You know that a  key to successful blog marketing is great content. Creating great content requires a plan – a way for you to master all of the details that come-up between the idea in your head and publishing your blog post. In other words – how can you be the “Master of Your Content”?

Here’s a process that we call the “Content Master” that can be adapted to your particular situation. The intent is to keep track of details and provide you with a roadmap for creating and publishing content. You can think of it as an “editorial calendar” – but with more information and flexibility. What you will do with the Content Master is develop a plan to create and publish your blog posts, articles, videos, white papers, or other forms of content by category. This will help you cover all areas important to your readers. Your blog will have more balance. This increases its relevancy to your readers. Increasing relevance builds trust and loyalty. These are important cornerstones of any marketing program.

So, a “Content Master” is like a roadmap showing the way between idea and publication. Why is something like this even necessary?

1. Random is not good - Sure many blogs publish posts that include a random idea, riff, or observation by a writer or editor. This spontaneity is great – up-to a point. Your readers expect to be entertained for sure, but they also expect some framework to hold all of your content together. If you get too far outside this framework too often you might end-up losing your readers. The Content Master helps you avoid this.

2. Your readers need a roadmap – Your blog posts and other content help take your readers on a journey. You are helping them learn something new, keep up-to-date with current news and events in a specialized topic area,lll or offering viewpoints on the news of the day. But believe it or not your loyal readers have an expectation about where your content is leading them. They have developed this expectation by following your content over a period of time. Because they are loyal readers they are along for the journey. It’s important that you help them understand the destination, the waypoints, and how-long it will take them to get there.

3. You need to prevent “empty noggin syndrome” – We’ve all been there – staring at the blinking cursor on our computer screen wondering when the next batch of great content will emerge from its hiding place. Working with a Content Master is a great way to prevent this affliction of bloggers everywhere. WIth your Content Master roadmap you’ll spend less time searching for ideas and more time creating great content that meets your readers needs and wants.

4. Preparation is the key to taking advantage of unforeseen opportunities – If you’ve got a plan for your blog you can more easily see where industry news or tips and techniques benefit your readers. Without a plan you may see the opportunities, but they might not trigger an idea because you are looking at the opportunities in a different context. Just about everything today is changing rapidly. With a framework in-place you’ll be ready to use these changes to benefit your readers.

The next question is “how do I create a Content Master”?

Here are the important parts you should include:

Define readers – You’ve got to have a clear idea of who reads your posts or other content you are providing your readers. You should literally have a “picture” in your mind as you write that represents your reader. This makes creating content easier because you’ve got a basis for understanding the needs and wants of your specific reader. You’re not generalizing – you know for sure. If you’d like a mini-tutorial on creating a reader profile, check-out Understand Your Reader – What Does That Really Mean?

Define needs - Clarifying who your reader is a great help in identifying their specific needs. Remember to keep needs and wants separate. A need might include security, ego, belonging, etc. A want might be “to feel more secure about my futureI want to learn to make money on-line.“ You should be comfortable enough with your target readers so you understand their greatest needs. The content, products, and services you deliver will help them meet their needs by satisfying their wants.

Define wants – Does your reader need to be a “provider”? Do they need greater “security”? Does the need to satisfy their ego drive the want for more money? Once you’ve got your reader’s key needs identified you can work on their wants. Do they want to lead a healthy lifestyle? Do they want to learn how-to set-up a blog? If you’re not clear whether you’ve got a “want” or a “need” you can work backward. For example if you determine your readers “want to lead a healthy lifestyle” ask the question “why?”. It could be that their spouse is bugging them to lose weight so they want to learn how-to do that. Again, ask “why”? Ultimately you’ll get to the final motivation for wanting something which is the underlying need. For more details on wants vs. needs take a look at “Do Your Posts Focus On Wants Or Needs – And Why Does It Matter?

Define the journey – Do your readers a favor and show them the journey they are on when they become a loyal reader of your blog. Rather than simply being a source for content, what are you helping your reader accomplish? This should be related to the definition of your readers, and your understanding of their needs and wants. For example, a fitness blog might help their readers along the journey of “24 months from flabby to fit”. Why is this important? Because by showing your readers the journey you are demonstrating the ultimate benefit they get by reading your content. You might ask whether a reader needs to start at the beginning and stay with you until the end? Possibly, but that is not the point. Your content will be based around the journey. Readers will be at different points along the journey and will join and exit at will. Your job is to have them stay as long as you can.

