Note from Jackie… Today’s post is a guest post from Robyn Adams. She’s an amazing writer, and has turned her talents into a thriving PLR business. Today is Robyn’s birthday… and for her birthday she’s throwing a BIRTHDAY BASH at The PLR Mall ~ her plr store. Everything is 75% OFF! Yep… no code, no tricks, everything is already marked down, just click the “buy now” button. The sale runs through the 20th  and her plr is top notch so grab some while it’s cheap. Now… let’s carry on with how to make your PLR your own. 

When you purchase new PLR, it’s important to remember it’s still a “work in progress” for your business. It needs a few tweaks to get it ready to give your business the boost it needs. Take heart, though, there’s very little actual writing involved to give PLR your own unique spin and personal voice. It’s more a matter of a creative art of pulling out some information and rearranging other content. It’s actually sort of fun once you get the hang of it!

Give It a New Title

Chances are good you will need to change the title of your PLR article. Most PLR writers don’t spend a lot of time coming up with a crafty title because they know it will most likely be changed to something unique for the business the article eventually is used for. So if you need a reason to change it, just know the title it was originally given was dry on purpose.

You need to give it life!

Pick something that packs a punch and really draws the reader in. This is your first opportunity to really capture their attention. Make it count. People like things that spell out what the article will be about. Use as many action words as possible.

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Add Personal Examples

The quickest and easiest way to give PLR your own unique voice is to add personal examples. Simply read through the article and find areas you can relate to and have personal experience with. Add a personal example or a personal feeling about the matter. Any feelings of impersonal PLR that might exist before will quickly evaporate. You don’t need to write much, just enough that the reader will feel like they understand you better and ultimately the point being made in the article.

Add a Personal Touch to the Introduction and Conclusion

You know why your audience has arrived at the PLR they are reading. Are they visiting a blog? Are they on an information website? Are they reading a newsletter? Address the reason behind their reading the PLR. If they are reading a blog, you could mention the blog post will help them solve problems x, y, and z. You can close the same way with your conclusion, and reiterate what they’ve learned from the PLR and make it specific to the mode of delivery. You might mention that problem x, y, and z were addressed in this month’s newsletter and you will be discussing problems a, b, and c in next month’s.

Include Bullet Points and Sub-Heads

Here’s a tip that doesn’t require any extra writing: If the PLR doesn’t have bullet points and bolded sub-heads, add some. They will act as anchors to the eyes and really draw the reader in. There’s a psychology behind this that makes the reader feel welcome because their eyes have a place to land and be held. You don’t need to write anything new necessarily. Just work with the text that’s already there. Pull out some of the better points and make them bold headings. Find a list somewhere in the article and make those bullet points. Voila! You’ve taken a rather boring looking article and turned it into a much more appealing looking peace without writing a thing!

Rearrange the Order of the Article

There are no rules that say you have to keep the PLR article in the order and form that it came to you in. Feel free to move things around in the order of importance as you see them. This can also really change up the article and make it more unique and give it your personal flavor. It’s a great way to give it your voice. Again, there’s no writing involved in this step!

Want to make your PLR stand out with your unique voice? There are a number of things you can do to really make the “P” in PLR look like it stands for “personal.” You can do things such as adding a new, catchy title, add specific intros and conclusions, draw out sub-head and bullet points, and even change the order of your article. You can make your PLR almost unrecognizable in a very short time with these tricks.

Robyn Adams invites you to check out “The PLR Mall” where you will find the quality PLR you need on a variety of subjects. You can also sign up to receive discounts on PLR and get 10 free PLR articles.

Related posts:

1. Your Unique Selling Proposition Makes Writing Content Easier
2. How PLR Can Solve the Top 3 Internet Marketing Problems
3. How to Ruin Your Business in One Easy Step

But today… I wanted to talk about one last thing when it comes to content creation… stories.

It’s all fine and sometimes good to tell facts and share benefits.  However, when you can share a story ~ you’ll go so much farther in terms of connecting. The thing is facts are great ~ but stories sell. A person can’t visualize themselves in a fact ~ but they can in a story. When you share stories people can begin to put themselves in the shoes of the main character, they can think about how they would react. They start to formulate their OWN opinions about the topic. When people form their own opinions… you don’t have to sell them. They sell themselves.

Over and over and over again I’ve talked about building your brand, finding your niche, being clear about who you are… but today I’d like to share a story ~ maybe this will illustrate my point better than the facts.

What a Construction Company Owner

Turned Farmer Can Teach You…

Over 50% of small businesses fail.

This is the story of one.

This small business started off as a partnership. Two guys who started putting in sprinkler systems in high end neighborhoods. One guy realized there was a lot of competition in the sprinkler business, and not a lot of profit margin and decided they should take their business bigger. They should expand.  He started thinking that if they did some of everything they’d make more money and be able to reach more people.

