Are you a small business owner with a blog? Is the blog successful? Well, if it’s not I might have a hunch why…
…and it has everything to do with content strategy.
Content strategy is a focused look at the entire life cycle of content…from the creation to maintenance and even retirement of content. You look at things like developing, curating, information architecture, writing, editing and marketing.
Unfortunately, not very many people take the time to think strategically about their content, they just design a site and start writing.
I want to change that mindset right now and give you the steps and the tools you need to create killer content…day in and day out…so you can take your business to the next level.
Step #1: Define your blogging objectives with these six questions
The very first thing you have to do is decide what you want to achieve with your blog. Different small businesses will have different objectives. Here are some questions to help you define that objective:
- Do you want to drive foot traffic to your shop or office?
- Do you want to increase sales or generate leads?
- Do you want to attract prospects in an area outside of your local area? Do you want to attract clients from overseas?
- Do you want to educate prospects and customers on what you do?
- Do you want to update your customers about what’s going on with your business?
- Do you want to build a brand?
Keep in mind that you can have two or three objectives, but any more than that and your blog will be unfocused.
Your next step is to figure out who your audience is.
Step #2: Use Research.ly to get inside your blog reader’s head
It’s important you understand who your blog reader is and what he or she likes. To help you figure this out, use the Twitter metric tool Research.ly.
This tool will help you see insights on what your potential readers are interested in. Here’s a search on the keyword “coffee”:
You can see all the searches in the US and globally and then also view segments and sentiments for your keyword, which will allow you to determine how to approach your content creation.
In addition, you will see tweets by gender, popularity and retweets. These trends will open up your understanding about trends in specific industries and communities and help you create content that is reader-centric.
Step #3: Use Facebook Insights to get inside your reader’s head
Another great tool to use to get inside your reader’s head is Facebook’s Insights. How might this help you? Well, if you have a branded business page, then log into Insights and view the page you want to analyze.
You get a big picture of content…like how many likes and how many visitors to your Facebook page, including the overall engagement with the page.
You’ll want to watch this information for trends among the stories and advertising your promoting. You’ll want to discover what’s getting traction and what’s not.
You’ll also want to get a daily view to see the individual interaction of your visitors:
What’s really nice is you can export all of this data into a spreadsheet…
And analyze the daily breakdown to identify what is moving people:
To really get inside your reader’s head, you have to dig deeper. Do this by clicking on the “Get Details” on each report:
You’ll see unique views v. post views, likes and comments and where those likes came from.
Even further down and you can get data on gender, age and country:
Drill even deeper and you can get reports on referrer sources, virality and community activity. All this information can help you understand who your readers are, what they like to read and how you should give it to them.
Step #4: Create a content calendar
Now that you’ve developed a profile of your ideal reader, your next step is to create an editorial calendar.
The best way to do this is to make a list of all the variables that are related to your business and blog. More than likely there will be hundreds of these variables. That’s okay because you’ll eventually prioritize that list into a top 50 or less, eliminating everything else.
What does this look like? Here are ten common variables to think about:
- Date
- Channel
- Content element
- Reader profiles
- Reader events
- Holidays
- Seasons
- Hot trends in your industry
- Content creators
- Content workflow step
- Budget
No two calendars are alike and your calendar will more than likely change from year to year…even month to month. That’s okay.
It also might be tempting to skip this step because it is administrative heavy…but please, don’t skip it! I believe a content calendar is one of the single most influential tools to keep you on track with your blog. And the longer your blog is up the more successful it will become.
Step #5: Manage your blog content with EditFlow
If you have several employees at your small business, you may want to recruit them to write for your blog. This will get you a wide range of content from different angles of your business. But it may not be easy to implement unless you use a tool like EditFlow.
This plugin gives you a snapshot of your calendar:
You’ll also see an improved content status that’s better than WordPress’ default draft and pending review:
What I think is great are the inline comments between writer and editor:
Then there are the user groups to help you keep your team of writers organized by department or function.
Step #6: Create great content using these 13 questions
When it comes to actually creating content, you need to deliver technical and detailed information about your area of expertise, especially since the Panda and Farmer Updates.
Plus, there are so many blogs churning out poor-quality content, your readers are going to ignore half-baked, half-page posts…
This means they won’t comment or share them either.
