12 quick tips about content creation in less than 420 words

52 replies
Enjoy.

1. Stuck for content ideas? Hit your inbox. Look at the questions being sent in day after day via email, and turn that into content. I bet you have dozens, if not more, in your inbox right now. Consider doing Q&A's around your subject matter.

2. Interlink your articles. (look at Wikipedia as an example) Don't write flat articles. If all your articles are "standalone", that's going to look pretty damn unnatural and useless to search engines. It will also have a negative impact on your time onsite/page view averages. Give your content "depth". Interlink your articles using chosen phrases and keywords that relate.

3. Publish content frequently. I'm seeing evidence of authority and trust being established much faster by publishing more frequently.

4. If you cant publish frequently - make it count when you do publish. As my friend Dan Norris says, "Write Epic Shit".

5. Use keywords in your titles, but be sensible about it. Avoid overusing keywords to the point it gets annoying. Once you build an audience, drop the emphasis on keywords and get creative/provocative with your titles.

6. Write for humans. Quit writing BS for algorithms. You're wasting your time.

7. Create your content first, then take a look at what keywords might be useful in your title. Don't spew out a list of keywords then try to force yourself to write to that. It's not only unnatural but it's as boring as hell.

8. Quit writing and diversify your content. Start doing videos, start doing podcasts, consider software, PDF's, cartoons, photography, apps, tools etc.

9. Get a whiteboard, and pay attention. Listen to what discussions are happening, what's on the news, what you just read, what someone said, what someone just asked, something you thought of, a problem you had, a solution you found - and write this shit down on your whiteboard as it hits you. Then when you have time - go back and start creating content based on your white board notes. It's much easier to do this, rather than think "What was that idea I had yesterday?"

10. Publish content that you're passionate about, or you're at least knowledgeable or experienced in.

11. Re-purpose your content. Take one of your videos and transcribe it. Transcribe a podcast. Take an article you've written and talk about it in a video. Take a video you've done and convert it to a PDF, or a slide.

12. Create your own content. Quit wasting money on useless software that copies, spins, and scrapes crap.

That's a few things off the top of my head.
#418 #content #creation #quick #tips #words
  • Profile picture of the author clever7
    This is a very good list. I do many of the things you recommend.

    I don't diversify my writings, this is my biggest fault.

    Everything is time consuming.


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    • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
      Originally Posted by clever7 View Post

      Everything is time consuming.
      13. Speak into a microphone. Transcribe it.

      You can have 1,000 words worth of good content (plus downloadable audio) in less than 20 minutes.
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  • Profile picture of the author JensSteyaert
    Great tips!

    I like the second one, it's very important to decrease your bounce rate, and i think this also plays a major role in how much authority google gives your site.

    Thanks
    Jens
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  • Profile picture of the author SurrealPSD
    Pure gold. I can really relate to the 'Write EPIC shit' statement - that's why Im gonna win in this game lol
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Very nice list.

      #2 is the reason I don't fear the Google managerie, nor worry about backlinking. Especially when some of my publishers follow the same strategy...
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    Good stuff. I swear, someone who writes a convincing book for numbers 2, 5 and 6 will be able to retire inside of a year. Especially #s 5 & 6.
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  • Profile picture of the author konakid
    Nice list. I would also suggest using voice to text transcription software to speed up the writing process and help you to brainstorm. I use dragon naturally speaking, and at first it can be really frustrating to get use to, but after a bit I've found that it greatly increases how much I can get "written" in a given period of time.

    It's really great for getting all your ideas down and laying out the structure. It's then easy to go back through and edit. Makes content creation much quicker!
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Originally Posted by John Romaine View Post

    6. Write for humans. Quit writing BS for algorithms. You're wasting your time.

    11. Re-purpose your content. Take one of your videos and transcribe it. Transcribe a podcast. Take an article you've written and talk about it in a video. Take a video you've done and convert it to a PDF, or a slide.

    12. Create your own content. Quit wasting money on useless software that copies, spins, and scrapes crap.
    Best advice of the month in my opinion (i meant for the month of May lol). These 3 tips are solid info - especially for newbies who think they will make money overnight. Get rich slow... keep marketing hard. Just imagine how much money you will be making 10 years from now if you stay consistent with your internet marketing. It could be incredible.
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    • Profile picture of the author derricks4
      Originally Posted by Randall Magwood View Post

      Get rich slow... keep marketing hard. Just imagine how much money you will be making 10 years from now if you stay consistent with your internet marketing. It could be incredible.
      Yes, if everyone had that attitude IM'ers would have half of the failure rate.
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    • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
      Originally Posted by Randall Magwood View Post

      Get rich slow... keep marketing hard. Just imagine how much money you will be making 10 years from now if you stay consistent with your internet marketing. It could be incredible.
      This is the truth that nobody wants to hear - especially n00bs.
      • Be patient.
      • Think long term
      • Avoid short cuts
      • Work your ass off
      • Build slowly but surely
      • Authority takes time
      Pat Flynn started his blog and was publishing content almost every day for 20 odd visits a day for 6 months before he gained any traction.

