How to get more out of your blog content

One of the most frustrating things about writing a long piece of content is feeling like only a few people saw it and hours of your time writing had almost no impact.

There are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to blog content that will help you feel like it was well worth the time invested. It’s as simple as making sure that nobody (including you!) thinks of your blog post as a “one and done” piece of content.

1)   SEO juice

Quality content on your website will help you rank higher in search engines (otherwise known as search engine optimization or SEO). Even if you just think of SEO as being there to help you rank higher in search - that alone is still not a bad reason to create good content for your website (some businesses get most of their leads through search!).

Every time you create new content, your website is crawled by the search engine bots. So, when you create new blogs posts, make sure you’re using the kinds of words you want to be found for. You should also keep your blog posts to a minimum of 300-500 words for them to be considered quality, and whenever possible, link to other pieces of your content within your site and try to get other people to link to your content from their web sites.

2)   You’re giving people a reason to visit

Without new blog posts, there isn’t much of a reason for people to keep coming back to your website. How many times can you promote your ‘About’ and ‘Sales’ pages and expect people to take the time to come and visit again?

By consistently creating new content that you know is of interest to your audience, you have an opportunity to entice them to return and make them feel like they’re getting value out of what they’re reading.

Once you have posted new content, make sure you tell your audience you created the content. Post it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and on Pinterest. Also send an email to your mailing list letting them know you created the new content.

If you don’t tell people you created new content, they won’t know to go and look – so, promote, promote, promote!

I once heard you should spend as much time promoting a post as you spend writing it, if not more. Keeping that in mind will help you figure out just how much effort you have to put into getting people to see it for you to feel like it was worth writing.

A few other tips for promoting:

• Share it multiple times – on Twitter you can share it 5-6 times over 48 hours easily. On Facebook you can share it again 24-48 hours later.

• If you’re worried about seeming repetitive, use ICYMI. It stands for “In case you missed it” and recognizes you’ve posted it before, but that you know not everyone will have seen it.

This next piece is really critical:

3)   Don’t forget about it.

Once you’ve promoted the content, plan to share it again over time. Not all of your content may be evergreen, but if it is it, plan to share it again in two weeks, six weeks and nine weeks later. You may even want to schedule it to share again in those time frames while you’re posting it the first time. It will save you time and make sure you don’t forget to keep re-sharing it.

4)   Reuse pieces

Don’t think of your blog post as just a blog post. Take pieces of it and do different things with it.

Reuse it as a script for a short video, take quotes out and share as tips on Twitter or create visuals and share on Instagram. 

Creating great content can be time consuming, but if you make that time well worth the investment then you will see results - results that make it easier to keep doing. By making sure the content is being properly promoted and shared on a regular basis, you’re going to see far more results with one piece of content than you did before.

Spend some time thinking about the content you’ve written in the past – how can you apply these things to it now?

Are you scared?

There are a lot of things that we all think we should do in our businesses but that we hold back from doing because of fear.  Maybe it’s fear that we aren’t good enough, that people won’t like what we have to say or what we do, or maybe we don’t even understand exactly what it is that we’re afraid of at all.

If you’re one of those people who keeps holding back from standing up in front of a crowd and sharing your knowledge, writing a blog post or article sharing some of your genius or sitting down in front of a video camera and recording some nuggets for your audience I’ve got a couple of videos that I happen to have come across recently that I think could help.

Chris Cummins reminds us why we need to push ourselves out of our comfort zone

In this TEDx talk, Chris Cummins shares a personal story about being told to always push himself out of his comfort zone, how scary that was, and how it turned out.

It’s important to remember that to grow, we need to challenge ourselves and not stay in our safe zone.  To get the things we want out of life, we need to do things that are scary.

Chris Hadfield shares tips on overcoming fear

I think Chris Hadfield is an amazing communicator.  I’m sure he’s a fabulous astronaut too, but when I think of him I think about how well he tells a story and makes people care about the things he cares about.  In this 20 minute TED talk he shares a story about going blind in space and how he dealt with that.  He also talks about walking into spiderwebs a lot which sounds like a horrible idea - but I get his point.

I think this is a great motivational talk to get us in the right frame of mind to get ready to do what Chris asks us to do, and step outside our comfort zones.

I’m going to challenge you again

In late December I made a video challenging people to do something that scares them. I’m sharing it again here and challenging you to do it.  “It” being the thing you know you want to do to grow your business but that scares you.  Maybe it’s writing a blog post or committing to sending a weekly newsletter, or maybe it’s getting up and talking in front of a crowd, recording your first video or going to a networking event and talking to five new people.

Once you’ve watched the videos, leave me a comment and let me know what it is you’re taking on and how it goes!  Just remember, it’s ok to be scared, it’s actually what we’re looking for!

If you haven’t already, take a minute to sign up for our newsletter in the box below.  You’ll get a copy of our free Simple Start e-book and weekly emails keeping you up to date on our latest content, programming and live events!