Create content categories – These categories will be based on the journey described above. If the journey is “24 months from flabby to fit” then your categories would follow certain waypoints on the journey. These waypoints might include -

1. “Houston, we have a problem” (I’m not happy with my fitness level)
2. “What we need is a plan” (How do I change?)
3. Rolling along and seeing results (This really works!)
4. Wow – this plan really sucks! (Boring!)
5. Plan? I don’t need no stinkin’ plan! (I know what to do – I’ll just work on the basics)
6. Back on the road again (Well, that didn’t work – back to my plan!)
7. Never been better – thank you (Feeling really good – getting in shape)
8. Marathon ready! (Best shape I’ve ever been in!)

Once you’ve got these waypoints established you have a number of areas for which you can create content.

Your content is also focused on logical points along the journey – highlighting pitfalls and problems your readers typically will face.

You are focusing on solutions – and that is what your readers should expect from your content.

Want to learn more?  Read “Reader Segmentation – Relevant Content Builds Reader Loyalty:

Create content mix objectives - Once you’ve got your content categories you can determine how you will cover each category. This includes the quantity and type of content for your readers. This builds upon your knowledge of your readers, their needs and their wants.

You also should plan the type of content for each category. Will you use blog posts? Videos? White Papers? This may vary by category, or it may vary depending upon the type of reader you are targeting for your content.

Develop a calendar – Finally, develop a calendar for your content. This will give you a “big picture” of what will be released when. It also will show you the relationship between your content categories. A few things to keep in-mind:

• When are your readers most receptive to the content (Monday morning might be good for your first category – “I’m not happy with my fitness level” – based on what they’ve done over the weekend).
• What is the proper “rhythm” for the content release – or how-often should you distribute content?
• Are there holidays / special events that will either interfere with or help your content?
• When will you (or your affiliate partners) be launching new products?

Summary -

Once you’ve worked through the steps above you’ll be well ahead of other bloggers when it comes to mastering your content.

• Understand your readers – their needs and wants.
• Do a great job positioning your blog and your content with your readers.
• Build loyalty through relevancy.
• Avoid “empty noggin’” syndrome.
• Be prepared when new opportunities come along.

In short – you’ll be the master of your content letting it work for you to grow your reader base and your business.

What else have you found to be important when managing your content?

Consumer packaged goods company Proctor & Gamble spends a lot on traditional advertising. Probably like a gazillion dollars a year or so (ok so I’m exaggerating a bit).

P&G is not the company you think of when you think about content marketing. But even a “old school” packaged goods company like P&G understands the power of great – no, excellent – content.

Their efforts provide a great example for beginning bloggers.

Take a look at their content portal http://lifegoesstrong.com – I would challenge you to quickly identify that this is a Proctor & Gamble-sponsored site. Check the Privacy Policy and you’ll see it is operated by P&G along with NBC.

What have they done right?

Clarified their target reader - “mid-lifers who are living well and still going strong”. They have identified the age group of their target reader – ages 45 to 64 years old.

Identified the problems of their target readers – Take a look at how the site has categorized their content – Life, Health, Family, Tech, Style, Home, and Play. Going through the headlines you’ll find targeted content on preparation for retirement, avoiding prostate cancer, “how-to write about your life”, among others. All concerns of their target readers presented in logical fashion that can be quickly scanned for relevance.

More importantly they provide solutions – While some of the articles are short, they do attempt to provide solutions to problems reflected in the article title. For example, “How Walking Could Help Prostrate Cancer Patients” gives some specifics on studies that identify what patients can do to avoid a progression of the disease. The article includes references to where readers can provide additional information.

LifeGoeStrong also encourages reader engagement – You can join the LifeGoesStrong community and subscribe to topic-specific newsletters. They also have discussions and also allow comments and sharing of content on social media sites.

There is a variety of content – Articles, slideshows, and video are included along with links to other sites that target readers will find relevant and informative.

So what does P&G get out of this portal?

Sure, there are some banner ads for P&G products but I doubt these will even move the needle when it comes to P&G’s sales on retailer’s shelves. The big thing that P&G gets is the ability to build trust with readers by providing a great resource of relevant content for their current and potential customers. While the content and product are separated on the site, they really aren’t when you think about it. Buying any product – especially products like P&G sells which handle some of our most personal needs – requires that we trust the manufacturer. P&G makes good products – but these days that’s what is needed just to get in the game. They’ve expanded their efforts to gain customer’s trust by providing relevant content that is associated with issues faced by readers, who by the way also happen to purchase P&G products.

What can you learn?

Use the checklist we’ve gathered from the LifeGoesStrong portal -

1. Clarify your target reader
2. Identify their problems
3. Provide great solutions
4. Encourage reader engagement
5. Provide a variety of content
6. Focus on building trust

Let us know what you think after visiting http://LifeGoesStrong.com – what ideas can you pick-up for your blog?