That means you need to create high-quality, interesting content, which takes time. But if you ask yourself these 13 questions your chances of writing great content increases:
- Is what you wrote original?
- Can you provide practical advice or relevant research?
- Did you correct any spelling, grammar or factual errors?
- Is the topic of interest to a reader or a machine?
- Is the article well edited?
- Â Does your site have authority?
- Are you providing insightful or interesting information beyond the obvious?
- Would you bookmark your article?
- Is your article cluttered with call-to-actions, ads or promotions?
- Would a magazine or journal print your article?
- Is your article short, weak and useless?
- How much time and attention did you give to detail?
- Would someone complain if they saw this article?
Step #7: Share great photos
In the 2011 Technorati State of the Blog report, 90 percent of bloggers shared some kind of media on their site, photos being the number one piece of media:
If you think about it, that’s a great content strategy to draw attention and drive traffic to your site.
But you can’t just put any old photo up there. It’s got to be the right photo. And it’s got to be big if you want to get a lot of attention.
One of the most unique blogs of 2011 and a Time favorite blog, Boston Globe’s Photoblog takes full advantage of the 990 pixels of screen space…attracting a lot of attention.
Now, you may not want to go that big, but the point is that the web is a visual media and you can’t neglect getting this area when it comes to your content strategy.
Step #8: Keep your content consistent to drive traffic
According to research by Hubspot in their 2011 State of Inbound Marketing, bloggers who blog daily will get five times as much traffic than those who blog once a week or less.
This means you have to create a schedule in which you can sustain such a frequency. But this is only true if your blog objective is short-term, like driving traffic to your site.
On the other hand, if you have a long-term objective where driving traffic isn’t a priority but deep SEO and links, you may want to cut back on the number of posts you share. This used to be one my objectives on my blog, and one of the things I learned over the years is that a lower frequency of blog posts increases interaction.
In fact, when I’ve run some tests where I’ve delivered long posts that are detailed on a less than frequent basis versus daily posting… my readership and number of comments rise. I believe that it gives space to your readers to digest what you wrote and then to comment and share.
Step #9: Audit your content
When it comes to web content it’s better to think of your content as a living thing that needs long-term care rather than something in a museum that collects dust.
This is where audits come in.
This doesn’t have to be a daily habit, which could get costly in time. Instead, run quarterly site-wide audits. If it’s a huge site with lots of content, audit just a tenth of your site every quarter.
It’s well worth the effort, because without it you won’t be able to maintain a blog that is relevant and accurate, which is critical for maintaining trust and credibility with your readers.
And of course, one of the most problematic parts of the task is checking outgoing links. Are they still pointing to a relevant, live pages? If the page is dead, then the hosting company may park their own page at that link. Or somebody filled a page with a sponsored ad that doesn’t reflect the content of your blog or that page. And even worse yet, it could be point to a porn site.
Another approach is to simply review an older post for every new post you publish.
And if you are wondering what audits look like, here’s what my audits look like (I use a spreadsheet for this):
- Page ID (a number you apply to organize the hierarchy, e.g. 1.0, 1.1, 1.1.2, and so on)
- Page title
- URL
- ROT (redundant, outdated, or trivial?)
- Notes
You don’t have to use a spreadsheet. You can use the Content Audit plugin instead. This plug in will allow you to set up notifications when content has been audited in a certain amount of time:
Then you edit the page based upon the audit category and author notes:
Once you’ve finished your audit, go after the low-hanging fruit. ROT content should be dealt with immediately. Want to dig deeper? Look for opportunities to consolidate, streamline, refine, and update content. When it comes to web content, less is more.
Conclusion
As you can see, starting a blog takes time and lots of energy. But trust me…it will totally pay off! I employ these strategies myself and I use it for my corporate blog. It’s so effective that I haven’t launched one blog that hasn’t hit at least 100,000 monthly visitors.
Do you have any other content strategies that I’ve missed?
This amazing course will teach you, step by step, how to double if not triple your traffic over the next 30 days.
This definitely passes the “would I bookmark this” test- Awesome post.
I especially like how you pointed out that posting less frequently and making it your best when you do gets more interaction overall.
