10 Tips to Make Your Blog Popular Abroad

Making your blog popular abroad

Do you want to market your blog to an international audience? Perhaps you want to offer your products and services to a wider demographic, or maybe you just like the idea of reaching people all over the world.

Here are a few tips to grow your following in other countries.

1. Account for your audience’s time zones when publishing and promoting posts

Research shows that the best time to published a blog post is on a Monday morning. However, “Monday morning” in your country may not be “Monday morning” on another continent.

Use Google analytics and similar tools to identify when your readers are most active, and where they are based. You may need to experiment to find the best local time to release your posts and any accompanying promotional content on social media.

2. Be sensitive to cultural differences

If you write purely from your own perspective without consideration for other views, your international readers will quickly feel alienated. Acknowledge that you are writing as an individual raised in a specific time and place.

For instance, if you were raised in a culture that values hard work for its own sake, do not assume that readers of all cultures will automatically applaud people who put in 60-hour work weeks. Don’t be afraid to question your own values and background from time to time.

3. Show you keep up with global events

When targeting people from a specific country, catch up on the latest news from the area before writing a post and acknowledge it in your post if necessary. For instance, if you are writing a blog on business matters, be sure to talk about key trends and market activities in the country you are targeting.

4. Publish your blog in multiple languages

If you are serious about marketing to an audience that does not speak English, you will need to translate your content. There are a couple of ways you can do this:

You can have multiple versions of the content on the same page, but this could rapidly become overwhelming. It may be a viable option if you only publish very short posts.
A better solution in most cases is to have two copies of your blog hosted on one site, and let visitors view the version of their choice.

If you have a lot of content on your site besides your blog, it may be simpler to set up two websites. You may choose to give each site its own domain name, or set up one version as a sub-domain of the other.

Note that seemingly trivial differences in spelling can make a difference when it comes to readability and SEO. For example, where Americans may use “z,” Brits and Australians often use “s,” as in “realise” or “personalise.” Decide who your main audience is, and tailor the spellings accordingly.

5. Ask yourself, “How can I tailor this marketing strategy to attract an international audience?”

This question should guide your marketing efforts. For example:

If you normally use forum marketing to gain traffic, you will need to create new profiles on forums that cater to your target audience.
If you are a fan of guest posting, you will need to approach new blogs that attract readers from your country of choice.
If you use influencer marketing, you will need to track down new influencers popular with your new audience.

When going after search engine traffic, cater to the search engine most often used by your intended demographic. For example, in China, the most popular search engine is Baidu. You may need to consult an SEO specialist to make sure you make good use of unfamiliar search algorithms.

6. Interview people from different countries

If you are writing about a social issue or hot topic that is receiving a lot of attention in the press, expand your reach and add depth to your blog by interviewing people from several different countries. You don’t have to endorse their opinions, but diverse perspectives will make your work appealing to a broader range of people.

7. If you have traveled, write honest, gracious blogs about your entries

Do you have interesting travel stories to tell? If you’ve explored other countries and your accounts are a good fit for your blog, write posts about your experiences.

Talk about other cultures in a respectful manner. If you have traveled extensively, discuss the lessons you learned along the way. Make your entries useful for anyone else thinking of following in your footsteps. You may inspire someone to start their own adventure.

8. Be careful when making reference to units and currencies

Don’t overlook the little details. For example, some countries use metric units, whereas others favor the imperial system. Offer currency conversions where appropriate.

You can also make reference to the cost of living where necessary. For instance, the price of a house in London is probably much higher, in both relative and absolute terms, than most other places.

9. Review products and services from around the world

If you run a review site, don’t restrict your coverage to products and services available in your country. Do a little background research on which brands are most popular in other parts of the world.

You don’t have to order items from abroad if doing so would be too expensive, but you should at least demonstrate an understanding of what people in other countries buy. You can summarize other online reviews if you cannot write your own first-hand account.

10. Make it explicit that you want to hear or partner with from people in other countries

Finally, ask other people for their opinions and feedback. If you welcome guest posts, ask your readers to pitch ideas for posts pertaining to their experience living in a specific country.

Writing a blog for an international audience isn’t easy. There are practical and cultural considerations to bear in mind. However, if done correctly, you will soon win praise from readers around the globe.

