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

Well, actually it's on the Wall Street Journal's new My Online Journal (MOJ). But, it's a great start!

It means that any WSJ subscriber can customize a reader page that would include our regularly updated content. So, in principal, hundreds of thousands of WSJ online subscribers could include ContentMarketingToday as part of their individual MOJ home page. What's going on? It's all about widgets, content aggregation, and Web 2.0. As we wrote in our post about the Customer Content Conference, the old web(and old media, for that matter) was all about getting people to congregate. Everyone went to the same place and viewed the same content. That's all changing. Today, we are all becoming aggregators of information. Read More

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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Marketing ourselves often takes a backseat to actually providing the services we ought to be marketing.

Therefore, it's essential to find a way to keep the most important elements of your marketing strategy right in front of your face all the time.

In her latest article in the Mindjet user newsletter, Stephanie Diamond simplifies at least one critical component: how to create a mailing list building system that self perpetuates.

We all need systems. The simpler the better.This use of a visual mind map simplifies what might otherwise be a bit daunting. Here's how it works.

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Without conducting research to understand your customers, you risk very painful missteps. Happily, even very small companies can conduct high quality research that would have been affordable only for multimillion dollar companies just five or 10 years ago.

Of course, it's possible to do way too much research.  That's when you wind up with the paralysis by analysis situation.  But, in most small to midsize entrepreneurial companies, there is too little research and too much gut feel. That's when some very bad decisions get made.

Because we know that the essence of content marketing resides in a thorough understanding of your customers, regular research should be a core component of your content marketing strategy.  The good news is that you don't need to spend a lot of time or money conducting reliable research.  Here are some basics to get you started.

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They spent millions. You can do it for $79.95.

I've written a lot about WordPress and how it can help you create and manage a terrific website. To illustrate what's possible, we'll take a look at the Revolution set of themes built on top of WordPress and one actual user, ImWritingSports. Basically, each website has two core elements: What you see up front and what goes on behind the scenes. When you visit the Washington Post website you see a well designed, easy to understand, news-style website. Behind the scenes, resides a very sophisticated content management system that would've been custom built. We don't know exactly how much time and money they spent to get there. But it was surely many months and millions of dollars. Read More

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

Get visual.  Use a mind map.

Many of us offer fairly complex sets of services that may be difficult to describe.  In fact, they might be too complicated for the classic thirty second elevator pitch. Don't give up.  Follow Stephanie Diamond's advice to use a mind map that strips away much of the complexity of your service offerings.

In her February Mind Jet newsletter column, Stephanie was challenged by a new company with a brand-new concept.  The company, Yovia.com, is a "social media optimization service agency."  I know what you're thinking.  What the heck is that?  Well, that was their problem.

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Forget Google.  Count on StumbleUpon instead.

Let's assume there are plenty of reasons for people to go to your website.  You have great content.  Your visitors will learn something important.  You have developed thought leadership in an area that's critical to your best prospects. 

All that is essential but not enough to make sure that you get a consistent level of traffic to your website, particularly when you're just starting out.

There is a great social media marketing tool, StumbleUpon, that will drive traffic to any page on your website either free--or for a predictable five cents per visit. In my experience over the past two months, it has served as a reliable source of traffic both to my homepage and to specific articles. 

Thanks to Harry Hoover of My Creative Team whose recent blog inspired me to share my experience with this terrific tool.  If you need web traffic, here's how to get it.

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Business Week apparently has absolutely no affinity for small business marketing.  At least that's what a recent column by regular contributor, Gene Mark, would lead me to believe.  Entitled, "Tech ' Solutions' Your Small Biz Can't Use," the article shows an appalling lack of understanding of some very important content marketing enablers.

The author made a lame attempt to critique numerous online marketing components including blogs, RSS feeds, online video, and search engine marketing tools. The Blue Chip Marketing Tips blog did a wonderful job of eviscerating his article from the January 4, 2008 issue of Business Week. Blogger, Caroline Melberg, critiqued each of his points, by pointing out how wrong he was. You can learn both from what she had to say--and by doing the opposite of what Gene Mark suggests you do.

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