Internet Marketing Simplified » Content Creation

This Is What I Mean by Relevance

Jackie Lee — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 19:41:37 +0000

Happy 4th of July weekend to my American readers. I had no intentions of posting today, or this weekend, however, the weather has changed and a picnic in the park before fireworks (which Hanna has been SERIOUSLY looking forward to) has become a cook out on the (covered) front porch.

With that in mind I saw the ice cream maker buried in my cabinet and thought it would be fun to make some ice cream for tomorrow’s cookout.

I somewhere along the line lost the recipe book that came with the ice cream maker and so I of course went to my good friend the Big G for some answers.

I typed in

homemade ice cream recipes

because that’s what I’m looking for.

The very first site I came across in the Big G was ice-cream-recipes.com ~ sound promising, even though as marketer I know those dashes in there probably mean it’s a site done by a marketer, and not someone who is completely in love with making ice cream… but we’ll see.

Ok so I was right… Here’s what I see when I get there. Remember… this is ME… as a CONSUMER looking for stuff.

Holy links batman. Confusing and overwhelming to the eye is what I thought. I looked around a little and landed on the “top 10 ice cream” link in the box there. Thinking the site name is ice cream recipes ~ that will be the top 10 ice cream recipes. right?

Not so much. I got a bunch of words that didn’t say much. Chocolate ice cream is really yummy. You can eat it for a snack, even one scoop is good. BLECK.

So now my marketer hat was on, and I decided to really look around and see if I could find what I was looking for ~ BTW ~ the keyword “ice cream recipes” is NOT a buying keyword. Think about it… I’m not trying to buy anything I just want to make some ice cream for my BBQ.

I would almost think this site was set up as an adsense site ~ get paid for the clicks, but the ads aren’t even good, prominent, or relevant.

Within the fluffy paragraph there was a link for the word chocolate ~ so I thought that wold lead me to an actual chocolate ice cream recipe. NOPE.

Instead I get a history of chocolate.

COME ON!! I just want to make some chocolate ice cream. I don’t care that cocoa beans were used by the Mayan civilization to make hot frothy drinks. GIVE ME A RECIPE.

If I didn’t have my marketer hat on, I would have left this site long ago, but now I’m really curious how many things I’m going to have to click before I actually get to a recipe.

Ok, now in the navigation bar I see a “ice cream recipes” tab. It leads to a drop down menu, to a drop down menu, to a drop down menu that has out of the 9 links I can click 3 actual recipes. (you know recipes 1, 2, and 3 ~ yes, that really encourages me to click! NOT.)

I finally click on chocolate ice cream recipe 1 and barely get a recipe.

It tells me the ingredients, then tells me to make a custard base, drop in the chocolate after it’s cool, and then stick it in your ice cream maker.

Really? wow.

Then the next 3 paragraphs on the page tell me different ways I can use chocolate ice cream, as well as the fact that it is Jackie Chan’s favorite flavor.

Who CARES!! I want a real recipe I can use today. I don’t care who else likes chocolate ice cream!!

That’s it. I’ve had it ~ I can’t believe I stayed this long. Now let’s see where else I can find an ice cream recipe.

Ahhh…this is better:

That’s what I’m talking about. Simple. Clean. Easy to find. Easy to use. Each of those links leads to a complete, easy to understand ACTUAL recipe.

Ok ~ this is funny ~ my husband who is also looking for ice cream recipes and has no marketer brain in him, landed on the same site and was not equally as horrified as I was. He in fact, found a simple chocolate ice cream recipe (after 25 clicks).

Take Aways:

1. Be relevant. If people are coming to your site for recipes ~ give them recipes.

2. Less is often more. (a lesson I’ve learned quite well from the comments on the new design) (thank you all for your emails and comments) You don’t have to give people an entire history lesson about what they are looking for, just give them what they’re looking for.

3. Easy navigation makes it much easier to find what people are looking for. If they don’t find what they want on the page they land on, having easy navigation from page to page/topic to topic, will help people stay and look around for a while.

4. White space is nice. The front page of that site had really small font, tons of orange links, and hardly no white space. It makes for a site that is very hard to read. Hard to read sites, don’t get read.

At some point on that site I remember seeing that millions of people had been there. In fact, there’s a visible traffic counter on the site. I believe it. It’s number 1 in Google for homemade ice cream recipes. Now whether that traffic converts to anything resembling an income ~ that’s a whole other story.

Hope that gives you some food for thought when considering your site, how it works, how people feel when they get there, what you’re offering and if you really are giving that.

Me… I’m gonna go make some ice cream. Thanks allrecipes.com

Overcoming Writer’s Block

Jackie Lee — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:30:56 +0000

At some point in your blogging business you’re going to hit it… writer’s block. I personally feel like it is more a lack of inspiration, but most people call it writer’s block.

Yesterday I sat at my desk for a couple hours banging my head, trying to force things to work, and the harder I tried to make it happen the more things got messed up and refused to work. I’ve got a couple things that I promised myself I’d have done by the end of the week. I’ve been completely uninspired to write them and it’s getting toward the end of week.

It’s times like these when I have a “deadline” looming that I find it very easy to slip into “make it work” mode. Whether it’s trying to create an image, or write a sales letter, or even blog posts. I just sit here and try to “make it work”. I know I’m not the only one ~ I’ve gotten plenty of emails that start something like this…

“for the last 3 hours I’ve been trying to …”

you fill in the blank, or change the 3 to a 5 ~ it all depends on how dug in your are.

