10 Best Habits for Great Content

The New Year provides a great opportunity to reset writing habits that will allow you to build better content and a stronger website. Becoming a better writer does include writing better content, but other traits and habits are equally important for providing great content on a consistent basis.

10 Tips for Content Writing Habits

1. Be Accountable – the number one complaint I hear about writing personal content is that there is no motivation to write that content. So many website owners put off doing their own content because it can be done “any time.” Having an editor that checks your content (even a friend that is in the industry) may be the one extra push you need to get the work done. Developing an accountability group that meets regularly to discuss goals and actions may also help.

2. Say it Again – write the same material multiple times making one article longer and one shorter. Link these all together and post them on different article directories. Rewriting will build your editing skills and also provide you with more content to share on other sites.

3. Give to Receive – spend some time every day visiting other forums and websites in your niche. Take a few moments to comment on these sites with relevant and helpful information.

4. Go Back to School – there are hundreds of online courses and classes that can help you improve your content writing skills. Many of the top industry sites provide regular challenges to help you build your content and improve your website. Make a commitment to participate in one class, course or challenge every month.

5. Step Outside the Box – write something you do not normally write. Fiction writers should write in a different genre. Non-fiction writers should tackle a little fiction. You may not ever use the material that you create from the experiment but it will make you think about words in a new way which will make your ordinary content writing a little more extraordinary.

6. Manage the Time – the number one complaint I heard from editors this year is that writers do not meet deadlines. Managing your time through schedules and lists will help you improve your reputation in the industry. More importantly, the better you manage the time that you have then the more time you will discover in the process allowing you to do even more than you thought possible.

7. Keep it to Yourself – sharing content is an important part of expanding your online presence. Creating content that rants about other people, websites or companies may not be the best content for sharing. Sharing complaints may be necessary in some situations, but tread lightly. Talking about others in the industry – particularly by name – can do more to crush your own reputation than it may do to injury theirs.

8. Get Organized – not only do you need to have your writing organized, but you need your paperwork organized. Organization is the key to having the time and the money that you need to get to where you want to be. The right organization will help you get tax deductions, develop new writing content and even expand your industry connections. A little time spent getting organized can add hours to your day, days to your weeks and weeks to your year!

9. Write – it sounds silly, but there are many people out there right now wondering what the key to building a website might be and they have not written a single word in the last few weeks. Write every chance that you get. Post some of what you write and reserve some of what you write. Great content is a lot like money. If you use all that you have you will not have what you need when you get into a pinch.

10. Make a Plan – you cannot know how to get where you are going with your content writing if you do not know where you want to go. Take the time to understand what you want from your content. Write out these goals and then use these goals to help you plot the right content writing plan for your needs.

There is not magic bullet for content writing success. Every journey will be unique to the individual. The best plan for content writing success in 2010 is to develop the habits that will make your content writing the best that it can be.

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The Importance of Sharing Content

“It is better to give than to receive.” That phrase gets tossed around a lot, particularly during the holiday season. Giving creates a special feeling in both the giver and the getter, so giving is good. But giving content does so much more for you and your website.

Offering your content to other websites through blog carnivals, article directories or guest blogs can all serve to compensate you well beyond any pay that you may, or may not, receive. There are several reasons that you should consider sharing your content to help build your own website.

Reasons for Sharing Content

1. Links from other sites. Quality links from other sites in your niche will help to build your page rank with the search engines. Ask for a link back to your site and even an author block that tells about your writing when you offer your content to be shared on other sites.

2. New readers. The main goal of most sites is to get more readers. That can be accomplished through search engines alone, but word of mouth is still the greatest form of advertising. Having your content on other sites will help to draw visitors to your own site.

3. Industry relationships. Working with other website owners when sharing your content will help to build relationships with those owners. Through those relationships you will discover new sites, new people and new tools that will help to expand your online world even more and continue to grow your own site.

4. Build expertise. The more your name comes up in reference to a particular subject then the more that people will begin to view you as an expert in that field. Sharing your content on other sites allows readers to begin to recognize your expertise by viewing you outside of your own website.

5. The gift of giving. Helping out others, building up others or just sharing in general are all great for your own inner strength and energy. Zig Ziglar says that you will get what you want in life if you help enough people get what they want. Sharing your content does not have to be about what you get in return because what you give has a way of making it back around just when you need it most.

Building up your website may be the ultimate goal, but there are so many more benefits to sharing content than just raising a few numbers. Building up your online community comes with the same challenges that you face when building face to face relationships. You have to make connections and helping others can be one of the best ways to make those connections. Sharing your content with other niche websites will offer you more compensation in the end than any amount of money could match.