Content Creation Inspiration for When You’re Stuck

Leave a reply

As I’m sure you know by now, a consistent content creation schedule is essential to a successful website. Unfortunately, as is bound to happen from time to time, you may find yourself with no idea what to write about. Idea generation can be a real challenge — coming up with new and interesting content ideas that both capture readers’ attention and engage them isn’t always the easiest of tasks.

Luckily, there is a solution!

If you feel like you’re all out of ideas, consider diving into the following rabbit holes to find inspiration for your next great article.

Blog Comments

Get content writing ideas from blog comments

Have you ever noticed your blog posts leaving your readers with more questions? While this isn’t unusual — you can’t stuff every bit of information into one article about a particular subject — it is a fantastic way to come up with content ideas for future pieces.

It’s important to regularly scroll through your comments (even in older articles) to see what questions pop up. Anything that can’t be answered in a sentence or two would make a great subject for your next post. This is especially true if you find yourself answering the same question time and again, as that’s a pretty clear-cut sign you need to clarify some things.

Q&A Sites

Content writing ideas from Q & A websites

If you can’t find anything in your blog comments, it’s time to check out question-and-answer sites like Yahoo Answers and Quora. These sites give you an inside look at what people are interested in reading about related to your industry, as well as their most burning questions. If there’s a large number of questions and answers surrounding the same topic, an article written about it will be sure to find a large audience.

Social Media

Content writing ideas from social media websites

There are two lists you should create on Twitter and Facebook. The first is a list of your ideal readers (these can include your best customers). As you follow them, keep an eye on what content they share and reply to. These are the topics you should be covering on your website.

Your second list is industry influencers. Watch how other users interact with them and what questions they ask. Often, influencers too busy to respond to every question — that’s where you can step in and save the day.

Hashtags are another great way to find ideas for content. Search and follow the most popular hashtags in your industry. Be on the lookout for buzzwords, questions, and articles with a lot of engagement.

Finally, look into Reddit if you already haven’t — it’s a content idea goldmine. Industry subreddits will be chock-full of questions, popular articles, and boisterous discussions surrounding just about everything. You’re sure to come away with an entire list of subject to cover in your writing.

Industry Publications

Content writing ideas from industry publications

No matter what your industry, there are bound to be at least a handful (if not hundreds) of sites that publish news, trends, and other pertinent bits of information to do with your trade. Browse through these sites on a weekly basis and watch for the articles with the most engagement. Once you have an idea of what the hot topics are, you can create content that either expands on what’s been discussed or has a different viewpoint entirely.

Another place to look for industry news is the library. Yes, you read that right, the library. Contrary to what you might believe, if you haven’t been to one in a while, libraries aren’t dying out. Public libraries still see 1.5 billion visits every year — that’s roughly four million visitors each day! Chat with the reference librarian at your local library and ask where you can find resources targeted at your specific business. You never know what nuggets of helpful information may be hidden somewhere in those shelves!

Your Competition

Content writing ideas from business competitors

You should never be afraid to look to your competition for new content ideas. By no means should you plagiarize their work, but finding inspiration from them is completely acceptable. You can use their content as a jumping-off point by touching on points they didn’t, offering a different perspective, or just flat out disagreeing with them. Whatever you do, just be sure to keep things original.

Brainstorm

Content writing ideas through brainstorming

When all else fails, there is always a good old-fashioned brainstorming session to hopefully spark your creativity! Whether you use a whiteboard or a piece of paper, writing things down by hand is the key. You’ll remember your ideas better if you write them out by hand rather than using a word processor.

The good news if you’re flying solo is that brainstorming doesn’t have to be a group project. Start by writing a main theme in the middle of your surface. Then, chart related themes, ideas, or questions around the central idea. Next to these smaller themes, outline even more related topics. Connect the ideas with lines.

If you’re stumped on what might be relevant to your main theme, do a little word association. When you look at your central idea (or subtopics), jot down a few words that you immediately associate with the said theme. No matter how silly these words might seem, they may be just the thing to spark an idea or two!

Conclusion

In order to stay competitive in today’s market, it’s imperative you have to stay on top of content creation. But quantity is only half of the equation. You also have to address newsworthy and interesting topics in a way that grabs your readers’ attention. When you’re constantly churning out article after article, it can be easy to run out of ideas. However, a quick glimpse into industry publications, trending topics on social media, or even your own comments section, will be sure to break your writer’s block and get you back on track to creating fabulous content.