Let me offer another option

It may seem crazy, and counterintuitive, but it works! Ready? Here goes.

Get up and walk away.

Yeah ~ when you’ve only got a little bit of time to devote to this whole thing it seems ridiculous to spend it walking away, but that can be the very best thing you do for yourself and your project.

My brain (and maybe yours) is a lot like my 4 year old. When she wants to do something it’s super easy to get her to do it. When she doesn’t want to do something it’s like trying to drag a donkey uphill in 100 degree weather. It just doesn’t happen.

My brain is the same way ~ if it’s not ready, willing and able to engage in a project I’m just going to end up spinning my wheels, getting frustrated, getting mad, and in the end STILL not get anything done.

I handle my brain a lot like I handle my 4 year old. (very sad… but still very true). I take a break. I walk away, do something else that is fun or at least lets me relax a little bit. Same thing with Hanna, if I just keep pushing her we’re going to get into a battle of the wills and I think at this point she can probably beat me. So I walk away, take a break, and then a few minutes later come back to the situation. It’s usually with a bit different attitude, a different feeling, a different “energy”, if you will, toward the situation.

Low and behold ~ we can usually get it worked out. Same with my brain. Yesterday we took off to the zoo. (It was going to be the only day for another couple weeks under 95 degrees ~ so it was a good day to go, and the idea of getting out and away from the house was VERY appealing).

The thing about going to the zoo for me is this: I have a long car ride. There’s something about driving in my car (which I don’t do that much of anymore) that brings up ideas. I did a video at the zoo so of course the whole way there I was mapping that out, but the drive home really brought some great ideas to the forefront for the project I was working on earlier in the day.

When I got home I was able to easily write what I needed to write ~ well at least the first draft ~ the framework is on paper ~ so it can be worked and revamped.

Here’s the thing… I did it in like 25 minutes. I spent hours earlier in the day banging my head, but when I got back it seriously just flowed out easily and effortlessly and the draft was done quickly.

That’s the power of walking away.

I don’t have time to go to the zoo!

I hear you. Not everyone has all day to just hop off to the zoo. You can still use the walk away strategy though. Just do it on a smaller scale.

Mow the yard
Do the dishes
play a game with your kiddo
take a walk around the block
cook something
take a shower
brush the dog or take him for a walk
listen to your favorite feel good song
work out

There are a million things you can do to change up the energy you’re in. The one thing I suggest you DON’T do is sit down in front of the TV. That will sap your brain power and will not help you get back to the computer ~ at least it doesn’t for me.

Engage in something that engages your brain and your other senses. By engaging your body and your mind in another task you open up space for new inspiration to hit you.

Oh ~ and when you leave the computer it’s a good idea to get really clear about what you want to show up for yourself. Yesterday I really wanted to be clear on the specifics of something. Sure enough, when I sat back down the specifics were right there waiting for me.

So there you have it… how I beat writer’s block aka lack of inspiration. What do you do to find inspiration and write or produce something when you feel uninspired or blocked?

PS. On a totally different topic ~ you know I’m doing this 30 day video challenge. I did another video at the zoo yesterday. If you’re enjoying the new video element I’d really appreciate it if you’d watch it and tell me a couple things

1. which style do you like better
2. what length works for you (I just read someone say keep them less than 2 minutes and I’m wondering if that’s true )
3. anything else you’d like to add

I’m asking because I really do not like to watch videos so I’m not really a very good opinion on what people like. I have found I’m really enjoying making them though.

Here’s the video: Finding Inspiration

Thanks a lot ~ you can leave your comments at youtube or come back here, whatever works for you.

Thanks again.

Title Keywords: Finding the Best Keywords for Your Blog Posts

Jackie Lee — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:32:43 +0000

Picture taken by Hanna at the Zoo

While I don’t think keywords are the most important thing for a blog like this I do think it’s always smart to add another possible traffic stream for you blog. With some quick and easy keyword research you can include Google and the other search engines to the possible ways you can get traffic to your site.

We are not going to start our work with keywords. We’re going to start our work, our writing, in our imaginations, in forums ~ where people who talk about your topic hang out, at twitter, where your market is talking. We’re going to start our work there. This is really important because that’s where you get IDEAS. It’s where you connect, with your market, their problems, their confusion, their issues ~ and you get to help them figure it all out.

Let’s walk through this whole thing with an example.

Last week Hanna and I went to this “new” interactive wildlife park in our area. We had a lot of fun. I’m one of those parents who thinks reading the signs and LEARNING is part of going to the zoo. Luckily my kiddo is one of those kids who likes to learn at the zoo. She was particularly interested in where each animal lived that day. Anyway… when I got home I remembered one time we’d gone to the botanical gardens and they had bingo cards for the little kids. The cards had pictures of things they would find throughout the gardens, they had to find them and cross them off as they did.

That was our best trip to Botanica EVER! Hanna had a blast looking for things and crossing things off. I thought that would be a lot of fun to do when we go to the zoo next time. Well, like with most ideas I have, I thought, what a great blog post that would make.

I did a little looking around and realized the bingo game probably wasn’t the only zoo game around, so I did a little digging to see what people were looking for.

I opened micro niche finder, and set it to broad match. I searched for zoo games just to see what would come up.

Apparently there are some zoo related computer games but that’s not what I am looking for this time. (But I did make a note to check it out and put it on the list of possible future topics) I looked through the options and here’s a few I found that I thought would work for my blog post.

