content marketing

This Season, Give the Gift of Clarity

December 4, 2009 By Charles 2 Comments

As we wind down what’s been a revolutionary year on the web, it’s time give thanks to all your supporters—your readers, social network friends and followers, your family and yes—even yourself.

And what not a better gift to give this year* than the gift of clarity. Everyone is sure to love and appreciate it for years to come, and best of all—it won’t cost you a penny.

Clarity is the single most important benefit and feature you can offer as a content marketer. It should begin with your intent and purpose, then with your strategy and then as part of your [Read more...]

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: clarity trumps persuasion, clear communicaiton, content marketing, definition of clarity

How to Walk the Walk of Content Marketing

September 18, 2009 By Charles 1 Comment

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Be a publisher first, marketer second.

When your content is stellar, your marketing become easier. Certainly not the other way around. Keep a healthy, obsessive focus on this.

Actually do something.

Stop talking. Go out and build a site around some great, marketable content. Publish it. Get people passionate about it. Sell them something cool. Measure it. Do it again.

Be experimental.

There are a few emerging theories on content strategy and marketing, but it’s your job to go out and test them as well as try out some of your own stuff. Content marketing is a slowly blossoming industry and now is the time to take some chances.

Limit your consulting.

This may sound strange to some, but I see more value in setting up your content marketing business as a B2C rather than B2B. This means building content-rich sites for consumers rather than helping other businesses set up their own websites. There’s higher risk but much higher reward.

Think Big, Act Big

If you can build one successful site, you can probably build another. And another. And another. And so on. Pretty soon you could be sitting on a small publishing empire.

Imagine the possibilities.

Photo by wili_hybrid.

Filed Under: Business and Marketing, Writing Tagged With: content marketing, new media business, Publishing

If Blogging is Driving You Crazy, Read This

May 13, 2009 By Charles 4 Comments

Photo of eggshell from Logan Cyrus on Flickr Recently I called a meeting with the Artist, Marketer and Publisher within me. I asked them what they thought about my plans to dominate the galaxy with my blogging.

Immediately the Artist within me stood up and said, ”Your blog is your voice to the world, man, your canvas of expression. Treat your writing like art–make it perfect and beautiful, even if you have to suffer for it.”

“Shut up, you hippie!” said the Marketer within me.

“Care to explain yourself?” I asked the Marketer.

“You bet,” he said. “Stop listening to the Artist. Readers don’t care about your so-called art. If you’re going to write, then write copy. Copy sells things, and you need money.”

The Marketer had a point, I thought. I can’t just keep freely expressing myself and expect people to pay me for it. But writing copy all day just isn’t my thing, either. I invited to Publisher within me to stand up and say something.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: blogging explained, content marketing