that are already there is to stay ahead where the source is. For instance, if any news or updates are about to release, you should be able to grasp that information before others do. Or, you can either produce in your own way of style.

Well, I’m much more interested in writing for people than for search engines but I understand SEO’s still important, and most likely will be for a long time.

I’ve found that going to Amazon.com and putting in your subject will bring up a list of books that are based on your niche. You can check the table of contents to find specific topics to go into detail about. You can also check the information about the book, reviews, and recommended books for more drilled down topics in your niche.

Another thing that is helpful is to check the reviews of highly reviewed books. You’ll find that the ones who didn’t like the book or gave it 3 stars or lower often have specific content they wanted from the book. If they are true followers of the niche, they will go into detail about it and you can see what that target audience wants from that information.

Viewing forums, highly visited blogs, and Q&As are also helpful for this information.

Writing is the difficult part. I have spend some time as a content writer. If you are having good writing skills then, you can try as a content writer otherwise, you will face some difficulty in beginning. The easiest way that I found for writing content is to start with basic, write what it is about, how it is relevant, where it can be used. After writing on few topics like these you will have the information needed and can then, decide the topic that interested readers might be looking for.
Writing is one thing, but as an SEO content writer, you will need some additional skills because when you are writing for SEO then, there are various points that you should keep in mind. I found these few links that you may find useful in writing content.
http://www.affiliatehelp.info/2013/07/28/the-easiest-way-to-write-unique-content/
http://www.billfryercopywriter.co.uk/copywriting-tips
http://expresswriters.com/time-to-get-optimized-10-seo-content-writing-tips/
http://www.bubblews.com/news/977412-tips-for-new-content-writers

New content writers should take a quick look on these before starting, you will probably find it very useful.

I tried MoreNiche when I first started off for content writing, it was an affiliate website but they offered loads of help for would-be affiliates. For each product they compiled a list of keywords, case studies and key focuses to help you write your own content. Good thing to do is find a target-able keyword that is relevant to your site, find 4 or 5 sites that target this keyword and jot down the keypoints they make on their site. Then make your content better by including interesting graphics, videos, graphs etc. market the content well too!

Keyword research helps in finding topic and content ideas. The key is to look for a sought after subject with not so information about it.

Always try to share seo friendly and viral content to search engine which helps you to rank your website better. But the ultimate target of that content should be audience.