blog content Archives - Adventures in Visibility

Seven Tools to Create Better Researched Content

Ann Smarty — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 13:56:36 +0000

Successful content creators take each of their content assets seriously: There are hours of brainstorming and research behind each article they publish.

How do successful creators do this consistently?

The focus on research is a lot more than you’d think.

Thorough research is what distinguishes great content asset from a mediocre article.

Here are seven tools to use to do content research properly:

1. Start Your Research with Google

Google has always been my starting point in any research. By just skimming through Google’s search results, I can immediately grasp the key structure of my future article to move forward.

Search Google is a great way to create a quick overview of your future topic:

Compile a list of questions to ask and answer in your content.
Create a draft structure for your future article
Brainstorm possible unique angles to brand out (and stand out)
Come up with the draft headline

In fact, I love searching Google so much that I have put together a premium course on that. Check it out: How to Use Google Advanced Search, Twitter, Youtube, Gmail

To maximize your Google experience, here are a few more ways that you can use the platform to your advantage

Scan through the top 10 search results for your intended topic. This can give you an idea on what’s already out there and how to stand out
Check out the Autocomplete* suggestions as well. It can help to hone your topic subject and approach by identifying longer tail keywords.

To see the Autocomplete results, simply put your cursor back into the search box:

Speaking of auto-complete, use this tool which auto-completes your core keyword using multiple search databases:

2. Check out Buzzsumo

This is another tool that I always check out when just reviewing a content idea.

This platform was created to help with content research.

Buzzsumo is able to research topics, analyze social media for trending topics, and even allow you to search other influencers to get a detailed look at their work.

To use the tool for refining your content idea, simply type in your search term and scan through the headlines:

3. Use TextOptimizer

Text Optimizer is the tool I refer to several times in my content creation process, including content ideation and topic research.

Text Optimizer is the semantic analysis platform that uses Google’s search snippets to extract related concepts and entities that need to be included in your content for it to meet your readers’ expectations:

On top of that Text Optimizer allows you to research related questions for you to refine your topic idea.

4. Monitor Industry News

Everyone knows that influencers, well, influence. In many cases, that involves commenting or bringing to the masses newsworthy information (i.e. becoming the source).

This means that – provided your goal is to become the source in your industry – you need to keep up with all the news coming out.

Follow news sources and leading influencers on Twitter, subscribe to newsletters. You can even turn on alerts for specific topics or create a feed encompassing all the major news organizations.

My own way to keep an eye on industry news is to use a separate Twitter list including all news sources in my and neighboring niches. I use a separate Tweetdeck column to monitor my list:

You can enable desktop notifications to be the first to get notified when news breaks.

5. Collaborate with Niche Influencers

Despite our best efforts, we can’t be experts in everything. That’s why surrounding yourself with others who are is such a great idea. This can be also important when you’ve stepped into a new field, either for career or client purposes.

Whenever you lack expertise in your planned topic, reach out to those experts you’ve been in contact with. This strategy will make your content much more in-depth and better researched.

Try these few ideas to maximize your time with niche influencers:

When you don’t know the topic well enough, reach out to the person with the appropriate knowledge base (maybe even within your company)
Set up an interview time to meet up with niche experts. Once you take a few minutes to actually meet with them (through a video call), your relationships will become much stronger.
Whenever you are meeting with your experts (either in person or through a video call), have a solid agenda: What is it you are going to ask them?

Influencer marketing is not just about using influencer community to broadcast your promotional message to them. Influencer marketing can also help with longer-term goals, i.e. making your content more trustworthy and better researched.

Further reading: How to Leverage Influencer Outreach to Build a Better Blog Post

6. Use More Sources and Tools

Here are more ideas for thorough content research:

Check out Forrester Research for more. Forrester is the leading more research firms in the world. As such, you can pay to get research on a variety of topics and industries. If you’re a larger company and can afford the price tag, it is worth the investment. This is also a great way to put together a truly useful whitepaper to position your brand as a knowledge hub.
Use Google Surveys to find answers based on best voted option. This allows you to create truly customer-centric content.
Use Statista to find related surveys and research papers on your topic
Search Google for [topic idea site:GOV] – this will filter results to official governmental resources for you to verify your claims

7. Keep Track of All Your Notes

I don’t think I need to explain why you should keep track of everything as your content evolves. Sometimes, you just need to get a good look at the entirety of the process. If something goes wrong, you can identify it quickly or even gain inspiration for future content.

You can use the classic pen-and-paper approach if you prefer analog. For those who want to stay in the digital age, use software like Evernote or Google Keep to have the information at hand whenever you need it. Both platforms work across media devices, so you can jot something down on your phone and have it right there when you sit down to your computer.

Another great idea is to create your own writing checklist and include all your favorite tools in it for you to run them every time you are sitting down to write your article. Here’s a nice writing checklist template to build upon.

