And don’t be fooled, despite the growth of multimedia, text is still definitely the most consumed media online.

While my business partner, Annette isn’t afraid to come out and show herself on camera, if you ask me to explain a content marketing concept out loud, I often clam up and stumbles over my words.

But no matter…

Everyone comes to their online business with a different set of skills and that’s what helps us stand out. But just because we have a preference for one media, doesn’t mean we have to limit ourselves.

If you prefer speaking or creating videos, you don’t preclude yourself from using the written word. In fact, you really shouldn’t avoid the written word because:

* It helps you reach audience that can’t access your multimedia content. Internet connections, disabilities and mobile access can all affect this.

* It helps you expand your reach. You can reach prospects who won’t consume video and publish your content in more places.

* It makes you easier to reference. If someone gets a great tip from you, it’s easier for them to find it again in print. Plus, it makes it easy to quote your awesome tidbits too.

So How Do You Get More Written Words out There?

You can use speech to text tools like Dragon Naturally Speaking. It takes some practice to get it working correctly and you do need to make sure to edit, but it’s a viable option many people swear by.

You can also have your audio and video recordings transcribed. And, by golly, we offer that service here.

When you transcribe, you can:

* Give your readers and customers an easy-reference tool after they consume your multimedia content. And you bet it’s a good reference tool for yourself, if you ever need to go back to something you’ve said in the past.

* Take that content and turn it into articles, workbooks or full-blown information products. You’re putting together stellar content in your multimedia content. You should definitely be making the most of it.

* Add valuable upsells to your information products. Whether you give the verbatim transcriptions or create a workbook out of your transcription, that is EXTRA stuff your customers will want to pay for.

Whatever you’re publishing online, there are so many ways to maximize it. Always make the most of your hard work.

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Whether it’s an article directory like ezinearticles.com, guest blog posting or submitting articles to a niche website, there is definite value in the added exposure.

The problem is, we’ve talked to a lot of people who say they’ve been sending out all this content, but their businesses aren’t growing.

The good news is, there are some easy fixes to this problem and it all starts with having the right approach to your content distribution…

Sure, distributing content is generally free, but you have to approach it just like you would any paid advertising opportunity. You need to create a GREAT offer or nobody is going to click or take any action.

You see, most articles include a byline or resource box that includes some biographical information and then introduces the writer’s website. Well, unless the reader is absolutely blown away by the article, it’s not likely they are going to click through to see anything. Or if they do click and are
taken to your generic home page that doesn’t make any type of offer, they’re going to click, maybe stay for a bit (if you’re lucky) and then click away.

Yikes! All that effort in creating stellar content goes wasted.

Instead, here’s what you can do…

1. Make sure the topic of your article leads into your byline. In other words, if you’re a health website writing about acid reflux, the byline shouldn’t be a general advertisement about your health website. It should lead them to more help/information about acid reflux because that’s what the reader is looking for.

2. Create a special / free offer landing page, so you can collect the reader’s email address. Sending a reader to your main web page or even a specific information about acid reflux isn’t enough. They’ll visit and leave, never to come back again. Instead, offer a free report, a coupon code, a free sample or anything that will have them provide their name and email address, so you can contact them over and over again.

3. Keep your byline’s focus on how you can help the reader. A little biographical information that shows your expertise is okay, but make sure you focus on the reader and your ability to relieve their pain.

For example:

“Jane Doe is a gastrointestinal specialist that has helped hundreds of people like you find complete and natural relief from acid reflux. Get your free “7-Day Guide to Acid Reflux Relief” by clicking here.”

OR

“If you’re tired of medications that don’t work and want real natural relief for acid reflux, get a free copy of the “7-Day Guide to Acid Reflux Relief” by clicking here.”

A little focus and targeting and your readers will have a reason to click through to your website and if you’ve got a great offer, they’ll more readily leave their name and email address…making your job of selling your products and growing your business a whole lot easier.

photo credit: Photo Extremist

One of the easiest ways to get truly consistent residual monthly income is to build a membership website.

Building a membership website might sound difficult at first. In reality, it’ll only be complicated the first time you’re learning the process. From then on, updating and creating new membership sites becomes much easier.

Have you ever had a site’s traffic or income go down? It’s happened to almost everyone who’s made money online for a few years. Google changes some algorithm, AdSense changes a policy, etc and your income just drops like a bucket.

Having a membership site will prevent this from happening. Even if your traffic does go down, you’ll have the residual income going for several months while you get back on your feet. It’s the only truly passive way of earning money online.

Here’s how to launch your first content-based membership website.

Preparing to Launch Your Membership Site

First of all, evaluate what kind of membership site you want to create and how you plan on pricing it.

There’s really no rule of thumb for what can work online. There are extremely successful $9 a month subscription websites. You’ll need to get 300 members to make $3,000 a month, but that could be quite a doable goal in a few months of strong marketing.

On the other hand, you can go extremely high end as well. StomperNet, an elite SEO training program, charged $1,000 a month for membership and sold out within weeks.

The program you deliver can be online or offline. Online delivery is often a much easier place to start, as you don’t have to worry about printing CDs & DVDs and handling shipping and fulfillment.

Evaluate your market. How likely are they to sign up? How is your membership program priced in relationship to your other products? If you’ve been selling $47 products successfully, it shouldn’t be too hard as sell to get your customers into a $10 a month program.