      In one year from now, you'll wish you had of taken this advice.
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      • Profile picture of the author Julius Minor
        11 and 12 are golden... If you are a newbie, then bookmark this and start from step 1..
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    What I love about this post is that it outlines ETHICAL means to generate content. Sadly, there are blackhat methods that generate free original content and free traffic. Karma is real. Ethical ways to create content and build traffic will always win out cuz karma is a beeyatch.
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    nice johnny love it.

    I am not expert on content creation, but we have been doing a little SEO and increased content this year, and have noticed google just loves ORIGINALITY...yes no BS spinning, plagerism, or curation...

    What we have noticed is that google loves articles about 900 - 1600 words, with a few images.
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    • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
      Originally Posted by celente View Post

      nice johnny love it.

      I am not expert on content creation, but we have been doing a little SEO and increased content this year, and have noticed google just loves ORIGINALITY...yes no BS spinning, plagerism, or curation...

      What we have noticed is that google loves articles about 900 - 1600 words, with a few images.
      Thanks.

      In terms of SEO, so long as you have your titles, H1 tags, and page descriptions in place, the rest will take care of itself. Oh, and friendly urls help too.

      SEO really isn't complicated. It's just common sense.

      I terms of word count, I don't count words.

      Although I have heard of many claiming longer articles perform better in the search engines. Whilst I haven't seen any factual data to support this claim, I think it's quite plausible. Google wants content, but more importantly, so do your readers.

      Give them both what they want, and you'll get what you want.

      Any more questions, just ask.
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      • Profile picture of the author Julius Minor
        Originally Posted by John Romaine View Post

        Thanks.

        In terms of SEO, so long as you have your titles, H1 tags, and page descriptions in place, the rest will take care of itself. Oh, and friendly urls help too.

        SEO really isn't complicated. It's just common sense.
        Your right about "SEO".. but honestly "I" would not wastes my time on it..
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    • Profile picture of the author Julius Minor
      Originally Posted by celente View Post

      nice johnny love it.

      I am not expert on content creation, but we have been doing a little SEO and increased content this year, and have noticed google just loves ORIGINALITY...yes no BS spinning, plagerism, or curation...

      What we have noticed is that google loves articles about 900 - 1600 words, with a few images.
      You don't need articles that long unless it's really that competitive.. If you want to know the truth? It's all about "keyword Research"... if SEO is your thing.. but there are many other ways to get traffic without SEO or Paid Traffic..
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  • Profile picture of the author maceemiller
    What a great little read! I will be trying to apply some of these into future projects. Thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author alexnob
    Originally Posted by John Romaine View Post

    Enjoy.

    1. Stuck for content ideas? Hit your inbox. Look at the questions being sent in day after day via email, and turn that into content. I bet you have dozens, if not more, in your inbox right now. Consider doing Q&A's around your subject matter.

    2. Interlink your articles. (look at Wikipedia as an example) Don't write flat articles. If all your articles are "standalone", that's going to look pretty damn unnatural and useless to search engines. It will also have a negative impact on your time onsite/page view averages. Give your content "depth". Interlink your articles using chosen phrases and keywords that relate.

    3. Publish content frequently. I'm seeing evidence of authority and trust being established much faster by publishing more frequently.

    4. If you cant publish frequently - make it count when you do publish. As my friend Dan Norris says, "Write Epic Shit".

    5. Use keywords in your titles, but be sensible about it. Avoid overusing keywords to the point it gets annoying. Once you build an audience, drop the emphasis on keywords and get creative/provocative with your titles.

    6. Write for humans. Quit writing BS for algorithms. You're wasting your time.

    7. Create your content first, then take a look at what keywords might be useful in your title. Don't spew out a list of keywords then try to force yourself to write to that. It's not only unnatural but it's as boring as hell.

    8. Quit writing and diversify your content. Start doing videos, start doing podcasts, consider software, PDF's, cartoons, photography, apps, tools etc.

    9. Get a whiteboard, and pay attention. Listen to what discussions are happening, what's on the news, what you just read, what someone said, what someone just asked, something you thought of, a problem you had, a solution you found - and write this shit down on your whiteboard as it hits you. Then when you have time - go back and start creating content based on your white board notes. It's much easier to do this, rather than think "What was that idea I had yesterday?"

