Content Mastery Guide

Editor and Ghostwriter

If it’s free on my blog, why would someone pay for it?

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Free-samples I’ve heard several variations of this question, but the most recent one came from an Action Club member. She’s working on a pink spoon for her website, and she’s going to be repurposing some of her blog posts.

She was planning to remove those blog posts from her website, until I strongly recommended she leave them where they are.

“But Linda,” she asked, “If they sign up to get the report and then discover later they could have found the same information without signing up, won’t they be mad?”

I can’t say for sure how every individual will react, but I can tell you that two of my own books (Ten Ways to Thrive as a Creative Artist and Write Your Way to More Clients Online) are made up of content that is freely available on my blogs (Everyday Artist and Content Mastery Guide).

I love the analogy that Andrea J. Lee uses in response to this question. She’ll ask, “Who is your favourite musician?” and then, “Well, if you have their CDs or MP3s, why would you ever go to a concert?”

Did that get you thinking about this a little differently?

The way I see it, there are five reasons people will happily pay (or sign up) for something they can find for free on your blog:

  1. It’s prettier – The book, report, bundle or package is usually neater and prettier than what they’ll find on your blog (Charie Gilkey took this up a few thousand notches with Living the Good Life, a beautifully illustrated compilation of blog posts, together with audio recordings that tell the stories behind the posts).
  2. It’s handier – The information is organized for them, and right at their fingertips (saving them time and energy when they’re looking for a specific solution).
  3. It’s deeper – They’re looking to start or deepen a relationship with you by connecting on another level.
  4. It’s friendlier – It creates a feeling of belonging to your tribe and being in an inner circle.
  5. It’s bigger – When you combine many parts to make a whole, you can offer a wider and/or more detailed perspective. You can also combine your written content with other media, supportive services or bonuses.

And it works the other way, as well. You can take pieces of your bigger projects and share those on your blog, or adapt them into blog posts.

I hear just as many concerns about giving away something you’re already selling. Here are my five reasons to post excerpts of your paid resources freely on your blog:

  1. It’s a reminder – We all buy things and forget about them. Seeing an excerpt on your blog can get your existing readers excited about the product again.
  2. It’s an update – As time passes and you learn and discover new ideas, you may choose to update the content, and people will appreciate your commitment to their learning and development (and your own!).
  3. It’s new to someone – What if you’ve only reached the tip of the iceberg of all the people you’re going to help in this world. Maybe some have seen/read/bought your materials, but what about all those who haven’t?
  4. It’s a backstage pass – It also gives prospective clients and readers a glimpse into that “inner circle” you’ve created of the people who already appreciate your ideas, and are successfully implementing them.
  5. It’s a sample – Prospective clients and readers will learn more about you and what you’re offering. They’ll also get a sense of whether you’ll be a good fit if or when they’re ready to buy. This is the heart of content marketing.

I know that you have content you could be packaging together or dividing apart. When a new visitor lands on your site, what masterful content will be there waiting?

Should You Outsource Your Social Media? Yes and No

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Building your business with social media takes time and consistency. And with entire blogs, courses and books devoted to doing social media “right,” it can be intimidating to get started.

Some people wish – and maybe you’re one of them – they could just hand this whole social media thing over to someone else. So when they find out I’m a ghostwriter who specializes in web content, they sometimes ask, “Linda, will you ‘do’ my social media for me?”

The short answer is “no,” but the longer answer is “yes and no.” Let me explain:

In social media, there are two equally important components – content and connection.

Content is made up of all the great ideas, opinions, perspectives and resources that you want to share with your network, often via your blog. Having masterful content is the best way to promote your business on social media and help people get to know you.

Connection is all of the back-and-forth interaction you have with current and prospective clients, as well as your fellow business owners, neighbours and other online friends. This is how you get to know people.

More importantly, by connecting directly to your readers and colleagues, you’ll get to see which content they’re looking at and liking. What do they link to or forward along to their networks? When you post something new, do you get comments and interaction, or do you just hear crickets?

Pay attention! These details will teach you more about how to create the content that would be most helpful to your readers.

