Are you new to blogging and finding it hard to attract visitors to your site? Are you constantly thinking, “what content should I write for my readers”? In the third part of our “Killer Content” series, we will be focusing on developing tools.

Whatever type of business or website you are, there are sure to be online tools that help to make lives just that little bit easier. With the supply of freelance websites and online guides on how to create tools and plugins there are great opportunities to create useful tools that will help your readers.

You may be surprised to find that simple programming or scripting is reasonably priced. You can get more monkey for your peanuts these days. There are a number of freelance hiring websites that let you put a project up for bidding and select which programmers you want. The trick here is to do a little research, draw up a clear design document, and select freelancers who have good ratings and feedback. You will find that you will get a lot of linking lovin’ if your tool becomes very useful to many people.

Showing off great tools with easy to understand usage examples are a great way to go viral. Here are a few tool tips to guide you:

Tool Tips

Have a specific purpose
The key here is to make sure you tool has clear focus and purpose. It’s better that a tool or plugin is great at one thing rather than doing 10 things averagely. Too many disparate tool uses will soften the intended impact, or worse still, drown your potential killer content tool into the depths of obscurity.

Complete FAQ and instructions
Make it easy for users to understand how to install and use your tool, provide help where possible and add it to a FAQ so you do not have to repeat yourself. It is important to your instructions so that anyone can understand them. If you don’t, you will find a flurry of negative comments and bad ratings. If possible try to include a video of how to install and use your tool.

Know your community
You will always be rewarded for creating something unique that’s not widely available. Good ideas will always be appreciated. Google is your friend. Discover what your community is longing for. Browse a few niche forums, and look for user suggestions or ideas if you are struggling.

If you already have an idea, then find out what the competition is like. Look for feature requests or complaints about your competitors and provide what they are missing.

Series
Making a tool series is an easy way to get your return visitors and RSS subscribers. If you think there is enough juice in your topic to do a follow up tool, or even a series of follow up tools, then signal your intentions. Signpost when your next instalment will appear and what your users can expect from it.

Pros

Links and Bookmarks
A good set of tools will get you many linkbacks and bookmarks. Find the balance between having enough information that can not be digested in one sitting and too much information which can lead to users not feeling they have sufficient time to read it through.

Builds authority
By constructing valuable tools, you are building authority for your website. It shows the breadth and width of your expertise within a niche and shows you know what your community is looking for.

Long term potential
Building a tool which is open source also has the potential for others to develop your code with authority linkbacks every time. Breaking a good idea will get you sustained traffic.

Cons

Can be a gamble
Developing original tools can be a gamble. If you decide to do the programming yourself, it will be time consuming. Test out your idea on others, see if they feel it has legs. It’s always good to get constructive criticism.

If you decide to part with money to get a freelancer to create software, it may not always turn out the way you planned. Remember that freelancers aren’t mind readers(wear a tin-foil hat just as a precaution), it is crucial to make your design document thorough. Do some research to find out how to achieve your design goals.

Do not ever pay the full fee up front. When outsourcing is required we normally negotiate in progress stages. Ask for clear documentation on what your freelancers have achieved for each stage.

Time consuming
It may be cheap to write or outsource freelancers, but depending on the type of tool, it might not be quick. Do not expect to turn around a successful tool in a few days. You cannot compare it to writing an article because a successful tool will reward you much more.

Building tools is not right for everyone, but if you can incorporate it into what you are doing, you will find it hugely beneficial for your business or website. Open source tools are great for long term brand building. You never know, if you idea gains a lot of momentum and many people find it useful, you can release a premium version down the road for a reasonable fee.