    10. Publish content that you're passionate about, or you're at least knowledgeable or experienced in.

    11. Re-purpose your content. Take one of your videos and transcribe it. Transcribe a podcast. Take an article you've written and talk about it in a video. Take a video you've done and convert it to a PDF, or a slide.

    12. Create your own content. Quit wasting money on useless software that copies, spins, and scrapes crap.

    That's a few things off the top of my head.
    Do you think that linking outsite too much may cause link juice lost for our blog? Or it can really bring some benefits? Thanks.
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    • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
      Originally Posted by alexnob View Post

      Do you think that linking outsite too much may cause link juice lost for our blog? Or it can really bring some benefits? Thanks.
      Linking to external sources should just happen naturally.

      When publishing content, I don't sort through my blog entries and proactively "think" about linking to external sources. Infact, I may not do it all. However if I'm referencing something on another site, then of course - I do it.

      I don't give any consideration (or lose any sleep over it for that matter) about where link juice may, or may not be flowing. Remember, you should be publishing kick ass stuff for human readers - not bots.

      I will note lastly though, that if I'm not confident that the source is "clean" (ie the site may be questionable or unknown) then I will do a nofollow.

      I think about outbound links like personal relationships. You want to keep good company.

      Not quite sure what you mean by "benefits"? Do you mean better rankings???
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  • Profile picture of the author AlexandraMarch
    Banned
    I totally agree with no 10. There are many people out there that clearly have no ideea what they are talking about and still write articles offering advice on a certain subject.
    I think anyone who has at elat limited knowledge on that specific topic can spot them.
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  • Profile picture of the author TimothyTorrents
    Transcribe the article then create a simple animation illustrating the point you are trying to make in the article, combine the animation and audio, then upload the video to Youtube.

    Great tips!
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  • Profile picture of the author Stuart Walker
    Pat Flynn started his blog and was publishing content almost every day for 20 odd visits a day for 6 months before he gained any traction.

    In one year from now, you'll wish you had of taken this advice.
    Quite frankly I hope no one thinks that posting an article to your site every day for 6 months even though you have no traffic is a good idea.

    Wasting content.

    No one can come up with well thought out and written articles on a daily basis for 6 months. You'd end up with lots of weak articles and posts just written for the sake of being written.

    Better to focus on promoting your articles and site in the initial phases than churning out sub-standard content every day thinking that somehow it will magically bring your traffic...it won't and it doesn't.

    Where's it going to come from just because you have 4,000 articles on your site? Nowhere. Just like it doesn't magically come from anywhere when you have a small amount on your site. You have to find it.

    Work out your target audience, see where they hang out, get your content in front of them.

    20% time on creating content and 80% of the time on promoting it makes much more sense.
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    • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
      Originally Posted by RockingLastsForever View Post

      Quite frankly I hope no one thinks that posting an article to your site every day for 6 months even though you have no traffic is a good idea.
      I disagree.

      It's content that helps get you the traffic in the first place. Any successful publisher already knows and understands this. Consider any of the most established marketers online, Yaro Starak, Rand Fishkin, Pat Flynn. Those guys worked there asses off in the beginning by publishing content frequently (and still do) to build an audience.

      Originally Posted by RockingLastsForever View Post

      No one can come up with well thought out and written articles on a daily basis for 6 months.
      Nonsense. I do, and have done for over 10 years.

      Originally Posted by RockingLastsForever View Post

      Better to focus on promoting your articles and site
      What exactly are you going to "promote" if you have no content? This is my point exactly.

      Originally Posted by RockingLastsForever View Post

      churning out sub-standard content every day thinking that somehow it will magically bring your traffic...it won't and it doesn't.
      Sub-standard content won't bring you qualified traffic regardless of how often you publish it.

      Again you make the assumption that there is some kind of relationship between publishing frequently and poor quality content. This just isn't true.

      Originally Posted by RockingLastsForever View Post

      Where's it going to come from just because you have 4,000 articles on your site?
      I'm glad you asked.

      How to Get Traffic To Your Website Simply By Publishing Content Frequently - YouTube!

      Originally Posted by RockingLastsForever View Post

      Work out your target audience, see where they hang out, get your content in front of them.
      Wait, ....did you just say "content"? :rolleyes:

      Originally Posted by RockingLastsForever View Post

      20% time on creating content and 80% of the time on promoting it makes much more sense.
      No it doesn't.

      This is a common mistake that a lot of people make.