Many hands make masterful content

Yes! You can outsource your content creation by working with a writer and/or editor who can take your ideas and help you put them into writing.

Ghost blogging is a big part of what I do. My clients and I work together to create feature articles, along with related pieces of connective content they can post to their blog and/or send via email to their mailing list.

Along with that, I’ll usually provide several social media updates for each post. These are designed to announce the new content and invite my clients’ social networks to view it.

And the outsourcing doesn’t have to stop there. Many of my clients have a VA or other team member who will publish the piece to their blog and/or email service provider (or maybe they’ve automated their weekly newsletter), as well as pre-scheduling their social media updates.

Relationships are built through direct connection

No! I won’t and can’t effectively handle this part for you – and neither can anyone else, in my opinion. Connection must come directly from you, or you’re not building the kinds of honest, trusting relationships that will grow your business – not to mention the ethical considerations of someone else pretending to be you.

So even when you’ve outsourced and gotten help with content creation and publication, it’s YOUR job to monitor any responses.

If you’re concerned about missing these messages – or you don’t want to lose productivity by constantly checking your accounts, sign up for a free service like Postling. They’ll notify you by email once a day, or even the instant someone mentions you in a social network or anywhere else on the web.

Aside from posting your own content and responding to comments, it’s also your role to start new conversations and comment on other people’s content. Social networking is just like networking offline, and you’ll succeed by applying these networking basics:

  • Be visible
  • Be positive
  • Help out
  • Educate

To maintain your productivity (and sanity), try blocking out specific times through the day when you’ll go into your Postling account (or other social media dashboard) to participate in conversations and/or start some new ones. Batching the tasks this way will help you make conscious choices about how much time you’re spending on social media.

So by all means, outsource the task of creating great content to share on social media. After all, it’s a lot easier to plant your flag of expertise on top of a mountain of content. Then, practice applying your offline networking skills to this new medium. Let’s keep this social – and fun!

Weekly Blog Posts I’d Like to See from Beaches Fine Market Grill in Barrie

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Beaches-grill I'm not the easiest person to cook for. Between the foods that don't agree with me and the ones I stay away from for health reasons, there's not a lot to work with!

That's why I'm always glad to find a restaurant that can accommodate me and still make my meals taste amazing.

I recently met Tom Friedli, co-owner (with his wife Dale) of Beaches Fine Market Grill here in Barrie. I had an amazing meal featuring fresh, local food, and it got me thinking: How could Tom apply some of the weekly blogging techniques I covered in last week's call about how to be a weekly blogger?

For starters, I'd like to see a feature article that reinforces the philosophies of the business, e.g., the health benefits of eating locally-produced food.

Following up that article, I'd like to read about one of their suppliers, e.g., a local farm, and hear more about where my food comes from.

Then, maybe in another week, I could get the background story on one of their regular customers and hear about why eating locally is important to him or her.

At the end of the month, maybe Tom could provide some tips for shopping at the farmer's market – since I can't eat ALL of my meals at his restaurant.

And in each email, why not tantalize me by describing a featured menu item – maybe something a little different that I wouldn't have thought to try.

Receiving these gems by email every week, would I be more likely to think of Beaches Fine Market Grill the next time someone asks me to join them for a meal or a coffee? Absolutely! I'll probably be dreaming up reasons to eat out!

There, Tom, now you're set for the month! You can thank me later, and YES, I will work for food 😉

Just kidding! I definitely paid for my own meal at Beaches Fine Market Grill, and this blog post was my idea, not Tom's. I wanted to show all of you that thinking of weekly blog post ideas can be creative, fun and easy! Stay tuned, because I'll be posting more ideas using other businesses as examples.

UPDATE! March 23, 2011 – Tom's new blogging journey has begun: Fresh, locally sourced food…many PROs…any CONs?

Curious what kind of ideas I might have for YOUR weekly blog posts? You can submit your blog for consideration and I will write a post just like this one – but it will be about YOU, YOUR business and YOUR prospective clients.

Click here to apply now.

Automating Your Weekly Newsletter

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If you’re not sure where you’ll find the time to create a weekly newsletter, never fear! Once you’re writing weekly blog posts, there are ways to automate the task.