And what are your favorite content research tools and tricks? Please share in the comments!

Additional Recommended Reading

How to Use Keyword Research in Your Content Marketing

4 Ways You Can Start Writing Better Blog Posts Immediately

Want More Traffic? Here are 27 Steps to Promote Your Blog Posts [Checklist]

Repurposing Your Content – 13 Ways to Reach More People

The post Seven Tools to Create Better Researched Content appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

10 Ways to Save Time and Energy Blogging

Denise Wakeman — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:03:39 +0000

In an ideal world, our blogging would be done at a leisurely pace out on the front porch or settled into our favorite writing chair. We’d be writing at our most inspired moments and we’d be channeling great writers of the past. We’d be writing about our passions and would become lost in our writing.

Back to Reality

Whoa. I started to inspire myself with that intro! The reality is often quite different than the idyllic writer’s scene I began painting above. Often, we’re producing blog content to achieve our marketing goals and to meet deadlines. We’re strategically planning what we’ll write about, how it will be received by our readers, and what they’ll do next. And we’re often short on both time and inspiration!

With that in mind, I thought it might be helpful to share some of my favorite ways to save time while still producing winning blog content. Let me know in the comments your tips for blogging efficiency and effectiveness!

1) Keep your target audience’s “information needs” in mind

Sometimes we need a quick reminder of what kind of information our readers (or potential readers) would like to know. To do this, you can brainstorm customer “pain points” with your team (or alone or with a friend if you’re a solopreneur). You can also ask your support or sales staff what questions people often ask. You can look at Yahoo Answers or Quora to see what questions people have related to your industry. Or, you can go to the Google Keyword Tool or use this list of SEO tools to see what people are searching for (use industry-related keywords).

2) Document any and all blog post ideas that you have

Create a Blog Post Ideas document. While you’re out and about, make sure you write down, text, email or record any ideas you have. Make sure they get into your Blog Post Ideas document by the end of the day. This will be your blog post ideas source for those days when the inspiration well runs dry.

3) Find a blogging schedule that works and stick to it

I won’t tell you that you have to publish a post twice per week (that’s my basic schedule), but you need to find a schedule that works for you (or your company). If it’s once/week, that’s great. If it’s once every two weeks, great. Once you’ve proven that you can meet that schedule, by actually doing it, confirm that goal and stick to it. Put someone in charge of keeping all contributors on track and for making sure that regular blog post gets out.

4) Use the calendar as a way to generate content ideas

Look at a calendar and decide what themed posts you can create. Consider holidays, seasons, big community events, company events, product launches or even things like the Superbowl, the Olympics or the World Cup. By planning these posts, it gives you the lead time you might need to make them happen, but you also get some more posts on the schedule.

READ: How to Blog Like a Pro

5) Outline your posts

Half of the writing battle is outlining your posts quickly with ideas for an opening, your key points, a closing and a call to action. That can take 5-10 minutes once you get good at it. After that, completing the posts is more like “paint by numbers” or filling in the blanks! This method also saves your post from wandering too far afield!

6) Capitalize on a state of “flow”

I’m not saying to write only when you’re in a state of flow! If you happen to find yourself particularly inspired about a topic and are itching to get something on paper about it, find the space to write and capitalize on this state! I’ve written some of my most successful blog posts when something really got me inspired and the words just poured out of me.

7) Leverage your network

Use your network to your advantage. See if you can have one of your friends, partners or colleagues contribute a guest post. Do an interview with someone that your readers would learn from. Be creative in enabling allow others to contribute to your base of content.

8) Repurpose content or ideas

Go through your hard drive or do a mental inventory of all the content you’ve created or been involved in the past several years. Are there old articles that could be dusted off or rewritten? Can you take part of a presentation you gave and write a post about that? Did you make any key points in a recent interview that could be written up as a post? Are there pictures or videos that can be used on your blog?

READ: Repurposing Your Content – 13 Ways to Reach More People

9) Share your posts (but not obnoxiously)

Don’t waste that great work you’re doing. Make sure to share your posts on social networks where you have a presence (e.g. your Facebook page, via your Twitter account, in LinkedIn groups, and on your profile, in Google+ and/or on Pinterest). Just make sure you share other people’s content too – not just your own. Also, don’t share it by saying, “Here’s my new blog post”. Share a compelling headline with the link to the post.

10) Track your website traffic

If you have no feedback mechanism, you’ll feel less excited to keep going. Make sure you track your stats so you can see if (when) your visitor levels increase and you can see which posts are most popular. Don’t depend on comments or shares of your post as your most important feedback mechanisms because most people don’t comment and many don’t share either (but they will visit and read your posts).

Bonus: Don’t be focused on just your own blog!

Make sure you look out for other bloggers. Read and share their content. Leave comments to establish a connection. Look at other blogs for inspiration and to learn new blogging styles. Also, consider learning from blogs in other industries.