      They spend 80% of their time running around all over the internet blasting useless crap everywhere (blog commenting, forum spam, fake profiles, Squidoo etc) instead of focusing 80% of their efforts on their own website.

      The right way to do it, is to invest 80% of your time focusing on your own site (publishing content, building your audience, engaging with your subscribers, improving conversions, split testing, improving your sites design, adding products, adding services, conversions etc)

      ...and invest the other 20% towards syndicating your content across the right channels, and promoting your CONTENT.
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      • Profile picture of the author Stuart Walker
        Originally Posted by John Romaine View Post

        I disagree.

        It's content that helps get you the traffic in the first place. Any successful publisher already knows and understands this. Consider any of the most established marketers online, Yaro Starak, Rand Fishkin, Pat Flynn. Those guys worked there asses off in the beginning by publishing content frequently (and still do) to build an audience.

        Nonsense. I do, and have done for over 10 years.

        What exactly are you going to "promote" if you have no content? This is my point exactly.

        Sub-standard content won't bring you qualified traffic regardless of how often you publish it.

        Again you make the assumption that there is some kind of relationship between publishing frequently and poor quality content. This just isn't true.


        I'm glad you asked.

        How to Get Traffic To Your Website Simply By Publishing Content Frequently - YouTube!

        Wait, ....did you just say "content"? :rolleyes:

        No it doesn't.

        This is a common mistake that a lot of people make.

        They spend 80% of their time running around all over the internet blasting useless crap everywhere (blog commenting, forum spam, fake profiles, Squidoo etc) instead of focusing 80% of their efforts on their own website.

        The right way to do it, is to invest 80% of your time focusing on your own site (publishing content, building your audience, engaging with your subscribers, improving conversions, split testing, improving your sites design, adding products, adding services, conversions etc)

        ...and invest the other 20% towards syndicating your content across the right channels, and promoting your CONTENT.
        Content is NOTHING unless you promote it. I don't care if you have 10,000 epic articles on your site, it's a complete waste if no one sees it.

        Publishing content does NOT build an audience because if no one knows your site exists no one knows you are publishing content.

        You can have content without posting every day. Post once a week and focus on promoting each post for the rest of time.

        There's no way someone can produce epic content every single day.....even the most creative writer would go stale.

        You're making the mistake that thinking promote your content means making Squidoo lenses and fake profiles....where did that idea come from?

        I guess you misunderstood what people meant when they said promote your content.

        No serious marketer would be suggesting 'fake profiles' (whatever they are) and Squidoo lenses.

        You can spend 80% of your time on your own website if you like but again if no one ever sees your website then you are just wasting your time.

        80% of your time spent on a website that only YOU see it completely useless.

        You then go on to say that most of your time should be built on building your audience (among other things)....how do you build your audience?

        You get your content in front of people who are interested in it...which is what I said in the beginning. :confused:
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        • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
          Originally Posted by RockingLastsForever View Post

          Content is NOTHING unless you promote it. I don't care if you have 10,000 epic articles on your site, it's a complete waste if no one sees it.
          Let's be more realistic, shall we?

          If you have a couple dozen articles on your site, and you promote it, nobody gives a damn. They read your entire site in an hour and go "that's it?" before buggering off.

          If you have a couple hundred, then maybe you're getting somewhere with a promotion. They go to your site and cannot possibly read the whole thing. They accordingly read only the things they are most interested in reading.

          They still only read a couple dozen articles, but they think your site is several times more awesome than if it ONLY had the articles they read on it.

          So guess what?

          In the long run, promoting your content is only more valuable than generating more content after you have thousands of articles. If you don't have thousands of articles, you are better off generating content than promoting the content you have.

          Do you know why? Oh, of course you don't, you're one of these "promote promote promote" people. Let me explain.

          Content adds value faster than it adds cost.

          Let's say you have $50 in your hand. On the one side, you have a $50 PPC campaign that will bring you a thousand unique visitors next week. On the other, you have a guest blogger who will write you a 750 word article for $50 by the end of the week.

          How many people will read that article?

          Well, first of all, your entire existing audience will read it. That PPC campaign does nothing for them and delivers no value, but the guest blogger gives them a new article to read and maybe a new blog to discover and a new author or expert to learn from. That's value. Your entire existing readership gets value.

          Second, some of that guest blogger's audience will come read it. They'll be searching for him and his stuff, and they'll find your site. Along with all your other content. And now you have a new audience. Getting value. From not only the article you had guest written, but the entire site. Because it's full of content.

          And third, that article will sit on your site forever, delivering value to anyone and everyone that shows up, long after your PPC campaign is over and generating nothing.

          Same $50.

