Curation of content is a big thing right now

I’ve had a lot of people contact me recently with ideas around the same area, curation. Curation of content is getting bigger and bigger, with huge online places like the fantastic Canopy.co showing how it’s done right.

It can be done on any scale, from tiny to huge, but the important thing is to find a niche and find something that you can wade through.

Like the old saying “Content is King”, well it’s never been more important than with a curated site. You have to find all of your content and then scrutinise it down to the last bit. You have to be ruthless. A curated site that isn’t curated well, is going to flop instantly.

Some of the more popular ideas around curation use GeoLocation or a postcode lookup to find things near you. If you’re looking for a fantastic pub or bar to watch sports in, then you could wade through the internet, or you could find a curation site that actively goes out, plots hundreds of bars that show sports and list important features like Air-Con, Serves Food, Craft Beer, Seating, Takes Group Bookings etc… and puts it all in one handy place for a user to find in only a few clicks.

Another popular one seems to be a happy hour locator… you’re out, you’re looking for a drink and boom, you get online and find hundreds instantly. That’s handy. But so many people fail to realise when they come to me that THEY need to find the data.

The amount of people who have an okay, or better than okay idea, and they don’t want to put the work in… it stuns me. They want ME to go out and curate their Bars/Hairdressers/Car-Parks/Magicians/Schools etc…

If you are thinking about a curated site, then think data first. You are much better off coming to me with an excel file showing hundreds of items of data, in an easy to understand format, than you are coming to me with just a dream. I’ll help you realise your dream, only if you’re willing to put in the hard work at your end to make it a success.

Curation is a great leap forward, we have the technology to really push on and move through the reams of internet garbage, but we’re only as good as our data. So think before you leap, get your data in order.

Good luck with your websites… and if you need a freelance web designer, come speak to me.