Content Curation

How To Use Content Curation On Your Blog

How To Create Compelling Content That Captivates Your Audience

What do you need to create content that engages your audience? The answer is simple: You need to focus on what matters to them. In order to do that, you need to understand your audience and what matters to them.

In this article, we’ll show you how to create content that captivates your audience and helps you achieve your business goals.

If you follow the 6 simple steps below, your content creation will be far more engaging and useful to your readers and this will boost your credibility and authority with them and will hopefully result in more leads and sales for your business.

By the way, if you are serious and want to take your content marketing and your blogging to the next level, check out the Rapid Blogging Blueprint. This is a premium level training that takes you through each and every step of setting up your own highly profitable blog and profiting from it. You can check it out here.

Ok, let’s jump in…

Understand Your Audience

Who are you writing for? This is a question that all content creators must answer before starting to write. By understanding your audience, you can create content that is relevant and engaging for them.

The first thing to mention is how highly valuable it is to have a general understanding of human nature. An authentic and personable message that can easily establish rapport and trust tends to resonate well with people.

Along with a unique perspective on subjects that may be a little challenging or at least thought-provoking, some passion and humour are some other features that connect with people.

However, it’s also crucial to have a thorough understanding of the specific niche you’re aiming for. The question “What’s in it for them?” must be asked frequently. You must be aware of their needs and wants. How will you meet their needs and fulfil their desires?

Identify What Engages Your Audience

Playing “question and answer” is one of the easiest ways to involve and engage with your audience. Ask thought-provoking questions that really get people thinking or provide answers to recurring queries and objections. Simply structuring your content as a dialogue rather than a monologue enhances the sense of interaction.

Some fundamental elements of interacting with your audience include trying to present yourself as a distinct and fascinating individual with genuine value and a powerful message.

Additionally, you are more likely to maintain your audience’s attention and keep them coming back for more if you add dialogue into your story that imparts useful information in a fun way.

Create Content That Is Genuinely Interesting To Your Audience

If you try and sell right away without first establishing trust, the cynics will leave your website quickly.

Your readers will be interested in learning more if your idea or product excites them, or if you offer practical solutions to their problems.

This is why it is important to really understand your audience and to only write to a specific type of reader; a narrow niche may be smaller, but it will be more targeted, and your readers will more likely be interested in what you have to say, which will hopefully result in more leads and sales for you.

Write in a conversational way and don’t be too stuffy (unless your niche expects this). Always try to add your character to the text and inject humour if you know your readers will respond to it.

It goes without saying that you should know your stuff. Please don’t try to fake your expertise as you will be found out and your audience will not forgive you for deceiving them.

Ask questions, don’t use jargon and offer a unique perspective to your content.

There is a lot of content out there ready to be consumed, so you need to try and stand out from the rest.

Use Multimedia

Video is already a significant component of content marketing and will remain so.

Think of yourself as a customer for a moment. There are two ways to decide how to learn something:

Would you rather watch a three-minute video or spend fifteen minutes reading website content?

It’s likely that you chose the video. Why? Probably because it is shorter, simpler to understand, and hopefully a little engaging, plus it may also be entertaining.

Video is becoming even more crucial as social media platforms today focus more on content sharing and discovery. Additionally, video marketing can humanise your company, which will increase brand recognition, lead generation, and sales.

And don’t forget audio content! Just look at the popularity of platforms like Audible. Creating audio content and using platforms like Soundcloud is a good way to diversify.

If you are creating longform, or detailed content, think about starting a podcast as these are incredibly popular.

And don’t forget good old photos and infographics. Ideally you’d use your own unique photos, but stock photo will still work. And if you can condense all the main points of your content into a handy infographic, great. These are highly valued and readily shared.

Keep It Fresh

Ideally the vast majority of content you produce will be evergreen. That doesn’t mean to say that tactics don’t change, but the underlying strategies and principles remain the same.

You can keep things fresh by updating your evergreen content with new tactics as and when they appear. This way you will also show that you are keeping your finger on the pulse on the niche you serve.

So, you can either update older content with new tactics, or write new content and link to it from the older posts, the decision is yours.

Promote Your Content

Now you have written your content, it’s time to put it to work for you.

The first thing to do is to share it on all of your social media channels.

Create pdf’s or slideshows of your content and share on sites such as Slideshare.

If you have a budget, consider using paid ads to drive traffic to your content. If you do this, ensure that your content is monetised with affiliate links and a clear call-to-action to try to get a return on investment.

Conclusion

In order to create compelling content that will captivate your audience, you need to first understand what makes them tick. You need to know what they care about, what motivates them, and what interests them.

