Editorial and Writing Archives | Smart Passive Income

How to Guarantee Your Audience STICKS To Your Content

Pat Flynn — Sun, 05 Feb 2023 08:00:00 +0000

When I started creating content in 2008, all I had to do was pick a keyword, write about that, and it would rank and generate traffic.

Nowadays, what’s most important is not the information that you publish, but how the audience engages and reacts to it. You must create something worthy of a person’s time and attention. In this article, I’m going to give you a system that I use to help ensure that your audience will stick with your content.

Whether it’s for a blog, podcast, video, book, presentation, or even a sales page, this article will change how you create content forever.

The Story

Let me start with a simple question:

Where’s the best place to keep your money so that it’s safe and still easy to access?

If you’re thinking the answer is a bank, then…

You’re right!

Another question:

Where's the best place to keep your stories so that they’re safe and still easy to access?

The answer is…

A story bank.

Using stories is the secret to creating compelling content. The problem is that we don’t have a purposeful system for capturing and categorizing our stories so that we can summon the right story at the right time.

And by stories, I don’t just mean the life-changing stories that we use in our content (like how my life changed when I got laid off from my architecture job back in 2008), but the little stories — the seemingly irrelevant stories that, when unpacked, actually are interesting, useful, and hold an audience’s attention.

Even if they don’t seem impactful to you, your stories still work because they’re genuinely personal, unique, and also relatable when used in the right context.

Like the time my son asked me to play Minecraft in the car on my iPad when he was 8 years old. Instead of saying no, I asked him, “Why should I say yes?”

Eventually, he came around to saying, “Daddy, if you let me play Minecraft, I can learn more about building and teach you how to be a better architect because I know you used to be one.”

Capturing this moment of my life allowed me to transform this tiny story into a huge lesson for my audience about knowing who you’re speaking to and understanding the language that will resonate with them. I even shared this story on stage during my closing keynote speech at the Youpreneur conference in London a few years ago, and people still recall that story and lesson today.

Another story was about the time I used to work as a waiter at Macaroni Grill, an Italian chain restaurant. There was one person who came in at the same time every single week, a busy businessman, and I quickly learned that he ordered the same thing every time. Eventually, I became the waiter he requested because I knew what he wanted before he even asked.

This story and the lessons I was able to extract from it ended up in my book, Superfans.

All of these examples were just small moments in my life, but after capturing, analyzing, and detailing them, they became two of my favorite stories to tell on stage.

Sometimes, I’ve even used the stories from my story bank while in person at dinners and gatherings, and I gotta tell you, they always seem to leave a lasting impression.

Your Call to Action

Start your story bank and try building it out for one week. If you like it, keep going with it!

Here’s the process, step by step. I like to keep things simple because if I overcomplicate, I underuse.

Step 1: Settle on a tool or app that works for you to capture these moments that happen in your day.

You could use whatever you’re familiar with — Notion, Evernote, or even just the Notes app on your phone (which is what I use). The most important thing is that whatever you use, be sure it’s easy for you to access. It doesn’t take long for a moment to pass by and get lost forever.

Step 2: When something interesting or curious happens, capture that in its own record or page.

You don’t have to capture every second of every day. Simply, if anything interesting or curious happens, add a new record for it. Include anything else that’s on your mind about that moment too. And no editing. Just brain dump so it’s there and you can come back to it later.

Here’s an example of my recent captures on my Notes app:

Notes app with story bank folder

As you can see, it’s messy, it’s random, but it’s there, and that’s what’s important.

In many cases, I’m out and about and capture a moment in my notes app using the voice keyboard. I prefer this over the voice memo app because it captures the thoughts in text (although not perfectly), which is much easier to scan through than audio.

Step 3: At the end of the week, go back through your captures with this question in mind: “How might this story be useful or interesting to my audience?”

Filter each capture with the above question in mind, and if you can’t quickly find any sort of connection that matters, archive it.

Step 4: After filtering, pick one story to go deeper into and finesse into one with a beginning, middle, and end.

This is where the fun begins. Choose one single capture, and expand on it. Create a setup or introduction (a hook) for the story, share the story, and tie it into the larger picture.

For example, there’s a random moment from the other day I captured where I just noticed an entire row of white cars in a parking lot at Target. It was just weird, but thinking about it more deeply, it does have a connection to both the fact that we as humans love to see things in order, and also the purple cow effect (i.e. something you don’t see every day).

Some stories you’ll try to develop, and it just seems forced and goes nowhere. Don’t force or fight it. If it’s just not coming to you, move on to a different capture. Other stories, however, just seem to flow so well, you know this is a story you’re going to structure and continually tell time and time again (and improve each time you do).

Step 5: After drafting a more detailed narrative, tag the story with as many relevant tags as possible.

I have tags for audience growth, branding, podcasting, videos, and a lot more. You can have as many tags as you’d like.If your software doesn’t allow for tagging individual articles, add your tags at the top of each of your stories so you can use the Find feature to locate the stories that have certain keywords attached to them.

The tags should help you recall what you need when you need it. For example, if I’m going to a podcasting conference to speak, or writing an article about podcasting, I hit my podcasting tag, and boom — all the stories that involve a podcast in some way, shape, or form pop up, and then it’s just a menu I can choose from for my content.

Storytelling is a key skill to learn, but it’s hard to tell stories when you’re not actively capturing them. Start your story bank, and give it a shot!

Also, a big shout out to Ramit Sethi who was the first person to introduce me to the power of story banks.

I hope you enjoyed this 5-minute read! To get more like it every week (again, totally free), sign up below!

The post How to Guarantee Your Audience STICKS To Your Content appeared first on Smart Passive Income.

How to Market a Book (Hint: It Starts Before You Write!)

Pat Flynn — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Over the past few years, I’ve collected a lot of knowledge about book marketing. Some of it has been based on my own experiences and the mistakes I’ve made, and some from the amazing guests I’ve had on my podcast. In this post, I wanted to create a directory of all the book marketing (and writing and publishing) knowledge here on SPI so that when you sit down to write your own book, you’ll have a head start.

And a big thank you to everyone who supported the launch of my new book, Superfans, last week! It was a massive success. I’m so thankful for the launch team, and everyone on #TeamFlynn who not only purchased the book, but also posted about it on social and shared it with their friends, family, and followers. I appreciate you!

The blog posts and podcast episodes below are organized according to a few general categories—but there’s a lot of overlap. I hope you find them helpful!

Writing Tips and Strategies

How to Write a Book: The Secret to a Super-Fast First Draft

Learn the tools and techniques I use to write 36,000 words in two weeks, save time, and achieve up to 180 words per minute. I also cover strategies to keep you moving forward, so you can write your book quickly without getting stuck.

AP 0167: I’m Writing a Book. Where Do I Start?

Getting started writing a book can be intimidating enough. Before the first edition of my book Let Go came out, I started another book, which I never finished. Here are my tips and strategies for helping you get through that initial resistance to writing.

SPI 197: Behind the Scenes of Writing Will It Fly?

If the idea of writing your own book is still daunting, it might be helpful to go behind the scenes and learn how someone else did it. In this podcast episode, I walk you through my decision-making process about the marketing, promotion, creation, and launch of Will It Fly?. I also clear up some of the mystery and worry that comes with starting something new.

How to Write a Bestselling Book (5 Tips from a Self Published Wall Street Journal Bestseller)

Want to write your own bestseller? As a self-published Wall Street Journal bestselling author (of Will It Fly?), I have a lot of strategies to share with you based on my own experience. Although it was a struggle, writing this book was one of the most rewarding things I’ve done. With the right book writing strategies in place, I’m hopeful you'll have an easier time than I did, and your book will get in the hands of everyone who needs it!

How To Open & Start Your Book (10 Bestseller Examples)

When it comes to creating an appealing book experience, you’ve got to hook the reader in from the start. And the great part is, you can learn a lot from what’s already out there! I take you on a tour inside the opening pages of ten bestsellers to learn how different authors start their books and grab their readers.

General Book Publishing and Marketing Advice

How to Publish a Book in 2020: Step-by-Step

These are my top fourteen tips for writing, marketing, and publishing a book, from finding your purpose for writing, to brainstorming the content, to creating an effective writing schedule, to what kinds of editors you need to hire. I’ve done it all and learned from it, and I want to share what I’ve learned with you.

SPI 079: Time Travel and Book Marketing with Jeff Goins—Strategies to Help You Sell More Books and Spread Your Word

Way back in 2013, my good friend and bestselling author Jeff Goins gave me some marketing advice for my then-upcoming book, Let Go. Two months later, I sat down with Jeff again to see how well I did implementing his strategies. This podcast episode is for people who are writing books or may want to eventually become authors. But it’s also for anyone who wants to sell anything they’ve put a lot of work into and know will benefit their audience.

SPI 199: The Marketing Effort Behind Will It Fly?

I sit down with the members of Team SPI who were instrumental in the production and marketing of my book Will It Fly?. We talk about all the different pieces that come together to create a successful book launch, from managing the production schedule, to building and executing a successful marketing strategy, and even some of the awesome software tools we used to orchestrate a successful launch for this book.

Book Publishing Tips with Honorée Corder – SPI TV, Ep. 40

Authorpreneur Honorée Corder has an incredible wealth of experience writing books, turning those books into sustainable income, and working with inspirational authors like Hal Elrod. In this episode of SPI TV, she shares how to uncover the book within you, how to promote it, and why you shouldn’t stop at just one book.

SPI 124: Your Author Empire—Pick a Niche and Publish for Profit with Steve Scott

Steve Scott has created a book publishing empire. He was also one of the most active and helpful members of the Facebook group for my book Let Go. Since starting his book publishing empire, Steve has published dozens of books and earns a healthy five figures per month from them! I talk to Steve to learn exactly how he’s built his empire, and tips and strategies we can all use to win in the Amazon Kindle market without spamming.

9 UNCOMMON Book Marketing & Promotion Tips (That I've Used to Become a Bestseller)

You’ve written a book—or you want to—and you want to know how to sell as many copies of it as possible? Then spend ten minutes learning the nine tips I’ve used to turn my books into bestsellers, including my self-published Wall Street Journal Bestseller, Will It Fly?.

SPI 380: 5 Hard Truths About Writing and Publishing Books

How many books can you realistically write in one year? Why do you want to write a book? How much money can you expect to make from your book? These are some of the crucial questions you must answer before you sit down and start writing.

SPI 381: Self-Publishing versus Traditional Publishing

Self-publishing has come a long way since the days when you were just some weirdo trying to sell PDF downloads. But at the same time, working with a traditional publisher still has a lot of benefits. So how do you decide which route to go?