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The Benefits of Seasonal Content

With Christmas almost here, I’d first like to wish all of our readers a happy and safe holiday season and a wonderful, healthy and profitable new year. And second, I’d like to discuss the benefits of seasonal content.

Yes, it’s a little late to start thinking about putting up Christmas content for this year. But if you’re really feeling the Christmas spirit, there’s no reason you can’t put that creative energy to use and start writing for next Christmas. And there are plenty of other seasons and holidays coming up between now and then, so seasonal content is something that should always be on our minds.

Why? Because it brings in traffic year after year!

There are plenty of websites that focus solely on seasonal content. They bring in very little traffic during most of the year, but when the season for which they were designed rolls around, they experience a surge in visitors. These types of sites are usually owned by webmasters with lots of online real estate, and they often create sites that are focused on various seasons or holidays to keep overall traffic (and hence income) coming in year-round.

But what if you only own one website, or a few sites that aren’t seasonal in nature? Is incorporating seasonal content still a good idea?

Actually, it is, as long as it’s relevant to your site’s niche. Here are a few reasons that it works so well:

• It gives the impression that your site contains fresh, new content. Even if your strategy is to build websites filled with content and then concentrate more on getting traffic than creating new content, visitors that find seasonal content will feel that you’re providing timely information. And that will keep them coming back for more.
• Relatively few websites feature seasonal content. That means that it’s easier to get good search engine rankings for seasonal keywords than it is for more general ones. And higher rankings, as we all know, equal more traffic.
• It gives you good topics for blogging. If you’re stuck for something to blog about, you can always write a post about the current or upcoming season or holiday. Your readers will like it now, and by the same time next year, the search engines will be familiar enough with it to send plenty of extra traffic your way.
• Holiday traffic can be quite profitable. Just about every holiday has become very consumer-oriented. For Christmas, we buy gifts for friends and family. On Valentine’s Day, we buy cards, chocolates and other goodies for our sweethearts. On Independence Day, we buy fireworks and flags. And so on. Create holiday content and surround it with appropriate advertising and affiliate links, and your traffic will quickly turn into dollars.

Seasonal content can provide a welcome boost in visitors to virtually any website, so don’t let the holidays pass you by! Plan your holiday content ahead of time, and reap the rewards when the holidays arrive.

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How to Whip Out a Blog Post in the Midst of Holiday Chaos

It’s the holiday season, the end of the year is rapidly approaching. Customers and prospects are trying to squeeze in their last minute needs. TurboTax is sending you notifications that indicate you’re way behind in tax preparation and oh, yeah there’s all the personal holiday craziness you need to attend to.

Family is knocking on the door, their presents are unwrapped on the kitchen table and something is burning in the oven.

And, you’ve committed to write a blog post and haven’t even had time to consider what it is about let alone write it.

Sound familiar?

This is when it’s time to pull out the handy dandy list. You know, the top 10 best such and such type of list that readers just love to read?

Lists are great for those last minute posts because other than a few guidelines, they don’t require a whole lot of creativity.

Here are the top 7 things to consider when writing a list for publication.

#1  Make it relevant to your audience’s needs.

#2  Make it timely. A top ten list from last year isn’t going to do anyone any good.

#3 Make it personal. Share a bit of a story in the first paragraph or even throughout the list to give the piece some personality.

#4 Still take the time to write a great, attention grabbing headline.

#5 Stay on point. Sometimes it’s easy to wander with a list and the top 10 best places to stay with your pet, for example, becomes a larger piece on how to travel with your pet.

#6  Keep your audience in mind. Will they benefit from the content or are you just slapping up bullet points to fill a page?

#7  Don’t publish lists too often. Yes, they do well online because they’re easy to read and offer valuable content but unless your niche is lists, and there are some out there, write and publish lists selectively.

So turn off that oven, whatever is burning in there is done. Throw a table cloth over the yet to be wrapped presents and let your family in the door. Your business is fine, the tax man can wait (boy can the tax man wait). Grab a cup of something, coffee, eggnog, champagne or whatever, and take 10 or so minutes to write that blog post you promised you’d write. You can do it!

Happy Holidays!

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Where to Find Content Ideas in the “Real” World

Previously, I shared two ways of getting content ideas online: through keyword research and through web 2.0 sites. This time, let’s explore how you can find topic ideas offline.

This is going to be lots of fun and, unlike doing research online, won’t make you all flabby

Are you ready? Grab your purse and go to your favorite bookstore and take a look at…

Books

Books in your niche or market are a good source of content ideas. The table of contents will easily give you at least half a dozen new topics. Also take note of the blurb at the back cover of the book. This is where publishers typically highlight the most attractive parts or angle of the book. Take inspiration from there as well.