          What do you think? That look like maybe it's more than a thousand clicks? Like maybe it's a more stable and permanent audience? Like maybe they admire, respect, and trust you more than they would if they clicked your stupid ad?

          Well, that's not really necessary, though. You don't need admiration or respect or trust... if you are selling crap to idiots. And that's a valid market segment. You can sell someone a cure for the common cold that takes a week to apply, and look! It works! A week later, the cold is gone.

          Just like it would have been if you did nothing at all.

          There's nothing wrong with taking advantage of stupid people. That's what we do, a lot of the time. It's what we are largely in the business of doing. When I tell someone too stupid to save money "well, what you need to do is save some money," but first I make them give me $10... I am exploiting that person. I am taking advantage of that person's stupidity for money.

          If I charge you $7 to learn that Blogger blogs can have AdSense on them and that can make you money, I'm exploiting you. If I charge you $27 to explain how to make a PDF and edit a video and record an interview, I'm exploiting you. That is my job. It is what I am in the business of doing. I use information inequality to get money from you. I know it; you don't; you want to know it, and there's a price tag on that.

          The question is whether I have left you better off in the process, or just taken your money. If you are stupid and I exploit your stupidity for money, do I make your life better? Is what I did to your life worth what you paid? Did you get some value from it?

          And what matters there is social proof. Past performance is no guarantee of future performance, but it's the best indicator we have. So you want to know, when other people paid me, did they get value? And in the past, if you paid me, did you get value?

          And if you don't have or trust that information, what is the content on my web site telling you right now?

          Does it help you? Do you get value from it?

          A thousand articles are valuable even if none of them individually are very good.

          A thousand ads are worth nothing. Nothing at all.
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          "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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          • Profile picture of the author ajbarnes777
            Great advice! Every last one of those tips are things I have followed for the past couple of years... and it has lead to more traffic, more subscriber's, and more sales.

            "Publishing content your passionate about" and "Write content for humans" are 2 of the BIGGEST tips that has helped my business. Not to mention... both of those tips will decrease a TON of stress!
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            • Profile picture of the author fin
              Great advice in the OP, but I have to agree with Rocking Lasts Forever on the new discussion.

              I think people are attracted to quality. Most top blogs don't publish much articles, yet each one is quality so people come back. They come back because of the quality and not because of the quantity.

              Nobody can produce quality every day and you run the risk of people reading your 70% effort articles and not coming back. It defeats the purpose considering they will come back if you produce a 100% effort article once per week.
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              • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
                Originally Posted by fin View Post

                Nobody can produce quality every day
                I can shoot a video in 10 minutes, transcribe it, upload it to Youtube and have it live in an hour.

                Don't make the assumption that publishing content involves "writing articles".
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                • Profile picture of the author fin
                  Originally Posted by John Romaine View Post

                  I can shoot a video in 10 minutes, transcribe it, upload it to Youtube and have it live in an hour.

                  Don't make the assumption that publishing content involves "writing articles".
                  I could do that too. It doesn't mean I couldn't produce something better if I took a week to script it and think about it more.

                  It also doesn't mean people would prefer to watch a new video every day. Sure, you might get more traffic, but how many people are you losing because they would rather watch something of a higher quality that took you a week to produce.

                  I've watched a few of your vids are they are good content, but just like anyone else there is room for improvement. With a proper script you could do lots of fancy stuff I don't even know the name of: cliffhangers, playing with emotions, creating buzz at specific times, etc.

                  When anyone just shoots a video they're just talking. It's a bit like writing an article without editing it.

                  At the end of the day there is no way everyone will have the same results. I just have my own opinion because of what I've seen, but I'm willing to accept people do better with more regular content.
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                  • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
                    Originally Posted by fin View Post

                    I've watched a few of your vids are they are good content, but just like anyone else there is room for improvement.
                    I agree.

                    I'm by no means an expert. I've shot plenty of horrible videos (before I got lights/microphone etc) but what's important is that I got them done, and I continue to learn.

                    I'm really not interested in debating whether or not publishing more frequently is better than publishing every now and then - everyone has their own preferences.

                    In my experiences, I've found publishing more frequently lends itself to better results (traffic, subscribers, engagement etc)

                    I just wanted to share some thoughts on content marketing.

                    That's all.
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                    • Profile picture of the author fin
                      Originally Posted by John Romaine View Post

                      I agree.

                      I'm by no means an expert. I've shot plenty of horrible videos (before I got lights/microphone etc) but what's important is that I got them done, and I continue to learn.

                      I'm really not interested in debating whether or not publishing more frequently is better than publishing every now and then - everyone has their own preferences.