SPI 382: The Surprising Truth about How One (Self-Published) Author Sold Millions of Books

Most self-published authors will tell you that their first month’s sales numbers are far and away their best ones. Then things slow down month by month until all that’s left is a trickle. But Hal Elrod’s story is different. Here’s how he turned around the traditional wisdom about what self-publishers should expect from book sales long after launch day.

Selling and Marketing Your Book on Amazon

SPI 378: Amazon Book Marketing—Everything You Need to Know with Dave Chesson from Kindlepreneur

Dave Chesson teaches people how to sell more books on Amazon. He helped me with my launch for Will It Fly?, which became a Wall Street Journal bestseller, and I think he can help you, too. In this podcast episode, we talk keywords, reviews, your sales page, and everything else that goes into getting your book in front of as many people as possible on Amazon.

SPI 338: Selling a Book? Overlooking This Page Could Kill Sales—Book Marketing with Bryan Cohen

When it comes to selling your book on Amazon, your sales page does most of the heavy lifting. How do you set up a great sales page? Where do most authors fall flat when it comes to titles and subtitles? How do you design the perfect book cover? In this podcast episode, Bryan Cohen and I dive deep on book marketing, giving you the knowledge you need to create convincing Amazon sales pages that sell more books.

AP 0939: How Do I Engage with People Who Buy My Book on Amazon?

When you’re selling your book, there can be huge benefit in staying in touch with your readers, both pre-sale and post-sale. And to do that, you need to know who’s buying, and how to contact them. But how can you make this happen on Amazon, where you don’t have easy access to your buyers’ email addresses? I share some strategies and workarounds in this episode of AskPat.

Writing and Publishing an Ebook

The #1 Tip for Starting an Ebook Is…

We all have an urge to dive right into writing, but all too often after the first few pages—we get stuck. Want a great method for avoiding this dilemma? Start with your outline! Creating an outline first has several benefits—perhaps the biggest one being that it gives you a visual roadmap for success right in front of your eyes.

Ebooks the Smart Way: A Complete Guide to Publishing, Marketing and Automating a Killer Ebook

Over the past decade-plus, I’ve learned a great deal about the process of creating and selling ebooks. Ebooks the Smart Way is my no-nonsense guide that’ll teach you everything from content planning and formatting to pricing your ebook and launching it out into the world. It’s my way of giving back for all of the wonderful things—in both life and business—that have come from writing my very first ebook.

SPI 075: Six-Figure Earnings with Ebooks (Not on Amazon) and a Pricing Structure That Works with Nathan Barry

Nathan Barry is the founder of ConvertKit, my email platform of choice. Before ConvertKit, Nathan was a self-publishing rockstar. With an email list of under 1,000 people, he successfully launched his first ebook, The App Design Handbook, and made over $12,000 on the first day. In SPI Podcast episode 075, I talk to Nathan about his three-tier book pricing structure, and why he sells his books on his own site rather than on Amazon.

Succeeding with Social Media and Launch Teams

Behind the Scenes of the Will It Fly? Social Media Strategy

In this blog post, Team SPI member Non Wels shares the details of the coordinated, multi-platform social media effort we used to promote the Will It Fly? launch. He talks about how we built our strategy, what worked, and how it worked.

I’m Running an Experiment—and I Need Your Help…

When I chose to self publish Will It Fly?, I was told that it would be nearly impossible to get onto the shelves at physical bookstores. I took that as a challenge, and I ran an experiment to see if I could overcome it. Guess what? It worked. Here’s how I did it.

SPI 198: Building a Book Launch “Street Team” (Plus Pre-Order)

Daniel Decker is a master at building community. He’s managed book launch teams for authors like Michael Hyatt and Lewis Howes and taken the success of their books to new heights. In this podcast episode, Daniel walks you through how to build launch team, how to keep them engaged, and what you should be doing in the weeks leading up to your big launch.

My Best Tip: Bring Your Audience Along for the Ride

If you’re sensing a thread in some of the strategies and tips I’ve shared in this post, it’s that marketing your book doesn’t begin after you make the final edit on your draft. Effective book marketing starts before you even begin writing. That’s why my favorite strategy is to include your audience in the entire book creation, publishing, and marketing process. (There’s a reason it’s the first tip in my “9 Uncommon Tips” video above.)

So before you’ve written a single word or finalized the idea for your book—as soon as you make the decision to start writing one—let your audience in on it. By including them, you’ll make them curious and excited about the book and ultimately invested in its success. Share the journey with them!

Thank you all again for being there for me together as we launched Superfans! Here’s to you and your book writing, marketing, and publishing success, too!

The post How to Market a Book (Hint: It Starts Before You Write!) appeared first on Smart Passive Income.

25 Copy-and-Paste Blog Post Templates—UPDATED with 8 New Templates!

Pat Flynn — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 07:00:00 +0000

Get your notepad ready because today on the blog you’ll be treated to 25 copy-and-paste blog templates you can use on your blog right now. Originally, when this blog post was first published in February of 2012 (a looooong time ago in blog years), Kim Roach from Buzzblogger.com was kind enough to share with us her 17 ideas for blog posts. In this new-and-updated version, I’ve added 8 of my own ideas that have worked for me over the years. So now you have 25 helpful blog post templates at your fingertips!

If you’re an online business owner or entrepreneur, you should probably have a blog. If you don’t, this post will give you a strong start to learn what kinds of things you can publish. If you don’t even have a website yet, check out my free course, Build Your Own Brand, to help you learn, step by step, how to pick a brand and start a website.

I’ve had the Smart Passive Income blog for over a decade now. Believe me when I tell you that sometimes it’s difficult to figure out what to write about. So, take these blog post templates with you, to inspire new blog post ideas for your own website for many months to come!

The 25 blog post templates covered in this post are:

After reading about her amazing blog post ideas, keep reading for the BONUS 8 templates I’ve added to this new and updated material. If you write at all online, this is a post to bookmark for future reference – guaranteed.

Do you ever get writer's block?

I mean do you ever sit down at your computer with that blank screen mocking you in the face?

As a blogger, I've done this on more than one occasion.

Sure, I use all kinds of tricks to get the ‘ol inspiration motor running. . .

I keep a list of running article ideas.
I browse all of my favorite blogs scouting for possible ideas.
Tweet my followers for ideas.
If I get really desperate I'll whip up a nice bubble bath and some wine

But sometimes you just need a good hook.

Something fresh and unique!

So today I'm going to give you:

25 Copy-And-Paste Blog Post Templates that you can use as your own.

Happy Blogging!

1. Make a Predictions Post

These are incredibly fun, especially toward the end of the year. Or the beginning of a new year

Take a look at what's happening in your market. What's hot? What are the current trends? And create a blog post around those with your predictions for the new year.

Not only are these types of posts a TON of fun but they also position you as a leader in your market.

So whip out the ‘ol Magic 8 Ball and publish your predictions!

2. Things You Might Not Know About Me

This is a blog post that I recommend EVERY blogger do.

One of the fastest ways to start truly engaging with your community is to give them a peek behind the curtain. Let them see who you are BEYOND just business.

The fact is that we are living through the humanization of business and people are extremely interested in the person BEHIND the business itself.

More than ever… we crave RELATIONSHIPS!

People don't want cheesy marketing messages . . . they want YOU.

Your story… Your life… Your own unique personality infused into everything you do.

Your readers will be attracted to your weird quirks because they make you human.

When your flawed your real.

That's one of the biggest pieces of advice I could give you this year.

Give people a peek behind the curtain.

24 Things I've Never Told You
33 Things I've Never Told You
It's My Birthday and I'll Blog When I Want To
26 Life Lessons I've Learned in 26 Years of Living
30 More Life Lessons From 30 Years

Business is about HUMAN connection. And the only way to truly connect is by being completely you.

Your emails, your videos, your articles, every piece of content should be branded with your own, unique personality.

3. Why I Don't Do ‘X'

People LOVE controversy. That's why the news channels thrive on ‘bad' news. Kind of concerning but knowing this can help you instantly increase your email open rates, improve your headlines, and get your articles read.

One of my favorite ways to do this is to use the headline:

Why I Don't Do ‘X'.

I recently used this in an email entitled “Why I Don't Do SEO”.

As you can imagine, it got QUITE the attention because I was debunking a hot topic within our industry.

You can use this same strategy on your own blog:

Why I Don't Do Diets
Why I Don't Do Online Dating
Why I Don't Do Article Marketing
Here’s Why I Don’t Have a Full-Time Virtual Assistant

This one is an instant winner when used properly. Plus, it's just a lot of fun!

People are looking for something fun, unique, and different.

By providing them with something valuable AND entertaining, you'll be the one that gets read.

4. (Famous Person Guide) to (Blank)

Another great place to get article ideas is to tap into the media. Take what's hot right now in the news and tie it into your market.

Here are a few examples:

The Steve Job's Guide to Time Management
The Justin Bieber Guide to Dating
Harry Houdini's ‘Secret' to Unusual Marketing
The M.C. Hammer Guide to Social Media

Tap into the hot topics that are ALREADY inside the mind of your prospect.

5. Case Study

No one can resist a good case study. It's like a good story.

People love to get a behind-the-scenes look at EXACTLY how someone has achieved a certain goal.

Some examples include:

[CASE STUDY] 1 Article = 7,640 Visitors
How I paid off $15,000 in 9 months by selling my ‘Stuff' on Ebay
How I Lost 21 Pounds in 30 Days
My Journey To The #1 Spot in Google
Why I Switched from Aweber to Infusionsoft to ConvertKit

If you want to quickly become the market leader in your industry, whip out a few case studies and let people follow along on your journey.

6. Product Showdowns

Here's a twist on the traditional product review post. Instead of just reviewing a product, we're going to do a product showdown comparing two similar products and sharing the pros and cons of each.

Some examples might include:

Optimize Press Vs. Kajabi
Rapid Action Profits VS. JVZoo
Tweet Adder Vs. Tweet Attacks
Odesk Vs. Fiverr

You're providing extra value by comparing similar (and possibly) competing products. Helping your reader to decide which one is best for them.

You can take this a step further by sharing how you personally are using the product. Anything you can do to get beyond the boring, overdone, traditional product review. The old ways of affiliate marketing are dying. But add your own unique twist and you'll quickly start to see the difference.

7. ‘X' Things You Must Do After (Blank)

Here's a super simple one that's almost always an instant winner. It's fun and easy to write. Entertaining for your reader and it plays on our natural curiosity.

7 Things You Must Do after Writing a Blog Post
7 Things You Must Do After Every Workout
3 Things You Must Do After Every Date
The Blog Post Checklist: After You Publish Your Post

8. How To (Blank) in (X Number of Days / Hours)

Here's another extremely powerful template that's similar to the case study post above . . .

