The Fun Money Blog writes a little piece about why it’s important to have original content. They are points I agree with quite wholeheartedly.

At the beginning of my blogging, I think I was in catch up mode trying to get a grasp on blogging, who was out there, and what people were saying. I wasn’t ready to write my own stuff right away. But once I did, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment: that I had written something of some importance, that my angle was fresh, or that I had shared my ideas so that others could take them further.

Here are the pointers from the Fun Money blog about why to write original content:

1. More Fun - First of all I have to admit, writing that post was a lot more fun than simply posting on a new news item from somewhere else…

2. More Traffic - For the 24 hours after the post, traffic was about double what it usually was… [from inbound links]

3. More Gratifying - It was just more gratifying to myself to have my post noted by other people. It’s nice to know that other people think you have something important to say. It just gives you a feeling of accomplishment to be linked to when writing an original post…

If you don’t know what to write about, start by talking about what others have said in your topic area. You’ll begin to get a handle on where you have opinions, and perhaps where there are gaps in the coverage. That is where you can fit.

Another tip is to dig through other things you’ve written in the past - old presentations, essays, research vriefs and so on. Perhaps there are little nuggets in there that others can benefit from - insight that never made it to the web.