I’ve been thinking more about the content problem lately. One of the best ways to generate traffic is to create great content. But content is everywhere on the web — how is your content differentiated among the hundreds or thousands of others who are writing about similar topics?

“My content is unique” you say.

Wrong. The proper response in my book would be “Your content – with a strong flavor of YOU sprinkled throughout – is unique”.

When you really think about it, pretty much everything has already been written somewhere on the internet. A review of the local organic coffee shop? Events in the month of May? Details for the festival at the end of September? The best weekend trip from Charlotte? Done, done, done, and done.

Now, don’t go overboard countering my response just quite yet. I’m not saying sprinkling “you” means putting your profile photo in the header of your site works. It doesn’t. I’m not advocating making your whole home page about you. That doesn’t work either. But I am advocating that you sprinkle in your own personality throughout your website; every piece of content should have a tint of you in it. Content shouldn’t just be bland, lifeless keyword rich paragraphs that could just as easily be on a crappy SPAM site hacked together in a few hours (and it certainly shouldn’t just be copied from Wikipedia either). Your content should demonstrate your local expertise and give your audience something to relate to; the fact that you’ve lived in the community for 20 years, sold real estate for 15, and know almost every last nook and cranny in the entire town should shine through loud and clear (note: read this related idea).

I think it’s safe to say most skilled markets will tell you that marketing success is largely about demonstrating what is unique about a particular product or service. Why should someone choose product/service A over product/service B? Why should someone hire YOU as opposed to any one of the other 20 local agents they’ve spoken with.

As an independent contractor in charge of your own marketing, that is your challenge.

While important, generic content is not a true differentiator.

But what DOES your website have that no one else has? What IS going to differentiate your content from the 1,000’s of other articles scattered across the web?

YOU.