I’ve been trying to decide between posting daily or doing once a week big posts and now I know. Thanks Neil
Thank you Nate,
I appreciate the kind words. Great, glad this post was able to help you make a decision.
Yes. After going through step 6, I already bookmarked it.
Thanks Neil for putting so much info . And Blogging daily helps a lot. Neil we need daily posts. (Kidding).
Cheers
Bobby
Awesome thanks Bobby,
Yah, it would be great if I could post daily, Unfortunately I don’t have that much time.
In my opinion each post Neil writes should bass bookmark test! As usual Neil posted another great guide to build a successful blog. There are a lot of useful hints in this post and id you can apply them you will definitely see improvements.
Thanks John,
I hope you see improvements when you apply them.
I agree with less is more when it comes to quality content that gets shared and commented on. I run a couple travel sites, and though I post a few times a week, when there are periods of just one post a week and a well researched and executed post, I get way more activity. Kind of like Quicksprout
Great Content. I love to utilize the analytics tools you recommend on your posts. It seems that every time you post I have a new way to research what I’m doing and can constantly improve. Thanks and keep the great content coming.
Thanks for the support Luke. Definitely do give these tools a try. Let me know how they work out for you.
Thanks Neil for this detailed post.
You have touched some points which no other regular blogger is touching.
Keep it up.
Thanks, I will definitely keep at it.
I always find myself stuck in the middle after I post my latest article (you can check out my website). I don’t really know where to promote my articles other than social bookmarking sites, and by interact with other bloggers through comments.
From my opinion, your content strategy does works. It just need a little bit persistence and consistency. Or should I say, “It is a must!”?
Thank you Neil for delivering another awesome content. It is worth to visit your site.
Thank you Tim,
It definitely takes dedication or persistence like you said. If yu want something done you have to make it “A must!”
Neil,
There is so much great information in this article, it’s definitely going to take a few re-reads just to make sure I caught everything.
As a new blogger, one issue I’ve thought a lot about lately is how to balance short, more frequent posts with longer, less frequent posts.
I really don’t think one should stray too far from one extreme to another, but rather oscillate between the two. This gives your readers a little more variety while also keeping content creation interesting for yourself.
Sounds good, if balancing both types works for you then stick to it.
Another content rich actionable post. I currently schedule my content with the editorial calendar plugin. How does it Edit Flow work with this plugin?
I am not 100% sure. I haven’t done much plugin stuff in a while. My developer typically sets up plugins for me as a ton of stuff is custom on my blog.
Great work ! You confirm many of my points to me about content management in my mind. Its a great SOP for Content Management. Thanks.
You’re welcome. I hope this helps you crank out more content that your readers enjoy.
Great post Neil. The next time a client asks me if they ‘should have a blog on their website’, I’m going to refer them here.
Too many businesses think they need a blog, and yet never do anything with it and don’t understand the purpose of having a blog in the first place.
Yep. Adding a blog isn’t enough. If you don’t plan on doing anything with it, there is no point in even adding a blog.
So is the Facebook insights only available for the Facebook brand page or can I use it for my blog similar to google analytics?
It’s available on any fan page.
Like always great read Neil. I agree with Rich that many businesses think they need a blog but little they do to promote it.
I’m always amazed of how small business owners don’t know how to capitalize on the power of a blog, yet they spend hundreds on other dying media. EditFlow is great and audit your content is a great tip.
It’s not even businesses… bloggers them selves don’t always understand how to capitalize on their blog. It’s tough overall…
What I believe is that, for an individual blogger like me, it is very difficult to publish more than two high quality articles per week.
One article per week is best strategy for long term relation building and quality links.
Fahad
I am in the same boat. It is hard for me to write more than a few really good posts each week on Quick Sprout. It isn’t the writing part, but instead I just get writers block sometimes.
Some great ideas in here. Thanks for a great post as usual. I like how you split it into points, being a big fan of lists. I am still resistant to my own stats. I can’t figure out why
Lists just make things easy to digest. I guess that is why we all love them.
Your way of approach is too good. Your content will more helpful for us like Small business men.
Let me know if you need any help with your content.
Great post. You always come up with something new and its amazing.
Thanks Vikas! I try… sometimes I write some great posts while other times I don’t.