Animals zoo games
Games for Zoo (which I would add a the into)
cool zoo games
free zoo games
kids zoo games
make your own zoo games
zoo games to play

That was just from doing a quick look and looking for something that related to what I was really going to write about ~ which is NOT about a computer game. Some of the keywords had great search volume, but you could tell they were really talking about online games. If I chose one of those I might get traffic, but it wouldn’t be what they were really looking for so they probably wouldn’t read the whole thing and they most probably wouldn’t come back again.

You always want to choose titles and keywords for your posts that are congruent to your content. If your title doesn’t match your content it doesn’t matter how many people stop by your site to look, they won’t stay and they won’t convert to sales. It’s better to find a keyword that is an exact match to what you’re talking about even if it has minimal search volume ~ it will still result in more sales than a high search volume keyword that isn’t relevant.

So I spent literally 1 minute doing this part. Do not get obsessive ~ we are again, just looking for the semantics of how people are looking for what you’re talking about. I didn’t check competition ~ this is a long term prospect and at some point your site will have the authority to rank for anything.

I will probably pick the keyword “zoo games to play” and my title will look something like Zoo Games to Play on Your Next Zoo Adventure or Trip to the Zoo or something like that.

This doesn’t need to be hard, nor do you need to make it complicated. You can use micro niche finder, or the free google adwords tool, or any other piece of keyword research equipment you have. The tools don’t matter, you just want to make sure you’re using words that other people are using when they search your topic.

When I went to write this post I was really thinking of calling it zoo bingo. Which actually isn’t a bad keyword. It has a search volume of 590. I could still do that post ~ or I could turn the zoo games to play keyword into a series and do 3 posts on different zoo games to play ~ using zoo bingo as one. I could even pull in that computer game (which has a million keywords for it) and talk about zoo games they can play at home if you can’t go to the zoo one day.

There are infinite possible ways to do this… I hope I’m starting to make that clear. There’s no right or wrong. There is no right way to do this. It’s whatever makes you feel good.

In fact, if you decide not to use any keyword research for some posts ~ hey that’s ok too. Some days I forget to do it, and I still get traffic (it just doesn’t come from Google) and in the beginning it WON’T be coming from Google anyway. It’s smart to use all the resources you have available to you, and that includes Google, and some keyword research, but it’s not going to “wreck” your blog if you don’t do it. There’s a whole universe of bloggers out there who know nothing of SEO and kw research who are doing fine. Yes, really.

So today is the day. If you haven’t written any content yet, it’s time to write and publish your first post. You can just take a look at your editorial calendar, see what you’ve written down you want to talk about. Go check out the way other people are searching for that information and use that keyword in your title. (You can even leave the title til last if it’s overwhelming for you.) Just write like I called you up and said “Hey… can you tell me more about (insert your topic here), I’d really like to know more about it” When you’ve got the post done you can go to the search tools and find the keywords you want to use, but write it.

Can’t wait to see your posts! When you get your post written make sure you come back and leave a comment. You can use the url field for your homepage or the post. Commentluv will pick up your last post so it’s up to you. Let’s take some time to read some blog posts and do a little promoting for the posts we love :) Stumbles, tweets, fb mentions, bookmarking. All great ways to help each other out.

If you have any questions makes sure you leave those in the comments section as well.

How to Write a Blog Post ~ My Top 5 Tips

Jackie Lee — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:38:11 +0000

Next week the challenge is going to be around publishing content on your blog, so I thought I’d give you a few of my favorite tips around how to write a blog post.

1. Use keywords in your post titles.

Yeah I know I said we weren’t going to do all this keyword research stuff for this, but the point is search traffic is awesome, so you might as well do a little.

With that said ~ I’m NOT saying go out and build a list of keywords to write your posts about. I am saying go to the editorial calendar you’ve created for your site. Take the topic you’re going to write about to the Google search tool and see how people are searching for that topic.

Example: Today I wanted to write about writing blog posts. I knew that because it was written on my editorial calendar

I went to the google tool and here’s what I came up with.

I went with how to write a blog post because it will include both the ones that have some search volume. I am NOT looking for KILLER keywords here, I am again (just like when we were talking about choosing your domain name) looking for how people are searching for what I want to write about.

This site is going to be long term, so even small search volume counts.

2. Write conversationally.

When writing your blog posts write them as though you were answering an email question from your friend. These are much easier to read, and you’ll be more like yourself than if you try to be “above” the reader. Engage with them, be friendly, be conversational.

3. Use Tags.

Tag your posts using the main keyword you chose from the google tool, as well as any other relevant/similar ones and anything else interesting you talk about in the post. 5 to 10 tags is more than enough per post. If tags are showing up on your theme and you don’t want them to let me know and I’ll point you in a direction to take them off. I don’t usually show tags ~ I just let them work in the background.

4.Don’t try so hard.

You can’t get it wrong. This is your space. Loosen up. Have fun and enjoy it.

5. Read it once then hit publish.

When you’re finished writing your post click the preview button which will open it in a new window. Read the post over looking only for mispellings, places you’ve left out words because your brain went faster than your hands and any flagrant punctuation errors and then hit publish.

This is not high school English class. Mrs. Jones is not going to give you an F. Hit the publish button. NOW.

Those are 5 of my tips on how to write a blog post. I recently read a fantastic article on Remarkablogger with 33 more tips on writing blog posts. I HIGHLY suggest you read it as well, then print it and read it every day for a month. (well that may be a slight exaggeration, but not really).

I’m heading out of town this afternoon. I’ll be checking in over the weekend but not as much as normal. Feel free to ask questions in the comments section and be patient with me if it takes longer than usual for me to answer ~ or else talk amongst yourselves.

