Creating Fresh Content is Overrated

Creating fresh content is hard.  Especially if you want it to be at least moderately good fresh content.  But if you take a look at some of your favorite blogs, you’ll probably find that they’ve decided to go another way.  Many bloggers survive by leveraging the fresh content of others.
It’s not wrong, it’s just the way of the web.  Mentions and shout-outs drive traffic and create community.  Twitter thrives on this.  So does Facebook, YouTube, and Yahoo.
But for some reason, when most associations create a blog, they try to go it alone.  Take the American Sociological Association and their ASA research blog.    With each new post, they attempt to spark discussion.  The problem, they post so infrequently it’s doubtful they have the kind of readership that would feel compelled to participate.
Blogging takes time, and most associations don’t have the time or money to fuel the kind of content necessary to drive traffic, at least on their own.  My suggestion, take a queue from other successful sites.  There are smart sociology blogs out there; email them, ask for their permission to participate, then aggregate their content onto the association’s site.  Create a place where people will want to return, then you can start the discussion.