Never Run Out of Blogging Ideas With This One Simple System
Are you looking to have a never-ending supply of content ideas directly from people who are interested in your topic? Here’s a proven system to follow.
Seems like every day I get emails from people who’re trying to figure out this whole content marketing thing. They want to get new readers and traffic to their site, but often they find themselves just giving up out of sheer frustration with producing great ideas.
Or maybe they try to plan in a content calendar, but the entire process is so confusing that they get overwhelmed. How do the pros come up with so much great information every week or every day?
Information drives web traffic. You’re going to need to produce some for your blog or website. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could easily publish a piece of content and then leave it at that? Boom! Instant success!
In the world of Internet business, this does not apply. The quality and frequency of content publication is critical. Publishing daily content will increase the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts.
In order for your website to rank higher on search engines, you must create quality content that your audience will appreciate and come back for more. Returning website traffic is the best website traffic of all. That’s because you now have fans.
A regular schedule of publishing means coming up with great ideas your audience will really want to hear about. By using content marketing, businesses can create and distribute valuable content to their target audiences.
If done correctly, it can also increase sales and lead generation, and customer loyalty. Now, how can you ensure your content is effective?
There are a few things to keep in mind when publishing content regularly. Here, we’ve outlined the key benefits of consistent content publishing so that you can make an informed decision about whether it’s the right strategy for your business!
Content Marketing Analysis Paralysis
After seeing this happen time and time again, I knew I had to stop it. That’s why I developed a little strategy that I like to call my Content Cabinet. Once you put this strategy to work for you, you’ll quickly start noticing that you’ll have no problems with choosing ideas that people are already interested in.
And even better than that, you’ll also be getting daily reminders and notifications with more ideas on autopilot! This is actually a five-step strategy, but it’s so simple that just about any fledgling writer can do it. Here’s how it works…
Step 1: Get a dedicated Gmail account.
The very first step in the Content Cabinet strategy is to create an entirely new Gmail account specifically for content marketing. And all you have to do is:
- Go to www.gmail.com.
- Click Create account.
- Fill in the information.
- Enter your phone number to verify your account.
- You will receive a text message from Google with a verification code.
- Enter the rest of your information.
- Agree to the Google Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Sign in to your new account and set up your signature and any adjustments to the settings. Seems like many people start this step, but they never get past it because of analysis — paralysis or feeling overwhelmed.
This is your new Center for Content Collection. All you have to do now is build your collection system. This part is even easier.
Step 2: Set up Google Alerts.
This step is also fairly simple, because my Content Cabinet strategy collected multiple streams of content into one location. Google Alerts allows you to have new results for topics show up in your email inbox.
For example, you can get info about news, products, or specific subjects sent to your inbox.
Here’s how you do it:
- Go to Google Alerts.
- In the box at the top, enter a topic you want to follow.
- To change your settings, click Show Options.
- The sites you’ll see
- Your language
- The part of the world you want info from
- How many results you want to see
- What accounts get the alert
- Click Create Alert.
Your email address will be notified whenever matching search results are found.
Step 3: Go to Quora.com and sign up with your new Google Account.
When you do, you’ll be prompted to choose topics you’re interested in. Choose topics close to your niche or subject.
Start processing a few questions to get started. Soon, Quora will send you notifications in your inbox. They want you to keep coming back for more, so they will send you the top questions on your subject.
However, it’s important that you keep track of the information coming into your email inbox. These notifications can add up fast.
Step 4: Use your Gmail account to sign up for Reddit.
Go to Reddit.com and set up your new account. When you do, verify the account from your Gmail and search for subs in your topic category. Reddit subs can now send your notifications through Google alerts.
Here is how to use this to get email alerts when someone posts a question regarding your topic of interest. Identify keywords that apply to your interest. For example, knitting, crochet, macrame.
Go to http://www.google.com/alerts and you will see a form to define an alert.
For each of your keywords, do the following;
For “Search Query” type in: site:http://www.reddit.com/r/<subreddit>/ <your>. For example, for my first alert I typed in: site:http://www.reddit.com/r/Knitting/ knitting.
- Make sure you have “Everything” selected.
- For How Often select “As-It-Happens”.
- For How Many select “All Results”.
- Specify your Gmail address.
- Click “Create Alert”.
- Repeat for each of your alerts.
It’s that simple.
Step 5: Organize Your Cabinet
Now you can collect more information on your subjects than you’ll ever be able to handle on your own. So, you now need to organize your material in a content calendar. When you check in each day, take 15 minutes to go over your notifications.
Check for useful links and save them in your content marketing spreadsheet or online content schedule system. I use Coschedule to organize my production. You can get started for free.
Summary:
Making it on your own as a content marketer is tough. You are starting out as a writer and need to figure out how to stay on top of social media, get the work done, satisfy a very small audience and keep it together. The competition is fierce and the field is crowded.
You probably have a website or a blog and now you want to keep up with the trends in your chosen niche by posting quality content regularly. You’re trying to do that while living a real life and earning a living.
You’re going to need systems to shave off hours, minutes and seconds from your daily grind. This is just one of many hacks you’ll need to stay consistent. Don’t worry, there will be more discoveries along the way.
This strategy will allow you to collect material for your own Content Cabinet. Save links, references and other details for ongoing articles and blog posts. Use this Gmail account for all things content marketing.
You can do the same for video sources as well. YouTube and Vimeo will send you alerts on new upload notifications. This should get you going for the long haul.
Bonus tip:
Use this strategy to collect references and research on your particular topics as well. Not only will you be able to find relevant topics, you’ll be able to get the research done in record time for your content marketing needs. But don’t take my word for it.
Try it out for yourself and see what it can do for you. I think you’ll like your results! For more information on content marketing, subscribe to my feed.