                      In my experiences, I've found publishing more frequently lends itself to better results (traffic, subscribers, engagement etc)

                      I just wanted to share some thoughts on content marketing.

                      That's all.
                      Exactly.

                      I think it could make a good discussion if there was a right or wrong answer, but there's not.

                      Like I said, I did agree with your OP. I just wanted to give my opinion because I've greatly reduced the amount of posts I publish and my traffic and interaction with people has increased.
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              • Profile picture of the author Stuart Walker
                If you have a couple dozen articles on your site, and you promote it, nobody gives a damn. They read your entire site in an hour and go "that's it?" before buggering off.

                If you have a couple hundred, then maybe you're getting somewhere with a promotion. They go to your site and cannot possibly read the whole thing. They accordingly read only the things they are most interested in reading.

                They still only read a couple dozen articles, but they think your site is several times more awesome than if it ONLY had the articles they read on it.

                So guess what?

                In the long run, promoting your content is only more valuable than generating more content after you have thousands of articles. If you don't have thousands of articles, you are better off generating content than promoting the content you have.

                Do you know why? Oh, of course you don't, you're one of these "promote promote promote" people. Let me explain.
                Very few people spend an hour on one site reading articles, they come they have a read of a couple, have a look around and decide if they like it or not.

                Whether you had 10 or 10,000 articles on your site they can come to a conclusion if they like what they've seen.

                If they do they'll sign up to your list so they can be updated whenever you add new content.

                They aren't going to decide they don't like your site just because you've not got many articles up yet.

                Just knocking out content for the sake of knocking out content is aimless and serves no purpose. That's why we continually here of people on WF who have been blogging daily for 6 months and have yet to even get 100 visitors per month to their site.

                Because they had no promotion strategy in place they just believed that blogging every day would somehow bring them traffic.

                Originally Posted by fin View Post

                Great advice in the OP, but I have to agree with Rocking Lasts Forever on the new discussion.

                I think people are attracted to quality. Most top blogs don't publish much articles, yet each one is quality so people come back. They come back because of the quality and not because of the quantity.

                Nobody can produce quality every day and you run the risk of people reading your 70% effort articles and not coming back. It defeats the purpose considering they will come back if you produce a 100% effort article once per week.
                Exactly the top blogs publish less frequently but every post really counts. None of this 'we must post every day' nonsense.

                Most people don't even want to read your posts every day, you'll start to annoy them.
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                • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
                  Originally Posted by RockingLastsForever View Post

                  Exactly the top blogs publish less frequently but every post really counts. None of this 'we must post every day' nonsense.
                  I suggested publishing frequently. I never said it was compulsory.

                  Infact, I noted this in point 4.

                  Originally Posted by John Romaine View Post

                  4. If you cant publish frequently - make it count when you do publish. As my friend Dan Norris says, "Write Epic Shit".
                  Originally Posted by RockingLastsForever View Post

                  Most people don't even want to read your posts every day, you'll start to annoy them.
                  How could you possibly know what someone else's subscribers do, and don't want?

                  I've had people thank me for publishing frequently. I've also had subscribers ask to receive content less frequently. I accommodate both, by giving them choices (segmenting my lists), or, providing alternative ways to subscribe (eg Youtube, Twitter etc)
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                • Profile picture of the author fin
                  Originally Posted by RockingLastsForever View Post



                  Exactly the top blogs publish less frequently but every post really counts. None of this 'we must post every day' nonsense.

                  Most people don't even want to read your posts every day, you'll start to annoy them.
                  I'll read your blog because you produce work I can't find anywhere else. Spend a long time creating an amazing piece of work and I won't forget about you.

                  Create GOOD content and I can find it everywhere. I will forget about you when I find someone else and I certainly won't bother coming back.

                  That's why I agree with you. There is too much noise and only the strong survive. As soon as people fine a blog with slightly better content they won't come back.

                  I also prefer blogs posting once per week because I don't want to read something every day. I think the only blog I read that produces more than 1 piece per week is Quick Sprout.
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                • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
                  Originally Posted by RockingLastsForever View Post

                  Very few people spend an hour on one site reading articles
                  You would have to have enough articles for them to spend an hour reading. The articles would need to be good enough that they wanted to read them. And the subject matter would have to be interesting to your visitor.

                  Chop it in half for each of those, and you would need to have eight hours worth of reading on the site, which is roughly 100,000 words or 250 articles. (125 if you do longer ones, like I do.) If you don't have that, of course your stats are going to tell you nobody does this. They can't do it on your site.

                  It's like saying "nobody ever signs up for mailing lists" and then when someone says "what kind of squeeze page are you using?" you say "I don't have one."

