Content Marketing – Page 3 – Nicole Munoz Consulting

Top 30 Kindle Marketing Tips

It’s one thing to follow a manual outlining perfect procedure for Kindle publishing: It’s another to actually do it and realize there are all these little tips and twists to tweaking your Kindle Marketing even further.

Here are thirty of the best tips for marketing your Kindle ebook.

Start with a Unique, Exceptional Product

If you don’t have a well-crafted product, properly optimized, correctly formatted, and full of original fascinating content, you will not get the most out of any marketing strategy.

Make a Plan

Don’t market haphazardly. Create a plan – and remember to time your plan components so that each maximizes the other. For example, have posts ready to blitz your social media, the instant your free promo begins.

Wait before Announcing

After you’ve finally uploaded your book, wait before rushing to announce its release. It can take up to 72 hours before your book is reviewed by Amazon and appears in the listings. Plus it’s nice if your book can get at least a couple of consumer reviews under its belt before you send the world to its doorstep.

Don’t Put Pricing or URLs on Your ecover

Amazon wants its Kindle books to display tastefully, so avoiding promotional material of any kind on your ecover will help advance your Kindle ebook on its way to approval.

Don’t Leave Initial Reviews to Chance

Have your book club, writing group or forum primed and ready in advance, so that when your book does go live, they are ready to jump in and write your first reviews.

Remember that the Title and Cover of Your Book are Vital

It doesn’t matter how great your book is: If people aren’t intrigued or arrested by the Title – and if your cover doesn’t look professional (“like a real book”) – you won’t get a chance to impress them with reviews, content peeks or your description.

Make Sure You Include a “Look Inside”

Being able to read a few pages of content will not only encourage more people to buy the book, it will pre-qualify your market exactly. If Amazon doesn’t add this to your book within the first few days, be assertive. Contact support and ask them to add it for you.

Consider Offering a Free Promo

Allowing free downloads for the first few days can be a good strategy for a new author, particularly if your book does well. (Plan your free promos and publicize them in advance!)

If you choose the KDP Select program, keep in mind that you can use your five free promo days at any time during your three-month KDP Select contract.

Join the free Author Marketing Club

This is a ridiculously easy way to submit your book to top review and listings sites – and it works!

Join KDP Select

If your book has any activity or sales, consider signing up for KDP Select and letting it be offered for a free period to Amazon Prime members. You won’t make direct sales from the Amazon Prime library, but you will still continue to make regular sales. And do remember that each time your book is borrowed Amazon reads this as a sale. Your visibility – and royalties – will increase.

**Promote Your Book before Signing Up for KDP Select**

Before joining KDP Select, make sure your book is polished, has some sales and has been well promoted. Books with active visibility perform better, and KDP Select can keep your books visible between promotions.

Create Follow-up Promos

Don’t worry if you did everything wrong for your first free promo, and it was a bust. Depending on the KDP options you’ve chosen, you will most likely be eligible for five days of free promo again in three months.

You can spend that time tweaking your book, tweaking your price, tweaking your cover and planning a dynamite promotion campaign for the next round.

Meanwhile, concentrate on getting top reviews.

Realize That Negative Reviews can be Your Best Friend

Nobody ever wants to see a bad review – but if you find you are gathering a few of these, pay close attention to what they have to say. You will always get people who don’t know what they are talking about, people with axes to grind, people who don’t like the fact that you are not an author they prefer, and people who love to pick things to pieces to the –nth degree. Ignore them.

Instead, look for stuff you can use – for example, someone noting that an open tag has made your book hard to read, or who says that Step Five isn’t clear enough.

Fix these complaints – then release your book as a new, updated edition.

Create a YouTube Book Trailer

Do this exactly as you would for a movie: Meaning dramatic lighting, strong graphics, atmospheric soundtrack and memorable taglines: All focused on getting the essence of your book across.

Check out this book trailer for the graphic novel Nowadays to see how it’s done. (Warning: Apocalyptic Zombie Violence. And lots of blood.)

Don’t Compete in Over-Saturated Niche Categories

Find a category where you have less competition. That will leave your book with more chances to become a Best Seller in that niche. (If you are just starting out, under 100 entries in a category catalogue is a good way to test the waters.)

