Producing Quality Technical Content

Even on today's web, content production has to be about more than just impressing the search engines. If your content doesn't provide value for your visitors, they're not going to stick around.

But value is a two way street. If you produce content your target market finds valuable, they'll keep coming back -- and that's good for your bottom line.

Finding the right author

The first step in creating valuable content is to find the right authors. In some situations, such as highly theoretical topics, that may mean a person who's view from the ivory tower is pretty focused. Finding that kind of person might mean scouring technical journals or it might mean mining contacts in the field.

For most technical topics, however, you're usually looking for someone with more real-world experience. At Backstop Media, we maintain contacts with a large variety of authors with diverse talents and experiences, and we use our own writing and editing experience to work with these authors.

Finding the right topic

Once you know the technology or product you want to feature and who's going to write about it, what approach do you have the author take?

One prerequisite to creating useful content is to know what it is that you're trying to achieve. Do you have a product that requires a particular skill and need to produce content that teaches that skill? For example, if you are trying to get developers to use your new Grid Computing appliance, but it requires use of the Web Services Resources Framework (WSRF), you might want to consider creating content that explains WSRF.

Creating this content has several advantages for you. First, developers who were previously unfamiliar with the technology (and thus not a part of your potential market) will now be able to use your product (and thus grow your market). Second, developers who were interested in the topic can be introduced to it with an emphasis on your product, rather than a competitor's, so when they put it into practice, you will likely be their first choice. Third, you will gain a reputation as a useful part of the web ecology -- a particularly valuable commodity in today's world of User Generated Media.

One of the advantages of bringing in an outside point of view is that a good writer will often think of ways to use your product that your marketing department hasn't thought of, the same way users often do.

Creating professional content

Finally, how do you ensure that the content itself lives up to your standards?

Content should be well organized. If it's a tutorial, do you cover concepts first, and then send the reader back to set up and try things out? For more conceptual articles, do you start with the simpler, more familiar concepts and gradually lead the reader along, or go right into the tough stuff?

Quality content should also be aware of its audience. A tutorial aimed at hard-core Java programmers doesn't require a long discussion about handling exceptions, but a tutorial aimed at beginners shouldn't jump into a discussion of using multiple threads without an explanation of the basics.

Make sure an experienced editor reviews your content before it is published -- and not just for typographical errors. Code should always be tested, and articles and tutorials should be reviewed for accuracy by an editor who understands the subject matter, as well as being edited for optimum readability by an experienced development editor. These are practices that we follow here at Backstop Media.

The point of it all

Quality content can do more than provide a reason for search engines to find you. It should also enhance your reputation and expand your market by enabling developers to more effectively use your products and technologies. Choose the right author and the right topic, make sure it's written well and properly edited before you release it, and custom content can enhance your bottom line in both the short term and the long term.