Paper & Pen

Perhaps you’ve heard of these items from the olden days.

In today’s digital world we don’t rely on paper and pen very much. But personally, I love my handy-dandy notebook and pen for my online business for a few reasons:

• Writing things down on paper means full concentration. There are no Internet distractions with good old fashioned paper.  No Twitter, YouTube or email.

• You get time to really review and think before you publish anything in digital format. Normally, you log into WordPress, type something and hit publish without much though. Paper gives you the opportunity for more well thought out content and copy.

• It’s accessible anytime. I have an iPhone and it has built in notes, but it’s not quite the same. Getting my thoughts out on paper whenever the need arises just feels right. It’s also easy to refer to and add ideas. Some of my best notebook pages are a mess of crossed out ideas, arrows and extra notes. It’s how my brain works!

Now, I’m not saying I write everything on paper before I publish it. It’s just an extra tool for organizing thoughts and ideas…and sometimes comes in very handy.

Here’s what I use paper and pen for:

• Business planning. I take stock in what I’ve going on, what can stay, what I can do better and what needs to be scrapped.

• Promotion planning. I work out a schedule for promotions, what emails will be written (and what will be said) and any freebies that need to be put together.

• Content ideas. I love making lists of topic ideas (you know, an editorial calendar). It makes it easier to crank out the content later when I’m in a writing mood.

• Article and blog post writing. I get paper out when I’m having trouble focusing, am out and about. Sometimes I write full articles and other times, just point form ideas.

• To do lists. Again, we’ve got all kinds of digital options for to do lists, but writing it on paper makes me slow down and think about if something really belongs on my to do list.

Keeping Your Notebook Organized:

If you’re using a notebook for all kinds of things I mentioned above, it can become a mish-mashed mess and you might prefer to have a few notebooks. Personally, I work from one notebook. I find it simpler, easier to carry around and refer to whenever I need. My high-tech and very sophisticated trick is simply to use post-it flags. The flags make it easy to find my current to-do list, my business plan, editorial calendar, etc. The folks at 3M are geniuses.

Of course, we’ve all got our own preference, but if you haven’t used paper and pen in a while, I highly recommend it. The focus, the extra time to think and brainstorm…it’s priceless.

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Are Your Using an Editorial Calendar?

A few month’s ago the esteemed Alexis Rodrigo blogged about New Year’s Resolutions for Content Marketer (It’s #8 on the list).  So the question is….are you using an Editorial Calendar?

What is An Editorial Calendar?

Quite simply, it’s a list of the content you’re going to publish with corresponding publication dates. You can find samples of what an editorial calendar can look like here:

Notice that this particular calendar from PC World has a schedule for print and online content.  While your calendar doesn’t need to be presentable to the public, you will likely have numerous categories listed.

For example, online, autoresponder, article marketing, reports and so on.

Why Use an Editorial Calendar?

Planning your content in advance offers a number of benefits:

• It makes it easy to outsource your content.
  
• It makes creating content a breeze because you don’t have to worry about what you’re going to write about.
• It helps you plan your marketing and advertising promotions.
• It reduces stress.
• You’re less likely to miss blog posts if it’s scheduled in advance.
• You’re able to focus your attention on other profitable tasks.

How To Create an Editorial Calendar?

The easiest approach is to grab a notebook and a desktop calendar and to plan your content.  It’s recommended to plan a year in advance, however you’d prefer, you can plan three or six months in advance.

Once you have a plan on notebook paper, then consider taking two steps. The first is to create your plan in an easy to access manner. That may be printed out and tacked to your bulletin board or saved as a document on your computer.

Additionally, consider adding the content to your daily/weekly planner, Outlook for example. That way when you’re busy you’ll be notified automatically when you have content scheduled.

If you’re not using an editorial calendar, consider adopting the tool. It’s tremendously useful and it’ll help you stay on top of your content and ahead of your competition.

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How To Improve Your Writing Skills

One of the most common questions I hear from people on the street is, “How do I become a better writer?” It’s most often followed by a book recommendation and while there are definitely some very good books on writing, there’s really only one (okay maybe two) ways to improve your writing skills.

#1  Practice. It doesn’t matter if you were born with a talent for writing or if your struggling, the best way to improve your writing skills is to write.  If you’re a business owner you may be shaking your head and saying, “Well that doesn’t really help me, I need to write well now.”