                  Well, there's your problem.

                  They aren't going to decide they don't like your site just because you've not got many articles up yet.
                  However, they also aren't going to decide they do like it. There's not enough content for them to make a decision.

                  Just knocking out content for the sake of knocking out content is aimless and serves no purpose.
                  Creating valuable content that people want to read on a subject people care about, on the other hand... that's a different matter.

                  That's why we continually here of people on WF who have been blogging daily for 6 months and have yet to even get 100 visitors per month to their site.
                  And after six months of daily blogging, they have got something they can promote.

                  But the month after they start their blog, when they have five posts and one of them is "this is my new blog!" because they post every Tuesday, they have got jack squat and all the promotion in the world will not help them.

                  What they need is a critical mass of between 100 and 300 posts. And six months of daily blogging is, hey presto, a little over 180 posts. This is about when promotion will make a difference. But if you don't have the content, there is nothing to promote. You have to have content first.

                  Of course, if your content sucks, you still aren't getting anywhere. Same thing if the people to whom you promote aren't interested in your content.

                  I had a friend back in the 1990s who built an amazing piece of music software. He decided the best way to market this would be by promoting it to gamers, because nobody ever promotes professional-quality music software to gamers. As it turns out, there is a reason for that. And while he was promoting to gamers, someone else built a very similar product which started selling like hotcakes in the pro audio market for ten times the price, and when he tried to follow suit everyone called him a "cheap copy" of the other product.

                  Even when you have something to promote, you have to promote in the right places.

                  Exactly the top blogs publish less frequently but every post really counts. None of this 'we must post every day' nonsense.
                  I'm not talking about post frequency. You can post once a week or even less if you want. But you have to have enough content already on the site. And that means when you start out, you have to either (a) post a whole lot of content in a very short time, or (b) get little or no benefit from your site for several months or even years.

                  And while they do post less frequently, the top blogs still have hundreds of posts. And most of them were promoted exclusively by word of mouth among readers. If you talk to the people who own and operate these blogs, you'll find two stories repeated over and over again: frequent posting or a slow start. Often both. Raymond Chen still posts every day, but also has thousands of posts and is an expert on his subject matter.

                  You will NEVER hear a top blogger say "I became popular by promoting my site." They all say it's because of their content, and many of them never promoted at all. None of them had any real readership for the first year or more. Six months is nothing.

                  Most people don't even want to read your posts every day
                  Most people can go to hell. My audience is small. I like it that way. If someone thinks it's "unprofessional" for me to drop F-bombs in my videos and emails and blog posts, they can go F-bomb themselves.

                  We've got all these people out there going "why not me?" as the consumer market spends $10 and $20 on crap all day long. That's the wrong question. The question is "why you?" when we live in a world full of people selling consumer crap. Everyone is saying "there are millions of people making money on the internet, why not me?" as though this is some kind of secret room where they can't find the entrance or don't know the password is "swordfish" or something.

                  Making money on the internet is easy. It's always been easy. First you get a thing people want to buy. Then you find the people who want to buy it. And then you put a price on that thing which they are willing to pay for it.

                  You're putting the cart before the horse. Notice the "and then" part. Promotion is where you find the people who want to buy it. But before you find those people, you need something for them to buy. That's content. You got no content, you got nothing.
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                  "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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  • Profile picture of the author techbul
    Write quality unique stuff about things you are passionate about. I think that sums it pretty well
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  • Profile picture of the author kinyash
    Now its up for noobe to put a spanner in the works. Priceless advice right there.
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  • Profile picture of the author mario3
    Thank you John for
    your tips. For us writers they
    are really helpful. Today we are
    too much fixed on creating a
    algorithm article, which content
    is not just boring but unhuman as
    you say.
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  • Profile picture of the author infoway
    You have provided few wonderful tips John. And I must admit that according to the latest panda and penguin updates, we must try to quit writing and focus on diversifying content. Many IM people including me have already started producing videos or podcast, PDF's, different types of apps or tools. And have gained fruitful result.
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  • Profile picture of the author alvinchua91
    I think interlinking and writing epic sh*t are among the top methods!
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  • Profile picture of the author CyberAlien
    Originally Posted by John Romaine View Post

    6. Write for humans. Quit writing BS for algorithms. You're wasting your time.
    AND it's very obvious when some of you are doing this, people don't need to hear your keyword in every sentence
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  • Profile picture of the author 1byte
    Originally Posted by John Romaine View Post


    2. Interlink your articles. (look at Wikipedia as an example) Don't write flat articles. If all your articles are "standalone", that's going to look pretty damn unnatural and useless to search engines. It will also have a negative impact on your time onsite/page view averages. Give your content "depth". Interlink your articles using chosen phrases and keywords that relate.
    For interlinking, do you recommend using a plugin (which can save time but may not be as precise with linking to relevant pages/content), or doing the interlinking by hand (more accurate but also more tedious and time consuming)?
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    • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
      Originally Posted by 1byte View Post

      For interlinking, do you recommend using a plugin (which can save time but may not be as precise with linking to relevant pages/content), or doing the interlinking by hand (more accurate but also more tedious and time consuming)?
      Do your interlinking by hand.

