Recently, I presented my new magnum opus: The Content Rich Online Marketing Summit. Reviewing all the important online marketing strategies and tactics, the Summit is an action packed, 2 hour seminar that focuses on results. My goal with these events is to distill it down to the most important teachings and give everyone that came a ton of substance – no fluff – minimal storytelling and lots of step-by-step instructions.  I don’t know about you, but so many of the seminars I attend are either a total sales pitch or a bunch of stories stitched together by “get rich quick talking heads.” I’m a busy guy, I don’t want “feel good” anecdotes – I want information!

The inaugural 105 min event (outlined below) was attended by small business people from all over San Diego County and is now available for purchase for only $29.95. It’s action packed and covers the entire spectrum of online marketing and from the feedback we’ve received, attendees got A LOT out of the meeting.  The goal?  To take it to as many places as we can, spreading the good news of online marketing strategy everywhere we go… Everything for the Beginner.  Ideas for the Experts.  Check out these clips from some of my recent events!

Here’s how we break it down at Content Rich “Live” (as it’s also called):

I. Elements of Strategy

• Keyword Research
• Competitive Research
• Content
• Improving Usability – Design
• Social Media
• RSS/Social Bookmarking
• Blogging
• Link Building
• Sub Strategies based on type of business
• Local Companies
• E-Commerce and other web businesses

II. Tactics Continue reading →

Popularity: 3%

Content Is More Than Copy

I always have to remind people that content is much more than simply words on a page. Perhaps this is the most important form of online content, but it’s certainly not the only type, especially now. And yes, I did write the book, Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t discuss video, audio and other types of content every day…because I do.

Ask yourself, what types of content does my audience respond to? Who am I trying to reach? Product videos can be very compelling if you sell electronic goods, for example. Videos give your website a nice personalized touch. How about a video from the CEO of your company welcoming people to your blog?  People that see these videos may share them with their friends. If they do, then you have just made an effective social media play!

And what about Podcasts? They are hugely popular. Think of all the commuters in cars – don’t they need something to listen to? Of course.  Many people don’t have time to surf their favorite blogs or watch a video. Using your expert status, you can create a show that covers all the important topics of your industry and make it available to thousands of people who want to know what you think and may even want to do business with you.

III. HOW YOU CAN GET IT ALL DONE Continue reading →

Popularity: 3%

Other Ways to Link Bait

Contests

Another thing you can do to build link‐friendly content is to run a contest or sweepstakes on your blog (or your Twitter or Facebook page). It doesn’t have to be expensive – you could give away your services, actually. For me, being an online copywriter and marketing consultant, I could give away 10 pages of free content. I haven’t done that yet, but I could. It would probably go off very well. What could you give away? Once you decide, promote it and blog about it like crazy…on every social media channel at your disposal!

Interviews

Finally, to build some high quality link bait or “link friendly” content, you could interview prominent people in your industry. How about that for an idea? You know that these people you interview will link to you, right? Absolutely they will. Most of the prominent people out there in any field appreciate the added exposure. Play off that and get some great traffic as a result! Try this on your YouTube channel next week… Continue reading →

Popularity: 3%

by Jon Wuebben

II.  Types of Social Media Content

So if social media is any online media that allows users to interact with one another, there are probably many different types of social media right? Yes, that’s right. Here is a list of the unique forms of social media and which sites are the most important.

Social networking – Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn,

Social networking sites allow users to add friends, send messages and share content on either the “one-to-many” or “many-to-many” format. Typically, people on social networking sites get together in communities of like-minded interest. More on Twitter in a bit…

Social bookmarking – StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious

Social bookmarking applications allow users to share their favorite online content with one another while by creating online bookmarks. The bookmarks are on a web site so other people can then see your bookmarks and ideally be exposed to something that they wouldn’t otherwise encounter. Some social bookmarking sites, like StumbleUpon and Digg, use a voting system that allows users to indicate what bookmarks they found interesting. Continue reading →

Popularity: 4%

by Jon Wuebben

Social Media. Heard of it? Unless you have been sent in a rocket ship to space for the past couple years, you probably not only know about it – but are digging into it and may be a very active participant. It has been the biggest thing to hit the business world since the Internet itself…plain and simple. Whether you are a business with a fan page on Facebook, a Twitter page and a You Tube channel, or a just a regular guy or gal who is re-connecting with old friends through social media, it has affected practically ALL of us.