To that, I say:

* Plan your content before you write it:

- Determine the purpose of your content, keep the purpose simple

- Introduce your purpose in the first paragraph, include supporting material like a list, steps or a few points, and then summarize

* Write your content without editing yourself (save the editing for the end)

* Set it aside for at least ten minutes, several hours is preferable so you can contemplate the content without judging your writing skills

* Edit the piece.

This basic structure works well whether you’ve been writing for years or are just getting started.  And the more you write, the better you’ll get.  However, if you combine #1 with #2 here below, your writing will improve faster.

#2 Study people whose writing you admire. Study it thoughtfully.  What is the structure?  What is the purpose?  Why is the writing good?  What do you like about it?  Emulate the writing style in your practice.

Combining the two steps, analyzing your writing and the writing styles of people you admire and putting that thought process into your writing is called “deep practice.”  It’s the type of practice that involves problem solving rather than rote practice.

For example, if you’re hitting a tennis ball the same way over and over again that’s fine, you’re going to get better at hitting the tennis ball that way.

However, if you want to improve your forehand stroke, you need to first determine where it’s weak and break your stroke down into a series of smaller steps.  This is deep practice and when you apply it to your writing practice, you’ll improve by leaps and bounds almost overnight.

If you’re interested in learning more about deep practice and how to improve any skill, not just writing, check out “The Talent Code,” by Daniel Coyle.

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New PLR Bundle: H1N1 / Swine Flu Articles

It’s no secret that the H1N1 / swine flu virus has gotten a lot of attention this past year and it’s a topic people are constantly looking for information about.

At All Private Label Content, we’ve put together a new H1N1 / Swine Flu PLR article bundle so you can share helpful information with your readers. It’s got 15 articles that will be of interest to people seeking information about the virus.

Article topics include avoiding H1N1, staying healthy, vaccinations
and more. You also get a list of suggested affiliate program to monetize your content and 1 month’s access to the members-only forum. Click here for a full list of articles.

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Turn Your Audio Transcription into a Workbook

If you’ve ever seen audio transcribed and added to an information product,  you know while it can be an informative document, it can be a bit dry. It doesn’t always make it  easy for your customers to take that information and put it into action.

One way you can add more usefulness to your transcript and convert it into a highly-usable workbook.

Not sure how to do that? Here are some tips…

1.    Transcribe the audio. It’s easier to work from print than from an audio recording. Plus, you’ll add more value to your information product by providing the full transcript as well.

2.    Break down the transcription into sections…much like you’d have chapters in an ebook or report.

3.    For each section, think of the main learning points. From there you can have your customers answer questions, do brainstorming and complete exercises on those main points.

For example, if you’re teaching your readers how to save money on their banking/credit fees, you can create a useful workbook by including:

•    A checklist for researching local bank fees.
•    Calculations on how much your customers are really spending.

Or if you’ve held a teleseminar on creating a membership site, put together a workbook with:

•    A checklist of membership software features.
•    A step-by-step planning guide to set up the site.

You get the point. Just taking the time to make your product more USEFUL and PRACTICAL to your readers can go a long way. It goes a long to increase your customer satisfaction and increase the price you ask for your product…and your customers will happily pay.

Don’t Feel Like Messing Around with Transcripts & Workbook Creation?

We can actually do it for you at All Custom Content and for the month of December, you can get a discount. All you have to do is use our transcription services and then we’ll convert your audio into a workbook for only $12 for each page.

To learn more about our transcription services, go here.

To get your workbook creation discount, simply complete the inquiry form on the page above. Be sure to mention in the comments area, that you are looking for “$12 per page transcription to workbook conversion December special”.

Get it started in December and you’ll be ready to launch your product for the New Year!

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New PLR Bundle: Running / Jogging

With the New Year just around the corner (unbelievable, hey?), now’s the perfect time to start publishing content about running, jogging and getting into shape. Get the content on your side, let the search engines index it and you’ll be ready for 2010 traffic.

At All Private Label Content, we’ve put together a new running bundle, complete with PLR rights to make it easy for you.

Topics include: Running for Beginners, Running Injuries, Treadmill Running and more.

Get all the details here.

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