Tag Archives: Content Publishing

What is original content?

Marketers and business owners are often worried about publishing original content on a regular basis.

Original content doesn’t always have to be a highly unique idea. I won’t go to the extent of saying that original ideas in this world are finite, but as someone wise has written, whatever was to be written, has already been written.

The blog topic you just came up with – hundreds of content creators may have already published blog posts, social media updates and videos on the very same topic.

Does it stop you from publishing a blog post on the same topic?

It shouldn’t.

An idea may not be original, but you take is always original.

When you write something about the same topic but with your own input and with your own writing style, the topic becomes original.

Be careful though, I’m not promoting plagiarism. What I’m saying is, there is nothing wrong in writing on a topic someone else has already written on.

Write in your own style. Use your own words. Inject your own experience. What is your point of view?

Just because you are writing it, it makes your piece of content unique and original.

More Content Means Greater Success

More content means greater success

More content means greater success.

All the digital marketing experts advise you to publish as much content as possible.

You cannot hope to achieve great SEO results unless you are prepared to publish content on regular basis.

Famous Digital marketing expert Neil Patel rightly says in this interview that if you don’t create enough content, your competition already is.

On the Internet, it is all about building a platform for your audience.

I’m not talking about big businesses – businesses like Amazon and Google don’t need to create an audience because they have already spent years and billions of dollars creating an audience.

I’m talking about small businesses – businesses like yours and mine.

Not enough people know you.

Even if they know you, they don’t know you enough to trust you.

Even if they trust you, they don’t trust you enough to spend money on your business.

To make people trust you, you need to be in front of them, for the right reasons.

If you offer them quality content on regular basis, they begin to trust you.

Regularly publishing content also improves your search engine rankings.

When you publish quality content regularly, search engines like Google begin to like you.

When the search engines like you, they quickly crawl, index and rank your content so that your target audience can find your content.

When your target audience regularly finds your content on Google, their trust level increases.

Sure, you can also advertise but very few people trust advertisements these days.

On the other hand, if your listings appear naturally (organically) in search results, people know that your content is featuring there because Google has evaluated, and the Google algorithm thinks that your content is valuable.

All these things add up.

Yes, publishing high-quality content with greater frequency may seem daunting, but you cannot avoid it.

If you don’t preserve your audience, your competition will take it away.

Anyway, I just wanted to post the twitter link to the interview.

A short interview, but some good anecdotal advice.

Is there a benefit of posting small blog posts?

Should you publish smaller blog posts

Should you publish smaller blog posts?

I have always believed in the concept of “something is always better than nothing”.

If there is a choice between posting a small blog post and posting nothing at all, I recommend that you post a small blog post.

What am I talking about?

Search engine experts and, to an extent, even Google, recommend that you should avoid thin content.

What is thin content?

Thin content is blog posts and web pages posted just for the heck of it with little content on them.

This Yoast post describes in detail what is thin content.

Over the past two decades, I have maintained multiple blogs.

I had one technology blog. I actively posted content on the blog for two years and it had some decent traffic.

I’m not discussing here why I abandoned the blog, but I would like to focus on what I learned.

Beyond a point, the length or the number of words in your blog post or web page hardly matter.

What matters is the information that you provide to your visitors.

I used to publish quick blog posts on the technology blog randomly, but regularly.

Someday, when I had time, I published 3-4 blog posts. Someday, I published just one. Sometimes, none.

But, in a week, on an average I was publishing 10 blog posts.

Not very big. Never more than 400 words.

It started getting good traffic, if I remember correctly, within four months.

Ever since then, a lot has changed. Even the Google algorithm has gone through multiple transformations.

Now we live in the times of longform content.

At least the concept is promoted by most of the reputed SEO and content marketing companies.

Publish 3000-4000 words, they recommend. Even 6000.

Don’t publish blog posts; publish guides.

A complete guide to this and a complete guide to that.

There is a logic, and I do understand the logic.

When you are writing about a topic, cover the topic from multiple angles under different sections.

This way, when the visitor comes to your link, she finds everything she needs to know about the topic she has just searched on Google.

I do agree: if written well, longer blog posts mean the person spends more time reading these blog posts and this lowers your bounce rate.

A lower bounce rate is good for your SEO.

It is also good for your conversion rate.

Hence, it makes sense to publish blog posts and web pages that extensively cover your topic.

But, you can’t be writing long blog posts all the time.

If you have the budget, if you have the time, sure, you can have a content calendar and you can publish 3-4 4000-word blog posts every month.

What if you neither have the budget not the time?

If that is the case, there is no harm in publishing smaller blog posts.

As I said in the beginning, something is better than nothing.

Make sure you provide value, though. That’s most important.

If you’re simply publishing rubbish, it is going to do more harm than good.

Check out Seth Godin’s blog if you haven’t already done so.