Also – as always – please pass this content along to others you feel may benefit.

Picture this -

One of your target readers has a problem she needs solved.  She is now at Google typing a question into the the search box. The problem is well-covered on your blog and if she gets there she will undoubtedly get her answer. The “Search Now” button is clicked . . . .

What happens next?

Google provides page upon page of possible “solutions disguised as search results.” Where does your blog appear? On the first page or the 10th page?

If your answer is “on the 10th page” or “I don’t know” then you’ve come to the right place. This tutorial will give you the basics for using keywords on your blog.

We’ve put together a complete tutorial for you to use -

Keyword Basics For Bloggers on-line tutorial and also a PDF version of the tutorial you can download.

In the scenario above, your target reader typed a keyword phrase into Google’s search box. Google crawls the Internet and indexes millions upon millions of pages. Their job is to match the keyword phrase to their massive index. After doing this they provide what they believe are the most relevant results for this keyword phrase.

Google’s job is to match indexed content to a keyword phrase entered by a search engine user. Your job is to anticipate the keywords  for which your reader will be searching. You also have the job of making sure your content covers these keywords so that Google indexes the content as you wish when the Googlebot crawls your site.

Here’s the process we review in the tutorial:

Step 1 –  Get Great Ideas – Your first job is to anticipate what your readers will be searching for. To do this you’ll need to take a look at forum discussion trends and search trends on your specific blog topic. Don’t guess on what your reader’s want, do some active research. The result will be some great ideas for topics that will attract your readers.

Step 2 – Search For The “Long-Tail” - Once you’ve got ideas for phrases for which your readers are searching, it’s time to look for related long-tail keywords.This means you’ll need to use the Google Keyword Tool and other resources. These tools will give you a number of variations you can use in your blog titles and content to make sure that Google “understands” your content and indexes it properly.

Step 3 – Prioritize – Not all keywords are created equal. You’ll need to look at search volume and competition to chose those that are best for your blog. This is a critical step that requires some real effort on your part.

Step 4 – Create Blog Titles – Once you’ve got your phrases prioritized it’s time to put them to use. You can start by either writing or re-writing your titles to include these keywords. Use them early in the title to make sure they get the proper weight from the search engines.

Step 5 – Create Blog Content - Following your titles you’ll need to make sure you use your new keyword phrases properly when creating your blog content. The “density” – or how frequently they appear in your content – is critical. You’ll learn how-to measure this so you don’t run the risk of being penalized for “keyword stuffing.”

Step 6 – Measure Your Success – The five steps above are a lot of work – but if they pay-off in results then it’s worth the effort. To find-out if you’re getting a return for your effort you’ll need to measure how well your content ranks for your target keyword phrases.There are a number of tools that help you do this – we’ll show you how.

Before you get going on the tutorial – here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Keywords are not a “do it once and done” effort. Ranking highly in the search engines “organically” (without payment) requires testing, trial and error, and perseverance.

2. We’re covering one process of identifying and using quality keyword phrases – you likely will find others – and then create your own based on what your learn.

3. There is no “silver bullet” – no matter what some software or on-line service promises, there is no guaranteed way to get great organic search engine rankings.

4. You are trying to hit a moving target – Google and other search engines change their ranking algorithms often which means what is successful today might not work tomorrow – don’t get frustrated.

5. Despite it all – when it all works the benefits are great. You get qualified traffic and the chance to convert this traffic into sales.

So go through the tutorial and get busy making the best use of keywords on your blog. Your first page rankings await!

Hare some great keyword strategies you’d be willing to share? Help out your fellow bloggers by commenting below.

Also – feel free to share this content with anyone you believe will benefit.

We’ve said it often – and others have also – to be a successful blogger you need to start by having a great understanding of your readers. And you probably agree because all businesses need to understand their customers to be successful.

But what does it mean to “understand your readers”?

• You can’t see them.
• You don’t have any concrete data on their demographics.
• You really don’t have the ability to anticipate their needs and their wants.

But what if you did?

• What if you could “see” your readers?
• What if you did have some data on their demographics?
• What if you did have insight into their needs and wants?
• What if you could paint a picture of your reader that you could put right in-front of you each time you wrote content for your blog?

Would that help you do a better job of creating some great content that attracts more readers with the same profile?

The answer undoubtedly is “yes” – and for most bloggers, this information would give them a significant advantage helping to craft a great blog that helps them achieve their financial and lifestyle objectives.

We’re going to focus on creating a reader profile that helps you get the understanding you need about your current and potential readers. Developing this profile will prove to be one of the most valuable exercises you can go through as a blog owner.