Once you have a good understanding of your audience, you can then begin to create content that speaks to them on a personal level and that provides value.

Your content should also be visually appealing and easy to read. Use short paragraphs, catchy headlines, and eye-catching images. And, most importantly, make sure your content is engaging and interesting.

If it is not, people will not stick around to read it. So, take the time to craft a well-written, well-designed, and well-targeted piece of content, and you will be well on your way to capturing your audience’s attention.

Content publishing is an integral part of any online business and is a great way to get traffic to your offers and to position yourself as an authority, so start publishing useful, high quality content today.

If you really want to know more about the power of content marketing and blogging, you can take a look at the Rapid Blogging Blueprint training course or if you just want a few pointers for now you can grab the featured resource below for a free detailed blogging report; download, read it and take action 🙂

15 Types Of Content Your Audience Wants To Read

As a marketer you know the power of a good blog with powerful content but what do you create? Articles, videos, audios, flipbooks, the list of possibilities for content publishing is endless…

There are times you may well get stuck when creating content. It could be for a variety of reasons such as…

You have already created a lot of content on the subject.
You have not had time to do a lot of brainstorming.
You have only a small amount of time for the project.
You have trouble coming up with a variety of ideas.

And so forth. It doesn’t really matter what the reason is, the fact remains that you’re going to get stuck.

Stuck in a writer’s block. Stuck in a time crunch. Stuck in a rut.

That’s what this resource is here for: to help you get un-stuck. It will serve as a handy tool for generating ideas anytime you wonder…

How do I choose a topic?
What points of discussion should I bring up?
What information do I need to include in this content?

You’ll learn just that in this article, where we’ll talk about 15 talking points that will work for just about any kind of content creation.

NOTE: Although some of these ideas are presented as single items, you can build content around multiples.

For example, The first is to respond to a frequently asked question, though you can also respond to a series of questions. Or use #2 as an illustration; you may either insert one tip or several tips.

The point is that depending on your needs, you may execute singles or multiples of several of these.

Now that the disclaimer has been made, let’s begin…

Ok, let’s jump in…

Answer A Frequently Asked Question

By looking at your email, social media, blog comments, and other sources, you can get a feel for the questions your audience is asking.

Checking sites like Quora and JustAnswer, as well as observing the questions your audience asks on other people’s blogs and social media, will help you collect more questions.

For example, if you’re writing content about weight loss, you may provide the response to the question, “How many calories should I eat each day?”

Tip: For further ideas, try searching Google for phrases like “commonly asked questions about [your topic]” or “most often asked questions about [your topic]”.

Add A Useful Tip

One of the most useful elements of a piece of material is frequently a good tip. Because of this, you should aim to include useful and preferably new tips in any relevant piece of content you produce.

Share hints that make a task clearer, quicker, cheaper, easier, or in some other manner better, to make your content even more beneficial.

For example, if you’re writing content about dog training, you can offer advice on how to interpret a dog’s body language so that you can correct him before he does something wrong (like barking or attacking other dogs).

Give Appropriate Warnings

Giving a warning helps your readers to avoid an issue or mistake, possibly even one that is harmful.

For example, if you’re instructing folks on how to restore a classic car, you could mention the possibility that lead paint was once used to paint older vehicles. Then you can give instructions on how to remove this paint safely.

Every issue has possible risks attached to it, and you can help your audience by alerting them to them.

How To Avoid A Common Mistake

What error (or errors) does your target market frequently make? You can discuss this common error, instruct readers on how to prevent it, and instruct them on how to change their course of action in the event that they have already committed the error.

For example, if you’re giving advice on how to get a new job, you might mention a typical interview error that most people make.

Tip: A personal account of how you made the error will help you connect with your audience.

Show Them Relevant Examples

An excellent example makes a step or suggestion clearer and makes it simpler for the person to apply the knowledge you’re showing them.

For example… consider this very article! To help you better understand each topic we’ve discussed, I’ve given you an example after each entry.:)

Seriously. There’s nothing like sharing an example to “demonstrate” what a point may look like in a real-world scenario to better explain it.

Make A List Of Dos And Don’ts

A list of do’s and don’ts can be thought of as a collection of suggestions (do’s) and errors to avoid (don’ts).

For example, you might give a list of do’s and don’ts while instructing folks on how to replace a kitchen faucet. E.g. “Do make certain that you have the proper tools before you start the job” and “Don’t forget to turn the water off first.”

NOTE: When people are sharing this kind of list, they frequently have an unbalanced list with many more do’s or don’ts. This issue can be avoided by changing some of your dos into don’ts or vice versa.