He hardly publishes 100 words.

But, he publishes everyday.

I have been observing his blog for more than 10 years now.

One of the best-known blogs on creating businesses that stand out.

Tiny blog posts.

Of course, he’s not bothered with search engine rankings.

He is a brand in himself.

He has published multiple books.

He constantly has speaking gigs.

Even when he hadn’t authored multiple books, he followed the same format – very small blog posts.

Just a single thought.

The point that I’m trying to make is, focus on delivering value.

Then what about your keywords?

What about covering longtail keywords?

I’m not saying that you always publish small blog posts.

You publish them when you don’t have time.

For example, right now I’m publishing this blog post.

I didn’t have time. But I didn’t want to miss posting an update.

An All-Inclusive Guide To Creating A Content Calendar

Guide to creating a content calendar

Guide to creating a content calendar.

Bill Gates, Diane Hendricks, Warren Buffet, and Oprah Winfrey.

Apart from being billionaires, what is a common thread among these highly successful individuals?

The power of ‘organization’ is an enviable characteristic.

All content creators have felt the need to be a little more organized and disciplined about their schedule at some point or the other.

A content calendar does just that!

Have a schedule to prepare and plan your content posting.

Hope you’re on onboard because we’re going to find just how to do so:

Meaning & Definition

Think of it as an editorial calendar.

Like your mom plans grocery shopping, cooking, arranging, taking care of your (unnecessary) needs, and working!

You too can plan when to post your next piece on great white sharks, status updates about your upcoming music, announcing a partnership with your favorite content creator (you’ve been waiting for this but it needs some build-up!)

Other updates regarding your content and promotional activity!

Where Can I Do It

While the medium is only a means to an end, it is necessary to pick one that you’re comfortable and quick in.

Your options are Microsoft Excel, Google calendar, Google sheets, Looming, Co-schedule, editorial calendar plugin for WordPress, to name a few.

The selection of a content calendar tool depends on your team, your content, and familiarity.

Don’t be afraid to try a few to pick the one that’s best suited to your line of work.

How To Do It?

Step One – repurpose & start with what you have

Remember that old pitch you made to a brand you wanted to work with?

You can break it down into articles, personal blog posts, or videos for your website / social media handle.

Step Two – the best content will come from your friends, family, and coworkers

Setting up a workstation and traveling to look for interesting interviewees can take up too much time.

The best intimate, personal, and spontaneous moments are discovered with the people who know you the best!

Especially for vloggers and influencers, this allows you to be more productive when it comes to scheduling, marketing, and blogging, all at the same time.

While your followers get a peek into your life, you also save time chasing other people for interviews!

Step Three – creating your kind of content – find your usp

Depending on what your forte is, you should create more effective and impactful videos on your preferred medium.

Improve your social media presence by creating relevant content that strikes a chord with your audience.

You can do this in the following ways:

This involves two types of content –

  1. Regular Content –

All types of podcasts, webinars, reports, a series of videos, etc that fall under the same theme and structure.

Your content could be entertaining, informative, or both.

Know who your audience is and keep reaching out to them by updating your content.

Regular posting – Posting every once in a week is a good lesson on how to properly update your content for SEO.

Plus, this means you can reach out to newer subscribers or followers on Instagram or YouTube.

  1. Special Content –

Campaigns, research papers, and contests are less regular and don’t need as much posting but require more attention to detail.

Since your audience knows your stance and voice, these types of posts need more research and must be carefully planned out for release.

An example of this would be a collaboration with an NGO or an informative show.

Step Four – editorial meetings

While planning and creating content, you are likely to miss out on sitting down with your team and discussing your evolving strategies.

It is also a great opportunity to discuss pending timelines, newer product collaborations, ideas, social media activity, and feedback.

This is a good place to change and tweak your content for last-minute changes to increase customer satisfaction and improve response time before publishing.

Statistics regarding your revenue model and engagement can be discussed and brainstormed.

Step Five – have a content repository

Does your content calendar seem full of things to do and ideas to execute? That’s okay.

You will always want to take inspiration from previous experiences and moments.

A content repository is a storage, like your journal – with your ideas, thoughts, and your work – complete and incomplete.

It’s like a safe space for your work that you can come back to whenever you want to.

Step Six – make it shareable

You can edit your content calendar from time to time but let it be accessed and viewed by your team as much as possible.

Since content is never created alone, it is ideal to have the people working with you to be aware of your expectations, timelines, and deadlines.

This way, everyone works together in making sure that the best work is completed.

You can even share it with your mentors and peers, people whose feedback is important to you.

Step Seven – change is the only constant

Lastly, make sure that you update your content calendar as much as you can.

Regular updates will allow you to evolve and change your process according to the situation to target your potential customers granularly.

