Content curation has become commonplace in the last decade because it’s relatively easy to do (if you have a strategy) and it has the potential to be very lucrative (both in terms of monetary gain and other opportunities). But what is content curation exactly? And, even more importantly, how do you do content curation the right way?

Content curation is what it sounds like, curating content, which means handpicking content from a specific niche and putting it together in one easy place for your audience to read and share. Of course, in order for content curation to really be valuable, it needs to be organized and carefully selected. Just throwing a list together based on relevant keywords is not the right strategy for content curation. Additionally, content curation needs to happen across sources. The more a content curator can showcase new publications, blogs, and authors, the more valuable their work will be for their targeted audience.

One of the biggest benefits of content curation is that, as the curator, you become recognized as an industry expert. This is especially helpful if you have a brand, service, or product to offer your audience because it almost instantly means more sales. And, unlike creating all of your own content from scratch, content curation allows you to leverage other people’s work, while still adding your knowledge and expertise. When you curate content, you help create a conversation around the topic of your choice. While you’re not the only speaker, you’re seen as a person of value because you’re bringing all of these other voices together in one place.

Another benefit of being a content curator is that it keeps you relevant in your industry. By staying ahead of the curve, and actually alerting others to the latest news and trends, you become a person that people trust. And, when you send out a newsletter or email, people actually look forward to seeing what you have to say because they know it will be loaded with value.

By adding content curation to your business strategy (or making it a strategy all on its own), you can very quickly start to grow your business. People like sharing things that feel valuable — and a well-curated list of articles and videos is just that. Rather than constantly sending emails and writing posts that are all about you and what you do, curating content allows you to become a quiet expert, someone people know and trust — and, most importantly, don’t get sick of.

The key to being successful when curating content is making sure that you’re not just adding to the noise. You want to find content that is “underground” so that it provides a new perspective or fresh ideas. By subscribing to RSS feeds, you can get alerts about when content is published so that you don’t have to wait for social media posts to tell you to go look — at that point, the content will already be read by many of the people counting on you to bring them content first.