      Avoid using software to cut corners. Cutting corners never works long term.

      See point #12. Quit wasting money on useless software that copies, spins, and scrapes crap.
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  • Profile picture of the author KevinChapman
    Great list - It's awesome to be able to read something different not the same old tips and ideas.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stuart Walker
    4. If you cant publish frequently - make it count when you do publish.
    This actually implies that publishing frequently is more important than making your posts count.

    Posting frequently is nothing if your content is sub-standard.

    Very few people can post really great content day after day. It takes time to research, edit, write, proof read, re-write and make it truly epic.
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    • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
      Originally Posted by RockingLastsForever View Post

      Posting frequently is nothing if your content is sub-standard.
      Doing anything frequently means little if it's sub standard.

      You seem to be repeating yourself. :confused:

      Originally Posted by RockingLastsForever View Post

      Very few people can post really great content day after day. It takes time to research, edit, write, proof read, re-write and make it truly epic.
      I'm not going disagree with you, which is why I said "make it count", if you're only going to publish occasionally.

      Listen, we can argue semantics all day long, but I think its fair to say for most site owners - publish inline with what you're capable of, what you're happy with, and what your readers enjoy.

      What works for me, may not apply or work for someone else in a different marketplace.

      However, I do want to say though, that a websites level of "activity" means a lot to me. If I visit a website, only to find the last entry to their blog was a year ago, I'm outta there. I see this all too often and it's a turn off. If the owner of the website can't be bothered, why should we, as visitors?

      It's much the same as this forum.

      Content is being published constantly, and it's that, that keeps me (and I dare say, a lot of other members here) coming back. There are plenty of forums around for almost any topic, but it's those that are "active" (ie content is being published frequently) that attract the most interest.

      I know that may not be a direct comparison, but the basic principles apply.

      If a site has freshly published content on an ongoing basis - then I know it's worth my while to visit it.
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  • Profile picture of the author karlbetz
    Good,thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gary Ning Lo
    Awesome tips.

    Thanks for the share.

    I would add "have a strong call to action"

    Cheers,

    Gary
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      If you've read my posts over the years, you know I'm pretty much a "quality content" guy. I tend to publish when I think I have something worth publishing.

      Whether that's the right formula or not depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

      Look at newspapers, especially the sports section. During a season, a beat writer doesn't have the option of only publishing when they think they have 'epic' stuff. For major league baseball, that beat writer HAS to produce content covering spring training, 162 regular season games, and for some, several rounds of playoffs. Just getting the facts straight while giving readers a flavor of the game often counts as 'quality' content.

      A weekly magazine like Sports Illustrated has more time to go in depth, with more interviews, photos, etc. Simply publishing game summaries wouldn't be enough. There's no way SI could put out a daily edition and keep up the same quality standard.

      If you're blogging to create a habit for your audience, where they come every day to get their 'fix', you need to publish every day. You don't have to have 'epic' stuff every day, but it had better be infrmative and entertaining.

      If you're blogging to build your rep as an authority, putting out a lot of good enough content isn't good enough. It's okay to publish less often because the standard should be much higher.

      Follow the quality standard and publishing frequency that brings you closer to your goals.
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  • Profile picture of the author UncleDearest
    Thanks for great post! For me, I discovered #6 & #7 to be most helpful. When I started doing that a few years ago, my articles did so much better. Besides ranking higher, it's so much easier to write to humans than it is being distracted by "fitting in" keywords throughout the entire article.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stuart Walker
    You seem to be repeating yourself
    Yeah, I'm hoping if I keep saying it over and over again you'll eventually get it.

    If I visit a website, only to find the last entry to their blog was a year ago, I'm outta there. I see this all too often and it's a turn off. If the owner of the website can't be bothered, why should we, as visitors?
    No one is suggesting posting once a year though but if you log in and see the last post was only a week or two ago it's hardly a big deal for most people. As long as it looks like it's still being updated.

    Look at Social Triggers, Derek hardly ever posts yet when he does it's always awesome. Hasn't done him any harm.
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