First, what is a reader profile?

Your readers are more than Google Analytics “Unique Visitors” and “Page Views.” They are people with unique backgrounds, needs, and wants. They have problems for which they come to your blog to get solutions. Many of your readers are like-minded individuals having similar needs and desires. However, the key word here is “individuals”. Each reader will view your content within their own context. To be successful you need to be very aware not just of needs and wants but of context so you provide the right solutions for your readers.

To understand a reader profile, think about a family member or a best friend.

If you were asked the following you likely would have the answer:

1. How old are they?
2. Where do they live?
3. How much money do they make?
4. Where do they work?
5. Do they have children?
6. Are they in good health?
7. What is their biggest current challenge?

A reader profile covers some of the same questions because to be relevant to your readers you have to establish a relationship with them. This relationship is based on trust – and trust is based on your reader’s perception that you understand their situation, needs, and wants.

How do you develop a reader profile?

Think about the things you learn about people when first becoming friends. You’ll probably first share common interests and then remove more and more barriers as your comfort levels with each other increases. This comfort level is built on trust as is any longer term relationship.

Building trust requires an emotional investment on the part of you and your reader. Understanding is the basis for this emotional investment. Let’s take a look at some of the things marketers use to gain an understanding of their customers – in this case – your readers.

A. Demographics – Are your readers young or old? Do they own their own home or rent an apartment? Do they have a family? How old are their children? These are all known as the “demographics” of your readers and they are a key part of your reader profile. The simple reason is that your reader’s demographics will give you an indication of their needs and wants.

The question you probably have after reading this description is “great – but where do I get demographics?”.

One source we use is quantcast.com.

Quantcast is a research company that works with different web sites to gather data and develop demographic profiles of people visiting these sites. It’s a good starting point for research. Keep in mind that while there are many sites that use the quantcast service, most of them are large sites and some do not share their demographic data. That said, the service is useful since it can be directional for you when developing your reader profile.

Step 1 is to take a look at sites you believe are a match for readers who visit your site. For example, if you have a fitness blog then “health.com” might be a match. If you run a small business blog then “fastcompany.com” could be a useful match.

Step 2 is to visit quantcase.com and enter the matching sites into their search box and take a look at the demographic information they provide.

Here’s an example – going to health.com shows the following home page:

Now if we go to quantcast.com and enter “health.com” into the search box we get the following demographics:

Notice the demographics in BOLD – they show where the visitors / readers for health.com index high.

They are:

Caucasian females, 35 and older with no kids and have a college or grad school eduction They are broken into two income groups – $30 to $60k per year and $100k+ per year.

Take a look at health.com and you’ll see the site and content reflects this profile.

If you are writing a health blog and after taking a look at health.com you believe your readers would find the content of this site interesting then you might target a similar demographic. If not, then try the process with another similar site.

The idea is rather than writing your health blog for everyone – target a specific range of readers. This will help you better understand their needs and wants.

B. Lifestyle / Lifestage – Are your readers single with no children living in an apartment in a large urban area and saving for their first house? Or, are your readers married, living in an affluent suburb whose children are just entering college? Could your readers be families with young children in a small starter home with aspirations for a larger home in an area with a better school system for their children? All of these are Lifestyle / Lifestage characteristics you should know so that you can more easily target your reader’s specific needs and wants.

This element of your reader profile is not as “straightforward” to get as demographics – it will require more research on your part. The good news is that lifestyle and lifestage are an extension of demographics – and you can use your demographics research as a good starting point.

Let’s go back and review health.com for some ideas on the lifestyle / lifestages of their readers. Again – we are using the example where you are writing a healthy living blog and believe that health.com is a resource that would appeal to your readers.

First let’s look at the home page – note their key headings – Health A-Z, Eating, Healthy Living, and Weight Loss. Let’s dig in deeper and see if we can get an idea of whether or not their readers are single or married. “Family” is not mentioned in the key topic areas –  if we dig down into the “Health Living” section we find there is a link on the left side for “Family”. Going to this link we find information and articles that deal with pregnancy and young families. Clicking through the site further we find a number or articles on dating and other relationship advice focused around singles.

So we expect that the site’s primary focus is women who are single – but also women who are newly married and either pregnant or who have young children at home.

Next let’s take a look at where they might live. Clicking on their “Home and Travel” link we find that most of the advice relates to single-owner, larger homes. There was not an emphasis on “getting the most from your small apartment.” One article started with the words “in the age of McMansions . . . ”

So we can expect that the lifestyle / lifestage of health.com’s readers is single or newly married with young children who live in a larger, single-owner home. However there is not a heavy emphasis on “family” so the expectation is that the site is focused more on single women or women whose children have grown and left the home.