Content Ideas: Getting Clear and Focused

Jackie Lee — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:52:14 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

I hope your mind maps are coming along. Today I thought I’d help you take them from ideas in a mind map to an action plan for creating content.

If you’re having trouble coming up with content ideas I’ll again suggest the blog planner from Blog Energizer. You’ll have to sign up for the service (it’s free) if you haven’t already. Then when you log in on the right hand side you’ll see a a link for the blog planner and the blog calendar. They will help you by giving you different holidays/celebrations throughout the year that you can tie into your blog topics. Of course they won’t work for every blog, but if they will for yours it makes like much easier. For example: yesterday was “do something day”. What a great topic for a blog post ~ in just about any niche!

Once you’ve got some ideas for your blog let’s take them and create an editorial calendar. I seriously resisted this whole process for years. I didn’t want to have a “plan” I just wanted to blog about whatever it was I wanted to blog about! dangit. What I realized (and I wish I could say quickly realized, but it actually took me a couple years) is I just didn’t end up blogging. It was really easy to get distracted, not think about what to write, get irritated I couldn’t think of anything to write about, and then just not write. Here’s what happens when you hit that point.

1. You give up.

2. You have huge gaping holes of nothing on your blog.

Neither of those options is very good.

I still railed against the whole idea of having a designated topic to write about each day. But here’s where it gets good.

I’m the boss of this whole dang thing.

and so are you.

You can write in a topic for any given day and if something more exciting comes up… write about that instead. The editorial calendar is not written in stone and you can change the rules any time.

I would suggest you use it pretty strictly for a month or two, just to get into the habit. I’ve found with my new blog even though I have topics written down for each day I have never really gotten into the swing of it for that site, and now I find it gets pretty easy to not post vs. post. So I’m just saying. I use it religiously for this site.

How far out should I plan?

Depends, on you of course, and your site. You may find planning a month at time works well. You may want to plan according to the seasons so quarterly. You may want to plan by the week. All of those will work if they work for you.There is no right or wrong way to do it. You may want to try a couple different things to see what will work best and stick for you.

My one suggestion is right now, while ideas are flowing like there’s no tomorrow write them down.

I know it feels like you’ll have ideas coming out the wazzoo forever, but it just isn’t the case. There will come a time when you just can’t think of stuff to write. Having a huge list from the beginning “I’ll never run out of ideas” time is a great asset.

I personally have a big black book I just keep writing ideas down in. I can then pull from them if I’m out of ideas or to help create my editorial calendar, or for articles, or guest posts or whatever it is I need to write.

How do I create this editorial calendar?

You can do it any way that works for you. Here are some ideas I’ve heard when I talked about this with people over at Lynn’s Elite forum (creating an editorial calendar was one of the monthly challenges for us over there).

Google calendar
Outlook calendar
Wall calendar
Desk blotter
use the blog planner from Blog Energizer

I personally use my day planner, which sits on my desk between my keyboard and my monitor. I like it because I can write down the daily blog post topic as well as other action steps I want to take that day. (and it’s easy to cross them off when I’m done, which I love) There’s just something about seeing a whole week’s worth of work DONE and crossed off that makes me a little giddy.

If you also want to have a “checklist of sorts” for your daily activities you might want to check out the Daily Docket from SimpleMom.net (which is one of my favorite blogs ever!) It’s a great tool to organize your whole day.

How often should I plan to post?

While you’re creating your editorial calendar you need to think about how often you’re going to post to your blog. In the beginning of a blog I highly recommend you post at the very least 3 times a week. It would probably be better to post 5 times a week, but be realistic with yourself. It’s better to consistently post 3 times a week, than to slack off, get discouraged because you’re not posting 5 times a week and just not post at all.

Remember, while you want to post 3 times a week at least, there’s nothing that says you can’t write all those posts in one day and schedule them to go out throughout the week. You can do that with the schedule feature in wordpress. That may work very well for some people.Then all you have to focus on during the rest of your work time is your promotion efforts.

So that’s something to think about. Be easy on yourself… be realistic. You know how much time you have to do this. If you can’t do 5 a week, then don’t. Do a consistent 3 a week and you’ll be fine.

I hope this helps you get clear and focused around your writing. Because the writing will be a large part of your job from here on in. It’s nice to get a good clear start right from the get go. If you have any other questions/concerns about content ideas fire away.

Content Creation Series ~ Creating Podcasts

Jackie Lee — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:28:45 +0000

Listen up those of you who don’t like to write… today’s another content creation day for you. We’re going to talk about creating podcasts. Now don’t freak out… this doesn’t have to be complicated or hard and if you like to talk it can be super fun!

What is a podcast?

Quite simply it’s an audio file (usually mp3 format) available for people to listen to and download from your (or another) site.

Basically that means you’re talking and you let others listen and download the conversation.

Creating a regular podcast for this site is one of my goals this year so I’ve been doing a little research and a little brainstorming in this area and there are a lot of options and choices and you’ll have to make some decisions.

1. Is audio right for your site and the purpose of your site?

2. What platform or tools will you use for your podcast?

When should you add a podcast?

Podcasting is a fantastic way to build more traffic as well as build your name recognition and your expertise in any area. So… if you are building squidoo lenses, or mini niche sites you probably don’t need or want to start a podcast. If you are doing a larger site and are enjoying your niche and think you might like to take your site to the next level podcasting is something to be considered.

