Content is king, blah blah blah. Fact is, there's no magic formula for good content, but there are some basic things you can do to make your content more attractive to both readers/consumers and search engines.
3. Where Inspiration Strikes
• Mention, Talkwalker - take what Google Alerts used to
do so well and do it 100 times better.
• RSS - whether through Flipboard, Feedly, Digg Reader,
or wherever else, RSS lives on.
• Forums - people still use 'em. And love 'em.
• StumbleUpon - the easiest way to get content to come
to you.
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4. Content Categories
Targeted Funny
How-to Commentary
Target photo by Ville MiettinenviaFlickr Creative Commons Owl photo by Doug Whellervia Flickr Creative Commons
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5. Targeted
Any piece of news that relates to
your niche/genre. They can be
quickly recapped and take little
effort.
Industry happenings
News releases
Personnel changes and moves
Writing/Creation Time: LOW
Social Potential: LOW
Value: Helps share important news,
caters to your core audience, boosts SEO
and helps keep the blog filled.
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6. Funny
A play off the news or something topical, but with an
eye toward the absurd.
Start from the topic, but focus on the funny
Writing/Creation Time: MEDIUM to HIGH
Social Potential: HIGH
Value: Shows a light-hearted side; brings in traffic, boosts
SEO and exposes you to new audiences.
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7. How-to
Teach your readers
something they don’t know.
Better yet, teach your readers
something they didn’t know
they needed to know.
Can take many forms
Writing/Creation Time: LOWto HIGH
Social Potential: HIGH
Value: High shareability; establishes your
thought leadership; provides value to
reader (which makes them think better of
you); boosts SEO.
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8. Commentary
Covering popular news stories
or timely topics, but making it
your own by expressing opinion.
Covers the news from a
specific angle.
On a news release – is this a
departure from the norm?
Has this worked in the past?
Writing Time: HIGH
Social Potential: MEDIUM
Value: Establishes your thought
leadership, boosts SEO.
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10. Infographics
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DON’T: just throw up a
bunch of stylized text
DON’T: Change color
schemes for no apparent
reason
DON’T: Mix and match fonts
just because you feel like it.
11. Infographics
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DO: Share interesting
information in an
engaging, informative way
DO: Have some
information that people
want to know and share
DO: Visualize data and
make numbers tangible
12. Timelines
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―Evolution‖ (of a logo, a singer, etc.)
Design is important
Memes are still good
Yes, this is a type of infographic
14. Video
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YouTube is the biggest by far, but it’s not the only game in town.
Dailymotion is 2nd-largest in the world.
Vimeo has reputation for quality video.
Telly, Viddler – more players every day.
Video is getting
bigger every day
It doesn’t have to
be expensive
When it goes
viral, it goes HUGE
15. Photos
#smx #24A
Use large, high-res, attractive
photos
Slideshows need to be short, or
very fast-moving (i.e., no
reloading the page every scroll)
Encourage users to send in pics
Then &Now
―Separated at birth?‖
This had 102K views on StumbleUpon
16. A few words about lists
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This had 166K views on Stumbleupon
People love lists.
They really do.
They complain about them
being linkbait, but they read
them.
And share them.
If you’re going to do a list,
cover the subject. BE
COMPREHENSIVE.
Why do top 10 if you can do
top 34?
People like learning things
they didn’t know.
Did I mention that people love
lists?
18. Do these things
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Be useful.
Be relevant.
Be consumable.
Link out. People will notice, visit
and maybe even link back to
you.
Illustrate whenever possible.
K.I.S.S.: Keep it simple, stupid
(no offense).
Emulate content you like.
Look at your piece before you
post — would you read it if
you happened up on it?
Photo by Matt Brown via Flickr Creative Commons
19. Thanks and Keep in Touch
#smx #24A
amy@amyvernon.net
www.amyvernon.net
www.Facebook.com/AmyVernon
www.Twitter.com/AmyVernon
http://j.mp/AmyVGplus