Expert, Quality Content-Driven Sites to Attract Baby Boomers in 2009

The next wave in online content will provide a dynamic environment as both a resource and outlet for baby boomers; but many will fail. They will fail not because their content is inaccurate and not because there is no market for the information. They will fail because they - like most content-driven Internet sites - used basic research about the boomer consumer, static content interaction and the self-certification approach.

The Web site that will succeed, ahead of the crowd and long after it, will realize that what baby boomers and seniors really want is not information per se. baby boomers and seniors want resources that are expert in origin, provide qualified insight, saves time, stress, and money, and is community-focused. The successful content sites will have the following characteristics:

Credibility. Information is abundant; what content sites often lack is resources submitted by screened and pre-qualified experts that have certifiable credentials to produce the content information. What is the credibility of a well written piece of questionable conceptual origin?
Qualify the masses. The common mode of recruiting for writers and content producers is mass submissions. Mass submission can and has produced usable and rich content and should be a central aspect of content sites. The internet site looking to reach baby boomers and carve out a "go-to" niche will provide pre-screened expert content producers along with mass submissions. The goal is not to develop "celebrities" but to provide consumers with a true and wide expert base of knowledge that delivers a depth and breadth of engaging boomer specific information and useful resources.

Life Application. Life application is what separates information from resources consumers can use. The content site successful with baby boomers will raise the bar on life application and dynamic content interaction. Content that incorporates interactive content modules in addition to offering values based semi-exclusive niches will create an environment that will become a community with a life of its own. With values driven communities of cohort groups, qualified growth and therefore pre-screened traffic will happen organically.

Copyright enforcement. Copyright infringement and questions of conceptual origins are the credibility busters of content producing internet sites. The new site, using new technologies, will incorporate mechanisms to prevent, detect, and address content copyright infringement.

The Web site successful with baby boomers will realize the benefit of amalgamating credibility, mass submission, community, and multi-dimensional life application content.