When you try to talk to everyone you talk to no one.

So they expanded. When asked what he does he says “I own a construction company”. He’s pretty proud of that fact. It’s a pretty cool thing to say. You know what people say to him when he says that?  ”Oh”. It’s a fact that he owns a construction company but it doesn’t let anyone know if he does something they need.

He ended up doing a lot of remodeling, and built a new road/driveway for a guy. He built some steel buildings ~ (oh yeah, at this point the partner had flaked and left town, and the guy left was determined to do it all on his own). Then one day a neighbor asked him a question… she said, “Do you do roofs?”. He said, why sure. I think a metal roof would be perfect on your house, and I know a distributor that can help me get that roof on your house for less than a shingle roof.

Done. So he started putting a roof on this lady’s house. Next thing you know, another neighbor is driving by and stops to ask him if he’s got time to do another roof. While he’s doing that roof a few miles away someone else sees him and asks him to do their roof, and the next and the next.

When you can say I do this… whether it’s putting on a roof, or building a steel building, people know if they need that. They also know if anyone they know needs that too. They can raise their hand and say “oh yeah, that’s me… I need you.”

Who are you calling? Who needs you? Do you know? Do they know?

This construction company comes across a great deal on some machinery. It’s pennies on the dollar. The owner thinks new machinery will help him do more jobs. He thinks he’ll be able to diversify and take on bigger jobs. Bigger jobs with bigger profit margins. Against some good business advice he invests a large chunk of change in this machinery.

Now he’s got himself a dump truck, a bulldozer, a semi, a skidsteer… he’s ready to rock and roll and pull in the big bucks. Only problem is, now he’s even more diversified, he’s calling even more people’s names who can’t hear him because he’s not talking specifically to them and now he’s got all this equipment that has to be tagged, insured and paid for.

That good business owner now has a couple other things as well. He’s got panic, and guilt. He’s just spent way too much in a business that wasn’t profitable to begin with, now he’s got to hustle and he feels like he’s drowning. This business is no longer fun for him. He hates getting up every morning. He doesn’t even want to think about it. AND he has to get out there and hustle for business and he hates that. He’s got to make payments that jobs just aren’t covering. He’s got to take care of his family, and he can’t.

Spending money you don’t have doesn’t make a business better, it just makes it more in debt.

This good construction guy has hustled up some business. He is working on a roof, on a busy road, and when he’s done, he leaves. The roof looks great, it was a crazy roof ~ lots of angles, and corners. He did a great job though… but now, unless someone talks to the home owner and asks who did her roof no one will know. This fantastic roofer didn’t leave any way for people to know this was his work. No sign, no cards left, no big sign on the truck stating his name and number.

If people don’t know you do what you do, how can they hire you?

A simple metal sign placed in the yard would have let people know this was his work. It would have been free advertising, right there with a gorgeous roof for proof on a busy highway.

What are you doing to let people know you do what you do?

This construction owner listened to someone with a little marketing experience and started his company with the letter A, you know, so it would come up first in the yellow pages. However, he never took out that yellow pages ad. He refused to create a website, or put ads up on Craigslist or in the local directory. He just didn’t think that would work, and he couldn’t really afford the yellow pages.

If you don’t tell people you exist, no one knows you exist.

There were many ways this construction business could have gotten the word out. They could have created a website, they could have gotten a sign to go on the side of their trailer and trucks. They could have put an ad in the local paper, they could have gotten yard signs to leave on finished job sites. It doesn’t have to cost a ton of money to get the word out that you exist, but if you don’t do it… well if no one knows you exist, you get no customers.

The owner also let his fears get in his way. He was worried if he advertised he’d get more business than he could handle. He’d have to schedule jobs out ahead and he didn’t think it was right to make people wait. He let his fear and his thoughts about how it “should” be get in the way of his business success.

What are you doing to let people know you exist? What fears are holding you back from doing what it takes to let people know you are here?

The biggest problem though was that this construction company was afraid to ask for money. This small business owner had the idea in his head that he couldn’t possibly ask customers for money up front to cover the cost of materials. The owner somehow got it in his head that he just couldn’t possibly do that. It was pushy, made him look bad, the customers would cancel the job… he had a ton of negative scenarios running through his head. He would end up putting the cost of materials on his credit card, and then the job would run long, or something would go wrong and more materials would be needed, and low and behold at the end of the job there was never enough money to cover the credit card payment.

So he’d hustle to get another job and the same scenario would happen… over time the business was more than not profitable, it was costing him money every time he went on a job.

Ask for the money.

If you don’t create something or recommend something that’s going to bring some profit your way, you can only expect to fail. That’s what a business is after all… an exchange of money for something. But you have to have something to sell, and you have to be willing to ask for the money.