How to publish quality content regularly on your website

Leave a reply

Publishing quality content regularly

Regularity is as important as quality if you want to get benefit out of your content marketing efforts.

When you regularly publish quality content on your website it gives a message to your visitors that you’re constantly updating your website and hence, they should keep track of it (a motivation to sign up for your email updates).

Search engine crawlers – this is something that I have observed but I don’t know if it actually happens or not – also take note of your publishing schedule, and start crawling your website accordingly.

If you publish content regularly, your website is crawled regularly.

The more you publish, the more reason you give human visitors as well as search engine crawlers to access more content.

The more you publish, the more search terms you cover.

The more you publish, the more content you make available that can be shared on other websites and blogs, and on social media websites.

But it is easier said than done.

There are two obstacles to publishing content regularly:

Great ideas for publishing new blog posts
Making sure that the quality is up to the mark.

B2C content marketing challenges chart

So, regularity and quality are both indispensable. One or the other tend to suffer when you try to maintain a balance.

The quality aspect can be easily taken care of.

Be genuine.

Try to provide something valuable, something meaningful, something you think can really help people.

This will ensure that you publish quality content.

Quality means meaningfulness.

Meaningful means something that really helps people.

What helps people?

Take the example of my business: content writing. How can I help you? There are two ways I can help you:

Help you write better content yourself
Help you decide whether you should hire me as your content writer or not

But, why should I help you write better content because this means you won’t hire me?

You may or may not.

If you want to write on your own, you will do it anyway.

If you don’t find the information on my website, you will find it somewhere else.

You’re not looking for a content writer, at least not right now.

Right now, you want to write on your own, and you’re just looking for some good start, or some insight that can help you write better.

Right now you don’t want to hire someone, and if I don’t offer you help, you will get that help from somewhere else.

So why should I provide you that help?

If nothing else, it generates goodwill for me.

In the future, if content is needed by you or by someone you know and if that content cannot be written without the help of a content writer, you would rather hire me than someone else.

Then comes the second point: helping you decide whether you want to hire me as your content writer or not.

How do you decide that?

You want to know how I write. You want to know how I express ideas. To help you with this

I publish dedicated pages on every possible question or doubt you may have regarding my content writing services.
I regularly share my knowledge with you through my content writing and content marketing blog.
I provide you samples of my work.
I improve my search engine rankings so that you can find me for relevant keywords and search terms.

This gives me plenty to write about.

This brings us to the question of how you can publish quality content in your website or blog regularly, for your particular business. You can do the following…

Maintain a list of topics

There are many tools you can use these days to maintain a list of topics. You will be creating topics according to the topics, and consequently, the keywords that you want to cover.

Remember that topics must be consistent with the central theme of your website or blog. If you are a mobile app development company them most of your topics must be about mobile app development and related fields.

You can use a simple note book to jot down content writing ideas. You can use something like Google Keep. You can use Evernote. You can use an Excel sheet. Or Trello cards. Whatever you find convenient. But, definitely have a system of maintaining topics.

Use something you can immediately use. As you write more and more and get into the habit of thinking proactively about your content, ideas will suddenly come and if you don’t record them immediately, you may lose them.

Always be on the lookout for topic ideas

Don’t start thinking about what to write when you start writing. One option is keep your ideas repository nearby. Another option is to constantly be at the lookout. Check you Twitter timeline to see what the others in your stream are publishing. Subscribe to feeds and use something like Feedly. Subscribe to email updates that send you new blog posts and articles about your industry right in the inbox. Use Google Alerts. Interact in the forums, or at least follow the discussion threads.

If you have had an informative conversation with your client, even that can be a source of a great topic (you don’t have to reveal the name of your client).

Respond to articles and blog posts published somewhere else

Agree with something published in another website or blog? Disagree? Got something if your own? Why not respond through your own blog post or article?

In fact, this is how initially blogging spread…long time ago when it wasn’t yet associated with content marketing and SEO. Someone wrote something on his or her blog and then the others responded through their own blog post, linking to the original post. It doesn’t just make blogging interesting, it also gives you new ideas on an ongoing basis.

