It All Begins With Content
One of the biggest problems I face as an online marketing consultant is to get people to provide content.
I’m convinced that the myth of putting up a one page site to sell a product has permeated the very marrow of our bones that when it comes to blogging, we think the same thing is true. The reality of it though is that even if that was the case many, many years ago, it certainly is far from the truth today.
If I consult with a client that isn’t very technical but just gets on and writes, I always have the assurance that that person will go on to build a successful online business. Why? Because even if that person just keeps writing, they are a) giving the search engines something to work with and b) there are a myriad of ways that we can repurpose the content after tweaking and refining it if necessary.
Giving the search engines something to work with
Each time you publish a new post on your blog, so long as you have the appropriate pinging software installed, you automatically tell the weblog services or, update services as it is called in WordPress, that you have updated your site, inviting them to come take a look and see what’s new.
If the article you have posted relevantly matches what a searcher is looking for online, your post or page will appear to them in the search results and, if the url and description look enticing enough, they will click on the link to read more.
But, it’s not just about putting out a load of articles … no one wants to buy a dry boring book and likewise, no one wants to read a dry boring blog! You have to appeal to your readers by giving them solutions to the problems they are looking for and, in a way that encourages them to keep reading and, other bloggers to link to your article.
Getting other bloggers to link to you is like “word of mouth” marketing and, the more links you get from quality sites, the higher your search engine rankings are likely to be.
Repurposing Content
Repurposing content is a great way of “squeezing the juice” out of one piece of content. If you create 30 blog posts (articles) but you’re now struggling to come up with more content, go over all of your blog posts and see whether you can publish them in another format.
Here are 5 ways you can reuse or repurpose content once you’ve written it:
- Rework your blog posts and submit it to article directories. See Steve Shaw’s article on how to rework your blog post to make it unique.
- Make a podcast (audio post) from an existing blog post and submit it to iTunes, Odeo or the many other podcast sites. If you don’t have the necessary recording equipment, you can consider using Audio Acrobat which allows you to make your recording over the telephone.
- Create a video from your article and upload it to the free video sharing sites such as YouTube.com and Google Video
- Turn your article into a press release and then submit it to the relevant press release submission sites. You’ll find more information about this at www.prweb.com.
- Open up an account with HubPages.com and rework your content for your hub. Building hub pages can get you great backlinks to your site due to the amount of exposure you’ll get from other hubbers. You must however write good quality articles … articles that get read!
I’m feeling myself wanting to go off into a little rant here about people who want to make it big online just because they have a blog with a few articles on it but, I’m going to reserve my “major” rant for another day.
All I will say for now though, is stop the crying and create content people want to read, watch or listen to! If you think about providing a solution to a problem, it’s going to be easier to write good quality content … solve people’s toothache, headache, backache or insomnia and, they’ll love you for it.
I perosnally don’t know of any book which made it to the best seller list with 15 pages (though I’m not saying it’s impossible) so why on earth do people think they can become an overnight success with 5 to 15 blog posts!
Time to start writing and repurposing!
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Trish
Great post as always and you hit on a very important point here which is that (virtually) nothing worth having comes easily. People want to think that they can get fit with one visit to the gym. They won’t. People want to think they will be more successful at work for staying late one night. They won’t. And people think that they can fling up a one-page blog and people will come. They won’t.
Success is about consistency and consistency is about deciding what is worth doing and doing it over and over. Blogging is not just about search engine rankings. Blogging is also about credibility, about building up a market and about sharing your expertise.
As I have said before, blogging is not for the faint-hearted. Like many things in life, you get out of it what you put in.
Gavin Ingham´s last blog ..Join me at the first Recruitment Juice Live event
Gaivn, your comment that “Success is about consistency and consistency is about deciding what is worth doing and doing it over and over,” is the point I really hope people pick up from this. All too often, I get people coming to me after they’ve spent all of their money on glitzy websites that bought them zero traffic and what they are looking for now is a “quick fix” to recover all the monies they’ve already lost.
Like you said though, it takes more than one visit to the gym to get fit and, if you’re overweight, it takes more than one day of sensible eating and exercise to shift the excess weight that you have accumulated over months and years in some people’s case.
Thanks for your contribution Gavin. I know how hard you’ve worked on your online business and it’s paying off and there is more to come!
Trish
Trish Jones´s last blog ..Getting The Most Out Of Commenting On Other Blogs
Trish,
I just stumbled upon you on YouTube and was so impressed with your delivery of quality information I was compelled to search you out so I could bookmark your website.
I am relatively new to blogging and trying to “find my voice”. I’m in the health & fitness niche with “low back pain” being my micro-niche. I can’t decide whether to make my blog posts in 1st person or write them in a more authoritative tone. Reading your blog posts, I really like your style of writing and your use of first person to deliver a more personal/conversational tone.
I want to deliver more content (at least 2 – 3 posts per week) on my blog but the research involved to publish the posts that address various health issues are taking me a week or two to finalize. I consider myself to be fairly good at writing but my perfectionist nature is conflicting with my need to increase the quantity of posts on my blog (quality vs. quantity). Is there a template or outline you could recommend I use to help me become more proficient at turning out quality blog posts with great content?
I found you this morning when I went onto YouTube looking for a good video that shows how to upload/insert an image or photo into my blog post and get the text to “wrap” around it. I’m having no luck! No matter where I align it . . . left, right or center. The text borders the top and bottom but DOES NOT wrap around the image/photo. Do you have a video that addresses this issue for WordPress.org bloggers? I am using the free WordPress “Amazing Grace” theme.
Thanks, Trish!
Iris´s last blog ..Is Chronic Low Back Pain Leaving You Numb?
Hi Iris,
I will answer the video question about the images first … I do have one somewhere and will upload it to YouTube but if I can’t find it, will create a new one, just for you!
Regarding “finding your voice,” the authoritative tone is the one that comes from you. Trust me, I have an MBA and they forced me to write in the third person for 4 whole years! I couldn’t wait until I no longer had the Dr’s on my back marking me down for being authentic.
I personally find that when people write in the thrid person, it tends to be boring and lacks the ability to enable the reader to frame what you are saying and relate it to them. Marketing is all about relatioinships and, I can’t build a relationship with the third person.
It’s down to personal choice, but for me, if I started writing in the 3rd person again, I know I wouldn’t connect with my audience.
Try it and see!