The thing about this is, if this business owner hadn’t been so hard headed, if he hadn’t been so scared to try something new, he might have succeeded. Just because you think something is the way it is, doesn’t mean it is, or has to be. You have to be willing to take risks. You have to be willing to try new things that may fail, but they may succeed beyond your wildest dreams. If what you’re doing is not working, and you’re unwilling to try something different just pack it in today.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

This business owner realized a few things over the course of running his business. A few of these things were pretty important to know when undertaking a customer based business.

1. He really doesn’t play well with others.

2. Having customers is pretty similar to having a boss.

3. Tooting his own horn is really not his thing.

4. He really didn’t like construction all that much, even though he was wicked good at it.

Well… it looks like those realizations make owning a construction company not so much fun. This business owner, an entrepreneurial genius to the core decided to call it quits with his construction business. He was miserable and getting angry and frustrated more and more every day. He decided to close the doors to this business. He was down, but he wasn’t out. He found something that was much more in alignment with who he was, the strengths he has, and the things he loves. He’s now a farmer, well he’s working his way to being a farmer. Hard solitary work. Long hours alone in a tractor… just the way he likes it, unless of course his daughter decides to come on a ride along.

He’s much happier now. He doesn’t dread going to work each day. In fact, he heads to work and comes back home in a good mood, and reads more about how to make this farming thing work as a new farmer. He’s excited again, and ready to get out there and start over.

So I guess this is the last lesson we have to learn from this construction owner turned farmer… if you hate what you’re doing it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a boss. It’s still just a job (that you now probably put in twice as many hours at, for less pay and no “security”). If you’re going to work for yourself you might as well find something you’re good at and that you love. Life is too short to spend your days being miserable, especially if you own the business.

image credit: Mostly Dans

Related posts:

1. Creating Good Content ~ Reader Question

Image credit: A. Germain

As we carry on through our content creation month I’ve heard plenty of comments about people who hate to write. Well, if you’re going to create a profitable and sustainable blog or website you’re going to have to have awesome content… so what do you do if you hate to write?!

If you want to have text posts on your site, but you hate to write you still have some options.

1. PLR ~ private label rights. 

These are articles, posts, emails, reports, ebooks ~ all written by someone else. However, once you purchase them you can take them apart, rewrite, mix them up, add them together ~ whatever you want to do with them… AND THEN… put your name on them as your own.

This is an excellent route to go to have text posts and not have to write it yourself. If you’re using them on your blog, or other places on the web you’ll want to rewrite them a bit. Tiffany Dow has an AMAZING walk through of how to rewrite PLR. The niche may be different than yours… but the process is the same.

If you don’t want to rewrite the content yourself you can go to fiverr.com and find someone who will rewrite your articles for 5 bucks. Make sure you find someone who has plenty of positive feedback if you’re going this route. One of my regular readers and Kiss Club members does rewriting at fiverr and she’s fantastic… so check her out if you need this done.

Resources:

Tiffany Dow’s $1 for everything sale is going on AGAIN!! Through Wed.

If you need excellent quality PLR make sure you take advantage of this sale. Everything in her PLR store, including her 50 page reports and ebooks are on sale for just a buck! It’s a great deal for sure. Make sure you read the directions in the WSO before you click through… you have to buy a “voucher” and then send her a list of the products you want ~ she’ll send you an email with the products attached.

(For more PLR options check the Resources page!)

2. Video Blog Posts

If you don’t necessarily care about having text on your page then you have even more options! Video blog posts, or vlogs are wonderful ways to create amazing content and not have to write!

All you need is a simple webcam, or a hand held video camera and you’re off to the races. What? You don’t want to be on camera either?! That’s ok… you can also do tutorial videos, or screenshot videos. You could also do product demonstrations where the product is on camera, and you’re just the voice behind the review.

You could also use powerpoint and create “presentation” videos. There are a lot of ways you can go with video content. It’s probably a good idea to go with a mix of the different options though. Remember, you’re building trust, and connection with your readers. Seeing your face, and hearing your voice can go a long way in that respect.

Resources:

Speedy Video Tutorials ~ if you’d like to learn how to create wonderful videos and powerpoint presentation videos this is an excellent resource. You’ll be walked through the entire process.

Animoto ~ you add images and make a few choices in their software and they create the video for you. An excellent way to add a quick video to a post or anywhere else.

3. Audio Content

Creating a podcast is one way to sky rocket your traffic, and do it without writing a single word! Recently Corbett Barr did an interview with Derek Halpern of Social Triggers where Derek talked about how adding a new form of content (his podcast) added an entire new stream of traffic to his site. He posted his podcast on itunes so he ended up connecting with a totally different segment of the population ~ and increased his readership.

