I have a question for you guys, I am currently building my website content. I have a funny pictures website. And my problem is that I have no idea of how to come up with funny content. Funny pictures wise, do you prefer funny original content found only on my website or hilarious pictures found on other websites?
I would agree that original content is better, though comedy is really very fickle. It is hard to make jokes or funny meme that would be a hit to people. That is why being a comedian is hard.
Original Content always works great and also convert very well. Copied content are useless and does not give you any credit. In legal terms if you steal someones content than you might face copyright issues.
As i always say content is the king and the more original a content the more chances individuals engage. Therefore think of some creative way and create the content yourself and be original.
You may want to consider both. More original content may work better. 80% original content and 20% funny pictures. Test that for 30-60 days to see your results. If it works then keep it going. If it doesn't then adjust your mix. Dan
For both human users and search engines, original content is always better. You know Google penalizes copied content the last time I checked. One thing to keep in mind though is that since it is hard enough to come up with original comedy content, it is usually a good idea to mix it up. Have 80% original content and add in 20% well-established copied content for those times you have creators block. It is also usually a good idea to rewrite any cote you want to copy unless it is images where for those there is nothing you can do but wholly copy and hope the owner does not slap you with an infringement suit.
Definitely original content. As for the funny pictures... you can create a lot of those! Find pictures on sites like pixabay (free to use even commercially) or BigStockPhoto (those are paid but very reasonable in price - and the selection is a lot better, so you'll save lots of time), and then add some funny quotes to those images to make them funny (Picmonkey is one site that lets you do that - and they have a free version). There are many other sites, but the ones above are my own go-to places... Using the tools above, you can create all the funny images you want, and be safe from any copyright infringement suits too!
Here's what seems to be an unpopular opinion: Go for the hilarious un-original content! But now please hear me out, as I explain why this might not be as crazy as it sounds. Sure, if you started a niche blog, I'd say go for 100% original content. And don't stop there. Go for QUALITY original content instead of a lot of "useless" 200-word original content. At least if your aim is to build a long-term sustainable following and not just chase a quick SEO cash-in. However, you're NOT starting a niche blog. You own a "funny pictures" website, which is tremendously different! When it comes to memes and funny pictures, people just want to be entertained. If you browse 9gag, you'll notice that a big chunk of the stuff on there has come from Reddit or 4Chan. So it's not really original content. But that doesn't matter - people still love it and the site has millions of visitors. Don't get me wrong; you shouldn't outright steal other people's content. But by their very nature, memes and funny pictures survive purely because they get shared. So as long as you don't claim that you created it, I honestly believe you'll be good. And even better; you can just link to where you originally found the content. Although... odds are that wherever you found it hadn't originally created it either, so yeah. I have used a similar tactic on Facebook, where I both post unoriginal and original images, and so far it's going absolutely great. As long as you play nice, the internet is a pretty relaxed place (despite the occasional drama). A final tip would be to stay away from comics. People who make comics often consider themselves more as "artists" and thus care very much about how their content is shared and where it is shared. You don't want to mess with them. But as long as you stick to memes and generally "funny pictures", you'll be good. I hope this helped you?
I would prefer original content. Funny pictures might create engagement, but it won't last long as it might be everywhere.
I really liked what you wrote. It makes sense. I know that original content is better, but it is darn hard to make funny pictures. I agree with you that it should be both original and funny un-original content. Thank you for this great advice. Farris
Original content is the way to go as funny pictures can prove handy but not in the long-term. Creating original funny content is a daunting and time-consuming task, but it will surely pay off. Cheers!
You're welcome. Glad you could use it. And also, if you're still int he very early stages, just use unoriginal funny content to validate whether or not your website will work. It's the fastest way to figure it out. And then, if it works, just slowly start integrating more original content among the unoriginal content. Again, I would never recommend this if you did content marketing on a blog. But you don't. You post funny images
You mean they consider their copyrighted, original content that they get paid for to be art? Crazy idea.
Not crazy at all. I think you read my comment a bit out of context I was merely trying to point out the difference between artists making comics (whether or not they get paid for it) and random people on the internet sharing a meme. The artists obviously (and with good reason) want to protect their work, and it is thus a very bad idea to share their content unless approved by the artist first. A meme or "funny picture", on the other hand, is oftentimes shared / created with no intention of monetizing it, and should therefore be relatively safe to share on his website. In any case, it's of course always good practice to give credit to the creator.
I run a bunch of meme pages / sites and am still starting out too, here is what I have noticed. Even if I think the copied meme is funny, usually the ones that i create originally that are funny do way better. Of course most memes are not even claimed by any creator, so using them is less risky. I post a good mix of my own content and stuff I found, and surprisingly my own content does well. Overall my verdict in my case is Original > Copied but only if it is decent. In addition, the copied memes still get good engagement if they are funny, but the original ones suprised me.
I'm going to give you the better response. You stated "I have no idea of how to come up with funny content". With that said, you are in the wrong niche. Why is this a niche that interests you? You can't come up with funny content therefor you MUST recycle existing content which is a saturated market. What's the dream? What's the vision? My vote is to cross if off the list and come up with something better that 1) is in demand 2) not saturated and 3) something you are experienced with. Your idea is a failure which is why you are asking for advice on a forum. Let it go. Move on. End of discussion.