Repurpose your existing content

Content grows on content. Your existing content is teeming with new content writing ideas. Take for example this subtopic “Repurpose your existing content” – I have previously written a complete blog post just on this topic – How to repurpose would content.

Creating your blog posts out of existing blog posts and articles is just one way of repurposing your existing content. You can also create

Infographics
Random images to post on Instagram
Slides
Small e-books by combining multiple blog posts
YouTube videos
Social media posts

Read books and magazines in your field

Developing and expertise, in-depth knowledge in your field is very essential to creating quality content. Books, at least it is assumed, are often written by experts are people who have done lots of research and have come up with new insights into your profession. They give you lots of food for thought. You can find lots of topics in these niche books an marketing d magazines.

Hire an experienced content writer

“Experienced” is the key word here. Everyone can write occasionally. But if you need to publish high quality content on your website on an ongoing basis, it is better to collaborate with an experienced content writer rather than trying to do it on your own. You may be an expert in your field. You may also be able to articulate your thoughts through writing. But can you do it consistently? Do you have enough time to follow a schedule?

Remember that regularity is very important for successful content marketing. If you publish content haphazardly, although over a long period of time it will definitely benefit you, it will depend on chance. But if you regularly publish high-quality content following a strict pattern, the benefit will be more consistent, more predictable. This is something a content writer can provide you.

Maintain a content publishing calendar

Content publishing calendar

A content publishing calendar is basically a topics and ideas list, but with dates and timeframe attached to every stages. A calendar tells you what you will be publishing on a particular date. This instills a sense of organization into your publishing process.

You also spend some time with your content writer deciding on various topics, deciding on when certain topics should be drafted and scheduled. The more you get into the habit of organising and scheduling, the better will be the inflow of ideas.

Curate content

Content Curation

Curation is also a good way of publishing content regularly without running out of it. Curation means finding well-written blog posts and articles on other websites and then linking to them from your own website with small input from you. It takes just a few minutes and before you know it, a repository of quality content begins to build up under your domain.

Concluding remarks

Just like in any form of marketing, successful content marketing, requires consistency. A pattern needs to exist. If you decide to publish something every Wednesday, then it should be published every Wednesday. If every 15 days you want to publish a long blog post, then you need to stick to this schedule. As mentioned above, if you cannot come up with original topics regularly, you can link to content published elsewhere. Make sure the content that you publish – whether you publish original content, or you curate it, make sure that it helps your visitors.

This is a very good example of storytelling for content marketing

Leave a reply

Content marketing through storytelling

In the morning I received this ZDNet email newsletter, and there was a story titled How Apple Watch saved my life.

The author tells how previously he wasn’t enthusiastic about Apple products, and in fact, he was very critical of them. He constantly switched between Apple and Android devices. He owned most of the mainstream Apple products, but he wasn’t a regular user.

Being in technology, it is his work to use gadgets from all the brands objectively without getting personally involved.

One day he decided to purchase a refurbished Apple Watch because his many friends had it and he was just a little curious about the gadget. This is why he didn’t purchase a brand-new watch because he thought that after a few days he would just put the watch in a drawer and forget about it.

After a few days he received an email from Apple asking him whether he would be willing to participate in the Apple Heart Study, a large data-gathering exercise the company was partnering with Stanford University. Always interested in big data studies, the writer joined the program.

Apple heart study screenshot

Through the Apple Watch, heartbeat patterns are constantly recorded and then sent to Apple or Stanford University servers, necessary analysis is done and further action is advised.

A few days later, the writer received a message on his iPhone saying “Irregular heart rhythm observed”. The message also advised him to contact a Heart Study Doctor as soon as possible.

This led to a series of tests and discoveries and ultimately it was found that his heart had a condition that could have turned serious if left neglected.

In the article he has also described his heart condition and his previous problem of high blood pressure, a bit of obesity and high blood pressure.

Although any gadget could have helped him with a similar study being done with a similar gadget from another company, he just happened to be wearing an Apple Watch and the Stanford University study is being exclusively carried out using this gadget, the author has now totally fallen in love with all Apple products.

It is not a feature-based love and dedication because the features remain the same, it’s just that the watch played an important role in detecting the anomaly in his heartbeat and this led to his early diagnosis and treatment, emotionally he wants to repay and the only way to repay a company is to buy its products.

What can be more powerful testimonial than someone telling you that a product or service saved his or her life? And not metaphorically, but actually.