If you’re considering a podcast ask yourself a few questions:

1. Do I want to become THE resource for this topic on the web?

2. Am I ready to commit to a regular podcasting schedule?

3. Am I ready to get more traffic?

These questions are the key to creating a great podcast and moving your blog to the next level. If you’ve answered yes to these questions I’d say you’re ready to start podcasting.

Let’s look at the options.

Voice recording
Blog Talk Radio

Podcasting can be really simple ~ and yes, I totally get that it can be overwhelming (do you see a podcast on this website yet?? )

Audacity and a microphone

Let’s start really simple. If you just want to talk to your audience you can get a microphone and then download the free software called audacity. It will allow you to record your voice right into your computer. From there audacity allows you to edit the audio file. You can take out the “uuummms”, you can add music at the beginning and end, you can get as fancy with it as you want.

Conference Call

If you want to have a conversation with other people you can use a conference line (I use freeconferencecall.com). There is also an entire service created for this type of podcast called audio acrobat ~ it helps with the logistics the process, but it will cost you $20 a month. You can also use skype for this. If you choose a conference line make sure you choose one that has the ability to record your call (freeconferencecall.com does). Both of you call in to the number given, start recording and then have your conversation. You then download the recording to your computer. At this point you can also use audacity to edit your recording or add intro music. If you use skype I believe you’ll have to grab another piece of software to record your skype conversation. I haven’t much looked into that method.

Your own online radio show

If you’d like to make it really easy on yourself and create a serious brand for you and your site you can start a radio show of your own over at Blog Talk Radio (definitely NOT the only platform, but most widely known). BTR will give you your own channel. When you want to do your podcast you just schedule a show, then you call in to radio channel phone number. People can call in (or not), talk to you live (or not). Your shows will be kept on your BTR channel, and you can grab a widget to put your shows on your website. You can also download the show and do some editing to it if you choose. Blog Talk Radio is a free service, and I’m sure there’s a way to upgrade, but it gives you a LOT to work with and a great way to build your brand.

What do I get out of all this?

Podcasting is definitely more work than just typing out a post, which is why 99% of bloggers don’t do it. So the first thing you get out of podcasting is noticed. Since most people can’t be bothered to take advantage of this type of content people will notice that you did, and that will say something to them.

When your podcasts are done you can also upload them to Itunes. Have you heard of Itunes? Yeah, like the biggest music site around right? Well your podcast can be right in there with everyone else. When someone searches for something related to your topic they may find you. Can you imagine how many people will have access to your podcast via Itunes? That reason alone is enough to get started for me!

Once you’ve set yourself up on itunes people can subscribe to your podcast and they’ll get every new podcast you do sent directly to their computer or ipod ~ now that’s nice.

You can use interviews or podcasts as bonuses which is always great.

You can take podcasts and have them transcribed and give that away or use it as a bonus, or as a way to get people to sign up to your newsletter/list.

Podcasting is hugely beneficial, but you have to get started and I myself realize that is a BIG hump!

What kind of podcast should you do?

That’s where I’m at right now. I’m personally leaning toward setting up over at Blog Talk Radio, but when it comes down to content how do you decide what to talk about?

Couple stumbling blocks I’ve encountered.

1. Don’t think it has to be an hour long. A ten minute podcast outlining a great tip or trick is more than fine.

2. You can do more than one thing. Yes, you can do an hour long interview, but also do shorter 10 minute podcasts as well.

3. If you don’t make a decision and start you never will. (oh that one was for my benefit lol)

Since I’m still stuck on the whole “content” piece of this puzzle myself I thought I’d list out some of the general content ideas I’ve come up with and then let’s brainstorm some more things and help each other out.

tips
tricks
interviews
Q and A
Coaching call ~ where people call in and you walk them through whatever problem they’re having (this could work for any topic!)
Book reviews

That’s all I got right now.

Ok…

Let’s work together on this part. I’d love to know three things:

1. What kind of podcast topics you’d like to see on this site.
2. What other topics you can think of to build out that list up there a little bit
3. Whether YOU will be doing a podcast! (Please let me know if you are I can’t wait to listen)

Let’s talk about it in the comments ~ if we need more room we can take specific conversations about YOUR podcast to the fanpage.

Content Creation Series ~ Using Youtube Video

Jackie Lee — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:18:51 +0000

We’ve covered a lot of different ways to write content, today we’re going to look at how we can use video to create content. While the post title is using youtube video there’s a lot of different ways you can do that, so let’s dig in.

Why use video?

Video is the latest craze in content creation. A lot of people love video. It also provides the ability to interact with more than one sense at a time which can increase retention and focus. There are many people who learn better when they are able to see and hear something rather than just read it.

While there are many benefits to using video in your posts just remember that not everyone in the world loves video ~ there are people who are still running on dial up and video can be cumbersome, if not impossible to view. It will be important to take a look at your market and think about what type of people they are, and from there gauge how successful video will be for you.

Creating a video.

There are many different types of videos you can create, here are a few I’ve used from time to time and have worked well for me.

1. Screen capture video. This is where you show something on your screen. In your video you show exactly what you’re doing so people can see it. This is great for tutorials or if something is pretty specific and it’s easier to show peopel than tell them the process. These videos can be done very simply and for free using the Jing software. They can also get very complicated and fancy if you use software like Camtasia. There are quite a few different pieces of software available now that will help you with screen capture, but those or two of the most well known that I’ve used.

2. Personal video. This is you and a video camera. You set it up and talk to the camera. This can be great for building your brand, letting people know you’re a real person. It is a very personal way to get your message across. If you have a website in a niche where being a “real person” is important these would be great videos to do. I use my RCA Small Wonder video camera for these types of videos. It was under $80 and works great for this use.