Feeling inspired?

Did you find any new ways to make your blogging life easier? Which ones? Do you have any tips for making blogging easier or more effective? Let us know in the comments!

About the Author

Tom Treanor helps solopreneurs and companies break through their blog writing barriers. You can find Tom at Right Mix Marketing.

Note from Denise: This post was updated on May 8, 2016.

The post 10 Ways to Save Time and Energy Blogging appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

Commit a Day to Your Business Blog

Denise Wakeman — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 13:15:29 +0000

[This is a repost from Build a Better Blog in case you missed it. I want to make sure you get the info and know you're invited to dedicate some time to get a batch of blog posts written and queued on your blog.]

Not having enough time to write blog posts is a lament I hear time and time again from online entrepreneurs…even though they KNOW the benefits of publishing consistent content on their blog.

Awhile back I wondered aloud if having a dedicated block of time, like a virtual blog writing day would help.

Many folks I asked gave me a resounding "Yes!"

So, I'm doing an experiment and have scheduled a Virtual Blog Writing Day…how many posts can you write in an hour or a day?

Date: August 23, 2012
Time: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Pacific Time (check your local time here)
Where: your computer
Cost: FREE… NO CHARGE…My gift to you!

Here's how I envision it working:

Starting at 9:00 am PT, everyone calls in to my conference line. I will share some tips, motivation and maybe some productivity tools to kick off the writing day. This will be no more than 30 minutes.
You ring off and work on your writing for 90 minutes.
We reconvene on the conference line at 11:00 am PT and report on success, challenges, Q&A for a maximum of 30 minutes.
You ring off and write for 90 minutes.
We reconvene at 1 pm PT – see #3

We'll follow this format, meeting at 11 am, 1 pm, 3 pm and have a final checkin celebration at 5 pm PT.

It's totally up to you how you participate. Check in one time during the day or at every checkin. It's your day, your schedule, you decide.

This is an opportunity to block off some time and commit to creating content you can queue on your blog for later publication so you don't have to stress out about what you're going to write!

Don't like to write? Fine. Create videos or audios you can post.

Don't need content for your blog? Fine. Maybe you're working on an ebook or an article or a guest post for someone else's blog. This is your time to focus on your content marketing and get support and accountability (if you want it).

Are you in?

You're welcome to drop in during one of the scheduled checkins by calling (206) 402-0100 PIN Code: 664420#

You can also sign up below and I'll send you a couple of reminders as the day approaches. I may also send some tips and suggestions for how to prepare for the Virtual Blog Writing Day. There is no charge for this event. I'm not going to be selling anything. To be honest, I need this dedicated time to focus on cranking out some blog posts too…we're in this together.

If you would like reminders and tips about the Virtual Blog Writing Day, sign up here:

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A Cure for Blogger’s Block?

Denise Wakeman — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 16:12:29 +0000

Unless you're one of the lucky ones who is never at a loss for words and has an endless supply of blog posts in your publishing queue, you have probably experienced a case of blogger's block once or twice.

Most of us have, including me. Your blog languishes and even though you know it's one of the best ways to maintain your online visibility, you neglect to post on a consistent basis. Maybe it's not even blogger's block, but you've become "a lazy blogger", as Rebecca Livermore bluntly points out.

Sometimes it's not a case of not having any ideas for blog posts, but stems from the common complaint of "I don't have enough time to write on my blog."

That's an excuse I use when the days go by, one after another, and no blog post gets published.

I was thinking about this problem of blogger's block and how I could jumpstart not only myself but others in my network from whom I've heard this ~~excuse~~ complaint. It got me thinking about how I can offer some kind of virtual blog writing day. A day, or a few hours, dedicated to cranking out blog posts and putting them into your publishing queue.

I decided to ask my Online Visibility group on LinkedIn for some feedback on the idea and posted a poll. I share the poll on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and send a link to my email list.

In addition to 126 votes (at the time of this post), there were more than 80 comments from members offering their thoughts on whether or now it would be useful and what they wanted out of a virtual writing day.

Of the 70% "yes" votes, many felt that a 4 hour chunk of time would be too long and suggested 2 hours. There were also many requests to get plenty of notice of date and time in order to plan and block off the time to dedicate to writing.

The way I envision it is that everyone would call in at the top of the hour. I would share some blog writing tips. We could have some Q&A and then everyone rings off and writes for about an hour. We check in again and report on our progress. Get feedback, Q&A and then repeat.

This is something I intend to do free of charge…participation is optional, if you feel you would benefit from support, motivation and some accountability to get some blog writing done.

What do you think? Is this something you would be interested in doing? Add your comments here or on LinkedIn to let me know. With the commitments I currently have, I probably would not be able to schedule it until mid August.

If you're one of the lucky ones, how do you avoid blogger's block?

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