John Chow writes, in If you build it they won’t come:
What separates John Chow dot Com from the no traffic blog isn’t so much the content. There are tons of small blogs that can write better content than me. However, the best content in the world won’t do you any good if you can’t get people to read it. Building it is not enough. You need to learn how to market it.
To be fair, he’s only got it half wrong in his comparison of marketing vs content quality - marketing is important, sure, but without decent pillar content then all the marketing in the world won’t save you, regardless of how evil you are 
Where John is totally wrong is this: he is a brilliant content writer. Not because his grammar is perfect - it isn’t - or his spelling. Where he really shines is this one simple thing - he writes to his audience. His audience want lurid tales of big bucks and dubious shortcuts, fast cars and scantily-clad women at trade shows. That is what he delivers.
This is how I defined pillar content:
All this advice is fine as far as it goes. I’d like to simplify this: A pillar post contributes something new that adds value to its niche.
As the definitive make-money-online-any-way-you-can guy, John has contributed a lot of new concepts that have added a lot of value to his niche. I’m not saying that I always agree with him - quite often in the past I have felt the need to criticise John. Indeed, he is the niche. A shark is a perfect predator, having not needed to evolve much in the last several hundred million years. The same could be said for spiders, turtles, and crocodiles - in their own way, they are spectacularly perfect - nobody does it better. John is the same - he is the perfect make-money-online-any-way-you-can guy.
Whether this is a better long-term money making strategy than being 100% ethical like Darren or Yaro is anyone’s guess. I’d like to think that ethics have a place in business, and in blogging. What do you think?
I wholeheartedly agree with you on the fact that the content is the lifeline of your blog. But, if you lack marketing skills, you wont take off the ground. If you dont take off, you will not get readers - so, you wont create content. I guess, it is a cycle of things. But, its always best to build content, then market them voraciously.
Content and marketing are not mutually exclusive endeavors. Well-crafted blog titles, for instance, will help get you spidered in Google. The content below must support that well-crafted title to gain a spot in the first three pages of a search. Google (or your own favorite search engine) will help people locate you for the first time.
However, it’s excellent, informative and entertaining writing that will make people bookmark your blog, grab your RSS feed and come back for return visits. It takes superior marketing and content to be visible and to secure a decent following.
I couldn’t agree more on your definition of pillar post as “something new that adds value” — of course that’s also a pretty good definition for “service” too, isn’t it? And blogging, above all else, is adding value and offering excellent SERVICE to your readers, IMHO.
Hi Thiru,
thank you for your comment.
I agree entirely - my issue with John’s post was that he inferred that content didn’t matter and that he was not a good writer within his niche. I should have been clearer that I was not inferring the reverse, that marketing doesn’t matter (it does) or that John is not a brilliant marketer (he is).
Best regards, Andrew
Hi Angela,
thank you for your comment. I agree entirely - well-crafted content is a very good marketing tool.
I like the idea about blogging being of service - I have said to a lot of people in the past (not my original concept, but one I live by) that leadership is not about privilege but about service - and that which benefits the team benefits the members of that team. Great opportunity to reframe these consulting teamwork concepts in terms of blogging within a niche/community - thank you
Best regards, Andrew
Having been in the ad agencies and design companies for the past 20 years taught me many things. One thing that didn’t change over time is marketing can drive a buyer to the seller’s doorstep but it doesn’t guarantee sales. Whether the buyer actually goes in will depend the on-site lure. And whether the buyer actually makes a purchase will depend on the goods and services, CRM, etc. Same applies to blogging. We can engage in SEO, PPC and other host of events to entice traffic. If the reader came to our blog and didn’t find it add values to his life. It’s bye for good. So I would say build content first and follow up with marketing. When you have reached a good traffic, you got to do both create great content and good marketing to keep the flow going.
Hi Vivienne,
thank you for your comment.
I think that you are absolutely correct - all marketing is wasted if the product (i.e. the content) is not worth the price (i.e. the click).
Best regards, Andrew