3. Image videos. These are really easy to do with Windows Movie Maker. You just gather images that are related to the topic of your video. Pull in some music or audio to play over the images and then put them together to create a movie. Here’s one I did for a recipe website of mine ~ although I didn’t use audio on this one ~ and probably should have now that I look back at it.

4. Animoto videos. Animoto is a video creation site where you gather images and then choose some music and the service will then create the video for you. You can create 30 second videos with a free account. If you want longer videos you’ll need to upgrade. I’m not sure exactly how I feel about these videos yet. I think if you’re going to do video JUST to build links they would be fine, but I’m not sure how great they will be for driving traffic or building relationships. Here’s an animoto video I did for a Valentine’s Recipe site I did last year.

Do I have to create videos?

Now don’t panic. You don’t have to create a video to be able to use video to create content for your site. On the contrary, you can easily grab a youtube video someone else has created and use it on your site. There are some benefits to creating your own videos though.

1. You get to put a link to your site in the description of your video when you upload it to youtube (or any/all other video sharing sites you upload it to)

2. Videos quite frequently rank very well in google. You can get more free traffic to your site via your video.

3. It will build your brand as a person who knows what they’re doing in this niche.

Now some of this is not going to be important to you at all if you are just building small niche sites ~ but for some people who are building authority sites ~ or bigger niche sites becoming the “go to” person in their niche can be really important.

So no… you don’t have to create video to use video to create content.

How do I use video?

Whether you’ve created your own video and uploaded it to youtube or you’ve found a video that fits your topic quite well and you want to use it in your blog post or on your lens you can.

1. Find a video you want to use.

2. When you’ve found the video go to the actual video page at Youtube. You’ll see there the options you have for sharing (using the video)

3. You can link to a video in your post (as I did twice in the paragraph above about different types of video). To do that you grab the url for the video.

Once you’ve got the url you come back to the post you’re writing. Highlight the words you want to use to link to the video and then click the anchor button in the text editor. You will then put the url in the box where it goes and then choose blank in the next drop down list so when they click the link it will open a new window and your post will stay open as well.

4. You can also embed video right into your post. To do this you grab the embed code for the video instead of just the url.

Once you’ve got your embed code come back to your post. Here’s the trick. You have to click the “html” tab at the top of your editor. This will take you to the html side of your post. You can then paste the embed code in the post where you want it to show up. If you’re doing the embedding as you go that just means scrolling down to the bottom of the post and clicking the ctrl and V buttons at the same time ~ it will paste automagically.

There are plugins that will make this process easier but I just use the plain old embed code.

If you want to use video in your squidoo lens it’s as easy as choosing the youtube module, then choosing a video to show in your lens. Here’s the complete instructions.

Why would I use video?

Video ~ whether you create it or you find one you like ~ is a great way to break up the everyday blog post with something different.

Video is a great way to really SHOW a concept instead of just explaining it.

Video is a great way to show people your product ~ especially how it works or looks in real life in real use. Using video in this way is another way to “presell” people on the product or service you’re offering.

Take micro niche finder for example. They offer 5 free videos showing exactly how you can use the product to create different streams of income. I know that was part of what sold me when I bought it. I could see how I could use the product to make money ~ with some clear examples in mind it was much easier to click the buy now button.

While James made those videos, videos someone else has created can be just as effective when selling a product.

Different people assimilate content better in different forms. The more forms of content you can offer the more people you are going to reach.
It can be a really fast way to put up a post when you don’t have a lot of time.
You can even transcribe someone else’s video for your post. That way you provide not only the video (for people who like them) but you’ve also included unique content (the transcription) for the search engines and the people who don’t like video.
To drive traffic. You can create videos about specific “good” keywords. Post them to youtube and then build some links to them. When the videos rank some of those people will click through to your blog via the link in your descriptions, as well as the link you may have mentioned in your video itself.

Video can be as simple or complicated as you make it. There are people who have created entire blogs just from video. One of the most famous of these is Gary Vaynerchuk who did an entire blog about wine using video posts. It is now one of the most popular blogs around.

So take some time to think about where video fits into your blogging style. Do you want to use it to supplement your content? Provide additional information? Breakup the writing? Or do you want to make video a staple on your blog? The major way you communicate with your audience? Any and all of these work ~ you just have to decide what will work for you.

Content Creation Series: Q and A Post

Jackie Lee — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:55:54 +0000

One of my favorite content creation methods is using questions that come directly from my readers and answering them in a post. These kind of posts are fantastic for a couple reasons: you know you’re giving information people want the answers to (because someone actually asked!), and the content is usually pretty easy because it’s something you know and don’t have to research ~ just answer the question.

Setting up a Q and A post:

You can set up a Q and A post any way you want it or any way that fits well with your blog design. I like to use the block quote function in my text editor to block out the question and make it really noticeable. Sometimes though I just use a Q. You can use some code to make the Q bigger or a different color. There’s a good tutorial on how to do that here.

Do I have to credit the reader?

Many times I don’t. I say “a reader asked” or this is a question I get asked frequently. Many times people want to remain anonymous. This allows them to speak up in the comments if they want to identify themselves, but doesn’t embarress them if they didn’t want to be identified to begin with.

What if I don’t have any readers asking questions?