How to Generate 427+ Visitors in 24 Hours
How to Get 1,200 Facebook Likes in 3 Days
How to Lose 12 Pounds in 7 Days
How to Get the Perfect Date in 7 Days
How to Start a Company in 30 Minutes

Use either one of these templates to knock-out a killer blog post when your strapped for ideas.

9. Experimental Posts

The only thing better than living an exciting life is to live vicariously through someone else's exciting life. You can bring this entertainment factor to your blog by doing experimental posts.

This is basically where you set an interesting goal for yourself and post updates on your progress over a 30-day period.

Here are a few examples to get your brain rolling:

May's Trial – Quasi-minimalism
August's trial results: Gaining time by losing email addiction
My 30 Day Weight Loss Journey
My 30 Day Email Detox
My 30 Days of Online Dating (Wouldn't that be interesting)
My Insanity Results

10. Comprehensive Pillar Posts

This one never gets old. If you're looking to establish your presence online, one of the best things you can do to stand out is to start creating some epic blog posts.

A ‘pillar' article is generally longer than the traditional blog post (1,000+ words). This sort of ‘flagship content' is a comprehensive article dripping in value.

Building a raving audience of fans online all starts with mind-blowing pillar content.

Content that makes people think. Inspires. Creates value. Provides a new perspective. Pushes people out of their comfort zones. Challenges your readers. And creates nothing short of a braingasm!

Because of this, people can't help but share it with others via Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, etc… So when done properly, your pillar posts should bring in a new burst of readers as well.

Here are a few examples of ‘pillar' posts:

How to Create a Facebook Landing Page
The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Marketing
21 Steps to 1,000 Visitors Per Day
500+ Places to Syndicate Your Content
How to Launch a Brand New Website (With a Bang!) – The Ultimate Guide

11. (Insert Desired Benefit) That No One Talks About

As humans, we naturally want to listen in on ‘insider information'.

Kind of like when you were little and you tried to listen in on your sister's telephone conversations. We love listening in when we're not supposed to That's why this template works so well:

Traffic Strategies That No One Talks About
Weight Loss Secrets That No One Talks About
Dating Advice That No One Talks About

12. Blog Post Roundup

Here's an easy one that you can whip up quickly when you're running short on time. List the top 10 blog posts from the year. Or the top blog posts from around the web that week. Or simply do a ‘Best Of' post for your industry. This could be the best Twitter posts, forum posts, best blog posts, best news items, best product releases, etc.

Whip up any combination of your choice. You could even do this on a weekly basis. People love these types of posts because it keeps them in the loop on what's going on in the industry without having to do all the searching themselves.

Kikolani.com does a really good job of this in their ‘Fetching Friday' posts and check, out Pat’s Best of 2016 list.

13. Things I Wish I Had Done Differently

These types of posts are almost always a hit because people love to read about other people's ‘mistakes'. Plus, they provide a ton of value for your readers and help them to avoid common pitfalls.

Give your readers a look behind-the-curtain. Be authentic and transparent and people will love you for it.

Some example headlines might include:

10 Lessons I Learned in 2011
7 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started
12 Things I Would Do If I Were Starting From Scratch
7 Lessons I Learned Testing & Launching My First Online Course

14. The Tools of the Trade

Give people a behind-the-scenes look at the tools you use in your business. People love these types of posts. If you want to take it one step further, shoot a video of your office. You'll create instant engagement with your readers.

Here are a few example headlines you could use:

The Top 12 Marketing Tools I Use in My Business
7 Marketing Tools I Couldn't Live Without
18 Must-Have WordPress Plugins
(LIVE Video) A Look Inside My Office
My Home Office Set Up and Tour!

15. Ask / Involve the Reader!

Engagement is quickly becoming one of THE most important marketing metrics in business.

All of your content should be a reflection of the wants, needs, desires, and frustrations of your reader.

There are LOTS of different ways to do this. You can create an “Ask the Reader” type post where you ask an engaging question and start interacting in the comments. Or you can challenge your readers to achieve a specific goal that month and report back with their results.

Here are a few examples:

Ask the Readers: What's the Most Effective Thing Youíve Done to Build Traffic this Year?
You Asked, I Replied ViperChill Answers #1
First Annual Thanksgiving “Give Yourself a Plug” Day!
Announcing The Million Dollar Blog Project: Build a Profitable Blog Along With Us
Share Your Best Post Ever!

Challenge your readers:

Reader Gratitude Challenge: Write One Thank You Note Every Day for 7 Days

16. Debunk Industry Myths

Every industry has its fair share of myths, legends, and misconceptions.

People love nothing more than debunking common beliefs. Plus, by pointing what's WRONG in your industry, you also position yourself as a leader.

Some examples here might include:

Top 7 Dieting Myths Debunked
Why I Hate the Atkins Diet
7 Lies You've Been Told About Dating
Why Pickup Lines Don't Work (and what to do instead…)

Talk about what's WRONG in your industry. Nothing gets more attention than controversy. But you must do it right. Debunk with style

17. Comment On Industry Gossip

Every industry has its own circle of gossip. Writing about these hot topics is one of the best ways to increase readership and tap into the conversation that's ALREADY taking place in the
mind of your prospect.

You can get your fill of juicy gossip browsing the major news sites, in related forums, related blogs, and in your inbox.

This sort of timely ‘news' (i.e. gossip) makes for great content.

New fad diets
Famous people on such-and-such diet.
The Truth About Product X
Where is Mobile Marketing REALLY Headed?

Part of positioning yourself as an authority is staying ahead of the trends within your industry. If you can be the first to report on relevant trends that are impacting your industry, then people will literally ‘tune' into your station to make sure they stay updated.

Take a stand on the issue and help guide your reader to make an informed decision.

Thanks, Kim, For Those Amazing Ideas! Now for 8 Bonus Templates:

18. New Product, Book, or Course Launch

Whether you are launching a new online course, a product, a book, or anything new your audience will appreciate, a launch announcement works great as a blog post. Use this launch announcement as a way to build excitement for your launch, before your launch date, by giving your readers a taste of what your new course or book or product is all about.

On the day of the launch, you should also follow up your pre-launch blog post with a day-of-launch blog post.

A few good examples of this include:

Make a splash on your launch day by making sure your audience knows what’s coming!

19. Celebrate An Anniversary

There will be many ups and downs in your online business journey. But one thing that will be consistent every year are your anniversaries: anniversary of starting your online business, anniversary of launching your book, anniversary of making your first sale. You get the idea.

Not only is celebrating an anniversary a fun way to remind yourself of where you came from and why you’re doing what you’re doing, but your audience will appreciate the insight and vulnerability that can come with anniversary blog posts. An example of a podcast episode celebrating my birthday:

SPI 295: 35 Quick Life Lessons from 35 Years of Life—Plus a Pencils of Promise Birthday Challenge!

Write down your anniversary dates. Make them part of your business journey as self-motivation and as inspiration for your audience!

20. Special Announcement Post

The special announcement blog post will naturally be a little less common or frequent, but on occasion it’s a good way to remind your audience of special events, or of anything that’s typically outside the regular blog content cadence. [Editor's Note: The past examples of these post types on the SPI site were usually announcements of events coming up—keynotes Pat was going to deliver, or products that were going to launch. Once that event happened, we have removed the post from the blog because it contained outdated content. This is part of our content audit strategy, and so we don't have an example to share here.]

21. Year In Review

Every year brings an opportunity to reflect, and consider the goals we want to accomplish for the new year ahead. In the “year in review” blog post, this is your chance to explore all of that. Aside from the therapeutic value of thinking introspectively about the past year in your business and life, the year in review post is a way to hold yourself accountable—publicly with your audience.

Maybe your blog post will inspire your audience to take action on their own goals!

Some examples include:

22. Looking Forward / Goal Setting

This is your chance to show your audience where you’re headed. What are your goals for the new year? What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to create? What do you want to improve about your business?

Use this opportunity to highlight what’s coming next, and get your audience excited about it!

A few examples include:

23. Tips for Newbies

We all start somewhere. We were all newbies once in our various niches. You may even be new to blogging or online business now, so you’ll learn this soon enough: We can all learn from those that came before us.

Share what you’ve learned by giving others an opportunity to build the foundational skills we all must learn.

A few “tips for newbies” blog post examples include:

24. Insider Interviews

Here’s where you can highlight your team that works hard but who may be behind the scenes, unseen by your audience. You can do audio interviews and or written interviews. If you have someone helping you with social media, your editorial calendar, your podcast production, etc., give them a little moment in the spotlight. It gives them an opportunity to share their expertise, and they’ll appreciate the attention.

You could even invite your audience to share their experience with your blog to highlight their successes based on what your website has taught them.

A couple examples of the insider interviews include:

25: Q&A Blog Post

Question & Answer posts are easy to create. Basically, they consist of a list of questions that you, or a guest, will answer. Find someone you admire and who you feel has knowledge that will benefit your audience. Send them a list of questions, and they can send you the answers. Voila, you have a blog post. Or, put together a list of questions that your audience frequently asks you and provide them with the answers.

An example of a Q&A blog post:

Three Questions Every Blogger Who Wants To Make Money Online Should Ask Themselves

Use the 25 blog post ideas above to stand out from the crowd, get your blog noticed, and become an industry maven.

Kim Roach is the official Marketing Lab Rat at Buzzblogger.com.

P.S. Pat here! As Matt Gartland said in Here's a Sneak Peek Behind the Curtain of How Team SPI Operates, we use CoSchedule to plan all of our editorial content. It's a fantastic tool and, frankly, we'd be lost without CoSchedule. If you're looking to better organize your content calendar for your business, I highly recommend it.

Get started for free here!

[Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, I receive compensation if you sign up through this link.]

The post 25 Copy-and-Paste Blog Post Templates—UPDATED with 8 New Templates! appeared first on Smart Passive Income.

How to Repurpose Your Blog Content [Infographic]

Pat Flynn — Sat, 16 Jul 2016 07:00:00 +0000

So you've just published an amazing, value-packed blog post for your audience. Now what? How can you make sure you make the most of it so the most eyeballs land on that content?

At a bare minimum, you should at least share it on your social media channels, but you're likely doing that already. It probably deserves a link in an email to your list too, but beyond that, is there anything else we can do?

Absolutely!

How to Repurpose Your Blog Content Like a Machine

There are several different ways you can repurpose your blog content, and in the infographic below I'll show you exactly how you can do that. The content in this infographic was converted from a blog post that was published not too long ago here on SPI, and guess what—that's one of the strategies!

And as you can see, it's already working. Check out the other strategies below and make it happen! And if you have a series of blog posts that all go together, even better!

Pick one to start, roll with it, and look forward to increased exposure and more traffic coming back to your site.

Enjoy this infographic? Share it on Twitter by clicking here!

If you'd like to embed this infographic into your own website, please feel free to copy the embed code below:

The post How to Repurpose Your Blog Content [Infographic] appeared first on Smart Passive Income.

