The term “Content Curation” has baffled me for months.

When I first heard “content curation” used as it relates to internet marketing, I assumed the name would have to change in order for regular folks like me to understand what the hell it is.

For me, the word “curation” seems to conjure images of some stuffy, stodgy old man, wearing a tuxedo in a chandelier-lit over-decorated museum, and speaking to me in a condescending tone (using far too many 6 syllable words) in his polished british accent.

Otherwise, the word “curation” simply seems so high falootin’ that it would never become part of my lexicon.  (Yes, I said “high-falootin'” and I meant it.)

I never thought I’d use the term “content curation”, unless I wanted to pretend to be sophisticated, and highly educated.

But now?  I think I get it.

Use Content to Gain Authority and Credibility.

When I build websites for my affiliate marketing business, my goal is to generate affiliate commissions.  As part of my long term affiliate marketing plan for these websites, I want many of these sites to be considered an authority in their respective niches.

A major component of building credibility, authority and the resulting long term traffic to my affiliate websites is content.

That’s where content curation comes in.

Let me explain.

Creating original, high quality content takes time.  It’s hard.  It takes passion for the topic, dedication and ambition.  (Or, if I don’t do it myself, I need to hire a quality content strategist and then pay for the content.)

And, as Scott Jangro, founder of Shareist.com recognizes in a recent video — creating original content on a topic beyond the first 19 articles (or so) becomes daunting.

So, even if you are passionate about a topic, you may run out of ideas to produce great original content yourself.

Leverage the Content of Others.

If I need to provide unique, high quality content on a topic, of course I need to create it.  But, let’s be honest:  Plenty of other people have created good quality content on the same topic.  Why can’t I leverage that content?

Well, with content curation, you can.

I’m not going to get into all the benefits of content curation, with regard to social media, SEO and other elements.  If you want to read about that, check out Lisa Picarille’s insightful post over at MyContentPro.com.

I am, however, going to recognize how Content Curation helps affiliate marketers.

Curation Adds Value.

Since there are so many articles, blog posts, videos, podcasts and more created by other experts in any given niche or topic — we, as affiliate marketers can use them to our benefit.  (And, to the benefit of the content creator.)

• Is it not unique, quality content when you manually identify good stuff around the ‘net and pull a few of them together into a decent “recap” or a simple “compilation”?  Yes.  Yes it is.
• Is it not unique, quality content when you take it further and comment on the general topic that connects all of these different items into your single blog post?  Yes.  Yes it is.
• And, is it not unique, quality content when you go even further, and provide your own perspective, opinion and feedback on any of these items that you’ve aggregated into a nice, clean list of organized videos and articles on a specific topic?  Why yes.  Yes, it is!

Maybe I’ll give some more examples soon.  Maybe I’ll ask Lisa Picarille to create a “how to curate content as an affiliate” tutorial. (Lisa? Are you reading this?)

This Ain’t No Short Cut.

Content Curation is not a short cut to quality content.  It takes time – just as writing or producing any content takes time.

However, by pulling together content items in your given niche or topic, you add value with the simple act of aggregating good stuff.  You add further value by providing perspective, commentary or an overall description of why these items are good, or related.

Is content curation the only answer?  Absolutely not.

Can content curation complement your existing content creation efforts, provide value to your audience, and help your credibility and authority on a topic?  Absolutely yes.

As I think of content curation, I realize that I’ve already learned of it, to a degree. In The Content Buffet (an educational ebook and audio series I created with Lisa Picarille), she teaches about the immense variety of content options we have as marketers.  One of these options is “content curation”, but I don’t think she used the term, “content curation”, as she would have totally confused me.  Lucky for me, and the students who follow her training in the Content Buffet, she makes it simple to understand.

Why content curation helps affiliate marketers:

• Creating unique, compelling, quality original content on a given topic is hard.
• You can leverage the efforts of others who’ve already created such content.
• Bringing together specific quality content items adds value.
• Commenting or providing perspective on such content items adds further value.
• Content curation isn’t a short cut to creating content – it’s another avenue to creating good content.
• Content curation can help your goals of gaining credibility and authority on a topic.

What do you think?  Have you used content curation successfully in your affiliate marketing business?  If not, are you going to try it?