Overcoming The Struggle To Create Great Content For Your Blog. The latest and greatest trend in online marketing is the bold declaration that content reigns supreme. With good content (and plenty of it!), you’re told, you can reach any audience and accomplish any goal. Powerful as this form of marketing can be, it comes with one enormous pitfall. It requires you to create a steady supply of fresh website content. How do you get started?
The Challenge Of Content Marketing
The reason why content marketing shouldn’t be entered into lightly is that it is very much a double-edged sword. Although it can be supremely effective when done correctly, a misguided or lackadaisical attempt can waste your time and even end up hurting your website. To do content marketing properly, you have to guarantee two things about your content: It should always be worth reading and it should be updated regularly.
Striking a balance between these two goals can be difficult. Sacrificing quality in the name of speed is dangerous. Giving up on frequent updates can hamstring your marketing and rob it of its promotional power. As a general rule, you shouldn’t force your content simply to meet a schedule. If you must sacrifice something for the sake of pushing out an update, post something short but worthwhile. A brief piece of content can always serve as a “teaser” for a more ambitious post down the road.
Why You Need A Map To Success
Although the previous paragraph was full of caution about the dangers of sticking to a schedule, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have one. If you use it correctly, a schedule for content delivery can actually be a tremendous asset. By setting up a schedule, you’re starting to build a content pipeline.
Scheduling your content gives you a better grasp of your needs. You can start taking advantage of economies of scale in your production process. If you know you need half a dozen different pieces in the next week, devote a full hour to brainstorming topics. Conduct your research in batches.
Once you have a schedule, you can also start varying your content effectively. Don’t just specify given amounts of content within given spaces of time. Identify the themes and topics that are most important to your audience and make sure you return to them on a regular basis.
Finding The Right Ideas
It’s more than likely that your goal in building a steady content stream is to attract more people to your website. That means search engine optimization is vitally important. Don’t neglect the power SEO can have to inform your content creation process, though! When you conduct keyword research, consider the different terms you come across as potential topics for new content. Reaching out to embrace an idea sparked by a new keyword may bring your site to the attention of a whole new audience.
Keep a file of potential content topics and add to it frequently. Inspiration can strike in a host of different places and you can always spare a second or two to jot down a fresh idea. Be particularly attentive while you’re working on other content pieces. It’s often more effective to hang onto a tangent idea and turn it into fresh content than it is to incorporate it into one huge post. The more you make a habit of this, the more resources you’ll have available when it’s time to generate more content.
Spending Your Time In The Right Areas
Always remember that great content beats decent content. A post that attracts 10,000 readers is way more effective than ten posts that get 100 readers each. This doesn’t just mean refining and polishing your content itself, either. You need to structure each piece for maximum impact.
Make all of your posts inviting and easy to read. Provide your readers with easy sharing features so that they can help spread the word. Many blogs zero in on their best bits and call them out as ready-made “tweetables.” Spend some extra time on the most attention-grabbing parts of your piece (the headline, the description, callouts, etc.) and craft them to appeal to both search engines and human readers.
Creating great content is an art rather than a science. Though this means there is no formula you can use to guarantee success, it also means that your skills will improve over time. Keep plugging away at your content and you’ll find your material steadily drawing in bigger and bigger audiences. The entire creation process will speed up considerably as you practice. With enough dedication, crafting great content will become second nature to you.
Jonathan Leger has been a successful Internet Marketer for over 11 years. He owns an SEO Tools suite at KeywordCanine.com and is the creator of a number of well known and respected software and service applications such as The Best Spinner, INeedArticles and more.
Are you looking to update your website? Do you need an additional hand to keep up with the demands of your business? SiteHatchery.com offers a variety of services tailored for business owners. From web hosting, to custom analytic reports and intense security measures – SiteHatchery.com can help.
Check out our Service Bundle, a convenient all-in-one service that is affordable and effective.