Do This Not That Marketing

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Blog Post Ideas: What to Blog

Blog Ideas: What to BlogIdeas: Where do they come from?

I write a lot about content marketing because I believe it is vital for small business success. And I want you to succeed if you have a business that is ethically meeting the wants/needs of your audience. That being said, sometimes it’s hard to know what to write/say/tell people. I’ve had that feeling, staring at a blank computer screen, wondering what to say.

Well this won’t solve all your problems, but it will solve a lot of them. I just ran across The Ultimate List of Blog Post Ideas and I love it! Here’s a short segment:

Be Useful

These useful blog post ideas will endear you to your market and establish you and your business as the authority in your niche.

List Post

This is simply a list.

The list post is one of the simplest to put together and very versatile.  Not to mention — people just love lists.

Create a list of books, tools, resources or any other thing that your market will find useful.

The information gets very practical, very specific, and it will help you write more targeted content that your audience will like. They also have a very helpful infographic over there that you should check out.

Happy blogging!

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Content Marketing: Using Video


Remember keyboard cat?

I hate being on camera. I’ll be using video anyway. Here’s why.

Video has become a driving force in content marketing. I know because, among other signs, a friend of mine just sent me an email and told me I need to use more video if I want more people to like/engage with my website/content. One only has to read The Guardian or look as far as YouTube’s success to see that video content is a thriving entity all on its own. In fact, I know people that have created a thriving business using mostly video as their main type of content. But, if you’re like me and normally just use textual content, the thought of using video can be daunting.

Because of my friend’s suggestion, I’ve been doing a little research about video. If I’m going to do it, I want to do it well. Here’s what I found.

Get the Tools
You really don’t have to spend tons of money on the right tools for creating entertaining and engaging videos for your content marketing needs. However, at least spending enough to be able to provide adequate lighting and sound is important. You can even use your iPhone or iPad to create outstanding videos. For lighting, I read a great article on Wistia and ordered the setup they recommend for less than $100.

No One Hit Wonders
Videos don’t stand alone. If you create one, you really should create more than one. Having a regular video series as part of your blog is a good idea. It will encourage more viewers to take the time to view your videos if you have more than one. At first it may feel as if no one is watching, but take the time to stick to doing them during a time period and see what happens. I will be creating videos and you sharing my results as we go along.

Shorter Is Better
You don’t want to make a video super long. More than three minutes and you’re pushing it unless you have really high quality images and sound to match the length of your video. If you do have something long to say, try breaking them up and do a series with one point on each video over time.

Repurpose Content You Already Have
For your first video you don’t have to reinvent the wheel; instead use some content you already have. If you have a “how to” blog post, why not do a quick video demonstrating how to do “it.” If you have a blog post with five tips on doing something better, do five videos talking about each tip for two or three minutes. Using visuals outside of your face is a good idea, to make it more interesting.

Leverage Events (Online and Offline)
Having an event such as an in-person interview, conference, or an online webinar? Why not record it, then edit it and repurpose it to use later. You can break up longer events into shorter videos with a little bit of editing and adding in visuals, and you could have a series of videos from one hour-long event.

Outsource
If you’re not sure about how to edit the videos or create them in a format that is usable by most browsers including mobile devices, consider outsourcing the editing process. Usually you would provide them with the raw video and they’ll cut it down and edit it to make it a more professional production.

You can actually even hire local people to record for you. It’s up to you how much money you want to spend. But, it can cost a lot less than you think to produce very professional sounding and looking videos for your content marketing needs.

You don’t have to worry about being perfect. That’s the big one for me. Take a look on YouTube at the popular videos in your niche. They are probably not perfect. There may be a few exceptions but more than likely the really popular ones aren’t perfect. As long as viewers can see something interesting, hear the audio and trust the value and truth of the information being shared, you’ll see success using video as one of your content marketing tactics.

My next post will be a video. Wish me luck.

Are you using video yet? If not, why not? If you’re a perfectionist who doesn’t like to be on camera (like me), maybe we can work through this together.

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Guest Blogging May Be More Important Than Blogging On Your Own Website

DoThisNotThatMarketing.com Guest BloggingIf you want to grow your business, consider guest blogging.

In my previous article on off-page SEO, I mentioned guest blogging. But, what exactly is guest blogging? Today, we will take a look at that and how guest blogging will benefit you and your business. Also, I will give you some pointers about how to write effective guest blog posts.

As you probably have already guessed, guest blogging is writing content for a website that is not your own. Why would you want to do that? Well, there are several reasons for writing an article or blog post for someone else. By guest blogging, you have the opportunity to speak to new people who may not have otherwise found your site. You will also be seen as an authority on the subject you’re writing about by publishing on a site different than your own. And, as we talked about previously, it will increase your search engine ranking.

How do you go about guest blogging? We talked about what constitutes a good blog post already. But what about guest blogging? Well, those same rules apply, but there are more. Here are some tips to further help you:

  • Stay away from sites that say they will publish anything. These kinds of sites will not help boost your off-page SEO. In fact, Google is wary about sites like this and may actually punish your website for the shady link. Instead, look for reputable sites to be a guest blogger.
  • Create a relationship with the site you are a guest blogging on. Instead of trying to jump in, guest post, then jump out, be a regular contributor on the site and make sure the site’s audience would find your information/insight/solutions relevant.
  • Write your best quality content with their audience in mind. Give them the very best you’ve got. If you save your best stuff for your own website and share subpar stuff when you guest post, you’re not going to convince many people to click over to your site. You don’t want to be a guest blogger just for the sake of getting a link back to your site. Writing junk posts will make you lose credibility as an expert on the subject and ultimately hurt your business.
  • Promote the post on your social media, website and blog. Don’t forget to thank your host for allowing you to be a guest on their site. Also, don’t just post and be done with it. You want to be sure to respond to the comments on your guest blog post. After all, you’re creating a new audience and they want your attention just as you want theirs.

Should you consider having a guest writer on your site? Sure! Be selective and only publish good guest posts on your site. Also, instead of pointing out that you have a guest blogger, just list the person’s bio. Your readers won’t really care if you have a guest contributor or not and it will look more professional than saying, “Susie is a guest on my page.”

Are you having trouble getting traffic to your blog or website? Take a look into guest blogging and watch your audience grow.

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