Launching a brand new business on a membership model is risky as you have no idea how the market will respond. It might take off, or it could flop – There’s no way to know except to try it.

Picking a Membership Platform

There are many different programs and platforms you can use to manage your membership program. You can use a general shopping cart like 1ShoppingCart, you can use a dedicated solution like amember that ties into your payment systems or you can use a WordPress integrated system like Wishlist.

When choosing your platform, try to pick the one that seems the easiest to setup for you. Don’t look for the “perfect” platform with all the bells and whistles. It’s much better to get your website launched in a week with a moderately powerful membership platform than to spend a month or two fiddling with technology you may or may not need.

Generating Your First Dozen Members

Now that your membership site is up, how do you actually get memberships?

Step one is to market to your existing list. Make the announcement as exciting as possible and consider giving them a discount. Make the discount recurring, so it’s even more appealing.

Add your program as a negative opt-in to your front end product. Make sure your disclosure is crystal clear. Negative opt in, where the subscription is automatically bundled unless they uncheck the box, is completely ethical and legal as long as users know what they’re signing up for. It also converts incredibly well.

Finally, do specials with other high traffic sources. For example, StomperNet primarily got their members by partnering with people who had large email lists. Also consider posting your membership website on relevant internet forums with a discount.

Managing Your Membership Site for Long Term Success

First of all, it’s important to realize that while membership income is residual, it’s not truly passive. You still need to create content on a monthly basis, handle support questions and keep the traffic coming in. That does take work. Know how much work you want to put into this project on a monthly basis and structure your business accordingly.

One thing you’ll really want think about after your membership program is launched is retention. How to get people who joined to stay on. In general, membership length for online programs is about 3 to 4 months. Increasing your retention by 25% is often much easier than increasing your traffic by 25%, yet it has the same effect on your bottom line.

Increase retention by providing stellar content, by pre-selling next month’s content every single month and by giving your users surprise gifts every once in a while to keep them on their toes.

That’s the most important basics of how to start a membership website.

Well, an article is something that can be used in many ways. Here are a few ideas for you

* Publish it on your website (yep, mentioned that)

* Submit to a directory like ezinearticles.com (yep, mentioned that)…

* Use it in a Squidoo page

* Share it with your newsletter subscribers

* Add it to an autoresponder so the article will be shared over and over again

* Share it with your social media contacts

* Submit it to a website publisher in your niche. If they expect original content, rewrite and make it fresh for their audience.

* Submit it to a print publication. Whether it’s a magazine, trade journal or just a local newsletter, go for it.

* Add it to a membership site

* Create your own print publication and publish your article. Ask local stores and offices to give it away for you.

* Take a few articles and make them into a report

* Allow your affiliates to publish the articles with their affiliate link

There are plenty of ways to use your articles, so use them to their fullest!

What I want to talk about today is how I noticed some of the things Gene does to promote his rock band ‘Kiss’. It got me thinking about the music industry in general and how good they are at creating and promoting their content (the music).

So I’ve come up with what I think are some great content marketing lessons we can all learn from rock bands. Let’s jump right into it with the first lesson…

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

You’ve heard the story before; a random unknown band has a hit song and they seem to suddenly come out of nowhere. What we don’t always know is that band wrote that song years and years ago. They knew it was good, they kept pushing and they made it a hit. Not overnight, but over time. Take this same approach with your content and you’ll realize that getting your content out there is a marathon, not a race.

People Love Their Favorites

36 years later Kiss is still singing ‘Rock and Roll All Night’ (originally released in 1975). John Lennon is still singing ‘Imagine’. Rod Stewart still sings ‘Maggie Mae’. Rock stars don’t write a song and sing it once. They sing it again and again and again. Think about this in your own business with your content. Ask yourself how you can reuse your content and make the most of the work you put

Free Content Grows Your Business

Metallica doesn’t get this, Nine Inch Nails does. The rock band NIN went so far as to make their whole album free. Metallica, on the other hand, took one of their fans to court for stealing their music. Giving away free content, your best free c ontent, can bulid your business. It’s important to note here that Nine Inch Nails didn’t give away any old garbage, they gave away an album that they would and could have charged for (while making good coin), but they decided to create good will towards their fans by giving it away for free. What can you offer your market for free that they’d be more than happy to pay for? Think about that.

Have ‘Fans’, Not ‘Customers’

Why is it when people BUY music and concert tickets they are called fans? Ever consider they are customers enjoying a product just like any other business? Fan is short for ‘fanatical’ and that’s how you want your customers to be about your business. In the case of Gene Simmon’s band Kiss they actual call them their ‘Army’. Whatever they call them, the music industry understands how important it is to build an audience and keep them happy. These people are sometimes referred to as your ‘tribe’ (ala Seth Godin). You don’t need millions in your army like Kiss does to get great results from your content, so start building those fans by focusing on quality, now.

I bet if you think about it you could come up with a whole lot more lessons from rock bands who’ve made it big. They are smart marketers who know how to promote good content. Start with the lessons above, take what you need and start promoting your content. Don’t waste all the time and effort you’d spent to create great content – market it, spread your message and build your business stronger.

All the best in your content marketing and promotions!