Good question! You may not have readers emailing you or asking your questions at this time ~ but that shouldn’t stop you! You can find questions being asked about your topic in quite a few places. Yahoo answers ~ a whole site devoted to asking questions , e-how a whole site devoted to people answering questions ~ simply create a question you can answer from a topic you find there, forums! forums are fantastic places to find questions to answer. If you are a regular and trusted member of the forum (and you are ~ aren’t you?!) you can let them know about the post, or else just answer the question there as well (don’t copy/paste your article though).

More ways to use Q and A content than in blog posts:

Squidoo: you could create an entire lens based on answering questions ~ an FAQ lens of sorts.
This lens could sell things or it could lead back to a site of yours giving you backlinks.

hubpages: EASY way to get a hub done. Find a question relevant to your topic and then write out an answer. You can then link to the site you’re trying to rank in the search engines. (using your targeted anchor text in the link of course)

Wetpaint: Another great place for Q and A content.

Forums: To build your reputation and standing in a forum why not do a whole post answering someones question. Whether you’ve seen it on the forum or somewhere else ~ providing great information with no expectation of return is a great way to build your forum reputation.

You can use Q and A content quite well just about anywhere on the web. It is a great way to build trust and rapport, and if you’re building links it’s one of the easiest ways to create content I know of. If you’re familiar with your topic it’s pretty easy to just answer a question right?

Taking Q and A content one step further

So far we’ve only talked about written content in our content creation series. The next two posts will be discussing more multi media options for your content. Q and A is a great way to get started in multi media. You could do a video answering a question, you could do an audio of you answering a question (and then turn it into a podcast that can be syndicated through itunes ~ but we’ll get to that later). Just remember your content can be taken way beyond the written word ~ and some of you may find audio or video content to be much easier than writing!!

If you have any questions about using questions and answers for content please ask them below and we’ll see what we can come up with! If you’re having trouble coming up with content for your sites we can brainstorm here or at the Facebook fanpage. If you want some one on one time with me shoot me an email[momtohanna[at]]gmail[dot]com and we’ll work out some coaching time.

8 More Ways to Use PLR to Your Advantage

Jackie Lee — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:50:34 +0000

Today I want to cover some different ways you can use PLR in your business. If you’re having trouble creating all the content you need for your business I hope this will help give you some ideas on how you can get it done a little easier.

Before we get started with the ways you can use PLR I just wanted to address a question I have received about PLR (and apparently Nicole has been asked the question too because she did a whole video on the answer.) Since she’s the PLR expert I thought I’d let her share the answer with you.

Q. Is it unethical to use PLR?

For the non video folks:

No it is not unethical, however there are some better ways to use it. If you slap it up just as it is and put your name on it as the author it might bite you in the but when someone else does the same exact thing. While that’s not unethical per se ~ it may tarnish your reputation which is KING in this business.

It is basically a way to outsource your writing and get you started. The same as you can have someone create graphics for your site ~ PLR can help you overcome the things you have a hard time doing yourself.

Now with that out of the way let’s talk about how you can use PLR. Because if you pay for it and it just sits on your hard drive doing nothing you’ve wasted your money.

1. Blog posts

While I don’t recommend using a PLR article as is for a blog post I do think it can be a wonderful place to get started. What if the article provided a few different ideas about one topic. Could you easily take those ideas and put them in list format and create a list post?

You could take the article and add your own experiences or stories to it to create a brand new unique article.

You could read the article and find a sentence or paragraph that really stands out for you and use it as a blog starter (maybe in block quotes) and then write your response or opinion to the item you’ve posted.

2. Freebies

Grab a pack of PLR articles on your topic. Pull the articles together into one report by adding some content that will connect the articles. Give the new report a name (and a nice ebook cover if you can). Create a pdf of the report and give it to your list as a freebie or for signing up for your list.

3. Autoresponders

Get a report or article pack and create an autoresponder series out of it. You can pull paragraphs out and use them as the emails you send out over the course of a week/month/year. This keeps you in front of people and at the forefront of their mind.

4. Newsletters

If your niche lends itself well to a newsletter you can easily use PLR as content for your newsletters. You will need to add your personal touches to the articles ~ but since they won’t be published online ~ just going to your list via your newsletter you don’t have to worry so much about the “duplicate content” issue. The more quality content you can give your newsletter subscribers the better.

5. Link building

There are plenty of places you need to have content to build links. We know links are very important. You can use PLR to create the content you use to link back to your site. Maybe take an article and break it up into 3 parts. Use the 3 parts as content for your free ad blog posts.

Buy a PLR pack on your topic and break up or mix and match the articles to create a squidoo lens.

Grab a PLR article and add a new introduction and maybe some anecdotes and use them in a google knol or a hubpage. (make sure you do enough remix on these to make it pretty unique)

Use the articles or mix and match the articles to create free blog posts so you can link back.

6. Marketing

Twitter:

This is a GREAT way to use PLR. Grab a sentence that gives some good information and use it as a tweet with a link back to your site. You can use a site like socialoomph.com to create these tweets ahead of time and schedule them to go out over the course of the day/week.

Facebook:

You can use paragraphs or sentences to use for facebook updates as well.

You can also create notes on your facebook page on your topic. When creating notes make sure you tag people who are interested in the same topics as you so they will get a notice you’ve created a note.

7. Article Marketing:

You can NEVER use a PLR article as the article you use directly in an article directory ~ however ~ you can use it as a seed article to create unique articles with UAW or with other article creation software like the Magic Article Rewriter. Both of these rewriters use three original articles and then create unique articles from the three. This would be a great way to use the PLR articles.