Consider the statement “Don’t forget to turn the water off first” from the previous example. You can reword the point as follows: “Do turn off the water before you start” if your list of dos and don’ts is nearly all don’ts and you wish to add a few do’s to the list.

Share Relevant Quotes

Share a meaningful quote from someone, especially someone who is (or was) notable, , here. If you’re looking for a specific kind of quote, try searching Google or quotes websites like BrainyQuotes.

For example, if you write about motivation in your area of expertise (like fitness), you may share Eleanor Roosevelt’s maxim, “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.”

Quotes can help your audience remember important details and give them well-needed motivation.

Discuss Hot News Relevant To Your Niche

In your niche, news is constantly happening, yet frequently your audience is unaware of how it affects them. You can share the news with your audience (ideally before anyone else) and describe why it is important to them.

For example:

If you’re publishing content for readers who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis and a new medication enters the market, you can inform readers about the drug trials to help them in deciding whether or not to consult their doctors.
If you’re writing content for American entrepreneurs and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) adopts new advertising restrictions, you can communicate this information to your audience and advise them on how to comply with the rules.

Make sure to stay up to date on developments in your niche by routinely reading articles from key academic journals and industry news media.

Show The Steps For A Particular Process

It goes without saying that you will list the steps of a procedure if you are writing a tutorial. You could do the same thing, though, even within other content.

If you give a tip, for instance, you can then outline the actions that people should follow to put the tip into practice.

The same is true for other kinds of content, such describing the steps necessary to use a piece of equipment that is listed in a gear list.

For example, if you recently gave your audience advice about how a strong email subject line may significantly increase open rates, you can now provide the steps to write this kind of subject line.

Expand On A Particular Idea

You might occasionally express ideas that don’t require further explanation. In other circumstances, you’ll want to provide more detail. This improves the content’s worth and usefulness.

For example, if you mentioned cultivating relationships as a way to convince a possible joint venture partner to accept your plan, you might wish to expand on that suggestion. In other words, you would discuss strategies for establishing these connections.

TIP: You can also expand on someone else’s thoughts. For example, you could cite a Facebook post and then elaborate on it, if they haven’t done so already.

Suggest An Alternative

The idea here is that if someone lacks the funds, software, equipment, or any other tools or resources required to complete a project or achieve a goal, you can recommend a substitute.

For example, assume you’re conducting a class on photo editing, but you are aware that not everyone in your class can afford Photoshop. You can recommend that they get a free software application like GIMP to do their editing.

Compare And Contrast Ideas/Strategies

Which strategy will be most effective for someone? That is a question your readers will frequently be asking themselves. By helping your audience to find the answer to that question, you are giving them a lot of value.

For example, if you are in the fitness niche, you can assist them in determining which sort of cardio is best suited to their demands (high intensity interval training (HIIT), moderate intensity, or low steady-state cardio).

TIP: Be sure to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each option you propose.

Compare And Contrast Products/Services

A comparison and contrast of two products is another way to add value. You should compare and contrast the two items that the majority of individuals in your niche buy.

Sometimes, a first-time buyer may be undecided about which product is best for them, and your comparison/contrast can help them make that choice (and if you are an affiliate even better).

For example, if you’re writing for ultra-marathon runners, you could compare and contrast two major brands of running/trail shoes.

Write A Product Review

People enjoy and search out product reviews regardless of the niche. That is why your audience will really value a product review, whether as a standalone piece of content or as a discussion point within a larger piece of content.

For example, if you’re writing a lesson on how to build a mailing list, you could review and recommend a certain autoresponder.

Ask And Answer Readers’ Questions

Here, the goal is to collect questions from readers and then respond to one or more of them. This could be compared to a group coaching session. You can either do this in real time (like during a webinar) or in advance and respond to inquiries on a regular basis, as in a weekly blog post. These questions and answers can be inserted into any kind of content.

For example, if you help folks with do-it-yourself remodelling tasks, you can respond to questions from your audience every Friday.

NOTE: You can use these questions to revise earlier works of content to keep them updated and current.

For example, if a blog post receives questions from readers in the comments section, you could now include a “Group Coaching Q&A” segment at the end of this article where you address these questions.

OK, so there are 15 pieces of content that your readers will want to read, so go ahead and pick one today.

3 Ways To Find Content Idea Starters

Some days you may need to create a blog post, a newsletter article, or even a short social media post, and you come up empty.

Maybe you’re not sure what topic to write about. Or maybe you know the topic, but you’re not sure about how to approach the topic (what angle/perspective/slant).

That’s where this article comes in, as it serves as an “idea starter” to help you brainstorm and research fresh topics and angles for your next piece of content.

