Why Use Content Marketing For Your Online Home Business?

First of all what is content marketing? Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable content to your target audience. So why use content marketing in your online home business?

When advertising your online home business, there are thousands of ways to do this. There are paid versions and free versions. With paid versions, like pay-per-click, you will get tons of traffic, but the biggest percentage are just looking around. Pay-per-click can get very expensive, so you need to have an expense account just for it.

Google Slap?

One bad thing about using pay-per-click, if you happen to get shut down, there goes your advertising. It is either up or it is down, there is no in between when it comes to pay-per-click. Because of the Google Slap, many online markets have gone to content marketing.

If you have not heard about the Google slap, what happened was, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) came down hard on Google. They made Google re-due all their ads which in-turn caused the shut down of accounts that had income claims. This hit a lot of internet marketers real hard and they had to find another advertising method.

Are All Your Eggs In One Basket?

Now when using content marketing, whatever article, video, blog post, or press release you put out there, it is there to stay for years. The saying goes, never have all your eggs in one basket. With all your valuable information content out there in different forms it will keep your adverting going for years to come.

If is very important to keep your content of good value. When writing an article, keep it keyword rich. Meaning, have your keyword in your title, at least three times in the body, and of course relevant tags. This will get Google to put it on their front page and give you more exposure. When people search for a certain term, and your article has that term in it, it will pop up.

Are You Giving?

The internet now days is all about giving. The more you give valuable content, and ask nothing in return, the more people will trust and like you. The more great information you share, the more you will be known as a leader and the more people will follow you.

People are searching on the internet for two things, education and entertainment. Either they want to learn something or the want to be entertained. Once you learn to incorporate the two, educating by entertaining, you have the best of both worlds. People will be falling all over themselves to find out what you are doing.

Are You An Authority In Your Niche?

When advertising with content marketing for your online business, you need to stay within your niche. The more you brand yourself in knowing what you are talking about, the more people will come find you. You need to make sure that all your articles, press releases, blog posts and videos, not only have great content, but make you look like an authority in your niche.

Once you offer your free education to others without asking for anything in return, they will trust you and thank you. They will be much more apt to finding out about your online business this way, than if you tried to shove it down their throat.

When doing your advertising with content marketing, it is very labor driven. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication, but the benefits out way paid advertising in the long run. It does not cost you anything, but your time, and it stays on the world wide web for years.

Remember, never put all your eggs in one basket. Utilize all types of content marketing for your online home business and watch your business sore to new heights.

Has Someone Been Stealing Your Content?

It’s in the lips of every respectable SE marketer. It’s considered to be the “holy grail” of your linking efforts!

What’s that? Marketing with articles, of course!

You will often hear how you can make your way to the top of the search engines, on any given topic, by writing articles and using them to promote your business.

And it’s true! But, what they usually don’t tell you is that there will be dozens or hundreds of sites and publications that will use your content without giving you credit for it.

And you have no way of knowing about it! You’re completely defenseless and at the mercy of every webmaster who decides to literally steal your content! Stealing defined as any use of copyrighted content that violates the author’s publishing guidelines.

And if you already knew that, let’s look at some interesting statistics. These will give you some awareness of the situation when you begin writing articles to promote your business or get more links.

Last time I checked, there were 1,370 sites which had included one of my articles on affiliate marketing on their pages. Do you want to know how many of them cared to provide a link back to my site? Very, very few!

Why? Well, it seems that many site owners think they can take the articles and put them on their sites for their visitors to read but do not feel they should return the favor by having a live link to the author’s site (as required).

After all, creating and providing fresh content for their visitors and for the search engines is a favor I’m doing for them.

By now you’re probably thinking, “too bad, but what has that got to do with me?” Oh, I don’t know, do you own a site? And do you publish your own content on your site?

If you do then, how can you be sure that the content that you spent so much time developing and tweaking in order to rank well in the search engines, appears nowhere else except on your site? How do you know for sure that no other website has “borrowed” some “stuff” from you?

And if you’re marketing your business with articles how will you know who has posted them and where, if they don’t care enough to send you a copy?

Trust me, most of them won’t! Many of the major article banks and directories do inform you when they have posted one of your articles because usually there are other incentives for them to do so. They might sell you a subscription or simply benefit from the fact that you will visit the site to see your article posted. Who knows, while you’re there you could be intrigued by one of their offers.

