“ProBlogger Training Event: A Last Release of Early Bird Tickets Today” plus 2 more |  |
- ProBlogger Training Event: A Last Release of Early Bird Tickets Today
- How to Get More Content for Your Blog
- Broaden Your Blog’s Reach Through Innovative Content [Case Study]
| ProBlogger Training Event: A Last Release of Early Bird Tickets Today Posted: 13 Mar 2013 02:28 PM PDT This post was intended to let you know that last night we released a round of Early Bird Tickets for our upcoming Training Event on the Gold Coast in Queensland (Australia). However the 100 tickets we released yesterday all sold within an hour of us releasing them (without really us promoting it beyond the email list of people who’ve attended before and who expressed interest a couple of months ago). Tickets sold out so quickly that we’ve had a heap of emails and Twitter messages from people who missed out so we’re going to release one last batch of Early Bird tickets today at 11am (Australian Eastern time). We will release more full priced tickets in the coming months but if you’d like to come to our event and would like to save $50 add your email address to the form below and we’ll email you with a link to the ticket sales page when they go on sale in a few hours. About the Event
The price for these Early Bird Tickets is $299.99 (a saving of $50 on full priced tickets) which will get you:
SpeakersWe’re still locking on our schedule but you can see the announced speakers on our Speaker page. They already include:
We’ve still got a lot more to announce though! This year’s event will include a mix of keynote/single speaker sessions, a handful of panels, a few workshops and we’ll also be doing a few short case studies where you’ll hear from bloggers on interesting successes they’ve had in the last 12 months. What you will Learn at PBEVENT 2013Topics that we’ve got in our soon to be released schedule include:
Plus much more – we’ll have 20 sessions in total! So if you’re interested in coming along – add your email address below and I’ll shoot you an email when the tickets go on sale: Lastly – a special thanks to Virgin Australia who have come on as an Event partner this week. Watch this space for an exciting opportunity to win flights with Virgin Australia! Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger ProBlogger Training Event: A Last Release of Early Bird Tickets Today |
| How to Get More Content for Your Blog Posted: 13 Mar 2013 07:39 AM PDT This is a guest post by Kristi Hines. One of the biggest challenges that bloggers face – whether they are blogging for themselves or their business – is creating enough content. Most people can't just write a blog post in 15 minutes. Creating quality content takes a major investment of time and resources. If you're struggling to create enough content, then here are some great ways to get additional content for your blog. Supplement with Content CurationIf your challenge when it comes to content creation is coming up with original blog topics, then one way to fill up your editorial calendar is by adding curated content. Curated content is simply compiling and organizing content from other sources into one post. The Ultimate Resource Guide to Guest Blogging and Blogger Outreach is an example – it is simply a list of networks and posts from other sites on how to have successful guest blogging and blog outreach campaigns. Note that these kinds of posts are not time savers – you still have to find the best pieces of content to curate, organize everything logically, give each piece a description, and compile it all together. But it can be a lifesaver when you're having trouble coming up with new ideas while giving your audience some awesome content to chew on. Tips for Great Curation Pieces
I've found that content curation comes in handy in a couple of ways. For my blog, it gives me a weekly roundup post to rely upon with no inspiration needed. Even blogs like HubSpot and Social Media Examiner have their own version of weekly curated content. And for the blogs I regularly contribute to, it was easy to find content related to their niche to group together in a large lists like 45 Posts on A/B, Multivariate, and Usability Testing and smaller lists like 8 Useful Recruitment Infographics. Repurpose ContentAnother way to create content for your blog that doesn't include coming up with all new post ideas is by repurposing your pre-existing content. This simply means that you refresh, reorganize, and recreate content that has worked for you in the past. You can also take content in one format (such as video) and repurpose it into another format (such as a slideshow). Tips for Repurposing Old Content
Tips for Repurposing Other Formats of Content
One of my goals for 2013 is to produce more eBooks, but I find it hard to commit to any piece of writing longer than a blog post, especially now that I'm a new mom. So I'm looking at repurposing as the answer by staring my next eBook as a series of blog posts. So far I have 40+ post drafts ready to be written. Once they are done, they will be repackaged nicely into an eBook. Attract Guest BloggersIf you don't have time at all to create yourself, you can look towards outside resources to create content for you. The first (and free) resource for blog content is guest bloggers. Guest bloggers will provide content in exchange for exposure with your audience – they usually just want an author bio that includes a backlink to their website. Tips for Attracting Guest Bloggers
Tips for Working with Guest Bloggers
Last year, when I was fully focused on client work, I depended on guest bloggers to keep my blog afloat. And that they did – I had regularly scheduled guest posts two to three times a week. Although I am changing up my blog strategy this year (similar to the ProBlogger evolution), I was grateful to have such great content on my site from many talented authors. Get Completed ArticlesIf you want to bypass interacting with writers for content, your next best bet is to look for networks that offer ready to go content. Networks like MyBlogGuest and GuestBlogIt allow you to connect with guest bloggers as well as browse through completed articles that you can publish on your blog. If you don't have time to browse through lots of articles, networks like PostJoint let you choose topics and then sends you a daily email when new content is available for you to browse. The email includes the content titles and the first sentence so you can preview them right in your inbox. Tips for Getting Great Content