Ok, let’s jump in…

Step 1: Brainstorm Using Prompts

Defined: Idea starters are basically prompts to help you think about ideas and angles of what to write about.

To that end, go through the following idea starters and write down as many ideas as you can think of for your niche.

TIP: You can go through this list and write down ideas for your niche without having a specific topic in mind. Starting with only your niche will help you generate ideas for dozens of topics within the niche.

However, this list also works well when you do have a specific topic (such as “getting rid of aphids” or “replacing a classic car’s upholstery”), as then you’ll get dozens of ideas for ways to approach these specific topics.

Here are your idea starters – list as many ideas as you can think of for each one:

X Common Myths You’ve Heard About _______
For People Who Want to ______ But Can’t Get Started
How to Prevent ___________
How to Get Rid of _____________
Fast Relief of ______________
Five Hacks for ______________
How to Save Time When ___________
How to Save Money When ____________
How to Stay Safe When _______________
The Fastest Way to ________________
The Best Way to _________________
The Cheapest Way to _____________
The X Stages of ________________
The Pros and Cons of _____________
What To Do When You’re Worried About _____________
How to _____ Like ______ (How to do something like a famous person)
X _______ Ideas That Don’t Require ____________
How to ______ Even if You Don’t _______________
The #1 __________ Mistake You Don’t Want to Make
How I Turned __________ Into ________________
What I Learned From _________________
What __________ Taught Me About _____________
Why You Should Never ____________
Why I Do __________ Differently Than Everyone Else

Next…

Step 2: Do Some Research

Your next step is to do some research to help generate even more ideas. The strategy here is to look at existing content and ideas and then reflect back on the idea-starter questions above to generate additional ideas.

I’ll first give you a list of existing content to review, and then I’ll provide you with examples of how to implement this strategy:

Check your competitors’ blogs.
Read your competitors’ newsletters.
Browse social media pages in your niche.
Search for niche information in academic journals (use Google Scholar).
Browse YouTube videos and YouTube channels in your niche.
Review PLR (private label rights) content in your niche for ideas.
Check paid products in your niche.
Browse slide shares in your niche on SlideShare.net.
Look at your own existing content.

Let’s work through an example…

Let’s suppose you go to your competitor’s blog, and you find an article with 10 tips for losing weight. You can look at the article as a whole, as well as each individual tip, and run through your idea starters.

“X Commons Myths You’ve Heard About _______” becomes “Top Five Common Myths You’ve Heard About Losing Weight.” You can then turn a positive tip on the list into a negative myth (that you debunk).

Let me give you a specific example…

Let’s suppose one of the tips is on the topic of eating multiple smaller meals per day to boost metabolism and provide the body with a steady supply of food to fuel one’s activities.

You can turn this idea around to become a myth. E.G., “Eat Two or Three Big Meals Per Day” is the myth, and then you can share what to do instead (eat six small meals per day).

Step 3: Use A Tool

Need more ideas? Then your next step is to use a tool to generate additional ideas.

One of the best tools to use is BuzzSumo.com. Not only does this tool give you topic and angle ideas, it also presents ideas for content that’s already popular in your niche.

Start by entering your broad keywords into BuzzSumo, such as “gardening” or “dog training.” Then write down any ideas that spark your interest.

Then…

Enter broad keywords from OTHER niches.

For example, if your market is dog training, then enter completely different market and niche searches such as:

Weight loss
Traveling (or even more specific, such as “RV traveling” or “overseas traveling”)
Camping
Gardening
Marriage/wedding
Relationships
Conception/infertility
Adoption
Anti-aging
Bodybuilding
Self-defense
Home security
Computer security
Running
Hiking

And similar big, evergreen markets and topics. For each market or topic you feed into the tool, you’ll get dozens of ideas. In turn, you can take these ideas and apply them to your own niche.

For example, let’s suppose you feed the keywords “weight loss” into the tool, and you get a result such as “It’s Never Too Late to Start Losing Weight.”

You can then take this topic and bring it to your niche (dog training). E.G., “It’s Never Too Late to Start Training Your German Shepherd.”

Or let’s suppose you enter “gardening” and get the result: “10 Gardening Ideas that Work Even If You Don’t Have a Green Thumb.”

You can brainstorm and apply that to your niche, like this: “10 Dog Training Ideas That Work Even If You’re a Complete Dog-Training Newbie.”

Let’s wrap this up…

Conclusion

Now that you have a list of idea starters and access to research and tools that can help you generate even more ideas, your next step is simple: start brainstorming 😊

By the way, if you really want to know more about the power of content marketing and blogging, you can take a look at the Rapid Blogging Blueprint training course or if you just want a few pointers for now you can grab the featured resource below for a free detailed blogging report; download, read it and take action 😊

4 Ways To Find Topics For Your Content

The kind of content you’re going to need will vary and include things like lead magnets, paid products, blog posts, guest posts, newsletter content, video content, social media content and so on. That means you will need to come up with a whole lot of topic ideas for all of this content.

