Rand Fishkin at SEOmoz posted an article that is a great reminder for anyone who has gotten into a rut with content. When data Repositories Open Up, So Do Possibilities for Viral Content provides information on finding great content and how to effectively use that content in the viral marketing world of Digg, Reddit, and others. For me, the post is a good kick in the pants to dig deeper to find and leverage the vast sources of free data that is available.
Of course, I caution you when you gaze upon a newly found treasure chest of data. First, do not just copy the data and use it verbatim. You can download it or you can use a scraper, but don’t shoot down your SEO efforts with duplicate content. Second, follow the source’s terms of use rules. Cease and desist letters are no fun.
The post also promotes a set of sites that I enjoy and occasionally use to instigate lively discussions amongst the product managers here at CJ. I highly recommend visiting and signing up for the RSS feed at ResourceShelf and Docuticker.
