They say that content is king. But that's only a half-truth.
Articles can pull in readers, make people bookmark your site or register on it, remember your brand, and even sell advertisement. Good content can. On the other hand, bad content only repels people, but not before leaving a foul taste in the mouth, the thought "oh, another of those cheap-article-a-day content-farms that try to scam Google".
Content marketing giveth, and content marketing taketh away.
Fortunately, there is a sure-fire way to good articles. It's not even very complicated.
It's simply, "have your articles written by technical writers who are actually knowledgeable about the subject". (Well, that, and it doesn't hurt if they can actually communicate, or else you end up with dry scientific dissertations.)
For example, I'm primarily a software architect (which basically takes the skills of a systems programmer, a business analyst, and sometimes a project manager), but I also write technology articles. Often just because something inside me wants to get written out. Sometimes people commission me as a technical writer.
A small selection of articles I've authored:
- A comparison of NoSQL databases paper, published in Hacker Monthly, along authors like Patrick McKenzie (the well-known micro-ISV expert) and Peter Norvig (of Udacity fame).
- A checklist of software project best practices which project managers regularly find so useful they write about it to me.
- A simpler, more novice-targeted web development security series, consisting of three articles, discussing the most dangerous security mistakes in PHP, and how to avoid them.
- An analysis of the legal implications of different open-source licenses on a business venture.
For more, please explore the "Insights" menu of this site, up there.
Any topic goes that is mentioned in my software architect resume. (Look for the "Skills" cloud at the bottom for a quick glance.) Or anything that I've tweeted about. Also, anything that's cutting-edge and worth exploring -- I usually have ideas, if you don't. :)
An article usually takes about 3-8 hours to write, depending on length, amount and detail of examples, etc, with my hourly fee of £50/hr. But don't worry, I can give a forward quote when I know more about your requirements. Series and regular columns are also a possibility.