The Content Pyramid: Healthy Portions of Posts for Your Blog

Pat Flynn — Mon, 16 May 2016 07:00:00 +0000

This post was previously published back in 2011. I thought it would make sense to republish with new and timely content examples, considering the Content Pyramid is still relevant today. I hope you find it useful for your blog!

Most of you are probably familiar with the food pyramid, right?

If not, it's a graphical representation (in the shape of a pyramid) of the suggested serving sizes of different food groups, which together illustrate a healthy and balanced diet. It was adopted by the USDA (United State Department of Agriculture) in 1992 to give Americans an easy and memorable way to understand nutrition.

Here, I want to show you something called a content pyramid.

The content pyramid below is a graphical representation of the “serving sizes” of different types of blog posts that I've written on this blog, which together illustrate what I believe to be my own healthy blogging diet—a diet that has proven to quickly build some authority in the blogosphere.

In an older post, I had outlined a strategy I use to diversify the content that I publish on this blog. I went into detail about several different types of posts and how they each catered to a specific type of person and how they like to digest information, but I failed to illustrate exactly how often each of those posts were published.

Hence, this pyramid.

Now, in pure SPI fashion, let's break it down from the bottom, up.

Bottom Tier: Case Studies & How Tos

Case studies and how-to articles are what made this blog. There is no doubt about it.

Using real life examples from real life businesses that I own (the Niche Site Duel, The Smart Podcast Player, GreenExamAcademy, FoodTruckr, etc.), these posts accelerate my authority and prove not only that my methods work (or in some cases, don't work), but also that I don't just talk the talk, but I walk the walk too.

When I think of other successful bloggers who have made an impact on my life, they each utilize the case study and how-to post quite often and quite beautifully.

For example, Bryan Harris put together a compelling and powerful case study on how to launch a product with a tiny email list.

Brian Dean from Backlinko wrote about an SEO strategy case study that boosted his organic search engine traffic by an amazing 963 percent.

And no, your name doesn't need to be a variation of Brian (with an I or Y) to make this work!

These types of posts really do become the foundation of a blog (a.k.a. pillar articles) and without them you're making it that much harder to stand out from the crowd and become a leader in your niche.

If you're lacking in this part of the pyramid, all you need to do is take action and create your own case studies.

They don't just happen on their own.

Second Tier: Left Brain & Right Brain

The second level of the pyramid is for posts that appeal to the two types of people that are reading our blogs: the left-brainers and the right-brainers.

Left-brainers are those who are into analytical thought and logic (i.e., Science and Math).

Right-brainers are those who are into design and theory (i.e., Creative Arts and Music).

Where the center line that divides the two settles depends on your audience, but I try to make sure I cater to both types of people.

Left Brain Examples:

My Income Reports, which are some of the most visited pages on SPI
6,795,850,072 Reasons Why You Can Make a Successful Living Online
How SPI Made Me More Income Than 3 Bestsellers and 2 Movie Deals

Right Brain Examples:

This second tier of posts, combined with the foundation, become the core of the articles that I publish. As you can see, they take up most of the space.

That said, without the remaining top portions of the pyramid, I wouldn't have the brand that I have today.

Third Tier: A Voice and Recommendations

Opinions and News

Even though the previous two tiers take up the majority of the pyramid, I feel it's important to also include a decent mix of opinionated and news-type blog posts as well.

Not only do these types of posts keep people up to date, but it also enhances a blog owner's authority as he or she is the one who publishes the information for everyone else to read (and then share).

For example, I've written about Google's algorithm change and its effect on many websites, including my own. Even though I know I wasn't the first one to share this information, because I posted about it immediately after it occurred, it showed my knowledge and up-to-date-ness on the subject.

Opinion articles, which could be combined with the news posts, are important too because it begins to give a blog and its owner some personality–a voice. It's important to have a voice and take certain positions in whatever niche you're in, because it helps you stand out as a leader.

No one pays attention to the person who just sits in the back of the class and never raises his hand.

Lastly, even though these types of post are important and could become generous traffic generating tools for your blog, I want to reiterate the fact that it only takes up a small portion of my pyramid.

Why?

Because these posts are not timeless. Typically, within a week or two (or even a day or two in some cases) these posts won't be very useful anymore. You'll want to make sure a majority of your focus is in the foundation of your blog pyramid—pieces of information that are more likely to withstand the fall of time.

Products and Reviews

Many bloggers, including myself, monetize their websites.

It's okay to monetize your site, but the methods you choose and how often you try to do so can dramatically effect your potential income.

More is not always better, and this is why this segment also takes up a small portion of the content on my site as well, and really the line should be moved over even more because I don't even write product and review posts at all. I do, however, sprinkle product recommendations within my posts, typically in stuff that I write in Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the pyramid.

No matter what though (and this is huge for me), I will only recommend products that:

I've used myself.
That have helped me succeed or achieve something.
I feel would be beneficial to my readers.

These three rules keep me grounded and help me not promote things that could potentially damage my brand or just simply make me seem like I'm in it for the money (trust me, the opportunities are there). If I can offer a product that I've used and will help others, I feel more comfortable because it's a win-win for everyone: my readers get a product that works and have someone to go to for help if needed (me), and of course I get a commission too.

People are still emailing me regularly about how much they love Teachable, for example, and it's awesome. [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, I receive compensation if you purchase through this link.]

ConvertKit is another product I need to mention. Toward the end of 2015, I made a big decision to move my list of subscribers (135,000-plus at the time) to ConvertKit, a decision I've been really happy with. So much so I chronicled at length and created a ConvertKit demo video (see below). [Full Disclosure: I'm a compensated advisor and an affiliate for ConvertKit.]

Top Tier: Personal

I believe it's important for every business that deals directly with their readers, subscribers, or customers to put in a little personal touch here and there.

Not too much (which is why this is at the top of the pyramid), but just enough to really connect with people, to help them understand that you're more than just a blogger or some random person behind a website.

Personal Examples:

SPI 225: Meet the Flynn Family (the ones who really run the show), with April, Keoni, and Kailani
SPI 407: How to Raise a Kid Entrepreneur
Chapter 4 of the Mindset for Entrepreneur's guide is all about an important conversation my wife April and I had about my work-life balance.

I don't know about you, but I connect with people, not websites.

Still, there are a lot of people out there who are paranoid about posting even their name and a picture on their site, let alone a little bit of information about who they are and what they do. The problem is, when I come across these totally faceless blogs, I wonder to myself, “Why? What are they hiding?”

As a result, I can't really believe their content and there's just no connection. I hardly ever come back for more.

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I like to know who is speaking to me.

Your Pyramid

The content pyramid above is the Smart Passive Income content pyramid. Yours may look different based on your niche and/or personality, but this is what is working for me.

I'm hoping that at least you can see the importance of timeless posts and how they really became the fuel for the growth of this blog, with all of the other parts intertwined to become the Smart Passive Income brand as a whole.

So what's your content pyramid like right now? What kind of posts are you writing the most, and do you need to make any kind of shift in what you post in the future?

Happy Monday everyone! Cheers!

The post The Content Pyramid: Healthy Portions of Posts for Your Blog appeared first on Smart Passive Income.

My February 2016 Monthly Income Report

Pat Flynn — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 07:00:00 +0000

I’m incredibly excited to share February’s income report with you! My new book, Will It Fly?, went on sale on February 1, and I’m stoked to share how it performed and the total costs associated with it, among a few other things that happened in February that were exciting too. [This link leads to Amazon. Full disclosure: I receive affiliate commission if you purchase from this link.]

Before I get into the report, I have something awesome to share that I know a lot of you have been waiting for…

The audiobook for Will It Fly? is now available!

As of today, the audiobook went live on Audible.com and iTunes and I know a lot of you who prefer listening to books or enjoy the podcast will love it. Also, if you’re a first time user of Audible, you can get my book for free with your first free credit!

Just click here to get access to it now! [This link leads to Amazon. Full disclosure: I receive affiliate commission if you purchase from this link.]

Now, if you’re not familiar with these income reports, I publish them once a month to share not only how much I’ve earned online and where it all comes from, but the lessons I’ve learned along the way.

So let’s not wait any further, and let’s get into exactly what was going on in February.

Important Goings-On in February

The entire month of February was dedicated to the launch of Will It Fly? It represented a year’s worth of work and it was cool to see that it was all finally going to be out there in the public. It was exciting, but I was extremely nervous to see what the results would be. Even though I validated the topic, even though I put a launch group together who all had amazing things to say about the book (they were given early access to it), and even though I knew the content in the book was great, I couldn’t help but wonder: “What if it doesn’t do well?”

That’s a common thought that always comes across my mind when trying something new, exciting, and different that could potentially be great, but I’ve learned to see those nerves as a sign that whatever is generating those feelings is something I care about a lot, and I have to keep going.

And keep going I did, all the way into the morning of February 1 when I stayed up all through the night to finish one final piece of the puzzle (the book’s free companion course), which I published at 7:30 on the morning the book went live on Amazon, and an hour and a half before the virtual book launch party, which I knew I would be running on fumes I after pulling an all-nighter. The adrenaline kicked in though, and I had my second (or fifth) wave of energy to finish the broadcast and see the rankings of the book continue to climb, until I finally passed out on the couch and slept for seven hours straight.

When I woke up, of course the first thing I did was check to see how the book was doing, and I couldn’t believe it had already cracked the Top 100 of all books on Amazon, which was one of my primary goals. The next day, the Kindle sales started to skyrocket and the book reached as high as number twenty-two of all Kindle books on Amazon, and number one in Startups, Entrepreneurship, Self-Help, and Small Business.

Earlier this month, I wrote a two-part post about the entire process from start to finish, including how I wrote the book, the methods of self-publishing, and how I marketed it, so I won’t get into the same detail here in this report, but if you’d like to read those posts, please click on the link for each part below:

And, as you can tell from the title of the links above, the book did go on to become a Wall Street Journal bestseller, which I’m truly amazed by! I thought that when I chose to self-publish my book that I was pretty much letting go of potentially getting on the lists, but I made it to number six on the list, and I couldn’t be happier about it!

Now that I know this is possible, I’m curious to know if, as a self-published author with no connections to the world of bookstores like Barnes and Nobles, I can get the book out on shelves. I have some things in mind to potentially make this happen, but it’s going to take some experimentation, and something out of the box I’m sure. More on that coming soon

The breakdown for the total earnings as well as the expenses to write and publish Will It Fly? are in those posts linked to above, and included in the line-by-line income statement below, but there’s one thing I didn’t mention in the reports that was also a massive success that I’d like to share with you now.