There’s so many things you can do with audio. You could do an interview with someone, you can talk about any given topic, in fact, one of my favorite podcasts is really short ~ and it’s a “daily” moment from Elizabeth Potts Weinstein. Your podcast is only limited by the bounds of your imagination. You can literally do anything you want in audio format… and then link up your podcast with itunes so people can find it.

Resources:

Blubrry ~ is the company and plugin I use to upload and play my podcasts here on IMM. They also help you integrate your podcast with itunes.

There are a lot of options out there for people who don’t like to write. It’s just a matter of testing things out and figuring out what you like to do, and what your audience enjoys, and then being consistent in creating content. (there’s that consistency again lol).

What about you? Are you creating non text content? Tell us about it!

Related posts:

1. Hate to Write? Youtube Marketing is the Answer
2. More Video Marketing Tips for the Camera Shy
3. Creating Good Content ~ Reader Question

credit: Rennett Stowe

Recently in the Focus and Action Mastermind Group (yes, you can still join!) we were talking about where you come up with ideas for blog posts.  It seems the idea of writing daily has got people a little overwhelmed and in some cases… stuck.

That’s no good… because ideas are everywhere!

Here’s some of my favorite ways to come up with ideas for blog posts.

1. Comments from my site.

People often make comments that I could write a whole post on ~ so I do!

2. Questions from readers.

It so much easier to answer questions that you get frequently in a blog post so the next time someone asks you can just give them the link to the answer. It’s great content and a huge time saver as well.

Now if you don’t have a big audience, and aren’t getting questions yet, no worries. Think about the questions YOU have about your topic, the things you had to learn, the things you needed to find answers to ~ write about that! Or if you have people in your day to day life who ask you questions that are related to your topic you can always answer those questions on your site as well.

3. Forums/twitter/facebook/blogs (aka conversations)

This is one of my very favorite places of late. I get into conversations on social networking sites and from those conversations I get tons of ideas for blog posts! (This one included). This post itself if a great example of that. Yesterday I was reading ThinkTraffic.net and Corbett was talking about the very same subject ~ and it was interesting to see his perspective on What to write about.

4. Walmart. 

Yes, I still shop at Walmart, (it’s my only option locally so no grief in the comments thanks) and it’s one of the BEST places to find ideas… from where they place items on the shelf, to the items that are there. I’ve come up with tons of niche ideas there, as well as product lens and post ideas.

5. My biggest suggestion is this:

Take a notebook with you everywhere you go. Ideas are everywhere, and they’re really easy to forget. Write them down as they come to you and you’ll have a nice list to choose from when you’re ready to write.

But what about us niche site folks? 

You might be saying, “That’s all fine and good if you have an ‘authority’ type site… but what about me, I run a niche site about products or a really small topic or I’m working on Squidoo lenses… what about me?!”

I have a couple suggestions for you too.

1. PLR ~ Private Label Rights
(articles someone else writes but you rewrite/publish using your name on them)

Yes, PLR can be your biggest friend when it comes to niche and product sites. It’s a great place to get not only ideas, but content. You can break the articles up, add some videos when appropriate, and have a completely new piece of content.

I frequently will just go through my folder of PLR on my computer and look at the titles to get ideas, and then write my own article based on the title.

If you’re looking for great niche PLR check out Tiffany Dow for all different things, Yummy PLR if you’ve got a food related blog (my favorite food plr site!), or Sassy PLR for more niche content.

PLR is awesome if you a hard time coming up with ideas, and just want to rewrite a little bit and post. The more original you can make your plr though… the better.

2. Easy Article Starters

Maybe you find it very hard to rewrite PLR ~ I get that… here’s a second idea that will help you get ideas to write about, give you a framework and things to start talking about ~ but let you fill in the blanks.

Easy article starters are awesome… they get you started but you put the words in. Sometimes it just takes a spark of an idea to help us get started. I know it’s easier for me to get started writing when I have “an idea”… that’s what easy article starters are… they give you the idea, and some ideas on how to fill it in, and then you supply you, and your words. It’s an awesome tool… and what’s really cool about them, unlike a PLR article you can use them multiple times ~ because you’re adding the words, you can reuse the starters and take a different slant on the content or use different examples etc. So these are a huge bang for the buck ~ and you can get a discount price here.

For the squidooers out there…

3. Squidoo Shortcuts.

I recently was asked by a facebook friend (who got her start using the Christmas Cash Blueprint and is ROCKING squidoo these days) to review her Squidoo Shortcuts ebook she wrote. It is fantastic. She took the blueprint, tweaked it, made it easier (can you say no keyword research and NO backlinking?!… um yeah). So anyway, she’s got some amazing ways to identify topics to write your lenses about in this ebook. So if you’re working on Squidoo I can’t recommend it enough. If you’ve got lenses made and you’re still not making money on Squidoo, get this ebook. It will help.

I hope this gives you some ideas about where to find ideas.