Get Your Book in the Right Category – Even if it’s Not Available

If you’ve noticed that your direct competition is in a category not available when you upload, designate your book as “Non-Classifiable”. Go ahead and publish it anyway.

While it is being reviewed, go to the Self-Service menu on the right-hand side of the publisher Help page and click the yellow “Contact us” button.

Select “publish your book”
Click on “adding or changing book categories”.
Simply tell them the category name(s) you want your book to be in

Dedicate Enough Time to Create Your Book Description

Your book description is arguably as important as your Title and Cover. Once readers have been attracted by these, the next step they may take is checking out your description. Set aside an afternoon or morning to work on creating the perfect, dynamic, keyword-optimized description. Don’t rush yourself – and what ever you do, don’t scramble to write one at the last minute, during upload!

Study the Pros

Immerse yourself in studying and analyzing how best-selling Amazon authors do things. The best lesson is seeing a strong example. Make notes of tactics and tips that work well on you – then see if these would work well for your own books.

Have Your Cover Page Created as Soon as Possible

A finished Cover page can be used in pre-release promotions and posts.

Create a Facebook Page for Your Book

Even if you already have a Facebook Author Page, dedicate a separate page to your new book. And don’t wait until your book is published to do this.

Run pre-release contests
Release “sneak previews”
Share progress reports
Create a buzz

Create a Custom Sign-up or Contest App Canvas for Your Facebook Page

Interactivity is a proven way to increase interest and memory retention about your new book. And you don’t have to jump through hoops – use incentives like a free sample chapter when it becomes available or simply notification of the book’s release.

Don’t Just “Set and Forget”

Marketing your Kindle ebook is not a static process. You need to be doing things like tweaking prices.

The simple formula for this is:

Raise them when your book is selling really well
Drop them when your book is slowing to a stall

Either way, you can use the new price as yet another opportunity for promotion.

Create an Author Account and Dynamite Profile on Goodreads

You can advertise there if you wish, list your book giveaway and participate in its groups and forums.

Be sure to watch the SlideShare presentation at the bottom of the sign-up page.

Create an Author Website!

If you don’t have an author website – or any type of relevant website at all – you are shooting yourself in the foot.

It doesn’t matter whether or not you have a main website. Dedicate one to your writing career – or even to your book, if it’s going to be a signature work.

Be Sure to Include Your URL in Your Kindle ebook

Another missed opportunity for many Kindle authors: Forgetting to include at least one Website URL in their front or back pages.

That’s literally leaving money on the table – by throwing away sign-up opportunities.

Announce Your Book on Amazon’s Forum

Another opportunity that people – surprisingly – miss: Announcing their book on Amazon’s own, free “Meet Our Authors” forum.

Just be sure to pick the right category. (E.G.: “Non-Fiction Authors” or “Western Romance Authors”.)

Price it Right

Pricing is a highly individual thing, but knowing a few tips can help you better assess your market.

The hotter the topic, the higher the price you can command
The more exclusive the information, the higher the price you can command
The more professional your visual production, the higher the price you can command. (Make sure the interior lives up to the promise, however!)
The better your book is selling, the higher the price you can command
The more books you have on the Best Seller’s list, the higher the price you can command

And finally, recognize that pricing is as fluid as your market. Keep actively pricing to sell. (Intelligent pricing leads to more successful marketing!)

Join an Active Writing Group

This works both with online and offline groups. Be sure to choose one where supporting each others’ published works is simply part of the mandate. That way, you’ve got instant reviewers ready to roll!

Reciprocate!

If you want reviews, write them for others – especially for members of your writing group.

And don’t forget to participate actively in forums and networks such as the Amazon “Meet Our Authors” forum.

It’s a case of the more you give, the more you get.

9 Steps to Publish a Kindle Ebook

by Nicole Munoz

Use this guide as a slightly more than a checklist for your Kindle publishing project. Going through all the steps will help you plan it and fit it into our schedule.

It will also alert you in advance to steps you may find especially time consuming or just not up your alley, allowing you to plan for, find and hire the correct outsourcing contractors to complete these particular modules.

