I've said before that I'm an Internet Marketing dinosaur. With over 25 years in the online world, I know the value that digital marketing can bring to any business. I had a website for years before blogs were a thing. After a little while on Myspace (remember that?), I decided to dip my toe into blogging. And am I ever-so-glad I did! My first foray into blogging (on blogspot, no less!) expanded my audience and my income. It helped me build the Noble Empire that would eventually become Direct Sales 101 and later the entire Creative Freedom brand.
There are different ways to achieve the level of success that you hope for. If you've got the cash, investing in PR, media, and publicity is a fast track to wide recognition. But digital marketing, including blogging, SEO, and sharing quality content and affiliate advertising usually cost less and have a longer-lasting and farther reaching impact for your business. My appearance on Disney+ last year saw a short-lived spike in my website traffic and book sales. A few people are just now discovering the show and reaching out on social media, but for the most part, the hubbub is over. But all the other marketing I do (including my show and my blog
Getting your business link shared on someone else’s blog is a positive way to go, but there is the additional possibility of running a blog around your business, which may attract enough interest to be a very useful part of your marketing. However, it is important to bear in mind that “a blog” in and of itself won’t make that much of an impact. It needs to be a blog that people are prepared to read - and that’s a trickier process.
"Consistently" doesn't always mean "frequently". I mean, if you can manage to crank out content like Gary Vee, then have at it. But most folks I know can't do that and keep their sanity.
So what makes sense for where you're at in your business. I know a six-figure independent author who writes a new blog post once a month. Then, he spends the entire month promoting that one blog post. WordPress makes it easy to schedule posts for a later date so that there are updates even when you’re otherwise occupied. Many times I'll film two or three episodes of the show at one time, but they're scheduled to only go out on a weekly basis during the show season.
You have a level of expertise that other people don’t, and you can gain regular satisfied blog readers by focusing on your expertise. Create how-to content, or demonstrate your art. People want to know how things work or go behind the scenes in your creative work. Humans have this vicarious nature where we want to see how other people operate. That's the entire basis of the reality show genre!
You may consider hiring a digital marketing company or other team members to help strengthen your blog, but remember that it's your expertise and talent that people are coming for. This season, I hired a copywriter to help develop a longer season for the show. It's still me in front of the camera and writing the content, but Jackie's brilliance in researching topic ideas and developing show outlines has saved me countless hours and helped me focus in on the parts I do best!
"Short" and "sharable" are relative terms. Content only needs to be as long as it needs to be in order to get the point across and make your desired impact. You don’t have to write anything particularly long. 500 words is plenty, and it doesn’t even need to be that much. Seth Godin regularly cranks out blog posts that look like haiku.
Conversely, if you feel like even 2000 words wouldn’t cover the topic you want to write about, you can serialize it. Five posts covering an entire week (or month) can create a lot of buzz... if you have something to say.
Make it easy for folks to share your content. There are plenty of plugins that help your blog readers make sharing easy. But they won't share if your content isn't engaging. Give them reasons to WANT to share your EPIC content!
Running a business blog can fast become your best traffic generation tool and solid source of (almost) free advertising. Focus on your expertise, create engaging content, and post consistently for best results.
Okay, I gotta rant a little. There's nothing that grates my toast more than the phrase "EPIC CONTENT" (be sure to say it like you're announcing a monster truck rally this Sunday-Sunday-SUNDAYYY!)
In the final regular episode of Season 5, I'm going OFF about how this phrase "create epic content" has become synonymous with "if you can't make something that goes viral, then don't do anything at all" - which is a trap that either keeps you stuck on a hamster wheel of content creation in your creative business or paralyzed by perfectionism to the point of doing nothing at all.
Instead, I'm going to show you an easy way to share engaging, meaningful content with your audience on the regular on any platform. And you don't even have to create it all. In fact, if you want to have a life, you probably shouldn't!
THAT, to me, is what epic content creation is all about!
December is content creation month at Creative Freedom HQ. I'm leading a series of workshops to help you plan AND create your content for 2020. Be sure to sign up for email updates to get advance notice of the next one!
Our Rising Tide Community has moved! If you're already a member, you can login and access your free downloads here.
Not a member yet? It's free! When you register for the Rising Tide, you also get email updates, the FREE learning library, and access to episode transcripts, worksheets, and more!
Special thanks to our Patrons for your continued support.
Theme music: “Welcome to the Show” by Kevin MacLeod, incompetech.com. Music licensed under creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/