High quality content is crucial in order to retain visitors and have a high ranking on search engines. People often find you through the content you have on your website/blog. You want to provide answers to questions people are asking, ‘How Tos’, ‘Know Hows’ and articles that stimulate conversations. Finding the time to write your own content on a regular basis however might not be possible due to your schedule and a number of other factors. Now you’re probably wondering where to get content for your website. The good news is, there are free and low cost options available, to aid you in making regular posts.

1. Find A Writer

There are many writers offering their services on sites such as Freelancer, O’Desk and Elance. You can often get content written cheaply – as little as $1 per 500 words. The lower you pay however, the lower the quality of the writing you might receive. Prepare to pay a bit more than $1 and you are likely to find writers to provide quality content for you.

2. Invite Contributors

There are writers out there who are willing to write for free to build their reputation, resume, or to improve skills. Invite contributions from these writers and interns. If you can afford to, pay even a small stipend for the contributions made or if possible, give other rewards.

3. Free content websites

Many websites offer free articles for your blog or website. Here are a few:

Articles Base – A free articles directory to choose articles and content from for websites or newsletters.
Article Cube – An articles directory that offers free content for websites, blogs and newsletters.
Article Dashboard – Source of free content for reading, website, newsletters and ezines.
Articles Factory – Free articles on a wide range of subjects.
Amazines – Source of free content for publishers and webmasters offering free submission.
Ezine Articles – Articles for authors, publishers and everyone.
MyBlogGuest – Source of free articles and traffic.
Saching.com – Offers content for publishers.
Sooper Articles – A free articles directory for website owners and bloggers.

When you use free content websites, often it’s the case that you are not able to edit or adjust the article in any way, but rather to use it as written by the author. Sometimes you might not agree with some of the points made. Try and avoid this by choosing articles that closely represents the view you want to project. There are usually several options to choose from.

In addition, you are publishing material that is not original. You should note that when duplicate content is present online, site owners may suffer ranking and traffic losses as a result. There are two totally different points of view in reference to this, which can be explored in a different article. However, as we speak, there are many people for whom this is the preferred option.

Explore what’s available, and choose the one that would work better for you or even a combination of all three.