So, what is Social Media?   Wikipedia says this…

“Social Media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogs (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.”

Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological Continue reading →

Popularity: 9%

by Jon Wuebben

Content is not about creating it once and being done with it. Content is about publishing… Publishing to your audience. Whether it’s new pages on your website, blog posts, tweets or anything else, it’s about providing information that your audience wants to know about. Top 10 lists, interviews with important industry players, book reviews, new product releases, etc. There are tons of things that people want to know about. People are curious creatures and they’d rather support you and buy from you than a big unfeeling corporation.

So what is the content life cycle? It’s a process for communicating with your audience. It’s a plan that you put together to connect with them on an ongoing basis. All the while, your audience grows and you are selling more products and services. Why? Continue reading →

Popularity: 2%

Question for you: When you write a blog post what happens to it?  Is it just posted on your blog, awaiting replies?  I hope the answer is no. You see, there’s this thing called Social Media, which has sort of taken over the world and is bringing people together in ways never before seen…have you heard about it? He he.

…OK, we know you have. But are you using it?

Many people have complained about the time commitment for social media and the proliferation of all these new online places we need to have a presence on. But you see, here is the secret: The power of leveraging is the answer. When you write something on one vehicle (Say your blog) and its gets posted to all of them – that makes your time more efficient, right?

Remember that not everyone gets all their information from the same source. A devoted Twitter fan may not read any blogs.  Someone surfing online may have never been on Facebook. The key is to have all of your content on all of the various channels; unless, of course, the content was specifically designed and intended for a certain audience. This is rare however.

Here are a few other important notes: Continue reading →

Popularity: 8%

The Content Rich Blog was just recognized for the first time on The Junta42 Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs! Ranked at # 25, we are very pleased to be a part of this esteemed group of bloggers – a community that continues to push the boundaries of what is possible with online content. This list highlights the best bloggers for content marketing discussion and opinion. Joe Pulizzi, who runs Junta 42, is an undisputed thought leader in the space and one who we all look to for the latest and greatest ideas when it comes to web marketing and content strategy.

Popularity: 5%

It seems like with every blog I frequent, the topics covered have morphed into a social media cornucopia of delights. The topic used to just be “social media” …now it’s subdivided and multiplied into a number of sub-topics within the larger umbrella.  From video marketing and distribution to Social media tools; social media training and advertising to integrating social media and traditional media, the list is endless.  And despite all of this activity and buzz, there are many thousands of companies out there – large and small that are still resisting it.

Why?  Because resisting an idea is human nature 101.  Even for some of those who like to be out in front.  And I surmise it’s more of an issue in America, where it seems we are always wondering, regardless of what it is — How can I turn this great idea into cash?  Oh yeah, that ROI thing.  Maybe social media will finally help place “building a community” and “establishing a brand” above ROI once and for all. (where they should be). Whether we are talking about Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, your blog – it’s all the same.  Embrace them now and they will love you back.

So, how can you benefit from Social Media content? Continue reading →

Popularity: 15%

So tell me, have you ever Googled your name?  Come on, I know you have. Who doesn’t?  It can be pretty interesting and even entertaining to see what’s out there – both what you have authored and what others are saying about you… both the informed and uninformed. And as I recently made another cruise through the pages that donned my name, I was reminded of something very important:

Content can live forever on the Internet.

This is a critical piece of information, especially for those who are new to the web and haven’t practiced restraint when they have decided to spout their opinion, weighed in on a hot debate or maybe surfed the web and contributed something when they were a little less than coherent. Or perhaps wrote and published some articles that had wrong information in them. It happens. But, do you really want this stuff following you around for the next 50 years?  I think we all agree that when you publish something on your blog, on a PR site, on Twitter or wherever, its critical to make sure its reviewed a few times… by a couple different people… before you launch it to the world.

But what I really want to stress are the benefits of this “forever available” online content: Continue reading →

Popularity: 18%