Step 1. Write Your Book

Lots of people talk endlessly about writing a Kindle ebook: Not so many do it. If you are writing non-fiction, you need to come up with a hot topic. Checking out magazine stands, best seller lists and the Amazon marketplace itself will help you get an idea of what people are looking for nowadays.

Discount books written by celebrities. Those will be heavily promoted and subsidized, and won’t give you a true picture of what’s currently in demand, topic-wise.

Narrow your topic down to specific Kindle book categories. Come up with a dynamic Title if you can. (Don’t get too hung up on that, however: You can change it later. It just helps you get a feel for the character of your book, if you come up with a strong title at this stage.)

Write an outline. It will help you stay on topic and produce a much tighter, more focused book that feels professional and reads clearly.

Then sit down and start writing.

The Secret to Writing – and Finishing – Any Book

Schedule it. Don’t wait for inspiration. Ruthlessly put aside your feelings. Just give yourself a minimum word count per day that you have to write: Then stick to that minimum.

That’s the magic formula that published authors the world over have discovered.

(The real secret? If you make yourself do this every day, and turn off your Inner Critic, it soon becomes a habit. And that’s when you suddenly catch the wave and learn to surf!

And what a high it is, when you can’t wait to sit down at your computer in the morning (or evening, if that works better for you) and get started.

That’s how books are made.

Step 2. Proofing and Editing

Writing your book is a huge accomplishment for many, but it’s just the raw bones of your finished product. Put the book aside for at least a week if you can, and then come back to it and begin the process of proofing and editing.

Spell-check first, then proof it again for readability. Then proof it again for consistency. Then proof it again for flow. And run the spell checker a final time.

If you’re new to writing and have the budget, hiring an editor at this stage can free you up to continue with other projects and get the book ready for print a lot faster.

Step 3. Create your Ecover Image/Have it Created

Your ebook’s cover image is one of the most important components to getting your book approved by Amazon, being taken seriously as an author – and inspiring people to buy.

If you do not have solid art skills, don’t waste time or cut corners here: Hire an artist experienced in creating Kindle ecovers to produce a polished, vibrant product.

If you do have artistic experience, you still need to be totally familiar with ecover formatting for Kindle. Here are the requirements:

Your cover image has to be in .JPG or .TIFF format
Resolution: 72 D.P.I.
Minimum size: 500 pixels wide X 1,000 pixels
Maximum size: 1,250 X 2,000 pixels
Maximum file size (interior photographs): 127k

Don’t use black and white photography for your Cover unless it is an essential part of your cover photo’s statement and enhances the book’s mood and premise. Your interior photographs will display in black and white on older Kindle versions, but your cover will always be competing with other richly-colored covers on Amazon’s Kindle book site.

Your cover photo should be 100% original. If you hire an artist to produce the artwork only (as opposed to producing the entire ecover) make sure she signs a “work-for-hire” clause, ceding all rights to you. Do this also if you hire a photographer to produce a photograph.

If you outsource through Fiverr, perform due diligence to make sure the artist is not using improperly licensed stock photos. This is the sort of risk you take when you outsource through abnormally low-priced sites – but it can also help you unearth great talent.

If you purchase an image from a stock photo company, make sure you also purchase the correct commercial license. But original is always preferable.

Step 4. Do Your Own Formatting for Kindle/Have it Formatted for Kindle

So your book is ready to upload. Your ecover is also ready. You have a variety of options available as far as formatting tools go, but since you most likely created your ebook in MS Word, let’s take the easiest route – publishing it with KDP Select. Before we even begin to worry about the actual formatting process, however, you have to make sure your manuscript is Kindle format-ready.

If you don’t already know how to format for Kindle and you don’t want to outsource, download Kindle’s own Building Your Book for Kindle guide.

And before you upload your book, make sure you have created and thoroughly tweaked:

Your Cover photo for the book
Your Description

Research and know your keywords too, as well as the categories you’d like associated with your book. Finally, decide on a price for your book.

Step 5. Sign Up or Log Into KDP Select

You may see a message like the one below in the upper, right-hand corner. Click on the anchor text: “Update Now”.