Option #1: Create a customizable email broadcast of your blog posts

I have been very happy with AWeber’s Blog Broadcast feature. Every Tuesday at 5:00 a.m., it gathers together all of the blog posts I’ve written since the previous Tuesday, and plops them into a new broadcast draft – using a template I created with Kristen Beireis and her team a few years ago.

Later that day, I go into the draft and add a personal note. I also revise the descriptive paragraph that my subscribers see for each blog post.

By default, this text is the first paragraph of my post, but I rewrite that to be a more compelling introduction. Usually I mix and match content from the post, but sometimes I write something completely new. I try to put myself into my readers’ shoes and imagine what would interest them about the post.

Once I’m finished these personal touches, my newsletter is ready to go. The last step is to create a test copy and read it out loud before I send it to my list.

[Update May 5, 2014: I now use MailChimp’s RSS-to-Email service, described below.]

Option #2: Create a fully automated email broadcast of your blog posts

With AWeber, I also have the option to send the blog broadcast automatically, without customizing the descriptive paragraphs or adding a personal note. And MailChimp has a similar feature called RSS-to-Email.

The two key benefits of using one of these services are:

  1. You’re not creating a new mailing list in a completely separate program. You’ll be reaching out to exactly the same people (or a segment of that group) who have already signed up for your pink spoon (you do have a pink spoon, don’t you?). Just be explicit about what people will get when they sign up.
  2. You can use your own branded template, so these emails will look the same as the other emails you send to your list.

FeedBlitz and Feedburner are two other services that allow you to send fully automated emails of your new blog posts. FeedBlitz also allows you to send additional newsletters to your subscribers, and has many of the same functions as AWeber and MailChimp – so FeedBlitz could potentially be your sole email service provider.

Feedburner is a feed distribution service that enables readers to subscribe to your blog in a “feed reader.” But you can also use it to create automated emails of your new blog posts, and it does this very well. If you’re not concerned about sending other messages to your list – or if you don’t mind having two lists (or more) to keep track of, Feedburner is a good option.

NOTE: If you’re going to use Feedburner, be sure to read this post from my friend Sandra De Freitas: How to Customize the Subject of Your Feedburner Emails.

[Update January 19, 2013: Google has stopped providing support for Feedburner. If you’re starting at the beginning, I would recommend using one of the other options.]

If you can get into the groove of writing weekly content, these automation options can help you extend your reach with not much extra effort.

Remember that automation is personal – by setting up these helpful tools, you’re making it easier to get your content into the hands of your readers in different ways. So it’s more likely you’ll tap into the way they prefer to receive information from you.

Before you even think about weekly emails…

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Do you have an email service provider?

Starting and growing a mailing list will be a key part of your content marketing strategy. While it’s easier and quicker than ever to publish your thoughts using online tools such as blogs and other social media tools, just putting your content out there is not enough.

When you have a list of people who have shown interest in what you do and agree to hear from you again, you can build on that initial contact to grow those relationships. Whether they hire you personally, refer you or simply pass along your information to someone else who may hire you or refer you, you never know what can come out of staying in touch.

An email service provider allows you to broadcast emails to a group of people at once. Using one of these services is the best way to ensure that you are complying with anti-spam regulations. Each company offers their own collection of tools to help you grow your mailing list and keep in touch with your readers, clients and prospective clients.

I use and recommend AWeber*. They’re a pioneer in the industry and are constantly evolving and innovating. I’ve also heard excellent things about MailChimp, Constant Contact and iContact.

If you’re blogging (which I hope you are), AWeber, MailChimp and FeedBlitz (and perhaps others) each make it easy to send blog updates. They provide a template that automatically compiles your latest blog posts so you can send links to those in a broadcast email to everyone on your mailing list.

(*The above text was adapted from Write Your Way to More Clients Online. As of June 2013 I have been using MailChimp to deliver the Blogging Tips newsletter.)

If you want your prospective clients to think of you when they’re ready to take action, you need to be in their Inbox more often (you can’t be last week’s news). But before you even consider increasing your email frequency, make sure you have an email service provider in place.