Writing unique and relevant content for a blog or a website can be difficult. With the Internet, news is old minutes after it hits the most popular websites. With sites like Drudge and TMZ, a news story that is interesting will be read by thousands of people within minutes of a news aggregator posting it on their website or blog.

One way I keep my blog and websites updated is by subscribing to Google Alerts. I have key phrases that would be most relevant to my websites. Not only do I have certain keywords set as alerts, I also have key phrases in quotations. I know I won’t be the first person to post a news story, but it’s always good to have fresh content on your site.

Also, it’s important to credit the original source of the news story for a number of reasons, but most important for legal purposes and credibility. If the source isn’t generally the most reliable like CNN or NY Times, it’s important to see where they found the article, so you can investigate. To add uniqueness to the article, I recommend adding your opinion or spin of the story – what it means to you or to people who will read the article.

You might not be first to print an article or news story, but if you offer good analysis, people will still be interested in reading what you write.

I’ve been criticized a few times about my coverage of various cctld – and/or lack of coverage. Simply put, I don’t think most are good long term investments when they are released. There are too many people trying to grab these new domain names at the bottom to sell them to the next round of fools who want to sell them to the next round of fools who want to… well, you get the picture.

Sure, quite a bit of money can be made on quickly reselling newly released domain names, but how will you know ahead of time if you get stuck “holding the bag?” I really can’t think of one cctld introduced in the last 5 years where a majority of the domains purchased in the aftermarket have held their value.

I am not averse to risk taking at all. In fact, I’ve been day trading GS ($86.60), LVS ($8.25) and MNTG ($2.69) for the last three days – sold the first two for a nice profit. At least with stock investments, there is a priced market where I can sell these stocks for a set price if the value goes down. I can generally put a stop loss and limit my losses in most cases. If you buy a domain name only because you think the price will increase due to the newest domain “trend,” you are really gambling.

Like I’ve said before, if an extension is accepted and widely used by the public five years after its release, and the values are increasing due to that, then I may buy to develop and hold as an investment. If you are buying just to get on the next bandwagon before it leaves the station, chances are good that you’ve already missed the boat and will get wet.