The question is, how do you generate all these ideas? That’s what this checklist will help you do.

Let’s get started…

Step 1: Check Paid Products

Your first step is to look at paid products – especially popular bestsellers – to help you generate topic ideas. One advantage of this method is that you get to multitask. Not only do you get topic ideas, but you also get to do your market research at the same time.

Here’s how to use paid products to generate ideas:

Look for bestsellers. You can search for your niche keywords on sites such as ClickBank.com, JVZoo.com, Udemy.com and Amazon.com. Then pay attention to what topics sell well in your niche.
Browse tables of contents. The idea here is to look at the tables of contents inside popular products in your niche, as each chapter or section may be a potential topic idea.
Check sales letters. Search your competitors’ sites for infoproducts, and then read the sales letters. Each item in the bulleted list is likely a potential topic idea for you.
Search Google. Here you search for your niche keywords alongside words such as book, video, membership site, buy, purchase, download and similar. The product as a whole will help you generate topic ideas, plus the table of contents or sales letter will give you even more ideas.
Read niche magazines. Check the cover articles first for ideas, as these tend to be the most popular topics. Then read the table of contents to generate even more ideas for your next piece of content.
Check PLR content. Go to sites that sell private label rights content – there you should be able to generate dozens of additional ideas for your own content. Bonus: if you hit upon a topic you really like, you can purchase the PLR and use it to create your content.

Important…

Remember, you’re generating IDEAS as you go through all these paid products. In no way will you copy anyone’s work. Rather, you’re just looking for topics to write about (using your own perspective, information and style of teaching).

Step 2: Browse Free Content

The next step is to check free content to generate even more ideas.

Check out these ideas:

Check blogs. Each of your competitors’ blogs can help you generate dozens of ideas. Each post is a potential idea, plus each major point within a post can be a separate topic idea.
Visit niche groups and forums. Another good place to get ideas is on niche groups (such as Facebook groups) as well as niche forums. View popular posts to get topic ideas. Also check the archives to see what topics come up repeatedly.
Browse social media. Check your competitors’ pages on Facebook and Twitter, paying particular attention to posts that get a lot of likes, shares and comments.
Visit YouTube. Insert your niche keywords into the search bar, and you’ll likely get dozens of videos in return. Each video is a potential topic idea, plus you can watch the videos to get even more ideas.
Check SlideShare.net. Pay particular attention to the most popular presentations.
Browse Quora.com. Each question on this site provides a potential topic idea, plus each answer will give you even more ideas.
Subscribe to niche newsletters. Each email you receive could give you at one or more potential topic ideas.
Check your inbox. Here you check the emails your audience sends to you, such as their questions. Each of these questions is a potential topic idea.
Run a Google search. Here you can enter a broad search for your niche keywords and see what comes up. Or you can run specific searches, such as: [niche keywords] FAQ. (Each question and answer is a potential topic idea.)

Next…

Step 3: Use Keyword Tools

Still another way to uncover topic ideas is to use a keyword tool such as WordTracker.com (or your favorite tool).

Simply enter your niche keywords, and the tool will return dozens of results, each of which is a potential topic idea for you.

Step 4: Check Your Content

You can also generate topic ideas by checking your own content on your blog, social media and other platforms. This is an often overlooked place to find ideas for new or updated content but shouldn’t be overlooked because it can be a real opportunity to find fresh readers.

As always, pay particular attention to popular topics (such as ones that get a lot of comments on your blog).

Then ask yourself these questions:

Can you update this piece of content and republish it? Let’s suppose you’ve found an older, outdated piece of content that was popular when you first published it. Can you update the content and re-publish it on your platforms?

For example, if you have a gear list for bloggers that you created five years ago, you can update the list with the latest tools.

Can you expand on this content? Let’s suppose you have a short blog article. Can you expand on each point in the article to turn it into a report or other longer piece of content?
Can you turn this content into multiple smaller pieces of content? Let’s suppose you have a blog post that shares ten tips. Each of those ten tips is a potential topic idea, meaning you could turn each tip into its own full-length article.
Can you change the content into a different format? Let’s say you’ve found a checklist on your blog (like this one). You could expand on it and turn it into a regular article or a report. Or you might turn a text article into a video, or a video into a text article.

Conclusion

If you follow the steps above, you’ll easily create a list of more topic ideas than you have time to write about. And that is a good position to be in!