What sort of content for 'non-niche' website?

[TheGreatestGoat]

Hey guys, had a question with regards to content production. We run an store called Yellow Octopus in Australia and we've literally got thousands of products (4500 skus last count). We've got everything from novelty mugs to kitchen accessories to gag gifts, t-shirts and tech gadgets.

I've read a lot of material on creating awesome content to attract backlinks and we are ready to craft our content strategy. We've got a team in place - graphic designer, illustrator and writers to execute that strategy.

It's just a matter of formulating the strategy! Largely speaking I have an idea of the quality of content required because I look at a lot of it. The real issue is what type of content is right for us? Most of the articles I have read focus on niche industries i.e. SEO, Piano sales or health foods. Right off the bat I can come up with hundreds of content pieces that work around those niches.

However, with such a diverse range of products I'm unsure of what our niche really is, in fact not having a niche is almost our niche. Of course we could do gift guides like '30 Unbelievable Gifts for Foodies' (and we do, do those). However they aren't really the type of posts that are likely to attract back-links.

Is the best strategy to split the content into categories? What sort of content pieces would you suggest for a company such as ours?

Many thanks in advance!

[Tymen]

Hi Matt,

I am also writing for a shop with a large range of products and categories. Topics that work well for me is "How To...." This attracts good quality traffic and there are always people that see the article and than instead of doing ot themselfes decide to buy the product because it looks so good.

Good luck!

[KaneJamison]

From looking at your site, your niche is "quirky gifts", so that is a decent umbrella topic to drive the content you're producing.

I think the "10 Best ______" format is one you should keep doing regardless of the links. Over time they could get links from people referencing gift occasions and things like that.

The next content types I'd be focused on would be topic related. "Star Wars", "Wine Lovers", "Science", etc. These don't have to be posts about gifts for those audiences, just anything related to those topics that fans would want to read. These types of posts will be your broader strategy for building awareness with your target audiences. The better your production value and promotion efforts, the more likely you'll see links from this type of content.

Your overall blog may or may not attract subscribers. You're more likely to get them if you focus on an angle, eg "nerdy stuff" like www.thinkgeek.com. That's probably the best route to go in order to get a following over time. Otherwise you'll always be trying to build traffic without a developed fanbase. And, your blog can speak to 60% of the categories you sell and still be successful. You don't have to publish about all products in the same blog.