I’d love to hear from you… where do you get ideas for blog posts, lenses, articles and whatever else you have to write? Share your ideas in the comments! I look forward to hearing them.

image credit: Rennett Stowe 

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1. Creating an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog

Back when I was in college a friend introduced me to the author Richard Bach. I have read all of his books, and loved them all. As I was reading One, which I love, I was entranced by one concept in the book.

Shine who you are, clear calm and bright. Those who you have something to teach will automatically be drawn to you ~ as well as those from whom you have something to learn.

It sounds a little like attraction marketing, before attraction marketing existed by name.

I bring this quote up because this quote has been the underlying basis for how I live my life and run my business. Shine who you are, clear, calm and bright. When we’re creating an internet business it’s so easy to get caught up in the latest and greatest thing. It’s so simple to “go with the flow” and follow the lead of a mentor or teacher. It’s so easy for us to brush aside the feelings of something being “not quite right” for us because someone who’s been much more successful said it works, and it was an ok thing to do.

It’s easy to get sucked in. I get that.

However… when you get sucked in to shady tactics and grey or black hat marketing you’re not being true to yourself. You’re NOT shining who YOU are. I’m sure there are people out there who just don’t care about playing by the rules, or about being good people, or about their readers or customers. I’m sure they’re out there… and I’m pretty certain, in fact, very certain… they aren’t you.

I know this because that’s not me… so I can say with a fair amount of certainty that the people looking to me are not shady people who don’t care. And yet, we fall victim, at times, to things that are shady ~ or downright wrong.

This can happen in all areas of our business, but since we’re talking content creation this month, let’s look at that for a minute.  I recently met someone online, we don’t know each other all that well… but she seems like a good person.

I stopped by her blog to read her latest post and got to the bottom and saw a link back to the “reference” for the post. I was intrigued… because the post seemed based on heartfelt emotion to me, and personal experience, so I clicked through.

I was a little shocked to see the same exact post ~ although reformatted (but not rewritten) on CopyBlogger.com.

As a writer this sparked a nerve for me. You don’t just copy and paste someone else’s words onto your website, and say it’s yours… which is what you’re doing if you don’t use quotes, and your name is in the byline. I don’t care if you link back or not… this is stealing. This is plagiarism, and in my world… just NOT ok.

I gave this person the benefit of the doubt, and connected with her privately. I told her she really shouldn’t do this because it’s stealing, and she immediately stood her ground, told me it was perfectly fine because she’d linked back, and if they didn’t want their stuff  shared they wouldn’t have published it.

Well, knock me over with a feather.

I took a deep breathe and walked away from the conversation, because I was PISSED. I was so pissed tears were rolling down my face.

Here’s why I was pissed.

1. She’s building a business, branding herself, and she’s going to ruin that. 

I truly at the very core of my being want people to succeed online. When you’re building yourself as a brand you have to think about everything you do… you have to think about what every single action says about you.

When I saw she had copy/pasted an article from another writer and called it her own ~ I was appalled. When she said she thought it was a perfectly fine thing to do I began to wonder what else she thinks is an “ok” thing to do, and immediately decided I would never do business with her.

Maybe that’s harsh, but if someone thinks it’s ok to steal content from another person, our values are not aligned, and I have trouble trusting everything else they do from that point forward, and quite frankly do not want my name, my brand, and my business associated with it. At. All.

2. Someone spent a lot of time, effort, and personal energy writing that piece. 

As a writer I know what it takes to come up with amazing content day after day to help and serve my readers. The fact someone could just copy and paste my hard work, my words, my heart ~ and stick it on their site like they wrote it… yeah, that pisses me off.

3. She’s lying to everyone.

I’ve seen quite a few comments on the content. “Great post”. “Wow, great post”. Great ideas in that post… and she comes back with a thank you. Each. and. Every. Time.

Yeah, damn right it’s a great post ~ one of the best writers on the web frickin’ wrote it! And here you are saying thanks ~ why the hell are YOU saying thanks. All you did was copy and paste it and add some red headlines and an image. That post has nothing to do with you. Not a damn thing. And by saying thank you each time someone says something great about the post you’re lying and taking credit for something you did not do, for thoughts that are not your own, for concepts you never had, for words you didn’t write.

4. She’s cheating herself. 

This lady is a smart cookie. I’m certain she has opinions, and thoughts, and experiences. I’d like to hear them. If something from that post resonated with her, I would have LOVED to hear why, and what, and how it landed on her, her experience. If I wanted to read what Brian Clark thought, I would go to copyblogger and read it myself.

How can you possibly shine who YOU are clear, calm and bright so others who need you can find you, when you’re “sharing” other people’s thoughts and words?

You can not be attractive unless YOU are willing to shine. You must be willing to share yourself to the world. You must be willing to have people say, hmmm… you’re not quite right for me, but OMG I know this person who would LOVE you!

