Like so many other online advertising vehicles before it (think e-mail, paid search), the content syndication market is quickly entering a new phase of maturity. Just a few short years ago, two to three syndication networks dominated the landscape, and compared to today, thanks to fewer venues, fewer advertisers, and fewer white papers, generating leads was a slam-dunk.

Now all that has changed. The number of syndication venues alone has exploded, and high-tech advertisers have a myriad of choices of where to place their content. Though large networks still exist, they now compete with dozens of individual sites that offer their own syndication programs.

The enormous increase in syndicated content is good and bad for advertisers. On the plus side, pricing is more competitive, with lead guarantees the norm. Additionally, the ability to place content on individual sites means advertisers can be more targeted in their placement.

But lead guarantees aside, syndicating content isn't the slam dunk it was. Particularly if your company is in a very competitive category (ex: Information Security), you now face the reality of your content competing with dozens of papers on the very same topic, often from direct competitors. And even if you succeed in generating the hundreds of downloads you were promised, lead quality can vary widely.

So how can you give your syndication program a winning edge? Here are some tips to consider:

1. Spread the wealth.

Just as we never recommend e-mailing to just one list, it's an equally bad idea in our view to place your entire syndication investment with just one vendor. For one, different sites perform at varying levels for different advertisers (trust us, we know). Try to negotiate smaller, "pilot" programs with several venues and see which perform best. Then adjust your long-term strategy over time, testing new venues frequently (and "resting" some sites when response starts to tail off.)

2. Vary your content.

The offer is always critical in demand generation, and content syndication is no exception. Test different types of content: not just white papers, but case studies, on-demand Webinars, benchmarking reports, even podcasts. Sometimes, just being "different" is enough to make your content stand out from the pack. Furthermore, if much of your content is similar in focus, you may find that one white paper will cannibalize response from another, whereas a Webinar or a case study could attract an entirely different (and additional) prospect.

3. Sell, sell, sell.

We've said it before, but an abstract - the short, 40-word or so summary of your white paper that a prospect sees when browsing or searching a syndication site - is not just a description, it's an ad. So write it like one. Speak to the benefits of reading the white paper, using terms like "learn", "discover", and "understand". If you're competing with a laundry list of other content in the same category, a well-written abstract can make all the difference.

4. Worry less about the content itself.

It sounds cynical to say it, but from a demand generation perspective, it matters less what the reader thinks of your white paper once they download it, and more whether he or she registers for it in the first place. So evaluate content for syndication not on whether it's the most current document in your collateral library, doesn't mention your newest release, isn't authored by a "big name" analyst, or (horrors) actually mentions your competitors. The goal here isn't to have the content do the selling for you. It's to use the content as a means of attracting prospects looking to solve the problems and issues that your product can address.