KB101: Create Signature Content on your blog

This excellent article from Skelliewag is corollary to KB101: Blog Bits and Pieces of YOU. It's a must-read for bloggers aspiring for originality.

Creating Signature Content

I have dim memories of the time I spent creating my signature, and looking back on it, I didn’t give the task the attention it deserved. Now the signature I’m stuck with is somewhat jagged and messy, and I’d go back and change it if I could.

Despite its short-comings, it does get one thing right: it’s unique, and like any good signature, can’t be copied.

This week, I want to discuss how signature content is created — content your readers won’t be able to get from anyone else.

Why create signature content?

When researching this article I stumbled across a quote by Leo Babauta which, I think, gets to the core of why creating signature content is important. Though he was speaking about including biases in blog posts at the time, the quote rings true in this context and can apply to any form of web content:

With millions of blog posts out there, yours is not likely to be very unique — unless you put in your post the one thing that you know is unique — yourself. There is no other like you out there.

In other words, the internet is so vast that chances are at least one other person is writing on the topics you cover. By signing content with your own signature — your thought process, your experiences, your stories — you’re ensuring readers can only come to you and you alone for the content you provide.