You can not do that when you are stealing other people’s words. You have to share your own. You have to share yourself.

5. She’s cheating her audience. 

She’s creating relationships based on lies, and when people realize the truth they will be pissed. Just like I am right now. I have been reading her stuff, thinking I’m getting to know her for a bit now. Until one day I clicked through to that link and realized I hadn’t been learning anything about her ~ I hadn’t been reading her words. I didn’t know anything about her but the fact she was willing to pass someone else’s words off as her own.

Then to link to the exact same content? What good does that do me as a reader? That doesn’t help me learn anything new. That doesn’t help me move forward. It does nothing for me, as the reader, to click through to another page where I’m going to read the exact same words and information.

I don’t usually stand up and point my finger loudly at the things that are wrong in this industry. I usually try to focus on the positive, teach the “right” way, and hope people will hear me. I just couldn’t do it today, because here’s my belief. I don’t think she came up with this idea all by herself. I think she was taught to do this. I think some “guru” or whoever, told her it was an acceptable thing to do, and she believed him. However… I can NOT believe, in my heart of hearts that deep down in her soul she thinks this is the ok thing to do and it’s a win/win for everyone, just because she placed a link back to the original article she stole.

I want you all to listen to your hearts. If someone is teaching you something that feels “off”, it’s off. Don’t do it. I don’t care if they made a million dollars in 5 minutes using the strategy. YOU have to do what is right, and fits with your values, and your integrity. If you don’t ~  you will not be shining, you will not be attracting, you will not be creating, you will not be building YOUR business online… because you will be shining a false sense of who you are, and everyone will feel it. Maybe not the first minute… but it will be what shines through.

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I also received an email that got me thinking. I wanted to share it with you all, as well as my reply ~ because it’s an interesting point, and something that I believe needs to be given some attention and conversation… (I’ve not edited the email, only deleted the person’s name)

Jackie,

Don’t know if you will receive this email & read it–hope you do.

The problem with the internet is that it is full of content  that is 99%  USELESS information, published  ONLY for the purpose of SEO  (for that blog post). Most posts do not inform or entertain their readers.

Your suggestion of posting everyday for a month would probably produce more useless posts.

Question: can you recommend a source where we can obtain quality reference material to help us produce quality posts?  (No, that doesn’t include Wikipedia.) So far, I have failed to locate any such sources.  Have even asked a college professor for this info & he did not know where to find quality reference sites.

Thanks

And here is my reply… (and I have more thoughts since this email went out… I’ll continue them below my reply)

Hi “reader”!

Yes, the interwebs are a flutter with useless content. AND it’s completely up to YOU what you create and publish into the world. Some things that are published don’t need to be works of art ~ and are used simply for SEO purposes ~ but when it comes to putting content out there that’s for “human consumption” I have ALWAYS encouraged people to write amazing content.

If you’re looking for ideas on how to write great posts I’d suggest the site thinktraffic.net ~ there is always amazing content there, and it’s an excellent example, how even in the internet marketing arena you can produce valuable content.

The key to creating quality content is putting your readers ahead of anything else. Asking yourself what concerns/problems/questions they have and then answering them. That’s really what it comes down to… good content comes from people who really care about their audience. Good content comes from the heart ~ not wikipedia.

Hope that helps.
Jackie

His need for reference sources got me thinking… what kind of content are people creating online;  and for that kind of writing do you need “references”. I personally, unless writing a paper in college, have never done the kind of writing where I needed “references”or sources. I’ve always written from my heart, my bank of knowledge, and from the connection to my readers. From that connection I am able to glean what they need, want, enjoy and that’s what I try to provide. (Running surveys every so often helps too!)

It just got me thinking… if you’re writing on a website where you need a ‘reference’ to create good content should you really be writing that content at all? These are just questions I’m pondering. I know from my personal experience the things that I’ve done best in (money, traffic and community wise) have all been projects I’ve known well… from my own experience.

What do you think? What kind of things are you writing? Do you use references? Do you need them? Do you write from experience, from the heart? I’m curious… let’s talk about it in the comments.

Related posts:

1. Using Stories to Connect with Your Reader
2. How to Create Content When You Hate to Write
3. Creating an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog

If you’re creating an authority type site, whether it’s about a niche in general or even product reviews, your content is the foundation of your site. If you’re not creating new content, you’re not going to succeed. Content is KEY!!

What are you going to write about? What if you get writer’s block? What if you run out of ideas? What if you’re just too scared to write anything, and the longer you look at that “hello world” post sitting on your site the harder and harder it gets to even start.

PHEW.

I have a solution.

The first step is this:

Decide content is a non negotiable element of your business. 

I can’t even tell you what an important step this is… it will be the difference between success and failure when it comes to your content production this year.

