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Feel like you’re wasting valuable time? Write with purpose

Content is quite often considered an online entrepreneur’s primary asset. And content writing on of her key tasks.

It drives traffic and therefore helps make your sales. When done right, provides authority, credibility and gets your target audience to like you and your brand. All of which are buying triggers.

And don’t forget, it also helps you to market your business.

But unfortunately, many new solopreneurs write their content without a purpose.

They may write some great and useful content. But if it doesn’t have a clear objective, it’s missing out on an opportunity.

So ask yourself: what do you want your content to accomplish for you and your business?

It doesn’t matter if your content is short like a blog post or an article. Or a larger content piece like a report or e-book. It really needs a specific purpose.

Possible Content Purposes

drive traffic to your website
increase SEO ranking
drive traffic to a sales page for your offering
generate affiliate income
boost your authority and credibility
encourage reader response and comments
capture leads

Occasionally, you may find that your content has more than one purpose.

For example, a report may be designed to collect opt-ins and generate affiliate revenue. Or you may add a link to your sales page on your website.

But if you don’t have an objective for your content, then you’re missing out on a valuable opportunity.

Decision-Making

I have found the best time to decide on the content’s purpose is when you create your content plan. But folks take different approaches so experiment to find what works best for you.

You may plan your content for the coming week, month, quarter, or year. If you aren’t planning your content yet, please start. Content planning will help make the best use of your time.

When you plan your content you’ll choose the keywords and the topic. You’ll also decide when you’ll publish it and where.

It makes sense to integrate your content into your overall marketing strategy. This includes traffic generation, SEO, and other marketing components. This also means that you will give your content a purpose.

Here’s an example:

You plan on launching a new product in three months. Your content during that month leading up to your product launch will ideally support the launch.

You’ll want it to generate interest and excitement about your new product. The purpose of the content is to drive traffic to your opt-in page.

Folks can sign up and receive notification when you launch. They may also receive early bird pricing.

Your content can also raise awareness for the need of your new product. And it can send traffic to your sales page once you launch.

Including your purpose in your content

All of your content needs to have a call to action. If you want to get comments and feedback at the end of a blog post, ask for it. That’s your call to action.

If you want folks to click to your sales page, you need some sort of “I want to learn more” link. Your purpose will be part of your call to action.

Take a look at the content you have planned. Does each piece have a specific purpose?

Do you give a call to action? Is your content part of your overall marketing strategy? If not, make the updates so you can start seeing the benefits.

Which call to action do you find yourself using the most?

Feeling overwhelmed? Spending too much valuable time writing?

Content writing for your business is investing in your business. I know you spend a lot of time writing it. You probably also spend a lot of time planning and researching before you even start to write it.

And just like any other investment, it makes sense to make the most of your investment. Repurposing and reusing your content is a great way to maximize your return.

Build

Gather articles and blog posts that go together nicely and create a report. Adding an introduction and a conclusion will help tie the ideas together.

You may also find adding some transitions and editing the content will help with a cohesive message.

And to monetize the content, consider adding affiliate and promotional links where appropriate.

Break

Try the opposite of building: if you have existing reports, break them into articles and blog posts. You have a few options here.

Pull apart segments of the report to create articles. Add an introduction and conclusion paragraph and you’re just about ready to publish. Or you can even create lists and other information-packed articles.

Here’s an example of breaking content down: if you have a “how to” report with ten steps and ten pages of content, you could:

create an article that’s a much shorter version of the report
list the ten steps with a one or two sentence explanation
write a “three things you need to do to…” article (you would actually have enough to write 3 of these articles)

Republish

Sometimes evergreen content isn’t as evergreen as you hope. Things change so quickly and most industries grow and change on a regular basis.

Go back and take a look at your “evergreen” articles and blog posts. How can you refresh them with updated content?

Partition

This is similar to breaking down reports to create articles and blog posts. You can break down e-books into:

– reports

– articles

– blog posts

You’ll see you can get quite a lot of content from an e-book. And for content ideas, take a look at the e-books you’ve purchased or written.

Group

If you’re thinking about creating a new information product, consider grouping reports to create an e-book.

You’ll need to organize the reports in a logical manner so that it flows. You’ll also likely need to add an introduction and a conclusion. Transitions will be necessary and you can add some graphics to really pull it all together.

Add checklists and worksheets to add even more value to your e-books and reports.