If your blog isn't quite at the stage of attracting guest bloggers, then this might be a good route to go. I also found it useful to grab pre-written, unique content for my blog on the days where my scheduled guest blogger missed their submission deadline. This ensured that my blog didn't go silent on a day people expected a new post. Hire Freelance WritersIf you have some money to invest in your blog and are not having luck with guest bloggers, then you can always hire one or more freelance writers. The advantage to freelance writers is that you have more control over what they write and can insist upon edits when necessary. Tips for Finding Freelancer Writers
Tips for Working with Freelancer Writers
Though I've never hired a freelance writer for my blog, many blog owners and businesses have hired me to create content for them. It works out great because then they can focus on monetization and revenue generating tasks while ensuring their blog is kept up-to-date with quality content. On to you…Have you used any of these strategies to get content for your blog? Please share your experiences plus additional tactics for increasing your blog content in the comments! Kristi Hines is a freelance writer, ghostwriter, and professional blogger who writes about blog marketing strategy at Kikolani. She has also contributed to well-known online marketing blogs including Social Media Examiner, KISSmetrics, Unbounce, and Search Engine Journal. Follow her on Twitter or Google+. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger How to Get More Content for Your Blog |
| Broaden Your Blog’s Reach Through Innovative Content [Case Study] Posted: 12 Mar 2013 06:03 AM PDT This guest post is by Tommy Walker of Inside The Mind. Back in November last year, we ran a crowd funding campaign to bring back Inside The Mind for a second season. Even though we didn’t reach our overall campaign goals, we learned two very important things: 1. Unexpected success Our campaign converted at 5.6%. Our goal initially was to raise $100,000 and even though we didn’t reach that, what we did learn was that the people who were watching were very happy to support the show. When we looked at the sponsors list, we saw many names that we recognized, but there were also quite a few we didn’t. This let us know that we had broken beyond our initial reach with the show, and people who we’ve never interacted with on a one-to-one basis believed in what we were trying to do. 2. Expanding our reach When we looked at the conversion rate for that campaign, compared to the overall traffic numbers, it started to look a lot like a basic algebra equation. The “X” that we had to solve the equation for in this case represented broader reach. The primary way to expand reach, I believe, is through content. The conceptOne of the things that I’ve seen work very well for others in expanding their own reach is to conduct killer interviews, so I decided to give this a try. My concept, The Mindfire Chats, is a way to conduct multiple interviews at the same time. Here’s an example. Our panelists come from a variety of backgrounds, yet discuss a subject that shares a core principle with online marketing. This is very intentional as I want to dig into deeper truths about online marketing principles but without the industry bias, jargon, mechanics, or politics. My brand mission is to bring the concepts of online marketing into the mainstream. Inside The Mind does this by fusing internet-generation humor with top level online marketing advice. And The Mindfire Chats follow on well from this—it takes that ethos a step further by taking a deeper thinking approach on core principles. Getting inspiration for the ideaOne of the things I realized about half-way through filming the first season of Inside The Mind”was that at the core of all of this, I am an artist. Yes, I’m an online marketing strategist, but I’m also an animator, composer, on-air personality, writer, video editor, comedian, PR person, and so on. Because Inside The Mind itself was an experiment (and one I was terrified to try at first), and it went well, I think that gave me a freedom that many bloggers in the online marketing space don’t feel. I don’t believe my core audience follows me necessarily because of “what I know” and what I share. Rather, they watch because they want to see what I do next to push the bounds of what content is and what it means to be in this space. That being said, I make a point to interact with most anyone who's on my email list, so I've learned a great deal about who they are, and what they want. Part of what made me think this content approach would work was that it follows a similar blueprint to what’s proven to work, but it’s different enough to make it unique to me and my brand. Setting content goalsI have a few goals for The Mindfire Chats. Firstly, I want this content to dig into the core concepts of online marketing from as many different angles as possible. On our second chat, we had Brian Clark of Copyblogger discuss storytelling with Emmy Award-winning documentarian, Doug Pray, and John Jacobsen, a very well known script doctor who hosts his own show with over 30 million viewers. Really, no matter what any of these guys say on the subject, it’s not going to be wrong. How could it be, if they’ve achieved what so very few others have? What makes it interesting though, is when their field experiences start to differ, and tell a different story. It’s even more fascinating when the panelists start asking each other questions about each other’s experiences and you can tell they're learning from each other. It shows our audience that even when you’ve “made it,” you’re never done learning. To be able to facilitate the kinds of connections that could potentially push the space forward in a more positive direction is very fulfilling. Of course, from a purely selfish standpoint, my goal is to cause a ruckus, build a viewership, and get more people turned on to my brand. We’re also using the chats as an entry point for sponsorship relations for both The Mindfire Chats and Inside The Mind. The practicalitiesI can’t take all the credit for getting this content idea off the ground. My producer Nate Wright of Small Biz Triage is the other half of this, and he’s really the one responsible for the organization of it all. Because I’ve been active in the online marketing space for the past few years, I’ve built a pretty solid professional network. So basically, setting up the chats was really just a matter of sending out some emails. In truth, though, getting to the position where that was possible has meant guest blogging like a professional over the years and making a good enough impression with people to the point that they at least know my name (which is important for standing out in the inbox). When Nate approached me about getting this concept off the ground, we basically compared our rolodexes and started mashing up the panelists. After sending out the first couple emails saying, “Hey, you interested?” Nate works out the schedule, and gets our panelists all savvy with the Google+ Hangouts. Meanwhile, I’m researching the panelists and coming up with the questions. That way, when it’s show time, I’m not being pulled in a million different directions, and everyone gets to look as professional as possible. TechnologyThe technology that we use to produce this content is pretty simple:
