Original Content is the Key
Chances are, that the people that visit your site are looking for one of three things; entertainment, products or information. So, bearing this in mind, just how can you go about making them stay that little longer if you don't have exactly what it is that they were looking for? Your site has to have more than just content; it needs to have original content if you want to stand out from the crowd!
Feel Special
Being a site owner, you will have a unique opportunity to show what you can (and can't) do. Why should you settle for copying and pasting articles of other web sites directly into your own when you could tell them of your own life experiences? Not only will you save yourself any legal headaches in the future, but you can also be proud of the fact that the text that you have on your site is entirely your own work.
Seriously, you'd be surprised at the number of people who will want to read about problems and how you went about solving them. It doesn't have to be in diary format, but if it is related to the main subject of the site then you can generate quite a bit of traffic from it. What makes your own work appealing to your visitors is the fact that it is you that has written it; no one else is likely to share your point of view or put an explanation in the same way that you do (except those that copy and paste from your site).
Perhaps it is your experiences, feelings and view of the world that can help someone understand a particular idea or concept, or even just help them think about things in a different way. Your own content is special because it is yours, don't copy and paste your text from other sites and loose that special thing that makes your site truly your own; don't loose the opportunity to voice your opinion!
K.I.S.S
Keep it simple stupid! Don't confuse your visitors with too much techno jargon if you can say exactly the same thing in much simpler terms. You don't need to assume that all your visitors are in kindergarten, but you should seriously consider expanding your acronyms when you first introduce new terms and a glossary is always helpful. It may also be a good idea to clearly mark which terms are technical by changing the way that they look on the page.
While you may perfectly understand what is meant by a "Bob's dog", not everyone reading your page will understand what you mean by it. For those of you interested, when I refer to a "Bob's dog", I mean that a person has disappeared... I'm not sure how well known that term is, as far as I know, only my closest family and circle of friends know it.
Take me Seriously!
If your spelling and grammar isn't up to par, then few people will take what you have to say seriously. It is always a good idea to run your text (don't forget your links and navigational items) through a spelling and grammar checker of some description before uploading your site. Even though this won't get rid of all your problems, it will certainly help you to spot the more serious ones. While some visitors can forgive one or two spelling mistakes, they will likely just think you are careless if you have many more on that page (or your site for that matter).
Be Yourself
Some of the most successful sites are those where the author just acts like they normally would; writing as if you are talking directly to your visitors face to face is always a good way of getting your personality into your work. You should be aware however that writing in this style could cause some trivial grammar errors which you may wish to ignore to maintain your particular style.
If a grammar checker pulls up something trivial, such as using the passive voice, then don't feel you have to change it to the suggested phrase if it is not something you would have used yourself. Doing so would loose some of that special charm that makes your site your site.