While you’re in the bookstore, pick up a few…

Magazines

Magazines are another good source of content ideas. They always strive to stay on top of a particular market, so magazines are a good source of fresh and current topics. Flip through the pages and skim the articles. You can also find topic ideas in advertisements and letters to the editor.

It’s also a good idea to read…

Newspapers

Newspapers are a good source of new developments and latest issues on a variety of topics. You may not always find one that’s directly related to your market or niche. However, you’ll easily find topics that are related to more general subject matter. For example, news about H1N1 can spark a content idea whether your niche is natural health, parenting, fitness, self-development or something else.

Similarly, you can find topic ideas from…

Television, radio and film

Again, the radio and TV news are  a good source of content ideas about what’s happening in your market. But so are documentaries, talk shows and even purely fictional programs produced for entertainment. I once used American Idol as a take-off point for a client’s sales page – for a marketing product. Who would have thought?

Now if you really want to dominate a market, it’s time to attend…

Live seminars

Imagine being completely immersed in your niche for at least a couple of days. The seminar topics themselves will give you enough content fodder for a year of blogging. Also take note of the questions raised during open forums. Your readers probably have the same questions, too.

Now that you’ve had a taste of a live event, you should also try to go to…

Industry meetings and trade shows

These can be more serious than a live seminar, but just as inspirational for a content producer like you. The meeting agenda is a good source of content topics. You’ll also find plenty of raw material for your content from the meeting’s resolutions and recommendations.

Trade shows can introduce you to new products and services for your market. They’ll also alert you to emerging trends in your niche.

What Should You Be Looking For?

As you can see, you can mine the world around you for content ideas. It’s easiest to spot specific topics you can create content about. But don’t forget other people’s content that you can respond to. If you find new developments, trends and notable products on the horizon, report about them to your readers.

Even entertainment media can be a good way of sparking new ideas. Use them to find metaphors for something in your niche. Something like, “10 Online Marketing Lessons from the Twilight Saga.” Or, “How Tiger Woods Inspired Me to Become a Better Virtual Assistant.” Content like this shows off your creativity and ability to create compelling and unique content.

I hope this post inspires you to get away from the computer once in a while and engage with the world that’s around you. Remember, before you became a blogger (or online content producer), you were a person with a passion and interest for life. Don’t lose that.

What’s Your Offline Experience?

Have you ever gotten a brilliant idea for content from the offline world? If so, please post a comment below and tell us all about it.

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7 Steps to Better Content

Great websites demand great content. Getting great content comes easily – on some days. Finding great content that can draw your readers can be more difficult for even good writers on those other days. Life gets in the way of content writing. During those moments it is wise to have a step by step plan together that can help you write better content. Knowing where to find the ideas, what to write and how to write will make content easier even when the tough times come.

7 Tips for Better Content

1.Start with a great title. Sometimes content will write itself if you have the right title. It needs to be something that catches the attention of the readers and makes them want to read more. “Top 10” lists, “How to” articles, and controversy are all ways to get that second glance from readers.

2.Make an outline. Write out a list of five to ten points you want to cover in the content article. It will help you clarify what you want to say and will make writing easier.

3.Keep up with the times. Current content is often the best content. Be aware of the trends and news worthy items going on in your niche and use those to develop your ideas.

4.Get support. Having other writing and blogging friends that can feed your ideas can be the easiest way to develop great content. You can also ask for guest posts in those times when you just can seem to get the content together on your own.

5.Follow the learning curve. What are you experiencing right now? Share the experiences that you are learning in your niche. Others will gain from that experience. Your experiences can ignite great content faster than education any day. The passion that you have while you are in the middle of something will flow over into the content that you are creating.

6.Share the love. Talk about the things that you enjoy about other blogs and websites. Link back to those websites. Remember the lesson from the movie “Miracle on 54th Street,” give them what they want not what you have. Readers will appreciate you sending them somewhere to learn instead of you trying to repeat the same advice without the same skills, experiences or education.

7.Respond to your comments. The things that your readers are saying in the comments can often be the perfect inspiration to write more content. Give a nod to the reader that inspired the new article. The new content is not only good for generating new visitors but it will serve as a way of building the community with the readers that already stop by to visit your website.

Writing content can be a challenge on any day. Writing good content that will draw in readers will always be a challenge no matter how good the day may be going. Infuse your own experiences and passion into the words that you write and focus on building your website community and you will discover that the content practically writes itself.

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