This way, you can also allow time for creative discussions and set aside time for ideation whenever required.

Conclusion

If there was one thing I had to leave you with, it would be this – there’s no right or wrong way to create a content calendar.

Start with a template and then commit to the realistic deadlines you set yourself for better productivity and an overall better work ethic.

What type of content to write and publish during a global crisis like Covid-19?

Content writing and publishing during the Covid-19 crisis

Content writing and publishing during the Covid-19 crisis

It is very easy to lose track during a crisis. There is all-out chaos.

All your attention span is taken by the news of how many people are being infected or how many people are dying, or about how the outbreak is unleashing unprecedented recession.

What type of content should you write and publish during a pandemic that is affecting every individual in the world?

Just as it happens in normal times, the purpose of writing and publishing content is always to help your readers, and so should be the case when you write and publish content during a global crisis.

This blog post on Marketing Land titled Marketing during a crisis and recession rightly says that “There’s no playbook for any of this.”

Marketing in the times of a global crisis

Marketing in the times of a global crisis

No one among us has seen a global crisis of such scale. The things that we saw in the movies are now unfolding right in front of our eyes like a bad dream.

The good thing about writing and publishing quality content is that the fundamental intention of publishing such content doesn’t change: even when things were normal, your content was supposed to help people.

In the “normal” times, of course, the “help” meant educating your customers and clients so that they could make better purchase decisions.

But in the Covid-19 ridden world, you know that the biggest question staring in everyone’s faces how to survive the outbreak, both physically and financially.

When you want to promote your products and services, you must consider whether people can actually buy them or not.

I have a few clients whose markets have totally vanished (I provide B2B content writing services and hence all my clients have their own businesses).

For most of the clients, they’re simply trying to hold onto whatever they have got.

Fortunately, the machinery of the world is still moving.

Which means, things can be done, should be done, and this also holds true for writing and publishing quality content to maintain your search engine rankings, to maintain your visibility, and even to reach markets that you haven’t yet reached.

For example, I’m getting content writing assignments from countries I had never previously gotten work from. Hence, I’m thinking of expanding my presence in these countries.

Here is a nice “Whiteboard Friday” video and the treat is that Rand Fishkin is making the presentation almost after a year:

People are naturally holding themselves back when it comes to spending money on marketing, especially content marketing because they believe that the demand is crashing, but Rand in the video makes a very good point: things are going to bounce back, and when they do, will you be ready to leverage?

Don’t hold yourself back simply because everyone else is. If you can afford, do invest in content marketing and building quality content because as the world gets back on track, there will be a sudden surge. At that time, if you have improved your visibility you will be better off compared to your competitors who have gone into a huddle and are ignoring their marketing.

Rand says that one thing we can be certain of is that people are paying more attention online now that they are confined to their homes.

Whatever you are publishing, they’re paying attention. They are less distracted. They may not be travelling. They may not be sitting in coffee shops. They may not be chatting with their colleagues or a group of friends while checking out your blog post. They’re not as distracted as they normally were during pre-Covid-19 times.

Although the above-mentioned blog post from Marketing Land gives a broad advice to businesses and brands on how to manage their businesses in the changed scenario, since I provide content writing services, my main focus is, what sort of content can help you during the Covid-19 crisis: content that can help you survive currently, and build a strong footing for you when the machinery of the world begins to move again.

Here are a few things you can consider:

Write and publish content that will help your core audience

Even if you are a hardcore seller, aggressively promoting your products and services is not going to help you.

Even if people are not put off, they are in no position to either use your products or services (most of them) or buy them.

Take for example the advice given by the Marketing Land blog post, and even by this blog post that I’m writing. Publish advice people can use or at least get inspired from.

Of course, we are all experienced. We all know how to handle the situation. But when we read about it, when we come across blog posts and articles that talk about the same thing, it keeps us focused and helps us reorient our approach.

What if you don’t have something valuable to share with your audience?

Your genuine concern helps. People and businesses are publishing a ton of useful information on the Internet. Go through LinkedIn. Go through Twitter. Find useful articles and blog posts and then share them through your blog or your newsletter.

Consolidate your existing content on your website and blog

Since practically everyone in the civilized world is confined to home, you may get enough time to go through your website and blog and see what content you have been ignoring or didn’t have enough time to improve.

Maybe there are certain keywords and search terms you have been ignoring or you didn’t have much time to cover. Now you can cover them.

If there are certain topics you feel should have been on your website, you can publish them.

Should you publish information about the Coronavirus outbreak? Many websites are doing that.

It depends. If you have information that is not present on other websites, publish it on your website otherwise, just publish links to other, more useful information sources like newspapers or hospital websites.

Otherwise, focus on your core topic. There is no need to sell if you don’t feel like it. Just fill up your website or blog with lots of useful information that will come handy when people start buying again.