But the smaller sites -not all of them- will not take the time to let you know, let alone give you a link back. So, how will you know?

No sweat! I’m sure many of you have been using Google to search on things like products, services, even competitors or link exchange partners.

And I’m also sure that some of you are already thinking that Google is a nice place to go look for your article or unique content and see what comes up in the search results. Sure, you can do that, but I prefer to use a handy little tool by Google which is automated, will not take any of my time, is very easy to use and above all, is free.

I am talking about Google Alerts: a great tool by Google that you can set and forget but which will do all the dirty work for you uncovering all those sneaky sites that have “accidentally” forgotten to put a live link into your article’s bylines.

As Google puts it: “Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results based on your choice of query or topic”. There, I couldn’t have said it better!

How does it work? It’s easy, you sign up for a Google account or just create a Google Alert using the really easy interface (http://www.google.com/alerts). First, you are asked to specify your search term, meaning the kind of text that you want Google to inform you about. Then you tell Google where to look for it and how often you want to receive your alerts. Finally, you fill in your email address and you’re done!

By creating a Google account, if you don’t already have one, you can manage all your alerts in one place which is really useful.

The potential of this tool is huge. You can search for anything at anytime and have Google deliver it to your mailbox, saving you the trouble.

More importantly, you can use it to keep an eye on what’s important for your business. As a business person, I’m sure that’s one of your primary concerns.

Clever Marketer Twitter Tip – How to Effectively Use Other Peoples’ Content on Twitter

The secret to using twitter effectively and looking like the super-star network marketer that you are, is to follow the 80/20 rule when you are tweeting! Your tweets should be content rich and relevant to your niche 80% of the time and you should only be promoting yourself, your products, or your opportunity 20% of the time.

Unfortunately, a lot of network marketers on twitter make a fool of themselves and our industry. Many network marketers end up spamming links about their company or products to their followers. Yes, we are here to market ourselves and our businesses, but in order to make our marketing efforts effective it is important to give great value before we invite someone to our squeeze page or offer!

Think of yourself as a guest in the home of each of your twitter followers. You do not want them closing the shades and turning off the lights when they see you coming! You want to be welcome there and be invited over frequently. You do that by becoming known for providing awesome content that they look forward to reading!

But creating all that content can be overwhelming and time consuming! You are a busy network marketer with a team to support, clients/customers to take care of, and a business to run…and who has time to be writing articles, blog posts or recording videos or pod-casts all day? The secret to using Twitter effectively is to leverage the content that other people have created! Think about it like this…when you get invited to a dinner party and you bring a bottle of exceptional wine to the host, you are sharing something that someone else has created.

Who looks like the hero? The wine maker? No! You do!

Who does the host send a thank-you note to? The wine maker? No…he or she thanks YOU!

Sharing great content is the same thing…only you are going to look like a hero to both your followers and to the people who created the content you are sharing.

Here are 3 steps to effectively use other peoples’ content on Twitter to build your list of raving fans!

1. Search sites relevant to your market for great content. Spend a few minutes a day and select a few articles, blog posts, videos, etc. that you would like to share. Remember…the number one rule to twitter (or social media of any kind) is to offer valuable information that your followers want to learn or know about. Think T.I.N.Y. (Their Interests Not Yours) when you are looking for content to share!

2. Write about this great content in a short blog post and link to the website where you found it. Write a few sentences about the content you are sharing, what you loved about it, why you are sharing it, how it can help your readers, and make sure you give credit to the person who created the content!

3. Then tweet a link to your blog post to your followers! This is powerful because it will send them to your blog to get the information. If they like what they see on your blog the will opt in to your list! You are also helping the person who wrote the content you are sharing, which may lead to reciprocity. This is where they reciprocate and feature some of your content on their blog, which will help expose you to their audience.

Twitter is a very powerful tool for building your network marketing business on the internet. It can help you drive traffic to your marketing hub, twitter can help you meet prospective business builders and targeted product users, and twitter can help you brand yourself as a leader in your niche market.

Be a clever marketer on twitter and you will have followers who can not wait to read your next tweet and visit your blog for more great information!

Study Finds Strong Majority of Content Marketers Use Social Media Sharing

A research study conducted by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, and sponsored by Skyword titled “Content Marketing Gets Social: 2013 Survey on Content Marketing Trends” found that a strong majority of content marketers are using social media outlets to share their information.