The second step is this:

Decide when you’ll be posting your content to your site. 

Once you’ve made those two decisions you can start creating your calendar. Here’s the technique I use to keep myself, and my content creation on track.

1. Set up month long topics/series. 

In my handy dandy notebook (if anyone can tell me the reference…), I’ve lined out each month for the next year. I’ve decided on a topic for the month.  Now on this site I only post once a week, so I now have to come up with 4 topics related to my monthly series topic and then my content is planned for the month.

I hate to be completely tied into something specific, so I’ll leave the topic rather general, so I can frame it in a way that feels good when I sit down to write.

Here’s an example:

January is going to be social media month here on IMM.

So my four posts might look something like this:

• facebook tricks to share content

• what not to do on facebook

• how to create a community using facebook

• how to drive more traffic back to your site with facebook

You see how easy that is?! Now I have a topic, and I can write about it in a way that resonates with me next month or even if this was scheduled 9 months from now, I’m sure I’d have opinions and ideas on those 4 topics.

The other cool thing about this is, I didn’t have any twitter topics, or linkedin topics, or youtube topics, so that just gave me a TON more ideas on topics I could use.

NOTE: If you’re building links and writing articles to use off site, you can take all those extra ideas and turn them into articles.

The key to this working is being organized, and sticking to the plan. Here’s some of the tools I use to stay organized.

1. Day Planner: 

I have a day planner on my desk where I write down what blog I’m posting on, and the topic for the day. I also add in any other events/activities for the day, as well as phone calls and follow ups I have for other business matters. I’ve also used Charlie Gilkey’s planners ~ which I liked very much.

2. A handy dandy composition notebook. 

I have a composition notebook for each element of my business. So for my blogs, I have a notebook, for the new project I can’t wait to tell you about I have a notebook, and for the other arm of my business I also have a notebook. This is where I write down ideas, make plans, create mind maps, etc… This makes it really easy to find any ideas I’ve had about a particular element of my business. Post it notes get lost. Write it all down in one place specific to that element.

3. Pomodoro Technique

This is relatively new, and I’m not using exactly as originally intended, but here’s the pieces I love.

The daily to do list… I write down everything I want to get done in a day on the list. (A pomodoro is a time period of 25 minutes ~ with 5 minute breaks between sessions, and a 30 minute break after 4.) I don’t necessarily use the timer, but I do in some circumstances.

The unplanned and urgent list: Here’s the key to what makes this work for me… I am easily distracted. So when I get distracted, or something comes into my mind and I think I need to go take care of it RIGHT NOW I write it at the bottom of my to do list. This urgent and unplanned section goes from the bottom up.

I DO NOT deviate from the current task at hand, I simply write this distraction down. When I’m done either with my 25 minutes or with the task at hand I will then go and take a look at the distraction and see if it needs to be added to today’s list, or maybe tomorrow or Friday’s list, or maybe it really wasn’t important at all and my mind was just messing with me because I didn’t really want to do what I was doing. (yeah, it happens!) So that has been VERY helpful for me to start getting more done in less time.

3. Editorial Calendar plugin

I don’t personally use this one, I prefer paper and pen, but there is a free editorial calendar plugin for wordpress where you can just plug your topics into the calendar and it will track it all for you. Easy cheesy and if technology is your cup of tea then it might be a great addition.

When you have productivity tools in place to help you keep on track, as well as an editorial calendar so you know exactly what you should be writing you’ll find it’s much easier to keep your content on track and coming. Trying to wing it with your content is like planning to fail. It’s so easy to let it slide, to leave it to later, to just skip it… but as you know… your content is the KEY to your business. Don’t plan to fail… create a plan.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and how you create an editorial calendar. Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

If you’d like some personalized help with your blog or ideas for your editorial calendar join us in the KISS Club. Where we keep it simple so you can take action.

Related posts:

1. Planning a Website Project
2. Creating a Strategic Business Plan for the New Year
3. Blog Post Ideas ~ Where to find them when you’re stuck

If you’re going to give Google what Google wants, so you can get organic traffic from them you’re going to have to have a plan before you start any website project. It doesn’t matter if you’re creating a site for affiliate marketing, or social media marketing, or even a site to create leads for your network marketing business… you’re going to need a plan.

I must say… the planning stage of any website is my absolute FAVORITE part. Here’s how how I handle planning a website project.

1. Get a HUGE piece of paper and your colored markers. (yeah, I’m old school like that)

You could also use a mind map program if you want, but paper is really fun.

2. Identify your target market ~ the more specific you can be the better.

Busy moms vs. stay at home moms with multiple kids who need to earn an extra income ~ is better.