Right now I’m using the onboard webcam and the built-in microphone on my Mac for the chats—you can get by with what you have. I imagine as our sponsorship revenue grows, we’ll invest in better versions of everything, so we can have a consistently high level of broadcast quality, but for the time being, it’s not necessary. Everything I’m using right now is either built into my computer, or is free, open source software. At most, I might consider using my external webcam, but even that costs less than $100. It doesn’t have to be expensive to create compelling content. Getting the word outWhen you come up with a new content idea like this, you want to get the word out to as many people as possible. Right now, in these early stages, my promotion strategy is pretty low-key. I email the list, update the Facebook pages, Twitter, and Google+, and I send a few emails to a few key influencers I know who may be interested. I tried doing a blitz to some of the bigger online news outlets like Mashable, TNW, RWW, and so on, but I didn’t hear anything back. So instead of trying to do that a million times over, I’d much rather keep a low profile and let this grow more organically. That said, since I’ve shifted my focus more towards The Mindfire Chats and Inside The Mind, as I work on the guest posting portion of my outreach strategy, I'm asking host blogs permission to embed the relevant content within my posts—but even that is permission-based. I do what I do because I love making things click for the people who interact with my stuff, not necessarily because I’m looking for manufactured fame. While the goal for the chats is to extend my brand's reach, I would much rather that be a natural by-product of the content we’re creating than by an aggressive “hey, look at me” strategy. Sharing the loveWhen bloggers develop new content ideas, they're often tempted to keep the content on their blogs, and not to let others use it. But as I said, I'm asking other blogs I guest post on to let me embed a selected chat in the post on their blog. I think the question of whether you share your content—as in my case, allowing it to be embedded on other sites—has a lot to do with the type of content that’s being published. I talk about this in the content development episode of Inside The Mind where there are basically four types of content:
That said, both Inside The Mind and The Mindfire Chats are meant to be shared and start discussions. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter to me where that discussion is going on, as long as it’s happening. As we saw a moment ago, I have some very specific goals for the video content, and part of that is for it to be shared, so making it easy to decouple The Mindfire Chats from my blog was very intentional. My thought on the video content is that it’s very difficult to fake being me. My face, my energy—everything about what I do in the videos really … well, it would be really hard for someone else to try and pass that off as their own. On that same note if I point to a URL in the video, it’s much harder to replace that text on the screen, or change the annotations that link to the other videos on my Youtube channel. So I really don’t mind if someone tries to embed the chats elsewhere—ultimately Youtube gives me more credit for simply having the content embedded. Of course, if someone were to rip off my lead content, I would be furious. However, by design, my lead content is put in the “less sexy” parts of my website, and takes a little work to get to. I trust that people who want to work with me privately are able to navigate a website if they’re really interested in taking our relationship to the next level. As a writer online, I believe it’s nearly impossible to avoid someone else stealing, remixing and taking credit for your work. It’s sad, but it’s also a losing battle to try and fight. On the other hand, as I’ve started to mature as a writer, I’m learning how to allow a real vulnerability into my work and give it it’s own unique voice. My goal now with the writing that falls into the “viral” and “discussion” categories is to be so good that people want to rip it off. Quite honestly, when I saw my work get scraped for the first time, I felt a sense of accomplishment that what I was saying was powerful enough that someone else tried to take credit for it. Now I just make sure I have a strong interlinking strategy so that in case that does happen, I get those links from external websites. The progress so farSo far, we are meeting our goals with The Mindfire Chats. We’ve already engaged a potential sponsor, and by the time this post is published, we’ll probably be well on our way with them. Our second episode is already scheduled to be embedded on some pretty high-profile blogs, and we’ve gotten extremely positive feedback from the people who’ve attended the live sessions. It’s still all fairly new right now, but it looks like we’re headed in a positive direction that will let us take everything to the next level. For now, I’m just keeping my fingers crossed, focusing on the next panelists, and asking questions that unearth truly valuable insight. That's the secret to creating truly great content—in any format. Tommy Walker is host of "Inside The Mind" a video show that aims to flip the world of online marketing on it's head. He has been described as having an "infectious creative energy that is as rare as it is refreshing." Currently he is guest posting on every popular site known to man in order to raise $100,000 in 30 days in an experiment in crowd funding designed to make online marketing accessible and fun to learn. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Broaden Your Blog’s Reach Through Innovative Content [Case Study] |
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