Guest post: How to do more video without shooting any - Part 1

We’re thrilled to have a 3 part guest series from Do More Video over the next three weeks highlighting ways you can create video without shooting video.  

By now you have no doubt heard about all the reasons why you should be using video to connect with your audience online: SEO, higher click rates, brand recognition, it’s easy to share and video sets you apart from the rest of the online crowd.

Technical barriers stop creative content

We’ve been told by many people that they really want to create more video content, but don’t do it because they lack the skills to shoot and edit video. So, how do you overcome this problem? How do you create more video without having to shoot or edit it? Well, that’s what this three part blog series will answer for you. We will look at some of the ways that businesses of all sizes and industries can get their message to their masses via video without shooting a single frame.

Remove the technical barriers: Online Animators

Today’s post is about online animators. One of the most popular being Xtranormal, whose tagline is “If you can type, you can make MOVIES!”. In a nutshell, Xtranormal takes care of the technical video stuff for you so that you can concentrate on the creative. You have no doubt seen these funny animated videos with the simple, quirky graphics and monotone voices. Some of my personal favorites were created for political commentary during Canada’s last Federal election, highlighted living in downtown vs. suburban Ottawa a.k.a. “Farrhaven”, and who can forget the crazy popular iPhone 4 vs. HTC Evo which to date has over 14 million views. Although not suitable for all viewers and especially NSFW (not safe for work), these videos were effective because they had a specific audience and a tight message that played within the platform limitations to make the subject funny and relevant. This same technology and theory can also be used to get your business attention online. Being big fans of superheroes at our company, we created a video using Xtranormal to explain how even superhero’s can benefit from doing more video:

Companies of all size have used Xtranormal to get attention. Geico Insurance created an entire series of videos using Xtranormal. Their overall campaign message is that making a video on Xtranormal is as easy as signing up for insurance with their company. Using this quirky platform gets the brand name in front of people who would otherwise not click on a video made by an insurance company. Is your business complicated? Xtranormal is a great tool to simplify complex topics for the masses. People innately want to learn, and cartoons lower the barrier to access difficult information. A great example: Quantitative Easing Explained by Omid Malekan, a US financial industry expert, has received over 5 million hits. Seeing the success of this video and an opportunity for the platform, The New York Times hired Malekan to create an animated cartoon series for its website last fall.

Creative time still required

While Xtranormal will save you the headache and time of having to learn how to shoot and edit your own video, it will still require you to take the time to create a relevant and engaging script. In addition, you will want to make some effort to choreograph your characters pacing, movements, and expressions to best support your script. Luckily, Xtranormal provides easy to use options to add pauses and to change your characters’ screen position and body and facial expressions. Although we highlight Xtranormal in this post, this is not the only online video animator available. Another one I’ve come across is GoAnimate. While I haven’t yet tried it out, it seems to work in a similar way and offers some colourful and dynamic image options. Have you used either of the tools above or perhaps another simple video animating platform to tell people about your business? We would love to hear your feedback and see what you have created. If you have any questions just leave us a comment below or drop us a line at info[at]domorevideo[dot]com.

Next week Part II

Check back next Tuesday when we will continue our series on how to Do More Video Without Shooting Any Video.  We will look at a great service that lets you easily create videos from your photos. A useful tool for to showcase events,  portfolios, and real estate. 

Fail to fail and you succeed

Karen and I had the pleasure of attending Podcasters Across Borders a couple of weeks ago and the keynote speaker’s message (Scott Florence) really resonated with me.

Don’t be afraid to fail. In fact, try to fail.

What?! Why would I try to fail?

Because sometimes if you don’t take a risk, if you don’t throw yourself out into the unknown and do something you know you may be perfectly horrible at, you won’t do anything wonderful at all.

Does that make sense? And are you wondering why I’m talking about it here?

Don’t let the fear of doing it “right” stop you from doing it at all

Do you want to start a blog? Do it!

Do you want to start making videos? Do it!

Do you want to write a book? Do it!

If you decide that what you produce doesn’t have to be perfect, you may just create a masterpiece. And even if you don’t create a masterpiece, if what you created was really not very good at all? You will be better next time.

Walking the talk

Karen and I recorded our first video this week. Is it great? Not really. Is it ok? Absolutely.  Will we be better next time? I’d like to think so.

Karen and I have committed to starting a podcast. This petrifies me. Will I make jokes nobody will get? Will I say ummmm over and over. Will absolutely nobody enjoy it?

I’ve decided it doesn’t matter. I’m going to try and assume the first episode isn’t going to be all that great. I’m walking out of my comfort zone to create new content.

A few suggested leaps for you

- Write a guest post for someone else’s blog. It will get your feet wet for blogging.

- Create a video for just your family and friends. Practice in a safe setting.

- Don’t reinvent the wheel. Take something you admire and change it to make it your own.

What will you attempt to fail at this week?

Here is part of Scott’s keynote from the conference. (DISCLAIMER: there’s swearing)