The Free Will It Fly? Companion Course

When you sell a book on Amazon, you don’t get access to the list of buyers. So, it’s your job as the author to follow up and continue a conversation with your readers, to somehow get those readers out of the book and into your email list. There are a number of different methods for doing this, for example offering a bonus chapter, the audio version, or other free incentive in exchange for a person’s email address, but, as always, I wanted to experiment and try something I hadn’t seen before, which is why I offered a free companion course.

A companion course to a book, by my definition, is one that helps you as you read or listen through the content. The modules and lessons are setup like the parts and chapters of the book, and each chapter contains information and resources related to that particular chapter. So for example, Chapter 2 in the companion course, contains a video as well as a downloadable worksheet related to the exercise I ask people to do in that chapter of the book. Other chapters have audio files, some with other resources, and all of them have clickable links of for anything mentioned in the book, which addresses one of my pet peeves when reading books nowadays, the plethora of non-clickable-links on paper.

I was very curious to see how the companion course would perform in terms of getting readers to subscribe, and the results have blown me away.

After all twenty-nine days of February, 15,674 copies of the book were sold.

How many converted into the course?

4,271.

That’s a 27.25% conversion rate, which is awesome!

This is a great conversion rate, especially considering that it’s not a quick signup, but rather one that includes a username and password. So how has collecting information from readers helped me?

Here’s one awesome example:

One week before February was over, I had 170 customer reviews. My goal for the month was 300 hundred, so I had some work to do. Below you can see an email that I sent out to about 4,000 people thanking them, and then asking for an honest review of the book.

With a 65% open rate, I added 101 customer reviews within twenty-four hours, and by the end of February I surpassed my goal with 303 by March 1.

I’ll also be updating the course with additional content over time to keep delivering value to this audience, and when I launch future courses using the same platform, it’ll be really easy for them to sign up and get access because their username and email are already in the system. The platform I’m using is called Teachable.com, and I am really enjoying how easy it is to use and setup a course, and looking into the future, it seems like it’ll be perfect for housing all other courses that will be going live here on SPI. More on Teachable later.

Beyond that, all of my other businesses and functions were pretty much automated, or pre-scheduled since I knew ahead of time I was going to be focusing solely on the book launch in February.

So, let’s get into the income report breakdown.

Full Disclosure: Some of the items in the list below are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase through that link, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that I have experience with all of these companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals.

Note: Items with an empty difference percentage were not present on the previous month's income report.

Expenses do not include pro-rated yearly fees. Most are related to the Smart Passive Income Blog and new projects that are currently under development.

The Biggest Lesson I Learned in February

Beyond the book stuff, there was one other activity I did during February which I truly enjoyed. I spoke at the Traffic and Conversion Summit here in my own backyard of San Diego. Not literally in my backyard, but you know what I mean.

This is a huge event that happens each year in San Diego, and what I love about it is that some of the sessions are more advanced than you might have access to at other conferences. Plus there are a ton of people in the entrepreneur and Internet marketing world who show up, so it’s a great opportunity to meet and network.

I did meet and connect with some amazing and smart people people while I was there (like the guys from BuzzSprout), but my favorite part was walking around the hallways in between sessions and getting stopped by people who follow the SPI Blog and Podcast. And this was the first time, ever, that I had been asked to sign a book. In fact, dozens of people had a copy of Will It Fly? with them, which surprised me, but I think they knew they would eventually run into me because I was speaking on the final day of the event. [This link leads to Amazon. Full disclosure: I receive affiliate commission if you purchase from this link.]

Signing books was weird, but awesome. Not because I felt like a rock star, which I believe I’ll never feel because I’m just a regular guy, but what I loved was seeing people get inspired by the book, and hearing from some about how it had already changed the course of their businesses and lives.

One person, Tom Tate, who purchased a digital copy of Will It Fly? even had me sign his Kindle at the event!

How does one sign a digital copy of #WillItFlyBook?? Like this. Thanks, @PatFlynn! #TCS2016 pic.twitter.com/e0LQuSn9gl

— Tom Tate ?? (@tnrt) February 11, 2016

All of this feedback from the book, and all of the other amazing feedback that I’m seeing on social media makes it all the worthwhile to me. This is what it’s about.

So, when you’re writing your book, building your course, or creating something that you know in your heart will help people, know that on the other end of it you’re going to make an impact on another person’s life. That’s what will help you get through those tough times. There’s no better feeling than knowing you’re helping others, and I’m now more inspired than ever to get back to work and see what else I can do for you.

Cheers, thanks again for your support, and I appreciate you! And don't forget to pick up the audiobook for Will It Fly? on Audible or iTunes! Cheers!

The post My February 2016 Monthly Income Report appeared first on Smart Passive Income.

Behind the Scenes of the Will It Fly? Social Media Strategy

Nōn Wels — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 16:00:04 +0000

Now that we're two weeks after the launch of Will It Fly?, I'm stoked to be able to share even more details with you about how it was all put together. Coming in March, you're going to see a massive post with all of the ins and outs of every part of the process, but in this post, I wanted to do a couple of things for you:

1) Share the social media strategy we used, which played a critical role in helping to spread the word, and

2) Introduce you to someone new on my team. He's been helping me for a while, but you likely didn't know about him. His name is Non, and he's awesome. He helped to lead the social media push on Will It Fly.

Because I was busy last week at the Traffic and Conversion Summit, he volunteered to write up this post, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to introduce him to you, and also share some massive value at the same time.

So without further delay, take it away Non!

Hello!

My name is Non, which is pronounced like “known” and routinely described, by me, as being a product of hippie parents.

Pat Flynn, to my knowledge, is not a hippie. Pat is an inspiring, hard working, wholehearted human, and (as you probably know) the author of Will It Fly?: How to Test Your Next Business Idea So You Don’t Waste Your Time and Money, which was just released on February 1!

Will It Fly?, as Pat says in its introduction, is a book that was written for you, the person with the neat business idea, “to help you build your wings, and visualize your flight path.”

I led the social media strategy for Pat’s book promotion and launch. As a team, we thought that you would enjoy a behind-the-scenes tour of our strategy so that you may be able to replicate some aspect(s) of it when you launch your next thing.

So that’s what this post is about—the social media strategy Team Flynn created to effectively support a coordinated, multi-platform social media effort to promote the Will It Fly? launch. I’m excited to share with you how we built our strategy, what worked, and how it worked.

Step 1: Determine Goals for the Will It Fly? Social Media Strategy

Determining our goals was the logical starting point for our social media strategy. We needed to know where we were headed, and we needed to have a solid understanding of the outcome when we got there. Without the goals, we would’ve been lost. Not like lost in the woods, starved, contemplating-eating-your-hiking-companion type of lost. But certainly lost enough to provide confusion, inefficiencies, redundant efforts, and a non-deadly snake bite or two.

Point being, we needed to be as clear about our social media strategy as we could be, being mindful of desired outcomes, and fully engaged with the most logical path to achieve those outcomes.

We focused on three key goals:

Nurture as large of a focused pre-launch audience as possible
Educate potential readers on the value proposition of Will It Fly?
Diversify the awareness of Will It Fly? to the greatest extent possible

United together like Voltron, defender of the universe, our three goals formed the singular force we needed to succeed. We had a cohesive fanbase that knew enough about Pat’s book and cared enough about its message to advocate for it across multiple social media channels in a coordinated movement so as to maximize launch momentum come publication day.

How do you bring these goals to life? With strategies that match the focus, tone, and desired outcome of the goals themselves. And in the land of strategies, more isn’t always better.

Step 2: Develop a Few Critical Strategies

In social media, there are countless strategies to choose from and adapt in some fashion. Thus, our challenge was to zero in on a critical few that aligned with our goals and, ultimately, the overall message of Will It Fly?

We collaborated a lot as a team to whittle down the options and arrive at the critical strategies we thought best for the campaign. Our choices didn’t only have the positive effect of focusing our operational plans; they also informed the type of content we published.

Our strategies were:

1. Publish engaging, value-add content that promotes the book’s message and reason for existence.

Keeping our goals in mind, we developed in-depth content engagement ideas. Specifically, we thought Twitter content could serve as a base of content generation. Once that content was crafted we could then extend it naturally to other social media platforms. This approach proved to be very effective because Twitter forced us to keep this simple at the start and then expand and enrich them for other channels like Facebook, Periscope, and Goodreads.

Our initial brainstorm of content ideas ended up like this:

Will It Fly? book launch date
Will It Fly? launch party webinar signup
Behind the scenes of writing Will It Fly?
Will It Fly? book trailer
Snippets of advance reviews of book
Images (the final book cover (in full, or only a piece of it as a teaser), the preliminary concepts, book covers that were inspirations, etc.)
Thanks to advance reviewers
Will It Fly? hashtag: #WillItFly
Inspiring, single-line quotes from book
Relevant application of book to the lives of your audience
Guest blog posts on Will It Fly?
Will It Fly? fun facts (e.g., number of hours spent writing the book, fun juxtaposition tweets about how the “it” will fly but elephants may not, etc.)
“The Daily Update” about the book campaign/project
Any other “exclusive” content that we may be able to drip out
Retweets from fans about Will It Fly & from #WillItFly hashtag
Live tweeting during launch day webinar
Tweet to announce Periscope appearances

If you analogize these brainstorming ideas as elements on the Periodic Table, then putting them in action was an act of chemistry. (Science!) Different combinations of elements yielded different types of content that we could publish. Here are some examples that emerged from our lab of content chemistry:

Calls to action (CTAs) are very important in marketing. Social media marketing is no different. So, as we brewed up some awesome content in our lab, we had to remain disciplined to which action we wanted Pat’s fans to take once they enjoyed the content. To stay on target, we came up with corresponding primary and secondary desired CTAs:

Primary CTA of tweets: drive followers to book pre-order page
Secondary CTA of tweets: drive followers to book trailer, blog post, launch team signup

By creating these initial Twitter content ideas and their corresponding CTAs, we had a strong base to start writing the tweets and plugging them into our calendar well in advance of the book launch date of February 1. (Craving to learn more about our approach to a well-organized social media campaign calendar? Feel free to jump ahead to step 4.)

2. Publish content on multiple channels in unique ways.

As I foreshadowed above, we benefited from crafting engaging content for Twitter that could then be extended in unique ways for other social media channels. We kept Twitter limited to two or three Will It Fly?-related tweets per day. Next, we took advantage of the unique attributes of Facebook, Periscope, Goodreads, and Instagram. It was important for Pat to cover a wide variety of platforms, as not all people are on every platform. Let’s dig into our channel-specific strategies, starting with Facebook.

Facebook Strategy:

Frequency is an essential component in social media promotion and marketing. You don’t want to pummel your audience with too much promotional content, or post so infrequently that they aren’t aware of what you’re trying to promote. (Want to learn about our broader application of our strategy for social media frequency? Check out the “Be mindful of frequency” section below!)

