Content Marketing Today

When it comes to the power of WordPress, you don't have to take my word for it. The Performancing.com blog provided four dozen ways in which websites and blogs can use this powerful and flexible tool to create unique content solutions. This Twist 'n' Shout gallery application is just one example. Blog author, Raj Dash, is a CMS (content management system) expert who, as he puts it, "has both written a small, custom CMSes from scratch as well is evaluated million-dollar professionals see in masses for large corporations, Word press' robustness and never ceases to amaze me." Much of its power derives from the huge open source community of developers who keep adding more and more value and capability to the Word press platform. WordPress is still free, but offers the power of the CMS solutions that might cost upwards of $50,000, even in today's competitive market. Here are my five favorite of those 48 really cool applications of WordPress: Read More

Cathe Olson, a young California mother, figured out how to stay home with her kids and still make an excellent living by becoming a self published author.  The power of the Internet combined with a persistent content marketing campaign has enabled her to sell more than 35,000 books over the past seven years.

That might not sound like she's entered the ranks of bestsellers.  However it probably puts her in the top five to 10% of all published authors in the United States.  And, because she self publishes, 35,000 books translates into a very nice annual income.  Between her two books, she is still selling about 8000 copies per year.

If you have ever thought about writing a book, you can learn a lot from Cathe about how to do so profitably over many years.  Clearly, writing the book is just the beginning.  Conducting an effective content marketing campaign is essential to actually selling a lot of copies.  Here are some of the key lessons she has to teach about turning a book into a long-lasting income stream:

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Just when you think you've run out of ideas--here's a blog to the rescue.

Just in time, I stumbled upon a great post from Philip Liu at ihelpyoublog.com. Philip is a most interesting writer who forces you to think when he offers up sometimes offbeat ways about improving your blog.  This post actually goes back to March of 2007 but has kept all of its value.

One of the best things about his 101 ways is that he includes more links to articles that give you details on how to execute on his ideas.

Here are five of my favorite block busters:

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Learn what some of the smartest people in the business had to say about 21st-century marketing.

When you invite leading edge content, marketing, and technology pros to address 150 professionals who spend all their time thinking about content, you are at risk of sensory overload. Particularly when it takes place in New Orleans. So, we will cover the highlights today. In the days to come we will add detailed articles to provide in-depth coverage of individual presentations. If you're not familiar with custom publishing, what's important to know is that it provides targeted and relevant content to carefully selected customers. Content marketing flows directly from custom publishing roots.

Here are the essential 11 content marketing insights to guide your thinking, strategy, and tactics in the months and years to come:

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Regular readers know that I'm a big fan of mind mapping. I've written frequently about the concept, but applications and about Mindjet, the company that sells MindManager software. Both the product and the concept are growing in a viral way over the Internet.

Chuck Frey has a lot to do with spreading the mind mapping  virus through his mind mapping blog and his Innovation Tools website.  Not only is Chuck a great thinker he's also a great marketer.  His mind mapping software update eNewsletter is a superb example of content marketing.

Basically, he manages to compress a huge chunk of his blog content into an eNewsletter.  For those of us who subscribe and who are mind mapping fanatics, this ' blog in your inbox' eNewsletter is welcome whenever it arrives.

Here's what makes it so powerful:

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For business blogging skeptics, the idea that a roofing company would bother with a blog might seem ludicrous.  But that kind of thinking betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the power of the new generation of business blogs.

An effective business blog is likely to become the most powerful content marketing tool of the 21st century. With a minimum investment, you can count on a tangible and accelerating return.  Roof Life of Oregon shows exactly why this is true.

Roof Life of Oregon is using WordPress blogging software to power their primary web presence--as well as a blog that is integrated with the primary site.  This means that is easy for them to update their website.  Their website is just fine, but what's more interesting is the fact that they have a blog.  In fact, their blog illustrates why many traditional marketing pundits are wrong when they minimize the importance of a business blog. 

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In a great post from PlanWebs.com the vital nature of content comes through once again. The author, Brent Csutoras, emphasizes that, for both social media and search engine optimization, the easy ways of bringing your site to the top have largely evaporated.

As we have written frequently and at length, the only long-term marketing strategies that will survive revolve around content.  That's true whether your marketing efforts are in person, in print, or online.

Brent heartily concurs that it's all about the content. 

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We all have had our share of positive and negative experiences with real estate agents.  This certainly applies to their various attempts at marketing.  We may welcome the note from a favorite agent, but toss stuff that we get from agents that we have never met and wouldn't want to meet.

Traditionally, the very best agents have done a great job of keeping in touch by phone, by postcard or by newsletter. This requires a lot of organization and persistence from the agent because their customers will use them infrequently.  After all, it might be five or 10 years between transactions.

As the Real Estate Snippets blog illustrates, there is now a much more effective way to market yourself.  Bonnie Erickson, who writes the blog, effectively blows all those traditional ways of keeping in touch out of the water. 

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Too many people--and I used to be one of them--think of a blog as an out-of-control rant by a fanatic about some topic or other. Sure there's plenty of that. However, today, business blogs are pervasive. They provide enormous value by delivering relevant content on a myriad of topics. But, more importantly, an increasing number of what have been termed 'blogs' in the past are really websites. They are full-featured websites with as much capability is anything that could be built from scratch by talented programmers. I'm indebted to my new friends at ContentRobot.com for the new term, ' blog-powered website' that I will use from now on. They're doing some great stuff. Be sure to check out their website ,which is the featured graphic to the right. The secret sauce behind the ContentRobot.com site, ContentMarketingToday.com, and thousands of others is the powerful and often free software that will enable you to establish a content rich website. I happen to be a fan of WordPress which is an open-source content management system whose roots are in blogging. But, whatever tool you choose, you now have the ability to create a full-featured website with a minimal expense in a short period of time. You no longer have an excuse to stick with the brochureware website that your sister's cousin's nephew built for you in some kind of JavaScript that nobody knows how to modify. Since your excuses for change are gone, here's why you need to launch a blog-based website right now: Read More

Check out Notes from the Digital Frontier, a blog by millennials

There is a lot of great content from the Media Post people.  One of their blogs, Notes from the Digital Frontier, is especially valuable because it captures the thinking of twenty-somethings about the media world that we all inhabit. 

They tackle a broad range of topics from out of home television to billboards.  So they are definitely not hooked simply on new media stuff. If you try to get a handle on how young people think, this is a great place to go.

The blog works the way blogs are supposed to work. A dozen rotating bloggers share their opinions and generate literate feedback from a diverse set of respondents. This makes for some lively online conversations.

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