Bringing It Together -

Now you’ve done some basic research to help you build your reader profile for your healthy living blog. So far you’ve:

1. Researched some sites that you believe would be attractive to your readers.

2. Settled on health.com.

3. Obtained demographic information on health.com from quantcast.com

4. Reviewed the high-indexing demographics – Age, Income, Education, Families.

5. Developed a demographic profile.

6. Reviewed health.com to get an idea of their readers lifestyle / lifestage.

7. Developed an idea about where they live, their relationships, and their family status.

Now you can put together your reader profile.

My reader is . . .

A single woman with no children at home who is highly educated. She owns her own home and has a fairly high income. Her health-related interests include eating, weight loss, and healthy living including exercise.

You can take this even further:

My reader is Catherine.

Catherine is a single woman who lives outside of San Antonio, Texas. She has a graduate degree in business from the University of Texas and is working for a large company in San Antonio earning more than $100k per year. Catherine is in a committed relationship and may get married soon – children? Open for discussion. Right now she has a busy schedule and is interested in maintaining her fitness. Fitting-in exercise and preparing healthy meals are her big concerns since she is pressed for time. Catherine does spend some time reading fitness magazines and scanning web sites and blogs. She’s interested in quick tips that provide valuable information on exercise and healthy eating. She will pass along interesting things she reads to her friends on Twitter and post them to Facebook.

Summary -

So rather than writing for a “faceless” reader, you are now writing for Catherine. With her profile you have a better understanding of your reader, and you can better determine her needs and wants.

One question you might ask is whether you can have multiple reader profiles? The answer is yes. Catherine, for example, might feel comfortable about her level of fitness but concerned about maintaining it due to time constraints. Another reader might not have a similar demographic profile but may not be at Catherine’s fitness level and wants to get there.

How many is too many profiles? Obviously you can segment your readers into so many small groups that it will make balancing content creation difficult. Start with the top one to three reader profiles and work with those. If you find you need to segment more you can – but establish a firm base of content with your top readers.

Was this helpful?

What are your thoughts on developing reader profiles to better understand your readers? Do you do this?

Appreciate your comments below.

Of course – feel free to pass this along to anyone you believe may benefit.

And don’t forget to sign-up for our newsletter to get more great content delivered right to your e-mail box.

While writing your first blog post seems pretty straight-forward, there are some important tips to learn before you start.

If you’ve been following our free blogging tutorial series you’ve got your blog up and running and ready to add great content.

Missed any of our tutorials?

Click here to get access to our free blogging tutorials.

We’ve put together two resources for this tutorial – here is the link for the on-line tutorial on writing your first blog post.

The second free resource is for those who don’t believe in flash – or just want to have access to the tutorial off-line.  Here’s the link for the tutorial in PDF format.

Now with the housekeeping out of the way here’s what’s covered in the tutorials.

First, there are a few ways to add content – posts and pages – to your blog.

You can use the editor that is built into WordPress or you can use one of the off-line editors that let you create your content then upload it to your blog.

This tutorial focuses on using the built-in WordPress editor for a few reasons.

• It’s convenient
• It’s free
• It gets the job done

You can get the specifics on the WordPress editor by going to the free tutorial links above. We’ve put a lot of great detail in there that will get you familiar fast with this tool.

Let’s talk a bit about the steps you’ll go through -

1. Enter your blog post (or page) title.

This is the “headline” for your content. You should focus on accomplishing the following with your title:

• Get your readers to the first sentence of your content
• Be relevant to your topic
• Include primary keywords
• Be only long enough to get the job done
• Contain a “curiosity” factor
• Tie-in with your reader’s needs and wants
• Contain a stated or implied beneft

2. Enter your content.

Some writers like to create their title before they write their content – and some like to create their title after writing their content – either way you need to write content.

Your content should:

• Tie into your headline
• Get your reader’s attention in the first sentence
• Let your reader quickly know “what’s in it for me?”
• Have a clear and logical storyline / structure
• Move your reader to a “solution”
• be broken into easily digestible “chunks”
• Use bullets for easier reading and scanning

3. Add an image to your post.

Using pictures and graphics is a great way to get the attention of your readers. Always try to use them in your content. Your images should:

• Good quality
• Sized appropriately
• Attention getting
• Tie-in with the subject of the content
• If appropriate be a bit humorous
• Use an appropriate title and <ALT> tag
• Provide the proper credit – if required

4. Make adjustments to your post’s Permalink

A Permalink is the Internet address of your content – a URL. By default, the Permalinks generated by WordPress are not very search-engine friendly. You should either change the Permalink settings to make them more appropriate for search, or edit each post manually. We suggest modifying the Permalink settings as shown in the tutorial.

