Kelly Kingman says, “In the movie Amadeus, the creatively frustrated composer Antonio Salieri discovers pages of Mozart’s original, handwritten compositions and remarks, with utter anguish: He had simply written down music already finished in his head. Page after page of it — as if he were just taking dictation. When it comes to writing, do any of us know what that feels like? Maybe once in a blue moon we are lucky enough to stumble into a Mozart-esque state of content creation — dropping perfectly formed prose into our blog or ebook without any struggle”. Solve Your Blank-Page... [...]

Tiffany Monhollon says, “Have you ever been so overwhelmed with running your business that you barely have time to do the very minimum when it comes to staying up with what’s new in marketing and managing vendors? Sometimes it’s so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day that you overlook a critical aspect of marketing — measuring your return on investment (ROI). Here are five signs you might just need a system to track your marketing ROI so you can make sure you’re getting the most out of your investment. 1. You don’t know what matters — or why — on... [...]

Jeffrey Kranz says, “We’d all love to show up first in Google for something. There’s likely at least one golden search term or keyword you’re striving for —and we’ve all heard plenty of different get-to-the-front-page-of-Google formulas. It can get a little dizzying keeping all the approaches straight. But it can be done. If you’re willing to invest some time, resources and brainpower, you can create the top content on any topic. To share exactly how, I made an infographic mapping out not one, but six foolproof, can’t-miss strategies that real-life people (including... [...]

Barry Feldman says, “Your content marketing ambitions are large. Unfortunately, your team is not. Though you may need help for one reason or another, it might not be the right time to bring in another employee. Enter freelancers: With a team of contract workers, you can enjoy the flexibility that comes with hiring on an as-needed basis, while avoiding the overhead that accompanies permanent staff. Above all, you’ll get the talent and experience that fit your project. Freelancing is more popular than ever, so the talent pool is immense. This means you need to know how to find, hire, and... [...]

Kristen Dunleavy says, “Did you know that 91 percent of B2B marketers and 86 percent of B2C marketers are usingcontent marketing? Everybody and their mom, dad, aunt and cat are creating content. So how do you make yours stand out? We thought Marcus Sheridan, author of The Sales Lion blog and highly sought after public speaker, would be the perfect person to ask. Marcus grew his swimming pool company to one of the largest of its kind – all thanks to awesome content marketing. These days, he uses his powers to help other entrepreneurs grow their businesses. Read on in this Q&A to learn how... [...]

Kelsey Meyer says, “When you’re in a bind to create a high-quality blog post that generates brand awareness, educates your potential audience and draws in qualified leads, you can’t expect to come up with an idea for the perfect topic in one sitting. Instead, incorporate the following practices to store, manage and inspire new ideas: 1. Build a knowledge bank. A knowledge bank is your secret content marketing weapon. It’s where you store, organize, tag and reference all the information you extract from your team, the content you’ve already created and the insightful research you’ve... [...]

Baer says, “I’m nearing episode 70 of my near-daily video show, Jay Today. Three times each week (except holiday weeks) I publish 3-minute videos about business, marketing, social media, and life. Of all the content we create here at Convince & Convert, the Jay Today videos are among the strongest performers, especially on Facebook. In fact, I recorded a Jay Today episode about Facebook video surpassing YouTube potentially. But in addition to creating and posting the videos as videos, Jay Today has become a lynchpin in our initiative to further atomize our content. Each and every Jay... [...]

Rand Fishkin says, “This question, posed by Alex Moravek in our Q&A section, has a somewhat complicated answer. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand discusses how organizations might perform well in search rankings without doing any link building at all, relying instead on the strength of their content to be deemed relevant and important by Google”. Is It Possible to Have Good SEO Simply by Having Great Content MOZ Blog  [...]

Ben Davis says, “Social media plays such an important role in publishing that sharable and fun interactive content is now the way to elevate a piece from ‘buzzy’ to ‘viral’. Buzzfeed and The Guardian have proved masterful at this (for different reasons) but there are plenty of other publishers and organisations getting in on the act. Here’s just a few of them”. Nine examples of interactive web content ‘Econsultancy’ Blog  [...]

Ben Davis says, “BBC Earth showcases some of the content trends the Beeb has been championing in the revamp of its site. I’ve taken a quick shufty through these lovely webpages in an attempt to find exactly what these design trends are. See if you agree. Looser style guide Look at the article titles. Here’s a comparison of some from 2013 with 2014. Whilst the BBC hasn’t stooped to BuzzFeed clickbait levels (who am I to talk?), it’s clearly trying to be a bit more of a tease”. BBC Earth: seven web content trends to notice ‘Econsultancy’ Blog  [...]