Have you ever witnessed the joys of mountain-living, with evergreens towering over mounds of snow? They keep living no matter the changes in landscape or weather. Evergreen content is like that: it weathers the changes in computing landscapes, transcends the technology, and answers questions that arise again and again. Writing in a "green ink" frame of mind ensures that your content stands the test of time. Here are some ways to recognize evergreen content and tips on how to keep your content useful and long-lived.
According to Wikipedia, the idiomatic term evergreen refers to something that perpetually renews itself, or otherwise remains steady and constant (it does not suddenly halt or "die off", as leaves on a deciduous tree).*
What contributes to content remaining evergreen? After combing through numerous articles, blog posts, and forum discussions, I determined there are several scenarios that contribute to content becoming -- and remaining -- evergreen. These three rose to the top most often:
- evergreen because of questions
- evergreen because of consistent negative impact
- evergreen because of "face-offs"
Let's talk about one of these scenarios: Evergreen because of question.s
Technology Questions That Arise Again and Again
The inspiration for writing this article was a search for answers to two queries: "Why have a FaceBook Page?" and "How to Create a FaceBook Page?" In less than 20 seconds, Google informed me there were hundreds of thousands results. Though I was impressed with how fast Google can return that many results, even more amazing was how many people are still asking these same questions.
These answers are contained in blog posts, articles, forum discussions, and comments. People were asking these question years ago, yet today they are still responding to information that was, in many cases, written years ago. Why? Because that subject continually rises to the top of the heap. Thus, any answers to those questions make the content evergreen.
In Why You Need A Facebook Fan Page For Your Website**, a commenter asks "How did you create or find the link to the page to give to people?" She asks this a few weeks ago, around the same time I was searching for similar information. And she got an answer, though the original post was written several years ago.
Another example of a question that produced evergreen content for an author is "What Is Tumblr? Why Would I Use It?" That was an exact question I had posed some months ago. I could tell by the comments I found on one blog post (Why I'm kissing Tumblr a sad, sad good-bye) which answered what Tumblr is not, that many others were asking the same question 2 years after the author's original posting.
The original post date wasn't at the top of the post, and I had already penned my comment before it occurred to me to check the post date. I was surprised to see, as I checked the dates on others' comments, that not only did they begin about 2 years ago, but the last few were made within the last few months. As a matter of fact, the comments were consistently spaced across a two-year period! Just like me, people were trying to see why they should bother with yet-another blog, no matter how micro. That old post actually helped me make up my mind to use Tumblr.
Green In Places Other Than The Garden Shop At Your Local Super-Center
Home improvement super-centers give rise to evergreen content by the nature of the home improvement industry. The constant state of economic ups-and-downs fuels the popularity of "do-it-yourself," as does the genuine desire of hobbyists to build something. Right on the heels of the DIY purchases come the "how do I?" questions.
Smart retailers like Home Depot(TM) have extensive online written and video tutorials that answer those same frequently asked questions. The content, whether written step-by-step guides or show-and-tell videos, remains green because the process, for the most part, stays the same.
How can you recognize your own naturally organic evergreen content?
- Check your stats. Your WordPress stats or the logs from your hosting account are great sources of intelligence gathering. Are visitors revisiting writings you created ages ago? Follow the trail to find out what's of interest to them.
- Re-read the comments on older blog posts. When you approve comments, are you aware of what they are attached to? Do you treat them like gold, even when they appear to rehash, or re-awaken a post created a while back? Some bloggers and forum masters don't like to have comments on older posts (I've seen some rude behavior towards their guests!)
- Visit your own videos hosted on YouTube, MetaCafe, Vimeo, or Daily Motion. If they were created in previous years but have a resurrgence of views and embeds -- something's happening there! Is it something you also wrote about or should now?
- Take a look at old forum discussions that you participated in, whether in your own forum or those elsewhere. Have topics been revived? Are the same conversations taking place over and again?
You'll know your content has stood the evergreen test of time when old posts continue to show up in your stats and logs, and when you're still getting fresh comments 2-3 years later!
That brings us back to the original question: how evergreen is your content?
* Source: Wikipedia
** Source: Search Engine Journal, Why You Need A Facebook Fan Page For Your Website, 2007
Vernessa Taylor, Internet Coach, specializes in helping entrepreneurs, professionals, and local business owners of bricks-and-mortar storefronts with online and offline productivity solutions.
Get more information on how to create evergreen content, in Local Business CoachNotes, a resource for owners of bricks-and-mortar storefronts who are ready for a real internet presence.
And I found the answer to how to create a FaceBook page and you can view the results of the page I created at LocalBusinessCoachOnline.com's FaceBook Page.
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