Here’s an interesting idea for driving traffic to your website over a period of time. I’ll explain it some, but the question I want to ask is “is this effective?”

The concept is to come up with a list of item titles for content and release them on a regular schedule. To come up with the content, you first run a survey to get a “top ten” list of topics. You then either write great content or get expert content for each of the ten topics. You then release the content on a regular schedule…and even have an email signup to receive alerts when the content is updated.

LifeWay is doing it.

So is this effective? Keith thinks it’s at least a creative idea.

On the one hand, it’s really creative and creates a buzz. People return. You create a habit in people to want more from your site. You create, in a sense, healthy anxiety as they await the next piece of quality content.

On the other hand, it can get people upset. They can feel strung along. They could see through a “gimmick” and just wish you’d go ahead and release all the quality content so they can gather it at the pace they want, not yours.

I guess what it comes down to is the quality of content, how relevant it is to the reader, and the time frame in-between. To build a campaign around it could be risky, but if done well could have a great payoff. However, when it’s over, it’ll move into the second scenario I mentioned of how people can then access it at their own pace.

Either way, it can be effective. What say you?

Oh yeah, this was all spurred from Tony Whittaker’s Web Evangelism Guide that came out today.