You will be taken to your account screen. Fill in any missing information. Put your real name. You will be able to choose a pen name later, if you’re planning to write for different niches or genres under different pen names.

Step 6. Upload Your Book

If you don’t see the “Update Now” message, simply click on “Add New Title”.

Don’t be intimidated about uploading your first Kindle ebook. You will be able to “Save it as Draft”, and no one will see it until you are ready to publish.

When you click on “Add new title”, you’ll be taken to section # 1, “Your Book”. Beside it, you’ll see # 2, “Rights and Pricing”.

You will also see a window for the KDP Select program. Decide whether or not you want to be enrolled, and either check or uncheck the box accordingly. And if you need to find out more about it before making a decision, click on any of the anchor text links or visit KDP Select FAQs. (You can always enroll later, if you prefer.)

Next, start entering your book details…

As you can see, this phase is extremely easy and self-explanatory. Clicking on the little “What’s this?” anchor text brings up simple pop-ups explaining each step.

If this is a new book, enter “1” for edition number and if you don’t have your own publishing company (something you should definitely explore once you’re comfortable with the Kindle publishing process) enter your own name as Publisher.

Don’t skip clicking on each anchor link: None will take you away from your page.

Don’t enter an ISBN number or Publication date for now.

Notice that Amazon also offers you the option of setting up a series. (And in this screen shot, you can see how the pop-ups work.)

Verify that you have the right to publish your content. If it is in the public domain, you cannot include it in the KDP Select program, and you must disclose its status here.

Otherwise, go ahead and select “This is not a public domain work…”

Next, enter up to 7 keywords (single words or phrases); then click on the “Categories” button to choose the 2 main categories in which you want your work to be located.

When you click on the Categories, a pop-up will open up.

If you can’t find the exact categories you want, you can either enter “NON-CLASSIFIABLE” and contact support while your book is being reviewed, letting them know the exact categories you’d like the book placed within… or pick a similar two categories for now. (You can always change it later.)

Next, upload your book cover. It should be “camera-ready” – meaning all text should be in place, rather than just uploading the photograph alone.

Select “Browse for image” if your cover is ready and waiting on your hard drive.

An alternative is to use Kindle’s brand new Cover creator: However, since your cover is one of the most important selling tools for your book, careful pre-design is recommended.

Once your image is selected and you see your filename in the pop-up, press the “Upload” button.

Next, upload your book. If it contains images, upload it as a zip file.

IMPORTANT: While your book is being uploaded, you will see message asking you to click “Save and Continue”. Resist the urge to click “Save and Continue”, and instead select “Save as Draft”. (This enables you to thoroughly review your book before publishing it.)

After your book is saved, you will see a green “successful” notification, just as you did with your book cover.

You may also see a notice alerting you to possible spelling errors.

Step 7. Preview The Formatted Version

Next, you will be offered the chance to preview your book. If you have prepared it in MS Word, go ahead and preview it online. If you have used formatting tools or prepared it in HTML, you may prefer the second option: To preview it by downloading one of the suggested tools. Once again, pop-ups are there to help you choose the right one.

If you preview online, you will be able to move back and forth between pages. If there are image errors, you will see them.

Since you have saved it as Draft (and even if you didn’t) you can simply go back, correct the errors in MS Word, update your TOC if you need to an re-save as “Web page, filtered”. (Remember to right-click on this file and “Send to” a zip file format after doing so.)

Once you close your Online previewer, press “Back to the Bookshelf”.

You will be taken back to where you started. You will see it displayed as your first Title, along with the status and the option to enroll it in KDP Select.

This gives you plenty of time to troubleshoot any glitches that showed up in the previewer or explore KDP Select further.

Step 8. Rights and Pricing

Once you’ve corrected your uploaded book and are ready to “Save and Continue”, do so. You will then be directed to continue on to the next page, # 2 Rights and Pricing.

Here you will be able to set your preferences for:

Publishing Territories
Price
Royalty Rates

Here’s what Amazon offers you…

In other words, if you’re charging up to $2.98, you are locked into a 35% rate.

If you are charging $2.99 or more, you can choose a 70% royalty rate.

