While I'm not completely averse to hard work, I see no need
in working hard when I don't absolutely have to. One way
that you can work a bit easier in your online business is
to re-purpose any articles or content you're writing for
your email newsletter. This philosophy of "write once, use
endlessly" has help me immeasurably over the years to
expand my marketing reach further than I ever thought
possible without having to create massive amounts of new
content all the time.
How do I do it? I have on my schedule to create 1 new
article each week for my ezine, and then use the methods
listed below the maximize my investment of time in writing
the article:
1 — Create a podcast. Make a digital recording of your
article using one of any number of audio recording devices
or software like Audacity, for example. Before recording, I
copy my article to a Word doc and enlarge the font to 14 or
so for easy reading and then practice my script (article)
several times to ensure I don't stumble in the recording
process.
I've also created an intro that leads me into the
article topic for the week, and close with an offer for my
listeners. Then, post your podcast to podcast directories.
In about 30 minutes, you've created yet another marketing
strategy for yourself.
2 — Add to your blog. Every article that I write for my
newsletter is also posted to my blog. I'm often asked
whether this is overkill, since I already publish an ezine,
and whether the search engines penalize me for redundant
content. As far as I can tell, I've never been penalized
for having the same article appear in multiple places.
In fact, Google seems to index any posts on my blog within
hours. I'm able to see that because the Google alerts I
have set up for my name, my company name, and a variety of
other search terms update me daily about where I'm being
mentioned online. And, some people love to read and
respond to blogs while others would rather read ezines.
So, by doing both, I appeal to both audiences with only
minutes of extra effort.
3 — Post to your website. I estimate that easily 60% of my
traffic comes to my website via keyword searches that match
the topics of articles that I've written. And, I'm
constantly sending both current and prospective clients to
my site for additional information on a topic that enhances
a recent discussion I've had with them.
Make sure that you
have your articles indexed in usable categories that make
sense to your target market so that they can easily find
your words of expertise when they search for it online.
4 — Create your "freebie." Unfortunately, the offer
of a free ezine in return for someone's name and contact
info is no longer adequate today to compel someone to
easily part with their contact information.
Now you have
to up the ante and offer a free report or free recording or
ebook to persuade someone to join your list. Your articles
are a perfect source for this. In fact, the free ebook
that I offer for joining my list is a compilation of a
number of articles on the topic of getting traffic to your
website.
5 — Submit to article banks. Distributing your articles
via thousands of article banks help you increase your
traffic, as Internet searchers might find an article at an
article directory initially and then visit your website
upon reading your resource box (short bio) at the end of
the article.
Article submission also establishes your
credibility as an expert, especially when you tell a
prospective client to Google you and they're amazed by all
the references to you online. Lastly, this article
marketing strategy helps other print and online publishers
locate you and then feature your work (or offer the
prospect of other opportunities) in their publication.
6 — Create your own article directory. Creating your own
article directory is a great traffic-generating strategy,
as you can feature your own articles there as well as
accept quality submissions from others who have relevant
info for your target market. An easy way to create this
type of site is through free article directory software,
ArticleDashboard.com.
7 — Create infoproducts for profit (ecourses, ebooks). I
never believed that I could put together any type of
information product until I took a long, hard look at two
year's worth of articles and saw definite themes emerge.
Slowly but surely I'm translating these themes into ebooks
and ecourses that I can sell online.
8 — Offer to print publications in your target market. If
your target market is very specialized, like horse owners
for example, you'll find a whole host of specialized print
magazines, newsletters, and catalogs for this market.
Take
a few hours and research those publications available for
your target market, check out their submission guidelines,
and get a sense of the tone of the publication as well. If
you think your content would be a great fit, spiff up a
couple of your best articles and send an email to the
publisher outlining how publishing your content in his
publication would benefit his readership. Most of the time
you won't be paid for your submission, so request that a
short bio with your contact info is contained within your
article.
9 — Create a video. Video production is becoming easier
and easier, and I now receive a couple of video ezines
where the entire content of the ezine is delivered via a
video. In fact, you can actually sit at your desk with a
webcam and record yourself.
With the magic of video
software (check out Visual Communicator 2), you can add
graphics and text and have a video ready in minutes. With
the popularity of video sites like YouTube, it's harder to
ignore the impact video will have on your online marketing
efforts.
10 — Syndicate on other websites. Through the power of RSS
feeds, you can become a syndicated columnist in other
people's publications. Simply offer your RSS code and
installation instructions to your visitors with the promise
that they'll have new content on their site weekly (or in
whatever interval you publish new articles). My article
submission service offers this option to me, and I'm
appearing on more websites every week.
There's no need to constantly push yourself into creation
mode. Take stock of your content, and develop strategies
for how it can best be re-purposed. You'll be surprised
with how much time you'll save using the information
already at your disposal.
©2007, Donna Gunter
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Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business
Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed service
professionals learn how to automate their businesses,
leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more
clients online. To sign up for more FREE tips like these
and claim your free gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing
Toolkit, visit her site at
http://www.GetMoreClientsOnline.com