5. Categorize your content

WordPress lets you separate your content into categories for your readers. You can consider a category as a chapter in a book. Each blog post or page will fit into a specific chapter so that it can easily be found by your readers. Depending on your settings, WordPress will display the category at the bottom of the post. You can use a Category Widget to display all your categories – and the content in each category – on the sidebar of your blog.

6. Tag your content

Categories are like chapters in a book. Tags are like content highlights that apply to multiple categories. For example, you may have a tag “nutrition” on your Fitness blog. Nutrition might apply to a number of categories so you’ll “tag’ your content with “nutrition”. Your readers can search your tags – or you may decide to include a tag cloud Widget on your blog.

7. Publish your blog post

When you’ve completed everything above you’re ready to publish your first blog post. Go to the “Publish” pane and click the “Publish” button. You can then go and admire your work.

Congratulations!

You’ve just created and published your first blog post. Remember that if you go back to make changes and then re-publish you’ll need to click your browser’s “Refresh” button to see the changes.

As we mentioned earlier, there are a number of tools that will let you create your content off-line then publish it to your blog. There is a complete list in the tutorial – but these tools include:

MarsEdit for Mac (we are writing this blog post using MarsEdit)

BlogJet for Windows

ScribeFire – a Firefox browser plug-in

Microsoft LiveWriter for Windows

Alright – we know you’re ready to get back and create some more great content for your blog.

If you’ve got any tips we haven’t covered please leave a comment below.

And as always we appreciate you sharing this tutorial with anyone you think might benefit.

If you’ve written for very long you’ve been there.

If you’ve just started writing – you will get there soon.

Where is “there”?

The land of “no ideas” for your next blog post. It can be a very frustrating place full of false starts and “bad ideas.”

What do you do if you end-up in this place? How can you get over the writer’s block that can happen anytime after about your fifth blog post?

Get REAL.

REAL is an acronym to describe the method of Re-using content, Evaluating products or services, Asking your readers what they’s like to know, and Linking and commenting on important content related to your blog – REAL.

Of course this is not rocket science. It is however an easy way to remember some tips that can be helpful if you find yourself in the “land of no blog post ideas.”

First, consider RE-USING, or re-purposing your existing content. If you’ve been blogging for a while you no doubt have a great collection of high quality content your readers enjoy. Take a look back at previous posts. Can any be updated? For example, if you’ve got a fitness blog and you did a post 6 months ago on a specific nutrition topic, what changes have occurred with that topic since you first wrote the post? Provide a link to your previous post and give your readers an update. This works great – especially if you are linking back to a popular post, or a post for which there is important new information.

Next, there is a never ending supply of new products, services, and ideas available no matter the topic or niche of your blog. If you are looking for an idea consider EVALUATING a product or service. This is not necessarily evergreen content since new products and services are introduced constantly. But, for products and services that interest your readers, evaluations can provide valuable isights and expert opinion that will be helpful.

You can definitely ASK your readers what they would like to see covered in your blog. Using Twitter and Facebook, your questions and your reader’s responses can be almost instantaneous. Your questions shouldn’t be “Hey – not sure what to write about this week – any ideas?”. You should pick a key subject area relevant to your readers and use that as the basis for asking them about content ideas. “Doing research on protein and exercise – anything you’d like to see included in my upcoming blog post?”

As more and more content comes on-line it can become very difficult for your readers – even those that are highly engaged in your blog’s niche – to keep-up. You can use this to your advantage when searching for blog post ideas. Pick some interesting articles, posts, videos, or other content and LINK to them. Of course you need to create a post containing your thoughts on the content and how it relates to your readers, and how they can use it to improve their lives.

So there you go, four quick tips you can use when you are in the “land of no ideas” for blog posts. Re-Use, Evaluate, Ask, and Link your way to blog ideas and better, more relevant content for your readers.

Any other ideas you use when you are staring at a blank computer screen with no blog post ideas?

Please share them with your fellow readers by leaving a comment below.

Also – feel free to share this post with anyone you feel may benefit.

I’ve mentioned my concern about the value of your time in previous posts – but after hearing this comment on a podcast for Internet Entrepreneurs I think it’s worth revisiting.

The comment – and I paraphrase – “The cost for you to produce this is really nothing since all you are investing is your time.”

So then my time is worth NOTHING?