If you have decided to go with KDP Select, check their terms also. You may need to charge a different rate.

Step 9. Get Approved

Once you have made your pricing decisions and published your book, you will have 24-72 hours to wait for Amazon to review it and approve it. (Your actual book will appear for sale after 12 hours – but wait before promoting, because other approvals may not yet be in place.)

Use that time to implement your marketing and promo plan – and be ready to roll when you get the green light!

How to Brainstorm Ideas for Your Kindle Ebook

by Nicole Munoz

You want to write a Kindle ebook, but where does one get viable ideas? This step-by-step guide will help you generate ideas with the potential to produce best sellers.

Step 1. Study the Amazon Best Seller’s List

What’s hot and trending on Amazon right now? The advantage of creating offerings for these niches and genres lies obviously in the fact they’re “hot” – but so do the disadvantages. Your competition is extremely high, but it’s not impossible to succeed.

Study both Amazon’s general best sellers in the Book category, and also in the Kindle Book category . If there’s a best selling topic in any hot category that isn’t well-represented in the Kindle selection, consider filling that gap.

Select non-fiction from the left-hand drop-down menu before you begin browsing, if you want to write a non-fiction book. Remember the first books shown will be new and not necessarily the hottest sellers (though they may be selected by hottest author).

Step 2. Read Amazon Reviews

When you find books you’d like to compete with, take the time to read several reviews for each book that is your potential competitor.

The reviews will often give you clues you can mine for book topic ideas, such as:

Topics or solutions the reviewers felt was missing
The reviewers’ favorite sections (you can often spin a section into a book)
Areas the reviewers felt were not completely covered
Suggestions about areas the reviewers felt the author missed
Complaints

Complaints are golden, when it comes to book ideas from reviews. For example, here is exactly what one reviewer said of the book featured in our illustration:

“People …are complaining about the cost of the recipes… Well, that’s not *always* GP’s fault (although, if she gave recipes for freakin’ popcorn, she could have taken the time to detail a few “on a budget” meals…)”.

So, for example, you could use this as a topic idea, giving your recipe book on vegetarian “clean” eating a new twist by creating “The Low Budget Vegetarian” (or “Eating Clean on a Budget”; or some such title).

You would be catering for that group the above reviewer mentioned – those on low budgets who wish to eat healthily, but can’t afford specialty ingredients.

Step 3. Find the Right Category

If you’re still confused about what to write, take advantage of the easiest way to find the right specific sub-category to explore:

Choose a few books that most closely match the type of book you want to create.
Open each book’s page by clicking on the title.
Scroll down off the screen until you find a section called “Product Details”.
Your best choices will be the narrowest categories at the end.

And occasionally, you may find a relatively un-mined category that you can dominate.

(Be sure to place your book in as many other related categories as you possibly can, however.)

Step 4. Search with Keywords

Yes, keyword search is alive and well – and it can help you brainstorm ideas by narrowing down your topic choices.

We’ve put it as Step 4 because Wordtracker’s Keyword Questions tool only allows a limited number of searches for free, and your keyword search will be much more successful if you have a strong idea of the area you’d like to write about.

There’s a results restriction on the Google AdWords Keytool too, if you’re not running any AdSense campaigns. To make the most of this keyword research tool, log in and select exact match. Avoid “broad” match: It will serve up too many generic or unrelated keywords, and that’s a waste of search power.

Step 5. Run Polls and Surveys

Once you’ve narrowed down your ideas, test them by running polls and surveys on social media and in relevant niche forums, if allowed.

Don’t ask your friends and niche peers if they would “be interested in a book on” your niche topic: Many people will say “yes” for a variety of reasons – anything from wanting to look like a “nice guy” to thinking of an entirely different type of book when you give them the topic or title – but when it comes time to purchase, they don’t follow through on this promise.

Instead, give them a short selection of multiple choice questions. For example:

But take your survey one step further: Add a text field so that they can make other suggestions. That way, you might find out that the majority actually want “low cost low carb”.

(Use survey or poll apps for social media, or try Survey Monkey to create the sort of survey described above.

Upgrade to a paid account to capture emails for your list.)

