What can Matt Drudge teach us about content marketing

As of this writing (July 14 2011), on any given day, Matt’s 14-year-old, one-page, static html website The Drudge Report drives more traffic to major news sites than Facebook or Twitter.
Remarkable, isn’t it?
So how does he do it?
I’m not exactly sure about that.
But here are some of my observations about Matt:

a. Matt seems to understand that the dominant activity in today’s digitally powered world is reading.

b. Matt is one of the best headline writers in the online content business.
How important are great headline writing skills in the modern society? Nowadays, much of what we do every single day begins with online search. What do you think: when presented with new information, do most people first read it word by word? (Online, offline… what line?) Of course not. So how do they navigate through content?

Most people first scan or skim the content instead of really reading it. And what’s their preferred navigation tool? The headlines: people scan or skim the headlines until they find something that interests them. And that is why great headlines have vastly bigger impact on our behaviour on the web than anything else. Just about right now your inner voice is confirming this to be true because you most likely do the same.

c. A lot of online content providers are long on words but short on guidance. But not Matt.
Matt ushers his visitors away efficiently with links to the stuff they want.

d. Matt’s site is a proven shortcut to information that a lot of people find useful and relevant.

My 2¢: Is your business a shortcut of some kind?