When it applies to Facebook specifically, content frequency is crucial. Data suggests that by keeping Facebook posts to once per day or even once every other day, you may see a higher reach and impression rate on those posts. In other words, engagement, or likes and shares, begins to drop off dramatically once you start posting more than once per day. Take a gander at the excellent The Social Media Frequency Guide for a detailed explanation of this.

In addition to being cognizant of the frequency of our content, we also made sure to emphasize a wide variety of relevant content, including video. Similar to images, video often garners a lot of engagement on social media. Video is exciting, aesthetically intriguing, and a visual break from long, potentially less engaging blocks of text. Plus, video (or posts with visuals in general) drives more engagement. Gloria Rand does a great job explaining in the fascinating infographic, How Visual Content Drives Social Media Growth, and further detailed here:

So, one of the things Pat did was create a few videos related specifically to Will It Fly? First, he created a short teaser book trailer and posted that on Facebook with the goal of accumulating interest for the book, motivate people to pre-order, and of course engage with the post directly. Second, he released a longer video which provided a more in-depth preview into what Will It Fly? is all about and how it can help people who have a business idea that requires a kick in the tires.

One other key element of our Facebook strategy was the Facebook Group created for the amazing Book Launch Street Team. Thankfully, we had Daniel Decker, the man behind the Will It Fly? Book Launch Street Team (see Building a Book Launch Street Team + Pre-Order with Daniel Decker (SPI 198)). Daniel was integral in building a community of people just as excited as we were for Will It Fly?, before and after launch.

For those individuals who signed up in advance of the book’s publication to be a part of the Launch Team (you guys are awesome, by the way!), you were part of a group of passionate people connecting with each other, making friendships, interacting on Facebook, and even sharing some of your favorite Will It Fly? quotes. It just goes to show that Facebook Groups can be a powerful tool to help foster community and excitement around a shared interest. Now, in addition to the content Team Flynn was producing, Daniel had fostered an amazing team who added to the promotional Will It Fly? content by tweeting their anticipation for the book launch or sharing their thoughts about the book after reading.

Periscope Strategy:

Periscope is a great way to engage with people in real-time. It served as a platform where Pat could share—genuinely and from his heart—exciting parts of the pre- and post-book launch journey. He answered questions as they came in, read parts of the book before it launched, and shared the book cover. It’s just a really fun way to engage with an excited group of people and react together in the moment. As for the frequency, Pat is pretty spontaneous with Periscope and he used it when it made sense to share his highs and lows. On Periscope? Connect with Pat!

Pat also used Periscope to leverage social proof by sharing Will It Fly? pre-order numbers and Amazon rankings. In doing so, Pat’s audience latched onto his excitement and anticipation, which can be very compelling if you are experiencing his energy live.

Goodreads Strategy:

If you’re not familiar with Goodreads, it’s basically a social media platform for book lovers—so of course we had to use it to promote Pat’s new book! We listed Will It Fly? about four weeks before launch day and made sure it was connected to Pat’s author page. We also made sure Pat’s author profile was updated with his website, bio, photo, and favorite books on his “Read/Want to Read” lists. We then asked the Street Team to post early reviews, and used the built-in blog feature to announce when the pre-order was ready, our launch day party, and when the book was officially live. Goodreads also has features for advertising and running giveaways, which we plan to take advantage of with future promotions of Will It Fly?

Instagram and Snapchat Strategy:

Remember, not everyone is on every social media channel, so we needed to promote on a variety of different platforms, and Instagram and Snapchat are places where Pat could be a little more personal and less scripted. For example, he shared a fun side-by-side image of Will It Fly? in its reveal next to an image of the A Match Made in Space book reveal in Back to the Future. He shared first on Instagram and then cross-promoted on Facebook.

Always, always, always be real. People aren’t interested in perfection. They want to see the nitty gritty, the flaws, the toiling. They want to see your humanity. Pat used Instagram and Snapchat to share openly about the book launch journey, including both the ups and the downs. He embraced the realness by staying true to himself and engaging with his community on a human level. Check out Gary Vaynerchuk’s Community Management: Why Betting on the Human Side Works for an impressive, in-depth look into the importance of embracing the realness.

3. Be mindful of frequency.

Frequency is also a key component to any social media strategy. You want to be consistent, but not overwhelming. More human, less spam. If you know Pat, you know that there isn’t a disingenuous bone in his body. Which is to say that the content you create should be reflective of who you are, not of Spammy McTurbo Salesington. Content should be real, show your genuine self, and be inclusive of both your successes and struggles along the journey (more on this later).

So we developed a basic game plan for frequency of book launch-related content, which was then applied to our other social media efforts on Facebook and Periscope. The frequency of content took a number of things into account, including, but not limited to:

Timing of advance book reviews
Book cover completion
Consistency of content
Analytics on best times to tweet according to data from Followerwonk
Guest appearances on podcasts
Book launch party timing

While Twitter was our main focus, as mentioned, Pat did some essential stuff on social media platforms Facebook and Periscope, as well as some Instagram fun and advance reviews from the Book Launch Street Team on the literary wonderland that is Goodreads.

4. Drive CTAs to a single landing page that evolves to support the needs of the campaign without undermining the singular focus of the CTAs.

Each of our CTAs were driven to a single landing page: willitflybook.com. From pre-launch to post-launch social media strategy, we made sure that the content, and the CTAs that supported the content, was unique and fresh. In addition, as the content evolved, so did the landing page. Willitflybook.com transitioned from an informational page where interested people could sign up to be the first to hear about Will It Fly? to a robust pre-order page with engaging graphics to the Amazon page where you can purchase the book directly (currently the Kindle version is #1 and the print version is #2!)

Step 3: Executing on the Strategies

After all of our strategizing and planning, it was finally time for execution—the actual writing and scheduling of posts. Here’s a look at our execution process.

1. Creating social media content specific to Twitter, Facebook, Periscope, and Goodreads.

With our initial content ideas and social media platform-specific strategies, we were able to fully develop our tweets, Facebook posts, and so on. And, because we created social media content throughout the launch journey, from pre-launch to present, we needed a powerful, user and web-friendly calendar we could edit and add to quickly. When you’re developing a social media strategy, a calendar is essential.

For the Will It Fly? social media strategy, we used CoSchedule, a tool that serves as a social media content scheduler (with color coding so we could differentiate Twitter posts from blog posts), workflow manager, the nifty calendar, and so much more. But a nifty calendar isn’t always necessary. We started with a simple Google spreadsheet, which allowed us to compose tweets and easily see when we planned to post them:

To fill the calendar, we first came up with a list of essential dates starting eight weeks before the February 1 launch date. The eight weeks provided us ample time to coordinate as a team, develop and refine social media content, strategize on adding diversity to our approach, and be more aptly capable of anticipating things (e.g., a last-minute opportunity for Pat to promote Will It Fly? on another podcast) that could potentially arise.

We looked at weekly milestones that we’d promote on all of Pat’s channels, including this blog, the SPI podcast, and SPI TV. Content included episodes of the Smart Passive Income podcast delving into Behind the Scenes of Writing Will It Fly? (SPI 197) and Building a Book Launch Street Team + Pre-Order with Daniel Decker (SPI 198) and Pat’s guest spots with something like 25 other podcasters, including folks like Hal Elrod and Amy Porterfield. (A complete list of Pat’s podcasts appearances can be found here.)

We also continued to add essential dates and promotional opportunities leading up to the launch that would align with the overall social media strategy and give us the best chance to meet our primary goals. All these dates we added to our calendar.

2. Enriching the social media content experience with on-brand graphics in addition to text.

Images and graphics do a lot to enhance social media messages. They are often engaging, visually interesting, attention-grabbing, and used to support the text around it. In the case for the Will It Fly? social media strategy, Team Flynn created a number of great images that helped to to enrich the experience for Pat’s community.

Not only do these images help to reinforce key points of our strategy—pre-orders, launch date, theme of the book—but also they keep the visual of the book cover in front of Pat’s audience, generating even more excitement for its release.

3. Building an engaged and supportive Street Team.

As previously mentioned, word-of-mouth can be a pretty powerful tool. But you need people to make it work. With the help of Daniel Decker of Higher Level Group, we had a wholehearted, engaged, passionate Street Team eager to promote Will It Fly? The best part was that they truly wanted to be a part of the book launch journey from start to finish.

Daniel was instrumental in organizing this team. He helped us recruit team members, via an opt-in survey form that Pat sent to his email subscribers and made available on his blog and podcasts. Once the team of 500+ people was assembled, Daniel used the private Facebook group to keep their energy pumped by sharing things like a welcome video from Pat, quotes and images that the they could use on their own social media profiles, and previews of the book cover including early concepts before it was finalized.

The team’s excitement was pretty incredible to see. Some of which is represented here:

4. Interacting with fans on social media during promotional events like the launch day webinar.

On Will It Fly? launch day, an exhausted and eager Pat hosted a 90-minute webinar for both Periscope and Google Hangout communities, to bring everyone together and share in excitement for the book. During the 90 minutes, Pat thanked special members of Team Flynn, answered thoughtful questions that came in from both social media platforms, chatted with call-in guests (including one from Joey Korenman, Founder of School of Motion), shared insights on the book launch process, and gave away some goodies.

Many people who attended had been following Pat’s journey of writing and publishing Will It Fly? via all of this social media strategy we’ve been talking about, and they were even more excited for an opportunity to see Pat and interact with him live on launch day. One fun fact: the Kindle version of the book was delayed for availability in the Kindle store, which Pat explains in the video. Throughout the event, he kept refreshing to see if the status had changed. It does change from “in review” to “publishing” and you can watch Pat’s reaction around the 1:22 mark.

Click on the image below for the full replay of the Will It Fly? launch day webinar:

Well, that does it for the peek inside the Will It Fly? social media strategy. Before I sign off, I wanted to thank you for everything you’ve done for this book launch journey—the excitement you’ve reciprocated, the joy you’ve shared. It’s wonderful. To Pat and to all of us in the Pat-verse, we believe that community is so essential. If you weren’t excited about Will It Fly?, all of this strategy wouldn’t have mattered. By being open and wholly genuine about the entire process of launching Will It Fly?, and by being consistent in his engagement, Pat naturally fostered an eagerness in his community. So, the lovely and impassioned community (you folks!) really was part of the book launch journey, which is just so awesome. Without that eagerness and excitement for every facet of the journey, from behind-the-scenes writing updates to the wild insanity of anticipating Amazon rankings, Will It Fly? would not be what it is today. So, thank you!

I sincerely hope this peek inside the Will It Fly? social media Strategy helped for whatever you’re working on promoting—your book launch or your business unveiling or your new product reveal, the Doc Brown doggy chew toys you’ve delightfully named “Great Scotty Dogs.”