Terrific post Neil. Trying to decide if I like your 9 points best, or the great visuals you offer.
What do you mean when you say “Would someone complain if they saw this article?” Having people passionately for or against a message shows some heat.
This post should explain it: http://www.quicksprout.com/2011/11/17/how-to-write-seo-friendly-blog-posts-with-these-13-questions/ (scroll to the bottom)
Another great post with insightful tips. I had never thought of auditing my old content but will certainly do so now. Thanks, Neil!
And also make sure you do it on a regular basis…
This such a very useful post Neil. I blog for business and as I was reading, I kept going back to implement what you suggested. I tried out the facebook insight thing and found it very useful. No longer will you guess how much interaction or engagement your page has with fans. Now you just check and see it all there.
Posting less than daily is true if you want to sustain conversation and engagement rather than just traffic. There’s no point having many visitors if most of them won’t even have the time to read what you write.
Blogging indeed is so much time consuming and can feel really overwhelming looking at all these. But then, like you did point out – if your goal is long term, the sacrifice is worthwhile.
In general with blogging, think of it as a long term goal. Short term goals with blogging don’t really work out because it takes a while for a blog to get popular.
You’ve been a huge inspiration over the last month Neil with lots of useful information. I was just getting used to the 10 wordpress plugins you suggested in a recent post. Each post is full of great advise.
Thank you Paul,
I am glad to hear you have found this and previous post helpful.
I think one has to plan for linking within one’s overall content strategy. Linking is a good way to develop and maintain a relationship with people who you want to be connected with. This can be anyone from a CEO with a corporate website to a popular blogger. Keeping track of their fantastic content will help you remember it and link to it in the future. Online bookmarking such as Delicious can be used for this. It’s also helpful if you keep track of the amount of links that you ‘give’ anyone, to make sure you’re linking enough to get their attention. For example, you can’t expect anyone to notice you if you linked to them just once in 12 months on your low-traffic blog.
You make a very valid point about linking to external sites. You have to do many times for people to notice. I think this is a mistake most bloggers take for granted.
“As you can see, starting a blog takes time and lots of energy. But trust me…it will totally pay off!” I second to your statement Neil.
Thanks for the notification
about this latest post. You are ROCKS!!!
All of the tips? It useful not only for business but also for common blogger.
From all of your guidance. Number 5 is the only one not interest me (for this time). Well, I am currently part-time blogger (on my search to full time blogger) with low budget (hehe), so it is hard to do all things like that particularly.
Why I am “on my search”. Because I still have my 9-5 habits is my reasonable source of income. So it’s to risky if I jump over as full timer directly.
So recruit ?? it’s not good for me. But I like the edit idea, and it seems Number 9 is great options.
About No 7 Neil (photos) I have interesting experiences here … I always create my own pic for my post (almost always). And you know what? I have an extra 10 or 20 visitors from google images. (this is surprising me). Well, this small visitors is so meaning for small blog like mine.
Number 8 is definitely the challenge …. It’s so hard to make a single content (the good one). Even I think it was great one but when I hit publish … sometimes I feel not confident (haha). But I know I should not wait to hit publish.
And sometime the idea to make content come in the wrong time. When I got the chance to sit in front of my laptop … those great ideas disappear … hahahaha. This is trully challenge.
Thanks for the great post Neil
Have you thought about hiring other bloggers to help you out? You can find some at http://jobs.problogger.net while you work your full time job.
Neil – an interesting post, and really the dilemma of frequency of posts hits home. I use HubSpot and have been following the frequency guidelines. You’re exactly right – I get a lot of traffic, but I’m a little low on interaction.
The question, then, is this. What better way to seek out those people searching for those keywords? Will I still get rank if I don’t blog as frequently, especially for long tail keywords? I’m finding I’m ranking for long tail keywords even if I’m not blogging for them.
The ultimate goal is to get someone to become a lead. Will the less frequent posting method achieve that? To me, it’s almost more important than the interaction. Maybe I’m wrong?
You can achieve it and get even more long tail traffic if you blog less. As long as your posts are more detailed, more popular (being linked to more) then you will get more traffic and interactions (which should create more leads).
This is amazing post.