8. Video:

We haven’t talked much about using video to promote our sites (because I don’t do much of it and probably should do more lol), but video ranks very well and you could use a PLR article or report to create a video. Even if you found images to show in the video and just read the article. It could also be made into a powerpoint presentation and then you could show the powerpoint slides and read the article. You could even use the article to give you an idea to talk about them just film yourself talking about the topic.

As you can see there are many many ways you can use PLR. These are only the ways you can use PLR to support your current business, but there are ways you can use PLR to CREATE an entire business! PLR opens a lot of doors you may not have even thought of. Now please don’t let this get you off track. Today I’m giving you a free report that gives you more ways to use PLR and will also show you how to create a whole business using PLR.

Please… if you’ve already committed to an internet marketing strategy don’t let this free report get you off track. Just read the first half and you’ll learn some great techniques to use PLR for your business.

Click here for the free report.

So if you think getting some PLR might help your business I highly recommend using EasyPLR.com. This month Nicole is also running a special. For each affiliate that earns $100 in commission she is going to send $50 to the Haiti relief effort. So this month is a great one to not only help your business but support the folks in Haiti as well.

PLR Basics ~ An Easy Way to Create Content

Jackie Lee — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:20:41 +0000

So far this month I’ve covered 8 different ideas for content creation. They have all been things you can write about on your blog (depending on the type and topic of your blog of course). Today and Friday I’m going to talk about a content creation method that can be helpful to those “non writers” out there ~ as well as the people who just don’t have enough time to write all this content.

Today we’re going to talk about PLR.

What is PLR?

PLR stands for Private Label Rights. What this means is someone writes an article. You buy the article and then you have the right to change it, modify it, put your name on it and call it your own.

What are the benefits of PLR?

If you’re not a “writer” the benefits of PLR can be huge. For many people it’s easier to start with something and then edit it than to start from nothing. This is where PLR comes in. PLR allows you to start with a complete article. Yes, other people will have access to this same article, so you want to change the title ~ you want to change the keywords targeted, and you want to add a little bit of yourself to the article, which means you could add a story or a paragraph, or change the way things are said so it sounds more like you. The point is you have a starting point ~ you don’t have to come up with the 500 words, you just have to change them up a little bit.

This can be great if you’re feeling stuck, or overwhelmed or just don’t have the time to do all the writing.

Where can I use PLR?

You can use plr anywhere you want. I would steer clear of using any kind of PLR for your articles at EZA ~ they will not accept them and seriously frown on PLR as of late. However, if you get a PLR article that’s tips on your topic you could easily break it down into 3 text modules and use it to create a squidoo lens. You could break it down and use 1 tip for 3 different free ad blogs.

You can buy a pack of PLR say maybe 5 or 10 articles and put them together to create a free report to give away to start building your list.

Just about anything about creating content that freaks you out or gets you overwhelmed can be overcome by using PLR in one form or another.

So why doesn’t everyone use PLR?

Here’s the deal. There are a LOT of shady PLR sellers out there. Like anything else online you have to make sure you are going to a reputable seller of PLR. There is PLR available, that has been out there since I started internet marketing years and years ago. A lot of people have tried PLR, didn’t change it or add to it, just slapped it up as is and had no luck so they no longer think PLR can be beneficial to their business.

This is completely false. When you buy from a reputable seller you can get excellent PLR. When you make that PLR your own you can create excellent content. While PLR is a shortcut for content creation you can’t just throw it up as is, you really want to make it yours.

How do you find great PLR? Here’s some tips from my colleague Nicole Dean.

Here’s the basics of the video for my non video folks:

Questions to ask yourself before you buy PLR

1. What’s the person’s reputation? Have they been around or is it a fly by night site? Is there contact information on the site? Someone you can talk to if you need to? Make sure there’s a person behind the site you’re going to buy from.

2. How many others will have access to the same PLR you’re getting? Limited access is always better. EasyPLR.com strictly limits sales of packs ~ do NOT sell any more packs after they are sold out.

3. What topics are you getting? Many sites send you random topics that aren’t related to anything you’re doing. Make sure you can shop only for what you need/want.

4. What quality article are you getting? Are they pure fluff? Is there original information? Is the English good?EasyPLR is written by professional writers and edited by a professional editor as well.

5. Are you locked into a membership or can you just get what you want when you want it?

6. Do you get extras with your PLR? EasyPLR provides bonuses with every order. Possibly options for monetization or more information.

Nicole’s site Easyplr.com is one of the few places I trust to get great PLR. She always provides top notch articles for a great price. She always has PLR on a variety of topics so it’s perfect for niche blogs, and there are always more article packs coming out.

If you run a blog that could benefit from food related PLR ~ like recipes and articles about food check out YummyPLR.com. They have excellent PLR as well ~ also one of Nicole’s companies. I have used the food PLR on a few of my food sites, and the quality is excellent and I just loved it.

If you’re not at all familiar with PLR or want to try it to see what it’s all about. I suggest you do two things.

1. Sign up for Nicole’s free course on PLR. It will give you a good understanding of PLR.(there’s a link at the bottom of the page you have to click to get there)

2. Sign up for the free PLR Nicole offers on her site. This gives you a chance to see the quality PLR she offeres, it also gives you a chance to see how you might be able to work with it on your site and in your business.

Again you can do both of those things at Easyplr.com. On Friday we’re going to talk about different ways you can use PLR in your business to help with content creation. I’m also going to have a FREE report for you! So make sure you keep an eye out for that on Friday.

If you have any questions about PLR please ask in the comment section. I’m working on doing an interview with Nicole so if you have questions you’d like to ask her please let me know and I’ll be glad to do that.