Step 6. Get Your Ideas from Other Media

Don’t neglect television, newspapers and magazines as possible sources of ebook ideas. What are popular documentary subjects? Who is writing in to TV station sites about them? What sort of comments are they making or questions are they asking?

Magazines can give you clues just by the headlines featured on the front page. With magazines, search online by all means – but don’t neglect your local supermarket or super-bookstore magazine racks.

Step 7. Search Best Seller Lists Elsewhere on the Net

Still haven’t come up with the perfect book idea? More interested in fiction than non-fiction?

Reading through “Best Seller” lists in review sites rather than book catalogues like Amazon, you are often exposed to tantalizing clues about top authors, their habits, their inspirations and their thought processes. You will also often see their plot lines, summarized in the briefest of sentences.

It’s amazing how often reading through “Best Seller” lists and summaries can trigger new, fresh ideas. For the right authors, quality books beget quality ideas.

One of the best lists belongs to The Christian Science Monitor: Not only does this publication include lists such as: “The 15 Highest Paid Authors of 2012”, it also aggregates a strong variety of other lists and relevant publications.

Of course, you may not need to go through all these steps if you take our last piece of topic-generating advice…

Step 8. Keep a Notebook Handy

You’ve likely heard this tip before, but it can’t be over-emphasized: Keep a notebook on you or available at all times. The best ideas are often ones we have while jogging, trying to fall asleep, dressing the kids for school or while we’re heavily involved cooking a six-course meal for company that is arriving in less than two hours.

And don’t just carry one notebook and pencil stub – place several in strategic places:

In every purse
In jacket pockets
In the car glove compartment
By your computer
On the couch end table
In the bathroom

Keep them in their assigned locations until they are completely full. Then store them. (Use pencil stubs because they are far less likely to be “borrowed” than pens or fine liners.)

Once a week, go through all the notebooks and see if any particular idea strikes you. When they are completely full, store them in one location, so you always know where to turn if you are looking for inspiration.

Above all, create a system for brainstorming your Kindle ebook ideas. Follow these same steps every time you need to come up with a new ebook topic, stopping at any time during the process when something goes “click” and you know you’ve got your winning topic.

Get into the habit of brainstorming methodically and you’ll get into the habit of creating best sellers of your own.

Organization Matters – How to Organize Your Content for Productivity and Efficiency

by Nicole Munoz

You may not realize it, but how you organize your content creation process makes a huge difference in your productivity. A simple example of this is the person who sits down in the morning to write the day’s blog post. They have no idea what they’re going to write about, what the goal is, and where they’re going to get their information. The blog post takes much longer than it should to write.

Conversely, the business owner who has an editorial calendar that includes the topic idea, a brief outline, monetization strategy, goals, and a publication date will likely be much more productive. Organize your systems well enough and you can still procrastinate on your content, write it the day it’s due, and still only spend a few minutes on the task.

#1 Editorial Calendar

A simple editorial calendar is a list of the dates you want to publish each piece of content. You can create an editorial calendar for the week, month, quarter, or even an annual calendar. You can create it on a simple calendar tool like Microsoft Outlook or Excel or you can use project management software like Basecamp to establish deadlines. And if you enjoy pen and paper, then grab a printable calendar.

You can take the basic editorial calendar and make it more useful by adding the following information.

Article Topic
Key Points/Outline
Data/Information Resources
Monetization strategy
Goals for content
Call to action
Embedded links
Template/format

The more you can predetermine about your content, the easier it will be to write it. When you have the topic, structure, research and goals identified, it can literally take you just a few minutes to create your content.

Let’s talk a minute about monetization. Each piece of content that you publish whether it’s PLR, Video, or content you’ve written should have a goal. What do you want it to achieve? What do you want readers to do?

In many cases, you simply want people to read the content and click on a link to make a purchase or earn you a commission. You want to monetize the content. There are many different ways to monetize your content. Plan ahead and you can craft your content to fit your chosen monetization tactic.