Of course that is not what the speaker meant – but it is often an underlying “belief” in web posts and other content devoted to producing digital products for sale. If you are not paying someone to create the product – then the cost is “really nothing since all you are investing is your time.”

No – your time is definitely worth SOMETHING – but it is up to you to place a value on this resource.

You are investing your time in your business expecting a great return on this investment.

This limited resource can be used for many different things.

For example, you could be – on the “income” side:

• Trading hours for dollars at a “real job”
• Doing hourly or fixed consulting work
• Building relationships via Social Media
• Creating a sales page
• Creating your next spectacular digital training program

Or on the “cost” side:

• Checking your e-mail
• Reading the news
• Checking Facebook
• Taking a nap

All of these activities can either provide “income” or contain a “cost.”

So if you spend your time producing digital content to sell – there is indeed a value for your time. Your time is worth something. You have to determine what that value is – but it definitely not $0.

When you hear or read a comment like “compiling all of that material into an e-book and selling it really doesn’t cost you anything other than your time . . ..” then alarm bells should go off.

Yes – it will cost you SOMETHING.

On the other side of the equation, however, is the value you get for the investment. If “compiling all of that material into an e-book and selling it” produces value for your customers that brings value to you over and above what your time is worth then great! Good work.

If it is light on value to your customers – and light on value to you – then decide whether it’s worth the investment of your time.

If not – find something else that is.

Your thoughts?

If you’ve been following along with our earlier tutorials, you’ve put a lot of work into your blog.

(If you’d like to see our earlier free blogging tutorials – you can find them HERE.)

You can find the link to the on-line version of this tutorial about getting your blog noticed HERE.

If you’d like to download a .pdf version of the tutorial you can find it HERE.

You want to get a payback on your investment by making sure that potential readers who type relevant keywords into the Google search box are rewarded with a top-ranking link to your site. The only way this will happen is to start by making your blog “visible” to Google. This tutorial takes you through the basic steps of:

1. Creating a Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools account - Fortunately (or unfortunately – depending on how you feel about the company) Google helps you to get started via their Analytics and Webmaster Tools. The tutorial shows you how-to set-up an account if you don’t have one already so you can begin using these tools.
2. Setting-up your blog for tracking by Google Analytics – Once you’ve got your blog set-up for Google Analytics you can track where your traffic is coming from, what pages are most popular, how long visitors stay reading your blog content, plus many more important metrics. To do this you’ll place some Javascript code (provided by Google) on your blog site. When the Google-bot visits it will use this code to return the performance metrics back to Google Analytics. Then, when you’re visiting the Google Analytics site you can get great information on your blog.
3. Producing and submitting a sitemap of your blog to Google – You want to get the Google-bot to your blog as quickly as possible. Once it’s there you want to make sure it “crawls” your entire site for the content you’ve worked so hard to produce. One great way to do this is to include a site map on your blog site, and then upload this site map using Google’s Webmaster Tools. Once your site is indexed, you can update the site map with Google each time you’ve added new content or make changes to your blog that might affect how it is indexed or crawled. Webmaster Tools provides a lot of other valuable information including in-bound links to your blog, searches in-which your blog appeared, and keywords.

The definitely isn’t advanced Search Engine Optimization (SEO). But if you are just getting started blogging these are necessary steps you must take so that you can use more sophisticated SEO techniques. The key is to get Google to start crawling your site as quickly as possible so you can get your pages indexed as quickly as possible. Once this happens you can make tweaks to improve your rankings.

The tweaks can be made using the information found on the Google Analytics site. You can look at how readers find your bog, what content they spent the most time reading, and how they “exited” your blog. This information is helpful because you can make changes to content that does not seem to be appealing to your readers so it does rank higher. Also, if you find that your readers are not spending time either on your whole blog or on certain pages you can decide if it is because the content is not relevant to your target readers – or if you are attracting the wrong readers to your blog.

No doubt – Search Engine Optimization, On-Site Optimization (using keywords, internal links, anchor text, etc.) and Off-Site Optimization (getting links back to your blog, social media, etc). are complex topics. But as we said, before you start learning and experimenting with different SEO techniques you need to have done the basics.

Setting-up your blog on Google Analytics and using Google Webmaster Tools are where you can start.

We’re interested in your thoughts on other important basic SEO resources for bloggers.

Feel free to comment below.

Also – please pass along this post to anyone you feel might benefit.

The “go-to” tactic for trying to build business – and this applies to all businesses – is to offer customers a discount off of the regular price.

Does it work?

Often yes.

Does it work well?

Often no.

The trick is to know when to use discounts - and how to measure their effect on your marketing efforts and financial results.