3. Identify 4 to 7 very general topics your target market would want information about.

for example… If I’m targeting stay at home moms who want to earn extra income ~ I might choose, cooking, budgeting, kiddos, online business, self

4. Break those general topics (now your categories) into more specific topics. (I like to have 3 to 5 more specific topics)

cooking = 5 ingredient meals, crockpot cooking, menu planning

5. From those more specific topics (now your subcategories) you’re going to come up with specific ideas ~ which will be your posts.

5 ingredient meals = several recipes made of only 5 ingredients

crockpot cooking = tips to use a crockpost, saving money using a crockpot, recipes for crockpot cooking

menu planning = weekly meal plan, tips on meal planning, monthly meal planning, weekly meal planning

Once you’ve come up with these specific post ideas you can use your keyword tool to find the specific words/phrases people are using to look for that topic.  ie… your targeted keywords

6. Create a posting schedule. 

There are blog posting calendars around… I generally use Charlie Gilkey’s planners for my posting schedule. There is also the wp editorial calendar plugin which many find wonderful.

Once you’ve gone through this process you will have tons of content ideas in front of you. If you started with 7 large categories, and came up with 5 subcategories, and then came up with only 5 specific topics for each you’d already have 175 post ideas. What’s really great about it, is the content is completely and utterly directed toward your target market. Doing this work up front helps you really stay targeted, focused and on track to provide content your target market will love.

Now you just have to write them.

You have a couple options here as well. You could just bust them out. Write them all, schedule them to publish regularly and move on to link building. You could also set up a publishing schedule for yourself and write a new post on each of your publishing days. Once you’re post is written and published then jump on link building for that post.

Gone are the days where one page sites targeting single keywords are going to work… you’re going to have to be in it for the long haul, and prepared to write LOTS of content.

Here’s the cool thing though… you’ll end up ranking for a BUNCH of keywords you never expected or could have dreamed of and those seriously unexpected long tails can bring in quite a bit of traffic.

If you need help planning a website project, or getting one you’ve already started off the ground join the KISS Club. I’d be glad to help you get your project moving forward.

Related posts:

1. Creating an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog
2. Creating a Strategic Business Plan for the New Year

Ok…today I’ve got two options for you camera shy folks so you can still dive into the world of video.

1. Animoto ~ slide show videos

This is a service that allows you to create really professional looking videos by adding images and words. (no face… and you don’t even have to talk). Animoto does all the work for you. They put the images together, they even give you some options for music for your videos. It’s an awesome service, quick easy… and if you checked out some of the videos in the comments of the Red Light Trick post you’ll see they look very professional.

There are multiple levels to Animoto so you can choose the features that will best fit your needs. The free level only gives you 30 second videos, so it’s definitely a great deal to upgrade to the plus level where you get full length videos. Your videos are also downloadable at the plus level and they’re not at the free level.

Here’s an example of a very quick Animoto video I did a while back.

2. PowerPoint Presentation Videos

If you’d like to do a little more of the video creation yourself, and have a little more control over the process I’ve found some excellent video tutorials for you. Oliver will walk you through the basics of making power point videos for the web. Again, no camera time for you! He will show you all the tricks to make super cool videos for marketing, premium content, creating products ~ anything you can use video for!

If you had someone make these videos for you it would cost you an arm and a leg… but with these simple tutorials you’ll be able to make them yourself! You can see a couple videos on this page to see if his learning style is going to be a good fit for you.

So there you have it… slide show videos and powerpoint presentation videos… two more ways you can create video even if you ARE camera shy.

Make sure you come back and shoot me a link to your first video! Can’t wait to see it.

If you’re not sure where video fits in your marketing plan, and you’d like to do some masterminding… join the KISS Club! That’s where it all happens.

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Related posts:

1. 1 Quick Trick to Overcome Being Camera Shy
2. Hate to Write? Youtube Marketing is the Answer
3. How to Create Content When You Hate to Write

For the don’t like how you look/sound I only have one thing to say… get over it. You sound and look totally different to yourself then you do to anyone else. If you want to video market ~ just do it.

One thing you can do to get over the look/sound thing though is this… make a video and then edit the hell out of it. You’ll have to keep listening and looking while you’re editing and at some point you’ll stop caring, because you’ll be focused not on YOU but on the task at hand… and it will be totally different.

As for camera shy ~ I have a HUGE tip for you on that one:

You can go to my other website for more video marketing tips… and connect with me on Facebook ~ I’ve been giving a lot of video marketing tips to people over there ~ if we’re not friends on facebook yet ~ shoot me a message and we’ll connect.

If you’d like to start using more video in your marketing efforts but are running into roadblocks I’d love to help you get on track. Join the KISS Club and we’ll work through it together.

Related posts:

1. More Video Marketing Tips for the Camera Shy
2. Hate to Write? Youtube Marketing is the Answer
3. How to Overcome One of the Biggest Struggles In Internet Marketing