This is a good example of content marketing through storytelling.

The author uses a title you cannot resist: How Apple Watch saved my life – everyone would like to know exactly what happened. For example, I’m not crazy about Apple products and even advise people against buying an iPhone but still, I was persuaded enough to click the link and read the story.

He builds up a narrative. Initially he tells you that although he abundantly uses gadgets, he wasn’t very gung-ho about using Apple products, and in fact, he even disliked using Apple products. This could be anyone, even a person like me. Many readers would relate.

Then he very cautiously brings up Apple Watch. He even tells you that he didn’t go for a new watch and instead, he purchased a refurbished app because he wasn’t sure if he would use it regularly.

Then he signs up for this Stanford University project that exclusively uses the watch from Apple.

Two things happen here: the mention of Stanford University immediately injects a sense of credibility and, it is study on the heart conditions.

The mention of Stanford University itself invokes respect in many. Then, you read that this university trusts Apple Watch to gather “big data” on heartbeat of many people. A very big influencer.

Then, a sequence of events reveals that his own life is saved or at least, he is saved from a big health-related disaster because of the early warning provided by Apple Watch.

Now, Apple Watch didn’t directly save his life. It wasn’t a feature in the watch itself that saved his life, but it was instrumental in discovering his heart condition and him taking remedial measures. Any watch with similar features and with similar research team affiliation could have done that.

But, a positive story gets associated with Apple Watch.

In the end, the author tells readers that not just Apple Watch, now he’s going to buy everything Apple offers including iPhones, iPads, and whatnot.

Maybe it’s a paid article, or maybe it’s a real incident, but that’s not the issue. This is a good example of doing content marketing with storytelling.

Is artificial intelligence going to replace content writers?

Leave a reply

Can AI do content writing?

Last year, a Japanese AI wrote a novella and almost won a literary prize. Considering such developments, questions like, is artificial intelligence going to replace content writers are bound to be asked.

Artificial intelligence is already being used in chatbots where answers are provided to visitors according to the questions they ask, and the questions don’t have to match the exact string existing in the database. Some of the chat bots can even understand the context.

Google search already uses AI to know the intent of your search queries rather than simply focusing on words. As I wrote in my previous blog post on sentiment analysis and content writing, search engines already try to interpret what you really mean rather than the search terms that you are using, to give you the best possible answers to your queries.

If you have switched over to the new Gmail interface you must have noticed that when you open a message, there are options beneath it that allow you to send a quick reply based on the content of the email message. That’s context happening, powered by AI.

Artificial intelligence can even recognise what is present in an image, for example, if there is an image of a tiger hiding behind trees, artificial intelligence will tell you that there is a tiger hiding behind the trees in the photo. As you must already know, AI can recognise faces, as is the case with the tagging feature that Facebook has.

So, with all this intelligence, can AI also do the job of content writing? If AI can write novels and books, why not content?

Why would you be tempted to use an AI instead of a content writer?

Volume, coupled with quality, I would say.

A good thing about machines is that they never tire, and the performance is consistent.

What you want from a content writer? You want high quality content that can improve your conversion rate and your search engine rankings.

For conversion rate you need convincing content, conversational content, engaging content.

Can artificial intelligence achieve that?

Only when it thinks like humans.

We are not humans just because we are biologically alive and unlike animals, we are humans because we are more perceptive about our surroundings and we can think about thinking itself.

As René Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.”

A human being, a human life, is a collection of memories, experiences and bits of knowledge gathered throughout a life period.

Hence, the way a person writes, comes from all those memories, experiences and bits of knowledge that he or she has gathered through her entire existence.

Artificial intelligence may have data but at least in the near future, it is not going to have memories and experiences.

So, how can artificial intelligence be used for content writing? Can it really replace content writers?

I think AI will be able to create a framework of ideas, but a life can only be injected in that framework of ideas by a human content writer.

When it comes to generating 500-1000 articles or blog posts per day then may be, yes, artificial intelligence will definitely replace content writers, if not in the near future, then maybe in the coming 5 or 10 years.

But when it comes to turning visitors into customers and clients by establishing emotional connections, AI won’t be able to replace content writers, because only humans are capable of making those emotional connections.

Artificial intelligence will be able to generate quantity. Quality will only come from content writers.