The report states that nearly three-quarters (71 percent) of content marketers publish their content to their websites and then promote it on their social networks. Surprisingly, close to one-quarter (21 percent) did not utilize the powerful tool of social media; while a mere eight percent were unsure.

What social media outlets are being utilized? Well, it’s the usual networks that dominate the headlines: Facebook (84 percent), Twitter (79 percent) and LinkedIn (64 percent). In addition, the largest amount of reader activity came from those social media venues: Facebook pegged 55 percent, Twitter posted 45 percent and LinkedIn had 39 percent.

A large majority of content marketers say their primary objectives are to engage both clients and prospects, enhance brand awareness and acquire leads – improving search rankings and increasing web traffic were the least likely goals.

However, these are not their biggest hurdles. Exactly two-thirds say the biggest challenge is creating content that is relevant and targeted to various Internet audiences. Incidentally, content marketers are producing their own content as 87 percent said they write their own.

Is the practice working? It’s still unknown as only 46 percent of respondents said yes and 37 percent noted that the content is currently under development or being planned. Meanwhile, 15 percent gave a definitive no and two percent didn’t know.
“There is a high expectation regarding social media but a very low understanding around measures to determine ROI versus activity,” said one survey participant, while a separate participant noted: “We don’t do as good a job at tracking the value of our efforts as we should be.”

The online study was conducted in August with 217 respondents from the reader base of Information Today’s CRM and EContent magazines.

Indeed, the business of social media marketing is astronomical. The Business Insider published an in-depth report recently that analyzed just how immense the industry is. For instance, to an outsider, it might appear that brands are wasting their money on advertising on social media websites considering how crowded it is. However, since Americans spend an estimated 12 to 20 hours per month on social media – most likely higher – companies can gauge a higher audience for their content.

Looking ahead, social media advertising, though in its infancy period, is forecasted to be an $11 billion industry as brands either allocate or increase their marketing budgets to include this form of advertising. Also, this could be a lot higher because of mobile device usage; half of Facebook and Twitter’s traffic already comes from smartphones and tablets.

It has been suggested by industry insiders that the primary trends to observe for the remainder of this year and into next year are increased budgets, gamification, community content, brand new corporate roles (I.E. social business manager, content strategist) and staff blogging.

Information Marketing Techniques – The Best Ways to Repurpose Your Content

Information or content marketing is definitely the hottest internet marketing tool today. It’s proven that by giving out useful information, you can easily get people to come to your website. This is the reason why more and more esellers are now using article marketing, blog and forum posting, ezine publishing, eBook and CD distribution, etc. Although this is extremely effective, do you ever wonder how on earth can you possible create new content each time you’re using these tools?

Well, you don’t have to. If you’re currently doing article marketing, you can use your articles or a part of them on your blog. You can also put together some of your copies and create ebooks. Use some for your script that you’re going to use when recording your CDs or when writing your newsletters. Or you can record your teleseminars and webinars to make new informative CDs.

You see, it doesn’t matter how knowledgeable you are in your chosen niche; you’ll still run out of topics or ideas to discuss sooner or later. So it’s very important that you know how to repurpose the content that you’ve written. The secret here is knowing how to tweak them a little bit so people who saw your content on your blog wouldn’t be bored when they’re reading your website.

Here’s how you can easily repurpose your content:

Repurpose your articles. Articles are staple in any content marketing campaign. You can use these on directories, blogs, newsletters, blog series, tweet series, or you can post them on your Facebook fan page. The idea here is using the same powerful content using as many portals as possible to reach out to wider market.

Repurpose your audio materials. So, you’re planning to host teleseminars to a specific group of people. My suggestion is to have it recorded as you can use this on your audio series which you can send to those people who have signed up to your email marketing list. The content of your teleseminars can also be used on blog talk radios and on your webinars.

Repurpose your informative videos. If you’re just like other aggressive emarketers, I’m sure that you’ve already recorded or at least planning to record instructional videos for YouTube. You can repurpose this as well by sending them to other video distribution sites, to WebTV, and by converting them to DVD series. These are much effective tools in building relationship with your prospects and in building trust compare to written content.

You see, there are so many ways to get your ideas or message out as there are now so many portals that you can use when you’re trying to reach out to your target audience. The keys to success here are still the same; ensure that quality of the content that you’re sharing as it will reflect your expertise in your niche and ensure that your ideas are really yours. Copying other people’s articles or blog posts is still something that will not go unnoticed in the online arena.