Repurposing and reusing your content is smart and strategic. As you create new content, consider how you might be able to use it in the future.

Content is now often key for online business success so make the most of your efforts and maximize your content to the fullest.

Which technique will you use right away to repurpose and reuse your content?

Feeling lost because you’re not sure how to write content?

I know you may just be starting out. But have you decided that content marketing is right for your business?

If so, you want to write great content but you’re not sure how? There are a few things that differentiate great content from not so great content. Learn them and improve your content.

Conversationally

Conversational content is written in a friendly tone. It’s almost as if you were writing your blog post or report specifically for the person reading it.

It’s written using informal language. Instead of saying, “Business people write content” you would say, “You write content.”

And because of this, conversational content often breaks a few grammar rules. For example, you might write an incomplete sentence. For impact. I often use ellipses…

…to create effect and to draw the eye through my post.

When you break grammar rules make sure there’s a reason for it. Breaking them just to break them, may be fun and a bit rebellious, but it’s not usually productive.

Personality and voice

A lot of new entrepreneurs don’t necessarily believe it, but your personality and voice are one of your biggest assets. Both help you stand out from others.

They help you create and strengthen your brand.

Let’s say you’re sarcastic naturally. Then your content can and should be sarcastic too. It has to be relevant and appropriate but if that’s who you are, be it.

And if you’re sentimental then your content will reflect that also. It’s so much easier to embrace your personality than to fight it. And it also helps make interesting content.

Study the content and writers you like and read often. Look for how they share their voice and personality.

Easy to read and understand

Formatting is supposed to help make your content easy to read and understand. Folks tend to get a bit carried away with formatting though.

Sometimes there are so many underlined, bulleted, and bold words that you’re not sure where your eye is supposed to go. And instead of enhancing the reading process, it often makes it more difficult because it’s distracting.

Simple formatting is best. This may include bold or underlined subheadings. You might have either bullets or numbers but probably not both.

Again, look at various pieces of content.

What do you notice about the ones that you find easy to read? And what about the ones you find distracting?

When the post isn’t easy to read, what would you do to fix it? What would make it easier to read?

Learning a few simple content strategies can help you get the results you’re looking for. You’ll receive more readers and traffic. And you’ll likely receive more customers. The better your content, the faster you’ll be able to grow your business.

What personality trait will we see in your content writing?

Confused? Posting and posting but no interaction?

Reader interaction can help you accomplish various goals for your website. Including adding user generated content.

It also helps to pull in more readers. Folks often want to join in and see what others are talking about.

But getting reader interaction isn’t always easy. It can be fairly challenging, especially in the beginning.

Ask

One of the most effective ways to get more interaction is to ask for it. It really doesn’t matter if you’re writing an article or a blog post. It’s about content writing.

Here are some questions or calls to action you can include at the end of your piece of content:

– What has been your experience?

– Do you have any advice on…?

– Give us your thoughts.

– Have you ever…?

– What’s your favorite…?

– Do you remember when…?

Of course some topics lend themselves better to this approach than others. A blog post on a cooking site about your favorite cookie recipe is likely to get a lot of reader content. Folks love to share their favorite recipes.

But a blog post about how to soak beans isn’t likely to get much feedback unless you ask for advice or information about different soaking methods.

Respond

When you respond to comments you start a discussion and then other folks may feel the desire to add their thoughts. If you don’t respond to the comments left on your blog, then there’s a good change the conversation will not go much further.

If you want to encourage more readers to chime in and offer their opinion, insight and comments, then always make time to respond to their comments.

Controversy

Spark a controversy or discussion by presenting a potentially heated topic. Controversy tends to motivate folks to share their personal opinion.

But do be careful.

If controversy doesn’t fit your brand or personality, then it may be best to stick with safe, newsworthy topics. Folks often feel motivated to share their opinion on both controversial and newsworthy topics.

We’re visual folks so share a picture or video. When we see a picture that makes us laugh, smile, cry or get angry, we are often motivated to comment on it.

I’ve read somewhere that sharing a photo showing a selfless act is a very common theme among viral posts. Which makes sense.

Sometimes a picture or a video is all you need to get interaction. It can say more than the words of an article or blog post can. But sometimes it’s nice to include it alongside relevant content.

Share some more

Within the body of your article or blog post, share a personal story. Take time to share something personal that relates to the content of your article or post.