I have been publishing atleast one post per day for last 5 years, but never had motivation to create a calendar. After a while I got used to the seasonal posts and its impact when published on time when readers need them.
I have always wanted to create a content calendar. Going to try the pluign.
Would you bookmark your article?
-> I try to target long tail keywords and some posts are written to bring search traffic, even though I would have covered the same contents in previous posts. In such cases, I usually have internal links to related contents. During such instances, I don’t expect readers to bookmark specific page.
Neil – I was going to hit submit button, but realized you don’t have an option to Subscribe to the Comments. You may have to add that option.
I used to have a subscribe to comments button… I need to add it back.
This is the first post I’ve had the pleasure of reading on your blog and I found it extremely helpful. The content auditing plugin will come in handy for sure, as will the research.ly link.
Thank you for the solid information and work that went into assembling it.
Tim
Thanks Tim, glad you found this post helpful. Let me know if you have any questions as you go.
Wow! Great article. I’ll be using your advice on my next blog article! Thanks for posting!
No problem. Let me know how things go for you.
These content strategies are awesome for not only small blogging but will also help in the big business also because if strategies are effective then they will definitely help your business whether it is small or large.
Thank you for your supportive words. I am glad you feel these tips are useful.
i am definitely going to use more photos on my blog now after reading this post. Thanks for the wonderful tips!
Awesome, glad to hear it!
Great post Neil… while I appreciate your content and references, many of your references are specific to WordPress and/or its plugins. How ’bout some tools / references / takeaways for those of us who chose not to use WordPress?
Thanks, as always, for your good information.
Valerie
I’ll look into it. I use WordPress because it is SEO friendly and has a lot of great plugins.
I agree, Neil. Apart from just the SEO friendliness, wordpress is used by most bloggers and obviously has the most number of helpful plugins – many of them completely free,
Yep, WordPress has a lot of great benefits.
Only drawback I still see with wordpress though is the darn hackers. But thankfully there are now much more secure ways of preventing that.
Hi Neil, appreciated as always. I think we all can get stuck doing the same tactics over and over again and forget we have so many different opportunities, can learn from thought leaders like you and should always be experimenting. I’ll be testing some out this weekend!
Thanks Neil,
Yep, sometimes it is easy to get caught into a routine. I hope you do try out some new tactics and let me know how it goes.
Facebook Insights and Google Analytics gives us lot of help for researching on user but Research.ly adds more power in it. Thanks Neil for this.
That is definitely a great tool, good to know it is helpful to you.
As always, your post reiterates some points I have covered with my students in class. I love posting your articles on my Facebook page with a quote that covers some topic we discussed in a class.
As small business owners, most of my students are very new to social media; so, they are pretty shy about responding to Facebook posts. Instead, they stop me on the street or at stores to tell me how much they like reading my posts and the articles I pass along. That’s social networking Montana style.
Thank you for sharing my post with your class and other FB friends. I truly appreciate the support.
Neil,
I just wanted to give you a big shout-out for both this article and the many others you’ve written that I read almost daily. This article kicked butt — I learned a ton. Thank you.
Baochi
Thanks Baochi for the kind words. I am glad you enjoy reading Quick Sprout.
I dedicated this year to focusing more on creating great content that can be transformed using different media channels. There is no way that you can lose by focus on building quality content that your users want to read.
I am happy to hear that Donny. I agree, building quality content that your readers can learn from or be inspired by is what is most important.
Neil, you are the BEST! Love it, will share it, thank you!
No, my readers are the best.
Thanks for sharing!
#4 is the most important I think. I know I struggle with creating a content schedule – and so does every organization I’ve ever worked for. A Content Calendar can help give you focus and even more importantly, it helps with #5! Hey thanks for the tip on Edit Flow. I think we are going to review it as a possibility for our organization.
Yep, any form of organization is key to leading to success. I hope these tips will help you. Let me know how implementing them works out for you.
Agree that an editorial calendar is a must. I use it to map out themes and the journey my readers will go through. Plus, like you said, you can plan ahead for the critical events that will draw your readers in – holidays, tradeshows, milestones, etc.
Awesome, glad you agree. You can really benefit from planning ahead, it is important not to lose sight of the future.