Creating Website Content – 5 Secrets to Create Website Content and Make Your Site Sell

The most important key you need is…

Having an understanding to why people use the internet -is the key to success…in starting your internet business.

People search the internet for one thing… relevant information -to solve their problems.

This is why the mantra “content is king” is an axiom you cannot ignore-when it comes to building your website.

When you understand this…that information is the lifeblood of the internet…you set yourself apart from your competition. Your success online is guaranteed.

When provide value for your website visitors. Your visitors will love you and trust you because you add value to their lives. The result is you become wealthy and successful because you add value to your market.

There are insider secrets to every business and these 5 secrets are very important to creating website content that makes your site sell.

Here are the five secrets you need to know….

Secret #1 Have a clear purpose for setting up your website and focus on a niche.

When you have a clear purpose for your business, creating content for your website is easy. Identifying your purpose helps you to clarify the overall content and website type-you want to build for your business. This can also be a time for setting your objectives.

Here are some common objectives for setting up website businesses… see if you can identify your own objective

  • Reputation…you may want to establish your reputation
  • Lead generation… to build a customer base
  • Product information to bring awareness to you market of your product
  • Entertainment if your business is of the entertainment type
  • Communication if you want to have an online community or membership site
  • Distribution if your website has free downloads
  • Revenue or advertising if you plan to build a legacy site and generate revenue from cost per click advertising
  • Revenue from products if you are going to sell digital products

Whatever your objectives you are better off -clarifying your purpose- before you start creating content for your website.

I call this back-to-future planning. Stephen Covey bestselling author, “seven habits of highly effective people” calls this” beginning with the end in mind”.

Secret#2 Make Your content entertaining and interactive.

When you make your content entertaining and interactive, you make your website stick.

Stick-ability is the key to having a quality website. Studies have shown that the average website visitor spends no more than 2 minutes. And visitors “stick” or stay longer when the content of a website is compelling enough to solve their problems.

Bob Bly, bestselling author and copywriter talks about the bar stool test as a yardstick- to producing engaging content- for your website.

The bar stool test is measured by comparing your content to having a conversation with a friend in a bar.

If your written content will not engage a friend or visitor in a bar or informally, then the possibility of having an engaging content is low.

Another way to see if your content is engaging is to read your written content aloud. See if your written word sounds right in your ears or to a second person. If your content does not sound right to you then you need to revise your content.

Bottom-line you provide valuable content when the content you provide is entertaining, holds the attention of your website visitors. And they come back to read more content on your website

Secret# 3. Provide informative, current, and up-to-date content about what is happening in your niche.

There is a saying amongst stock market traders, “the trend is your friend”. Trends refer to changes in the market place. Political economic or cultural issues could change market behavior.

Your business must be aware of the trends in your target market so you can tailor your website to cater for your customers. By keeping yourself up to date on happenings in your market…you can constantly update your website content to provide solutions and adjust your product offering to your market place.

You also communicate to your customer you care about them.

Secret#4. Give free valuable information in exchange for relationship with your prospects.

The commonest mistake internet entrepreneurs and even well-established companies make is…to think of only making sales to the customer.

This is counter intuitive to how the internet works.Most contact on the internet starts with web surfers looking for information.

You build your credibility when you give visitors valuable information free. Now there should be a distinction between what is free and what you want them to pay for.

Nevertheless, you are going to rate better as being helpful because you gave your customers free valuable information… and they will come back to you again. When you create an opportunity for ongoing contact with your prospect, you increase your chances of selling to the customer

Secret# 5. Seek to build relationship with your content

When your website provides-valuable content. You create opportunity to build relationship with your prospects. You can convert prospects to paying customers.

The key to building relationship with your market is to get them interacting with your content.

The best way to do this is to create a space on your website for comments, feedback. You could set up a forum or online community. One of the best ways to grow your business online is to use the apple model-get your customer to become advocates for your business.

You can only achieve this status when you become the go-to-business to solve the problems in your niche.

The bottom line……

The internet is going to keep on growing and the competition is going to be fierce, customers are going to get more sophisticated.

The good news is you can still tap into the rich opportunities in the coming years.

You can achieve this by providing valuable content that is entertaining, interactive and uplifts your customers. And this still bores down to the axiom-content is king!

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