Let’s look at a quick (and granted simplified) example using an e-book.

1. You are writing and producing a 100-page e-book

2. You’ve calculated the “Cost of Goods Sold” (COGS) for the book to be $6,000 based on -

• 100 writing hours @$50 per hour
• $500 for editing
• $500 for design work

3. Your launch sales objective is 500 books @$47.00 or $23,500

4. Your COGS for 500 books is $6,000

5. Your Gross Profit for 500 books is $17,500

6. Per book: $47 – $12 = $35 Gross Profit and a 74% Gross Margin

7, So to increase the sales you decide to create a special offer of $10 off the regular price, now $37

8. You new Profit is $25 and your new margin is 68%

9. Sounds good so far – right?

10. BUT – what if you new that you’d have to sell 40% MORE e-books (200) to achieve the same Gross Profit?

By the way – the calculation is ((Current Gross Profit / New Gross Profit) -1) * 100.

(($35/$25)-1)*100 = 40%

Before we go further let’s talk a bit about Cost of Goods Sold. In the blog world, and the digital product world in general, we continue to see statements like “the product costs nothing to produce other than your time in writing it”. This is not entirely true unless your time is worth $0. It does cost you money to create an e-book. You could use your time to do something else – consulting, recording a podcast, creating a WordPress plug-in. Your time is an investment – and based on how much you want to make, this investment should pay-off.

One more thing – we realize that in the example above that your COGS per e-book will decrease with the incremental 200 units. We’ve simplified the example for purposes of our discussion.

Now – back to the promotion.

You need to ask yourself a few questions to see if the promotion is worthwhile.

• Are you using your e-book to generate gross profit or to generate long-term customers for your business?
• If generate long-term customers, what the the value of a customer over the lifetime they do business with your blog?
• Is the promotion investment worthwhile given what a customer can be expected to purchase over time?
• If your purpose is to  generate gross profit, will the “lift” in sales provide you with the incremental sales to generate the loss due to the promotion?
• If not is there another type of promotion you can do where you do not have to give-up so much margin – or can you provide less of a discount?

If your promotion is used to gain new customers that will hopefully become long-term customers then you definitely treat your promotion investment differently. The promotion becomes a “trial” while the longer-term relationship is “continuity”. Your plan is that the gross profit you give-up with the initial promotion will be more than made-up for with subsequent purchases.

In the case of the example above, if the “lifetime value” of a customer is $1,000 in sales and $750 in profit then the initial promotional investment makes sense. However, if the only time your customers buy from you is when you’ve got a discount offer – then the investment doesn’t a lot of sense.

Using a discount promotion to gain gross profit is often difficult. A discount by definition means you are sacrificing gross profit in order to increase sales – known as “lift.” Depending on the depth of your promotion investment it may be impossible to generate enough lift to give you a positive return.

You might want to consider using discount promotions strategically – with those early adopters or influencers who can give your product positive spin either via endorsements you use on your site or through social media. You would not make these discounts permanent, they would be given for a short period of time only to those you believe can have positive impact on the “buzz” surrounding your product.

In any case use discount promotions carefully. As brick-and-mortar retailers have found-out they become addictive for customers. Customers – especially in these difficult economic times – will ONLY buy certain products when they are “on sale.”

It’s hard to lose a little on each sale and make it up on volume.

So what’s the bottom line on discounts?

Decide what you want to accomplish – Do you want to generate gross profit on the offer or is it a “trial” offer that can help you generate “continuity” business from your customers?

Are you using the discount promotion strategically or tactically? – Using a promotion strategically might include targeting “influencers” who can give your product some nice buzz. Tactically is simply using a discount promotion to increase unit sales of your product (sell more e-books).

Estimate the “lifetime value” of your customers - If you’re a new blogger you probably won’t know this but it’s something to give some thought to – if you have a loyal reader who purchases your products and services on a regular basis how much can you expect them to purchase over 1 to 3 years?

Understand your true Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) - Your time is worth money, so associate a value to the time you invest in any project. Of course – include other direct costs associated with the project.

Calculate the financial impact of your discount – it’s probably greater than you think. Use the formula above to figure out how much of an increase in sales you’ll need to offset your investment in a promotion discount.

Track your results – Did you get the sales lift you needed? How much did it cost you to get a new customer? Did you get the buzz and/or endorsements you are after? Are you accomplishing your objectives?

Discounts are one tool – but not the only tool – for promoting your products. Used with care they are beneficial. Used without careful consideration they can cause more harm than good.

Of course we’re interested in your take on using discounts – feel free to comment below.

Also, we’d appreciate you sharing this content with anyone you believe might benefit.