Hey guys, I had a question about indexed content. Right now I have a blog with just over 100 pages indexed, and some pages rank pretty high for certain keywords. Unfortunately my organic traffic is quite low (floats around 40 uniques a day). I see all these sites with like 30,000 pages indexed and such, is that the route I should be taking? And how the hell do you write that much original content? I understand you can buy databases, which is what these sites may be doing, but wouldn't that get you slapped for duplicate content? I guess what I am asking is, whats better for my blog. Adding a new post a day and focusing on link building? Or trying to get a massive amount of content indexed? Thanks!
I'd suggest both methods you said first. Doing this will obviously get your content indexed. If you can't take my word for granted (and I don't ask you to), some research in Google will confirm you this. Plus, if you'd only be caring about the 'indexation' of your content, soon enough you wouldn't have anything left to index.
What is a blog? According to dictionary.com it is "an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page; also called Weblog, Web log". It is supposed to be your own personal thoughts on a particular topic or topics... If this is true, WHY would you want to copy someone else's content and post it on YOUR blog? It is NOT the number of pages indexed that gets you traffic. You can get just as much or more traffic with a good 100 page site as another site with 30,000 pages indexed. It's the QUALITY of the content, the originality of your twist or view on the topics, and the following you develop as people discover your site and enjoy reading your thoughts. Those followers, often other bloggers themselves who blog about the same or similar topics, begin to link to your site and posts. Those links are what make you rank and bring you traffic... The better your content, the bigger your following grows, the more traffic you get... the more links your get... it's a snowball affect. Bloggers that can't come up with their own content have no business calling themselves bloggers IMO. It's like saying a book is your autobiography when it was written by someone who never even knew you or talked to you personally.
Blogs are not diaries anymore. They are businesses alright. Some of them manage to pull millions each year.. Long story short.. large databases will not necessarily bring you thousands of targeted visitors nor will make you rich. If you're still having such questions as: "How the hell do they write so much original content" it means that you don't know much about outsourcing or hiring a team of 12. An example is www.techcrunch.com. Have you wondered how many people are working at this particular site? Cheers!
I am a firm believer it isn't the quantity but the quality. If you have substance in your blog then people will keep coming back, if you have a lot of pages full of crap then guess what?