It doesn’t have to be elaborate, long winded or extremely personal. When you share a story, you help to build rapport and trust. This in turn can motivate others to share their story.

You can end up learning a lot about your readers and potential customers when you share openly.

If you have a blog, reader activity and comments add credibility to your brand. This also tends to motivate more reader interaction, links and increased traffic.

So which tip will you try first?

Frustrated and feel like giving up?

Even if you are just starting out with a website and a blog you may have seemed to run out of things to write about. There are various ways to deal with this content writing.

You can hire someone to come up with ideas for you or to write the content for you.

Either of these would probably work. But there is a way for you to write the content yourself.

You just need a little inspiration.

Magazines

Pick up a copy of a magazine. And it doesn’t have to be in your niche either. Almost any magazine will do.

Take a look at the cover.

Write down the headlines.

They’ll probably look something like this:

The __ secrets to ____
Learn how to _____ today
___ tips to ____

Now replace the keywords with your own keywords.

Fill in the blanks.

If there are ten headlines on the cover of your magazine, you now have ten posts you can write.

Social networking site

Go to a social networking site of your choice and read posts in your niche. Visit the pages of your industry gurus. Read their latest posts. It’s very likely you’re going to find quite a few content ideas.

You may take issue or disagree with something said. That’s a great blog post.

You may think a topic needs more elaboration. You may read a comment to a social networking post that could be the start of an article. Social networking sites really are packed with content ideas. You just have to search for them.

Read your own blog

Read some of you own posts and review the comments. Look for the comments that have some meat to them or that asks a question. Skip past the ones that say “Thanks for the information.” Those don’t offer any value to you right now.

Make a list

Lists are generally well received online. And they are easy to make. If you’re struggling to come up with content ideas, write down three to five list ideas and tackle them one by one.

Blog post ideas are out there just waiting for you to find them. Use some creativity and inspiration and you will turn an unmotivated writing session into a productive afternoon or evening.

So tell me, which technique will you try first?

Feeling defeated because you aren’t a professional writer?

As a solopreneur you have a lot of roles to play. For example, some days you’re mainly CEO, some days CFO. And each role has a variety of tasks assigned to it.

One of the most important tasks is content writing.

Creating content can be intimidating and overwhelming. Since so many of us have a fear of writing, actually a fear of sharing what we write, we often procrastinate.

We usually think we aren’t very good writers.

But you know what? You don’t have to be a professional writer to write good content for your website.

There’s a difference between content published in newspapers and various magazines and content published on most websites.

Who is your content for?

Your web content doesn’t need to appeal to a broad audience. Nor does it need to be on a broad topic. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. Your content will be quite specific.

Let’s look at this example: “Ten tips to bake better peanut butter cookies.”

It provides value to a very specific target audience. And if you have a website about peanut butter or baking, then you can write this article without thinking much about it. You know how to make the cookies. The information is already in your head.

What is the style of content writing for the web?

And as you visit various websites, you notice that web content is also more conversational. It’s written to feel personal – as if you’re speaking to your audience directly.

You’ll use words like:

– You

– Your

– You’ll

– You’re

– And sometimes you’ll use “I”, “Me” and “We”

You don’t generally find these words in pieces of journalism unless they’re in quotes. For the most part, newspapers and magazines are generally more formal. They communicate from the third person perspective.

How is content formatted on your site?

Web content is also formatted for easy reading. You’ll most likely use bullet points, numbers and headings and subheadings to break up your content into bite-sized pieces.

So how can you use all of this if you’re not a “writer”?

You can recall this when you start to write content. This mindset can help you remember that writing content for your website is fairly straightforward.

You:

– Write what you know and what provides value to your audience

– Write with a conversational tone

– Write and format so it’s easy to read online

One of the simplest methods to use when you’re writing your online content is to spend a few minutes creating the structure for your post.

Start with a rough headline and subheadings.

Next, fill in the content.

Try writing as if you’re writing a letter to a friend. A trick is to use a salutation…but don’t forget to remove it before publishing.

Don’t worry about grammar and spelling errors initially. You will go back and edit later.

Once you have your thoughts down on paper, edit until you think it’s ready to be published.

Experiment and track your posts and content to evaluate what your readers respond to.

With some confidence, a plan, and tracking, you can write content to build and grow your business.

So tell me, who are you writing for?