This is great stuff Neil. Research.ly is an awesome tool to use. I almost did not finish reading this article because I began to use it immediately for my business niche. I don’t have a blog yet but almost all the stuff you right can be used for my business and the web presence. I have so much to improve and work on and this is definitely helping.
Thanks Neil for sharing.
Thank you David,
I appreciate you sharing with me how this post has provided you beneficial tips.
Would my Content be published in Magazine/Newspaper was a worth question been asked for to know that i assure the quality of my content. I got to try that for sure.. !! Thanks Neil
It is important to view your content from different point of views in order to make sure it is valuable.
Neil –
As always, you have great information for a person who is totally social media illiterate! My business partner and I want to add blogging to our website which is under construction and we want to have guests do a weekly blog about issues sounding the challenges we face as women and how to overcome some of them. What’s the difference between having a blog and tweeting? I’m so confused by the two and we don’t want to overload our site with something unnecessary by having two of the same thing…
Keep up the great work!
sorry – I meant surrounding instead of sounding!
No problem I got it.
Thank you Rochelle,
Having a blog is more extensive and involved then tweeting. It is it’s your own site and a form of social networking. Tweeting is an act of posting text up to 140 characters on Twitter, also known as “tweets”. Tweeting is done on Twitter, a social media site where you create a profile and connect with a vast market of people, friends and strangers.
Managing content option its really useful one Neil thanks for giving an clear view on that topic
No problem, hope these tips have helped.
When it comes to quality people catch it come there again and again, this is what about your website, allways quality contents and thanks for “Research.ly tool” which surely help more.
Yep, Research.ly should definitely help. Let me know if you have any questions as you go.
Hey, this is very nice that from here, I came to know about this new tool which helps in the search of old tweets so hope, it will be good.
Awesome, hope it helps.
All this goes to show that there is a rough mile between being a writer and a blogger. Blogging is not just a creative but also a promotional enterprise. You have provided some serious food for thought to all those bloggers who were drawn by the idea of keeping an online journal but are shy of social media and content distribution.
Thanks, I appreciate the supportive words. I hope this post is able to help those young bloggers expand and monetize.
Great post, but I could barely concentrate with your sharing widget that follows me every time I scroll down. You gotta get rid of that thing or make it static.
I am sorry you found it distracting. I have tested it out and the majority of people prefer it the way I have it now.
I on the other hand, found it subtly. It didn’t affect my enjoyment of the entire post at all,
Glad it didn’t hinder you experience.
Actually I find the social media sharing plugin cool.
Thanks, glad you like it.
Don’t know if it was intentional but check the 8th line of step 9 – spot the mistake ;D
My motto for my blog’s content strategy is to *be* the reader that I want to visit my site. Once I can empathise with them, I know exactly what it is that they want. I like to think of it not just from a data point of view but from an actual ‘thoughts and feelings’ sort of way. Not so much in a ‘this is what my readers like eating for breakfast, they don’t like their food to touch!’ but more in a ‘my readers visit my site to learn something, I have to be able to teach them something’ or a ‘they don’t like this company because of [X] reason, I should acknowledge that’ sort of way.
Thanks for showing me that. I went back and fixed it
Why shouldn’t anyone in their right minds listen to you when it comes to CONTENT when you practice what you preach with the extremely high quality of the content in your blog. Awesome, Neil. I have been following and reading QuickSprout for years now and your content has remained impressively excellent!
Great tips here that everyone that is serious about giving their readers and customers what they want in terms of content should read again and again!
Thank you, I really appreciate the kind words. Also for your dedication to reading Quick Sprout.
I should actually read more of Quick Sprout, Neil. Making it a daily habit of reading even your old powerful posts can help remind one of very important fundamentals to succeeding online. And yes, you do share fundamentally important nuggets in your many 4+ hour/per posts,
Great, I am glad to hear you have found these post helpful. If you ever have any questions feel free to ask.
Does auditing of content include spell checking and grammar checking of content too?
Yep, it is always a good idea to make sure grammar and spelling is correct.
Hello Neil,
I am trying to follow all the steps and i am getting great results from my blogs. Thank You very much for your so useful information. Is there any tactics to make it better?
Just follow the tips above and they should help.
