We live in a world where so much information is available at our fingertips. Still, despite the vastness of the internet, there’s a chance to write unique content covering a topic no one has happened to publish online just yet. So, what is the best way to ensure that you’re setting out to write truly good, useful content? Think of each piece you create as a new tree in an evergreen forest of content.
Some pieces will never become more than saplings. They simply won’t take root and will wither away. But from the dust of those failures, other saplings will gain a foothold and slowly grow. Once in awhile, one tree will shoot high above the rest. But, while it’s awesome to be the tallest tree in the forest, every tree is important, including those that don’t ever reach the canopy.
Evergreen content is that which contains timeless elements. There are certain universal questions that people will always be looking to answer. Sometimes, people will look for a better answer. Your evergreen trees must be able to adapt to the shifting winds of search queries and potential shifts in the online climate. The deeper your roots go and the better interconnected the forest is, the more sustainable it will be.
Organic search traffic brings your trees the nutrients they need. But, you must water them a lot in the beginning. You must identify which trees are your strongest and be sure to invest more time and energy into them. The stronger they are, the better the other smaller trees around them will grow. Remember that your evergreen forest of content is an ecosystem all its own. It feeds off of the surrounding ecology of the content meta-verse, but it needs to sustain itself, as well.
Sometimes, you may pay someone to water and tend to your forest. You want to only hire tenders who will treat your forest with great care. You don’t want to let in those who will litter or otherwise disrespect your forest. While you can’t always prevent this from happening, you can always take care to focus on those who will understand how precious it is to grow a beautiful forest that can be enjoyed for countless years to come.
The last thing you want to happen is for a fire to start and burn down your forest. While rare, ecological disasters do happen. Whatever you do, be sure to keep the seeds from your top content trees safe, in case you need to start over again. The beautiful thing about evergreen forests is that with the proper care, even a damaged or ravaged forest can one day thrive again.
You may not be confident that you can grow more than a small garden of content. Some of it may be made up of only seasonal or annual flowers. That’s okay, because you have to start somewhere. From the death of these plants can spring new perennial life. It’s important to be patient with growing your content farm. Prune and fertilize as necessary, but never overdo it. If it’s meant to survive, given enough water and sunlight, it will thrive.
Building an evergreen content forest will bring new fresh air to the world. Not only that, tending to it will yield fruits beyond the humble beginnings from which you planted. Good, solid contributions from other gardens of ideas are welcome, too, long as they complement and don’t invade your forest. Your content farm may start as a small garden with a single plot or even a handful of seeds. But it’s well worth the work, if you’re willing to do what it takes. There will be those out there who will appreciate it if you just build it tall enough.
~ Amelia Desertsong
Colophon: This article was rescued from the deepest depths of my writing archives, a piece I was once very proud of, and with some very minor edits, the points are still as pine-fresh as ever.