Thanks so much for reading!

Non (like “known”)

The post Behind the Scenes of the Will It Fly? Social Media Strategy appeared first on Smart Passive Income.

5 “Five-Minute or Less” Blogging Tips That Yield Big Results. I’m Using Tip #1 in This Title.

Pat Flynn — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Lately, I've been experimenting with a number of various blogging strategies to find those little things that are yielding big results, and I wanted to share those little things that are working for me with you today.

These tips should take you less than 5 minutes to implement, and although they may seem small, they pack a huge punch.

Let's get right to it…

1. The “Little Extra Thing That You Can't Miss” Headline

I've only recently started experimenting with this tactic on my own websites (like in the title of this post), but I've been working with a student and the results of this strategy are blowing my mind.

This started when I began to notice “a little something extra” in the titles of blog posts on popular sites like BuzzFeed and ViralNova:

The “I Want Them All, Especially #5” is the something extra, and it seems to be pulling in a ton of extra traffic and shares.

When you read that title, how can you not wonder what #5 is?

Is it worth cluttering up your title for something like this? Well, this strategy doesn't work for all types of blog posts and it also depends on your audience—but today more than ever, encouraging action and social sharing seems to be taking priority over SEO specific blog post titles.

It's definitely something worth experimenting with, especially considering that you could have the best content in the world within your post, but if your headline isn't good enough to get people to read the first sentence, your content may as well not even exist.

2. Start with a Story

I've been keeping track over the past 8 months of blog posts that I write which start with a story, and blog posts that I write which do not start with a story.

Unfortunately, there are way too many variables to make any hardcore conclusions about which is better (for example: the topic of the post, the headline, where traffic is coming from, what else is written in the post), but my analytics do paint a little bit of a picture for me.

On blog posts where I do start with a story, the bounce rate (according to Clicky's definition, which is a user who only visits one single page and leaves within 30 seconds) is significantly less. [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, I receive compensation if you purchase through this link.]

Again, there are a lot of variables involved, but even so, this makes complete sense.

We love stories. We can't help but finish a story that we've started, so when you start your post with a story, people are likely to continue reading, and the further down the page they go, the more likely they are to keep going.

Of course, your story should be relevant to the message and transformation you're trying to get across to your audience, but the point is, if you want to hook 'em right from the start, try starting with a story.

3. Check Analytics. Add Opt-in Forms. Enjoy a bigger list.

This strategy only takes a few minutes, yet hardly anyone follows through with it.

Here's the step-by-step:

Log into your analytics account and find the 5 most viewed pieces of content on your site over the past 2 months.

Add opt-in forms for your email list on those pages or posts.

Done.

When I learned that I had a ton of traffic visiting my About Page (and actually, it was Derek Halpern in this public video that pointed it out to me), I immediately added opt-in forms to the page, and after a month I experienced a 446% increase in opt-in conversions on that specific page.

This is why I also include an opt-in form on my Income Reports page, because it's one of the most heavily visited pages on the site too.

Whether it's a post or a page, it doesn't matter. Where ever most people end up on your site, that's where you want to put an opt-in form.

If you have yet to start an email list, then this tip isn't any good for you right now, but it's something to keep in mind for later—hopefully sooner than later.

Just in case you need it, below is a link to my tutorial for starting an email list and newsletter:

Click here for my Beginner's Guide to Starting a Newsletter.

4. Isolate Super Important Links

Did you notice how I linked to my newsletter tutorial above?

The link is isolated on its own line, and it takes up the entire line too.

That link is an important link within this post, one that can help a lot of people, but also one that, as a by-product of providing value, can potentially lead to an affiliate commission because of a product that I recommend within that post.

I'm giving this link the best chance possible to be clicked on by isolating it the way you see it there.

How so?

The truth is, we cannot control the device people use to consume our content. A computer, a laptop or mobile device—that's not up to us, it's up to our audience.

This is something I learned about while attending an eye-opening presentation by Greg Hickman from MobileMixed.com last month at New Media Expo where he talked about optimizing our content for the ever-growing mob of mobile users we have coming to our websites.

Last month, for example, 20.2% of the unique visitors to Smart Passive Income were people on mobile devices. That was a record, and that number will continue to climb.

So how does an isolated link help?

Have you ever tried using your finger to tap on a link on a mobile device, and clicked the wrong link instead?

It happens to most of us, because most websites are not mobile optimized.

If you don't have a phone, or never mis-tapped before, good for you, but that doesn't matter. We're talking about your audience, and they are coming via mobile, and they will “fat-finger” your links if you don't think about it.

If you've ever received any of my emails, you'll notice that I use the same isolation technique in my copy, and in an email, it's probably more important to isolate links than within a blog post.

According to Greg, 51% of all email opens happen on a mobile device.

51%!

So you'd better make that link as easy to click as possible on in your emails if you want to get the most out of it.

Also keep in mind that a number of your subscribers could be getting your blog posts via email as well—not just your newsletter and broadcast emails, which is another reason to use this strategy in your blog posts.

It only takes a few seconds to implement, but isolating your important links can mean the difference between someone easily clicking through and going to where they need to go, or someone not finding their way around or getting frustrated and leaving for good.

5. After You Hit Publish, This Step Should Be Next

For the longest time, I would blog until I hit the publish button. Once I hit that button and confirmed that the post I just wrote was up on my website, I considered myself done until it was time to start the next post.

Now I know that writing a post is just half the battle, and hitting the publish button is actually just the beginning of what blogging really is all about.

Blogging isn't just about publishing content, it's also about marketing that content and getting it out into the world for people to read, share and take action.

There are, of course, several different ways to market a blog post, and we all seem to understand the importance of sharing our posts on Facebook and Twitter and other social media channels where our audience resides—but even before doing that, there's one step in between that you should implement that will help get your content in front of more people who have yet to discover you.

I learned this strategy directly from Gary Vaynerchuk who told me live on this podcast interview that I could get so much more leverage out of sharing my posts and podcasts on Facebook if I took a little bit of extra time to create an image with some text and my logo on top of it, and then and only then I should share it on Facebook and other social media platforms.

Since that interview, I've been taking a little bit of extra time to create graphics just like Gary described, and the results have been amazing! If you're on my Facebook page, you would have noticed a number of images that look similar to this:

In the noisy world of social media, graphics like this are more likely to be seen and shared, and since starting this strategy and adding it to my pipeline, Facebook has become the #1 referring website for Smart Passive Income.

If you have a VA or graphic designer on your team with the capability to create images like this, then of course you'd want to outsource this task to them.

But if you don't have one, or prefer to do these yourself (which is what I do) it'll take some time to learn how to do it quickly.

At first, it took me 15-20 minutes to complete an image, but now I'm at a point where it's taking less than 5—but even if it took 30 minutes, it would still be worth the effort.

If you're not creating graphics like this, you're doing yourself, your content, and your audience a total disservice.

The graphic and the text doesn't have to be very fancy either. Here's another post I just recently published with some very simple text, but the same kind of results:

Below is a link to a blog post I wrote that will help you find images that you're allowed to use for this type of situation:

The Ultimate Guide to Finding and Using Images on Your Blog

If you're not into stock images or creative commons and don't want to waste time finding images on your own, then you can take a screenshot of your own content or website, blur it out and then add text on top of that image instead, like this:

As far as tools to create these images, I use Adobe Photoshop, but you could also use Gimp, Paint.net (windows only), or Pixlr.

And since publishing this post, many commenters have suggested PicMonkey and Canva too!

Actually, here's a post of 10 photoshop alternatives that are completely free to use.

There's also a free tool I just found called Fotor, which has a tool specifically used for adding text onto images. If you'd like to upload your own images to Fotor, click on the “add photos” button on the right hand side. It took me a while to find this function.

And lastly, let's quickly go over the size of the images and the process of uploading them to Facebook.

I typically create an image that is 403×403 pixels square, knowing that the image will not be cropped or cut off when it appears in people's feeds. I upload the image first, and then add in my status update and link to my content from there.

According to Amy Porterfield, however, Facebook recently made a change giving preference to link-share posts. These types of posts actually show up more often in people's feeds, and they use a different image size too.

When you paste a link directly into your Facebook status area first, you'll see some content automatically populate, including the title of your post, a description of it (which you can edit), and a spot for an image that is more rectangular in size. You can click through and select an image that's already in your post, or you can upload your own. This is where you'd upload a unique image with some text perfectly suited for your Facebook fans, if you don't have one in your post already.

The size of this image should be 560 pixels wide by 292 pixels tall.

They are weird images sizes, for sure, but I hope this helps you figure this out a little better. Now that I've been doing this religiously after each post and podcast episode, the process is getting much quicker, and the results are definitely there.

To Finish Up…

With the exception of the last tip if you're not familiar with image editing (which makes me feel like a video tutorial on how to quickly add text to images would be very useful—please confirm in the comment section below if you'd like to see that), all of these tips don't take very much time to implement, but they can yield big results in your blog and online business.

I hope you implement at least one of these strategies, and if you'd like to add anything, or suggest a “5-minute or less” tip of your own, I'm sure the community would be very thankful! Just add that into the comment section below.

If you've found value in this post, please click one of the buttons below to share it! Thanks so much, and here's to you and your blogging success!

Cheers!

The post 5 “Five-Minute or Less” Blogging Tips That Yield Big Results. I’m Using Tip #1 in This Title. appeared first on Smart Passive Income.

Atypical Tips for Writing Awesome Blog Posts

Pat Flynn — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 08:00:00 +0000

When I started blogging, writing didn't come naturally to me.

Not at all.

It took me forever to craft a single post and sometimes I'd be halfway through an article when I would decide to scrap the entire thing because I didn't like where it was headed.

It was rough—but over time I've had a lot of practice and picked up a ton of tips that I'm happy to share with you today.

I'm no CopyBlogger, but these are the things that help me write more efficiently.

Before Writing

Before the fingers hit the keyboard, there are some things you can do to increase the chances that you'll have a great writing experience.

Start With the End

“If you don't know where you're going, how are you going to get there?”

No—I'm not telling you to start off by writing your last paragraph. Instead, I'm asking you to think about what your concluding paragraph might say.

Beyond that, what do you want your readers to experience after reading your post? What do you want them to do? How do you want them to feel?

These are all important questions you should ask yourself first because the answers can help you craft your post and exactly what elements might be included in it.

What Part of the Content Pyramid Are You Shooting For?

Have you ever considered The Content Pyramid?

The content pyramid is my made-up guide for understanding the different types of content that you can publish on your blog, which appeal to different kinds of people and how much of each type one should write.

Here's a refresher image:

Before you begin writing a new post, it's good to know where on the Content Pyramid that post might lie.

Sometimes, the Content Pyramid itself can help you determine what kind of post to write too.