As a business owner, you’re always open to improving your marketing efforts and optimizing overhead costs. With so many changes in the traditional marketing industry, the implementation of an online marketing strategy has never been more important.nice information.
Definitely, I agree. Now more than ever it is important to to implement and utilize the online market.
I had no idea that I could take that information from my Facebook page ‘insights’ area. Great article, this is going to help enormously.
Great, glad to have been able to provide you with some helpful information.
Content is very important. Before I really started making money, I would just up and start a blog without prior research, and wonder why it wasn’t making any money 7 days later! One of the secrets is content. Once you have the content, you MUST use the Google keyword tool to figure out how to get your idea of content integrated into the search engine!
Yep, you have got it. Quality content is the most important part and then you have to work to speed and share it.
Do you mind if I quote a few of your posts as long as I provide credit and sources back to your site? My website is in the exact same niche as yours and my visitors would certainly benefit from a lot of the information you provide here. Please let me know if this okay with you. Thank you!
Not at all, go for it.
I like the part about the 13 questions: Actually if you sit down and ask yourself the questions every time you sit down to create content, the chances of coming up with great content is higher.
On the objectives part, I’d just like to state that blogging become much fun and easy when you now what you want to achieve. Why?
When you sit down and write down the objectives, you will likely end up spending a few more minutes thinking about how you’ll achieve all your objectives.
I wrote a blog mission and that always helps me think about the things I want to do to keep my blog lively and resourceful.
Definitely, thanks for sharing your thoughts and suggestions with everyone.
This is brilliant advice Neil, I started reading your recent post on Copyblogger and hopped across here to se what you are all about.
I’m glad I did and look forward when I have time to checking out more of your content.
most importantly I like the way you explain the concepts and key terms such as ‘cornerstone content’ which helps us further visualize what fits where,
thanks again,
Alan
Thank you Alan,
Happy you decided to hop on over! Glad you enjoyed it.
Awesome post Neil!! Great advice
Thanks Mike, glad you liked it.
First I have to win a war against G Panda:) But after I will use the tools from this article, thank you!
LoL, don’t we all.
Best of luck!
Great post. It is true that content is very important as to make your business more interesting and catch the attention of the readers to know more about your business.
Jessica Miller
Skype fax
Yep, content is king!
Now this is what I call a social media blogging blueprint for small biz success! This list is amazing and yes I’ve bookmarked and shared on my sm platforms – too good not to share! Way to go and THANK YOU!
No Shanna, thank you! I appreciate you sharing this post and for your kind words.
PageOne Curator grabs the articles and other content and also curates it. Text, images, videos, you name it, the computer software pulls it. Pretty much all you just have to do is insert your own keyword(s). Furthermore, PageOne Curator will help you format the content material you’ve obtained, so it’s well organized and skillfully presented. After that, it posts it to one or more of your own blog websites. I’ve utilised it myself personally. It’s uncomplicated and a true timesaver. I strongly recommend it.
Thanks for the recommendation Peter. Glad to have you share your thoughts with everyone.
Hello Neil, I’m trying to keep the content schedule for about 3-4 articles per week….but amazing quality and passion in it, and careful research!
These days, with guest blogging as a must have strategy to use for promoting your blog, maybe it is better to save your best articles for guest posting on Authority websites!
Great points Neil that businesses need to listen to. The blog, content hub or knowledge deck – whatever it’s named is great for value, reputation and customer driven satisfaction. So powerful that business is often scared off enough to not try. Your points about customer interaction is key, drive the customer to be satisfied.
Hi,
I love to utilize the analytics tools you recommend on your posts.From my opinion, your content strategy does works. It just need a little bit persistence and consistency.
Thank you.
hey neil,
without any doubt a fabulous post. a very helpful post indeed.
great contents as well.
Thanks.
Matt
This post goes into so much detail! I’m saving this so I can refer back to these helpful strategies with my blog. Thanks for the awesome advice!
Neil,
I want to say as a small business owner that part of increasing content is also being out there. People shouldn’t be scared to go to events and meet new people. If you’re afraid to get outside of your office or home, you’re going to be afraid to create awesome content.
Hello!,,,,Thanks Neil for putting so much info . And Blogging daily helps a lot. Thank you so much!,,,,,,,,
Your post was very good