What Evergreen Content is Not

In my beginning months of writing for sites like Triond, HubPages, Associated Content, and so on, I didn't grasp the concept of evergreen content. But by further reading (and commenting) on articles on how to increase my traffic and views, I was able to write that type of content and I became so happy that those writers giving that advice were right.

Also, I learned the hard way about what text I wrote to reach an audience on the Internet really isn't.

Ephemeral Content

I used to write a crudload of ephemeral content, which is basically content that spikes in a few days, weeks, or, if lucky, months, then dies out and flatlines indefinitely later. Maybe you might be facing that problem too, because you just write about current events in your area or the world.

Well, referring directly to news about some sex scandal or a death at an amusement park isn't the only thing that makes your content destined to gain little to no traffic. Statistics, numbers, and wording can make content die out after a few days.

For instance, it's so tempting to include the current odds of children having autism in your article on autism vacations. ("X in X children are diagnosed with autism" is horrendous, especially if you replace those X's with the current numbers.) But it's going to date it and less people would read it in the future. How sad.

Also, it relies on fads of the day. Writing about a craze can give you good money and views, but as it goes out of style, the article stagnates.

Deciduous Content

Before you say, "Oh, deciduous content is the same as the ephemeral," here's my definition: it's seasonal content. It's like a maple tree: it grows leaves in the spring, loses them in the fall, and grows another batch in the spring of another year. Likewise, content written in the manner gains traffic before a seasonal event or holiday, peaks around that time, and dies out only to gain traffic the next time it occurs.

My favorite examples are content for a specific holiday, especially fixed-date ones (Christmas, Halloween, etc.) But if you write content for all the holidays of the year, that's great, but you're not getting a lot of traffic as you would if you write something for all 365 days a year and 366 days a leap year.

Just compare an article of healthy alternatives to drinks consumed during Christmas with an article on healthy alternatives to everyday drinks. Guess who wins in gaining traffic?

Obviously, it's the latter article that wins the competition when it comes to gaining traffic and money. Why? It never goes out of style or season and it appeals to a wider audience seeking everyday advice. In contrast, the Christmas drinks article gains them weeks before and around the holiday, but dies out until it peaks again the year after publication. That cycle repeats in the subsequent years.

The bottom line is that content written in the evergreen sense isn't news, a bunch of numbers stating how many people died of tobacco, or some fad that will pass on. It's something written for an audience that can be useful at least every week.