Have you been crawling along the Internet “Super Highway” while others are zipping by? Maybe you haven’t quite merged into the traffic yet. Or maybe you’ve had a website for years, but aren’t getting the results you’ve hoped for.
That’s to be expected. Even if your website is sporting the newest bells and whistles. Dynamic and flashy media is good, but it’s not everything.
Just having a great website isn’t enough.
In this new world of information, you need to be creating content. Not just a static page on your website, but content that is constantly fresh. Just think: if a restaurant only ordered fresh food on the first of the month, customers would stop coming pretty quickly. Who wants a sandwich from two weeks ago?
So, how do you go about creating new content online? There are several avenues to choose from, with blogging and podcasting being two great and growing options. It doesn’t stop with those, and we’ll dive in deeper to what we can do, why to do it, and how to make it happen.
I’ve been involved in offline content creation for many years. Online, I’ve been blogging for over two years and podcasting for over one year. Maybe not a long stretch compared to some others, but I’ve learned a lot over that time. I plan to share my experience and knowledge to help you in your journey. Along the way, I’ll bring on special guest experts in these different areas to bring your content creation to a new level and, hopefully, show you how to simplify the process.
A website is not enough
In Michael Hyatt’s book, Platform, he emphasizes that a website isn’t enough. The mentality of “build it and they will come” doesn’t work. Even just having great content doesn’t stand on its own.
I’ve tried this.
When I started seriously blogging in 2012, I had a good looking website and great content. But I didn’t have an audience. Even when i tried to promote on Twitter, I had so few followers, it didn’t make much of a difference.
I didn’t start seeing any growth until I started interacting with others online. I found some blogs to follow and interact with both the blogger (in this case, Chris LoCurto) and the others that were commenting. I started learning better ways to utilize Twitter (it’s more than just following others and hoping they follow back). Throughout 2013, I grew my Twitter following from 200 to over 600 – not impressive numbers, but it’s still a 300% growth. I started to see my stats improve on my website as well. My numbers suffered when I got busy and inconsistent.
So, again, you need more than a great, quality website.
For a business owner, a website isn’t enough to bring traffic. You have to do something to bring them in.
We’re going to look at three main things:
- Blogging
- Podcasting
- Video
Blogging
This is a great way to provide fresh content to your website. With a blog, the newest post displays first and the rest show in reverse chronological order (newest to oldest). Not only will your site visitors enjoy seeing new content, Google rates sites with new, fresh content better.
Podcasting
Podcasting has done great things for me. I’ve been able to reach a much bigger audience than I did with just my blog. I’ve also been able to interview famous authors, and even an actor from the show 24 (I did a podcast called The 24 Podcast with a friend). It’s a great way to build your reputation and expand your reach.
Video
Video takes interaction to a new level, as you are able to convey more of your meaning and personality. You also can take advantage of YouTube, which is the second largest search engine in the world behind Google.
Social Media
Social media, if done right, can really help you increase the traffic to your website. We’ll talk more about social media and networking in future sessions.
Questions:
- Have you started any of these?
- What has your experience been?
- What would you add?
- What are your questions?
Participate in class below.