Mind and Body Prep

I don't know about you, but I have to be in the mood to write.

If I'm not—it's going to be a struggle and the last thing I want to do is try to force an article out of myself. I want my writing to flow naturally, and I'm sure you do too.

In order be in the mood, it's all about properly preparing your mind and your body. You can do so by thinking about these two elements:

Energy: One of the hardest things to do is write when you don't have the energy to do it. So many things play a role in how much energy you have—from sleep to diet, fitness and even stress. You should at least be conscious about your energy levels and what you know you can do to keep your energy levels high.

Quick Tip from Pat: One thing I always think about is what time(s) of the day I have higher energy levels, and make sure that is when I write. For me, I always write late at night.

Environment: Another vital factor to your mood can be the environment that you are writing in. Everyone has different preferences for what is the best environment to write in, but again it's just something to be conscious about. For example, I need a well-lit area and I need the area to be absolutely clean and quiet, so I'm usually in my office (and I need to wear socks too, but I won't get into that now). I absolutely cannot concentrate in a cafe or coffee shop, while I know a number of other bloggers who have written their best posts while sitting in a coffee shop somewhere.

While Writing

Once you actually start writing, it's a whole new ballgame. Let's get into some tips that you can use while you're constructing your post.

The Headline

The headline or title is one of the most important elements of your post.

You can have the best content in the world, but if your headline is terrible chances are people are not going to read it because they'll skip over an uninteresting headline. This is especially true when you consider social sharing.

As a result, one of the first things people do is try to come up with the perfect title. This is good—except that sometimes the perfect title doesn't come right away, which can lead to frustration and a lack of—well, content in your post.

My tip for you is this: if you can't think of a good title or headline within 3 minutes, just start writing your post. Don't let the headline stop you from pouring out the excellent content that you know you can write, and sometimes as you write the headline will naturally come later.

When You Get Stuck

Sometimes you'll be in the middle of a post and for whatever reason all of a sudden you draw a blank.

This happens to me all of the time!

The first part of the post is awesome, but for some reason something doesn't click and every new line I write just doesn't seem right.

When this happened in the past, I used to delete the entire thing and start over.

Now—I do a number of different things when I arrive at this point:

Take a Break: 15 minutes away from your writing can do wonders for the rest of your post.
Save as a Draft and Start a New Post: If it's not working out, save it as a draft and start a new post. You can come back to it later (like when you're stuck in another post in the future) and maybe you have another idea that's better for you to write now. Personally, I currently have 12 half-written posts saved for later.
Get Inspiration from Your Community: Ask a relevant question to your fans on Facebook or Twitter and you might get something interesting or inspiring that can guide the next part of your post.

Imagine Who You're Writing To

This is, by far, one of the best tips I can give you when it comes to writing your posts:

Imagine who you're writing to.

Remember—we aren't writing for ourselves, and we aren't writing for the search engines (although search engines can guide how we present our information).

We write for our audience, and if you can imagine a single person in your audience who you're writing to, your ideas and writing are going to flow much better.

When I write, even though I know a lot of people will read my posts, I imagine a specific person who I feel will benefit from it, and I do my best to make sure that he or she will totally get what I'm trying to convey.

When I can do that, the post reads better for everyone.

After Writing

A blog post doesn't end after you finish your last word. In fact, that's only the beginning of many other things that should be done.

Preview the Post and Read Your Post Aloud

Instead of just skimming what you just wrote in your WordPress editor, actually preview the post so you can see what it looks like when it's published on your blog.

In addition to that, read your post out loud. Not out loud in your head, but actually outloud-outloud so that you can hear yourself saying the words.

Reading your post aloud in a new environment, one that's different than the one you're editing on, will help you locate some possible spelling, grammatical and formatting errors that you wouldn't have caught otherwise.

Also, you'll be able to hear the flow of your post. Maybe it makes sense in your head, but when you read it out loud it might not sound right or things might need to be rearranged at little.

Publish the Darn Thing

At some point, you're going to have to push that publish button, so when you feel your post is ready, just do it.

When I first started blogging, I'd finish a post, proofread it and then hover over the publish button for what seemed like days, scared like something immediate and drastic would happen if I didn't get the post absolutely right.

Yes—when you hit the publish button your post goes live, your RSS subscribers get notified and your site pings the search engines, but really it's not that big of a deal. If you made a mistake—it's all good.

Just fix your mistake, republish the post and know that you did what you could. It's not the end of the world.

At this point, however, you're still not done with your post. In fact, some of the most important things that can happen to your post happen after it's published.

Here are two additional “oldie-but-still-goodie” posts here on SPI that will help you understand what you should be doing after your post goes live:

There are obviously several other tips for writing blog posts that I haven't touched on today, but these are definitely some of my favorites—mainly because they are different.

Do you have one or two writing tips that you'd like to share with the community? If so, please post a comment and share the knowledge!

I hope you enjoyed this post! And if you did, please feel free to share it!

Cheers, and all the best!

The post Atypical Tips for Writing Awesome Blog Posts appeared first on Smart Passive Income.

10 Ways to Bring New Life to Old Blog Posts

Pat Flynn — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 07:00:00 +0000

One of the “issues” with blogging is that when you pump out new content, old content gets pushed aside. Some of our best posts, posts that we've devoted hours to with information that is still relevant and useful, simply get lost in our archives.

Whether you're just starting out now or you're a seasoned veteran blogger, here are 10 ways to bring new life to some of your older posts.

1. Keep Search Engines in Mind As You Publish New Posts

As much as you should always be writing for your audience, it can be beneficial to also think about search engine optimization when publishing new posts.

By doing so, over time, your posts will have a better chance of picking up natural search engine traffic as it begins to rank higher in the search engines. You could even take this a step further and introduce a backlinking campaign for a specific keyword for any of your posts to see even better results. Editor's Note: My recommended backlinking strategy changes frequently in order to keep up with Google's evolving search algorithm. You can find the most up-to-date backlinking strategy here. (Updated 10/2015)

So how do we optimize posts for search engine rankings without compromising the quality of the title and content within the post?

Pick a target keyword or keyphrase and include it somewhere in the title of your blog post. You'll have to do some basic keyword research first, but always remember to keep the title interesting and enticing for your readers at the same time.
Make the URL of your posts search engine friendly. If you're targeting a specific keyword or keyphrase in a post, changing the URL to just the keyword gives your post the highest keyword density possible, which helps. For example, if you wrote a post entitled 25 of the Best Golden Retriever Training Tips in the World, and your target keyword was “best golden retriever training tips”, I would structure the url as domainname.com/best-golden-retriever-training-tips.
Pictures should include the keyword in the title, alt tag, and filename. If you embed any pictures into your blog post, you can change the filename of the image to match the keyword before uploading, and make sure to make the title and alt tag of your image match the keyword as well.
Videos should include the keyword in the title, description and tags. Including a YouTube video in your post with a title, description and tags that match the keyword will help as well.

Want to see an example?

Check out my conversion strategies post that utilizes all of these tactics. This post now ranks #2 in Google for conversion strategies and new natural search engine traffic finds its way to the post every day.

2. Link To Old Blog Posts That Are Relevant to What You're Writing Now

Simply linking to older posts in new ones is the easiest thing you can do, however it's definitely one of the more underutilized strategies in the blogosphere.

You've already seen me do this 3 times in the previous tip, and it's a win-win for all because my older posts get read, and viewers get more relevant content that helps them further understand the topics or processes that are being discussed.

3. Do a Followup Post to an Older One

This is similar to #2, however since the new post is a direct followup of an older one, the older post is even more relevant and any newcomers to the series of posts will more than likely click to the old one to get caught up.

If next month I write a post entitled 10 MORE Ways to Bring New Life to Old Blog Posts, and start off with a link to this post, a lot of readers, old and new, will revisit it.

4. An Oldies But Goodies Roundup Post

Every once and a while it's helpful to remind your readers, especially your new ones, of some of the older posts that you've written that they should read if they haven't already.

Here is an example of a hidden gems post that I wrote when SPI was only 6 months old.

Ahh, memories.

5. Link to Old Blog Posts in Your Sidebar

Editor's Note: Sidebars are not as common in website design as they once were. SPI no longer uses a sidebar.

Linking to older posts in the sidebar of a blog is smart because no matter what page a visitor may land on they will have access to some of your older posts.

The most common strategy is to include a “most popular posts” widget, however other bloggers like Corbett Barr from ThinkTraffic.net take it a step further and include other older pieces of content to help specific types of visitors, which is great. [Editor's Note: Corbett no longer runs the ThinkTraffic.net site. You can find him at corbettbarr.com.]

Your blog isn't the only place to reanimate old content to your readers. If you have a newsletter or email list, that's another great place to give new life to some of your older posts.

If you don't have a newsletter or email list for your site, then you should start here.

I recommend creating a few emails in your autoresponder that link to your older posts to continually drive new traffic to some of your (best) archived content.

7. Add Resource Pages to Your Blog for Specific Topics and Categories

This is something that I've recently implemented on SPI thanks to a recommendation (in that conversion strategies video) by Derek Halpern of Social Triggers [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, I receive compensation if you purchase through this link.], and it's working out great! A lot of my older posts are getting a lot of new exposure as a result.

Each resource page, which is linked to in my sidebar, highlights a specific topic that I talk about on SPI and it includes a number of links to older posts related to that topic.

You can see an example of how I link to older blogging tip posts on my blogging tips resource page.

8. Utilize a Good Archive Page

I don't have the best archive page in the world, but it's better than most of the default archive pages I've seen.

Unfortunately, mine was custom designed by my web designer, so it's not a plugin that you can just install (maybe it should be), although there may be better ways to customize an archive page that I don't know about. Please share if you have any tips.

A lot of people actually do visit my archive page and go there to specifically look for some of my older content, however the way people like to search through that older content varies, so I feel that an archive page that has different options is best. I could probably do even more to the one I have, like include a prominent search bar, a longer list of some of my most popular posts, and links to all of my resource pages.

9. Create Videos That Relate to the Older Posts That You've Written

If you've written a successful blog post that was once thriving with traffic that just seemed to become lost over time, why not create a video that compliments the blog post?

You can reintroduce the topic in a new blog post with the video on your site, link to the old post, and the video will help bring more value to the topic that is being reintroduced and expanded upon to your readers.

Additionally, the video can generate traffic from YouTube, and since it was a hot topic on your blog chances are it'll be a hot topic on YouTube as well.

Last, but definitely not least, you can always link to some of your older posts via Twitter, Facebook and any other social media platforms you might be on.

Again, not all of your fans and followers may have read each and every one of your posts, and linking to some of your best hidden content on social media is a great way to rekindle those old fires and potentially start new viral-type campaigns.

As long as you use some of these strategies, your old posts and the time you invested to write them will not be forgotten.

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