Ad Placement – You can use various plugins or widgets to integrate advertisements right into the body of your content. For example, EmbedAds, http://wordpress.org/plugins/embad/, is a WordPress plugin that gives you control over where and when your ads are displayed.
Promotional Offers – Does your content lead into a click to a sales page or a promotional offer? You can include that offer right in the closing of your content or create your own promotional advertisements or messages and embed them with a widget or plugin.
Subscription – Do you have a membership site? If so, you can motivate subscriptions by providing a teaser or a portion of an article and making the rest of the content available with a paid subscription.
AdSense – Google’s advertising plan for publishers, https://www.google.com/adsense/, is still alive and strong as a monetization model for many online businesses.
WordPress Plugins – There are also plugins you can install on your WordPress site that identify keywords and attach relevant links to those keywords. Skimlinks, http://wordpress.org/plugins/skimlinks/, and Amazon Auto Links are two examples of this type of monetization plugin.

Not all content needs to be monetized. However, it is an important consideration when you’re planning your content, choosing your topics, and establishing goals.

#2 Note Taking Systems

Tools like Evernote and OneNote have already been discussed. These tools allow you to

Save your ideas – for example a brilliant content idea that came to you during your morning walk
They can be accessed anywhere – Evernote and Onenote both have mobile applications that link to your account. No matter what device you’re using to take notes and capture ideas, you can access them from one single account.
Search by Keyword – Note taking tools make it easy to find things fast. You can search by keyword, tag or even printed and handwritten text inside images. No more shuffling through papers on your desk to find your lists and ideas.

Note taking applications aren’t for everyone. If you find yourself using pen and paper more often than a device, that’s fine. The important step here is to create a system that works for you. Some people find a three ring binder is the perfect system to take and organize their notes.

#3 Project Management

If you utilize contractors, for example ghostwriters, editors, graphic designers or virtual assistants, then a project management system will be valuable for you on many levels. There are both free and paid Project management tools.

For example, Google Drive can be used as a project management tool. It has a calendar and document system that you can share with specific people – even if they don’t have a google account or Gmail address.

There are also WordPress plugins for project management. For example, WP Project Manager, http://wordpress.org/plugins/wedevs-project-manager/, lets you assign projects, create lists and milestones and upload files.

Basecamp is an online project management and collaboration tool, http://basecamp.com/. If you’re looking for a tool to help combine communication and project management with your contractors and you want to organize your content, a project management software or service can be a big help. You can use the milestone feature to schedule content creation and publication. You can upload relevant documents, for example, your outline and monetization tactic, for each piece of content. And you can use the system to document your results as well.

Create an organization system that supports your personal work style. You may enjoy organizing everything digitally or you may have a file cabinet that Martha Stewart would be proud of. A system must support you to follow through and actually use it. And that brings us to the last step in the content process – publishing.

27 Ways to Get Other People to Create Content For You

by Nicole Munoz

Getting other people to create your online content is one of the most painless ways to save time and ensure your blog, website and article directories are packed with top-quality, original content.

Let’s take a look at 27 different ways to make this happen.

1. Pay Copywriters or Ghostwriters

A ghostwriter usually writes articles, blog posts, eBooks, white papers and reports, and a copywriter often specializes in sales and landing pages, as well as email series – though there is often no difference between the two.

A good ghost/copywriter will increase your site SEO value with professional, original writing – in your “voice”.

2. Pay a VA

Many virtual assistants add copywriting to their services, so this way you can kill two birds with one stone, if you need an assistant too. Just be sure to check what type of writing they specialize in.

3. Guest Authors

This used to be a top way to get others to provide you with quality content – and it still is. But you should know that Google is now penalizing overly-promotional “guest posts” and “guest posters”, so follow these three tips and you won’t be the guest poster in trouble – nor will your guests.

Call them “guest authors”. Seriously!
Make sure their content is original and highly relevant to your audience
Get your “rel=author” tag and validate yourself with Google through your Google+ profile

Sure, it’s a pain to set up, but don’t neglect it. Your validation as a Google-recognized author is like gold in the SEO bank.

4. Embedding Other People’s Material

Ask permission to embed slide shows, videos, .MP3s and other material on your site. This can add richness and extra flavor, if you choose material that enhances and adds value to yours (as well as pleasing your visitors!)

5. Testimonials

If you ever receive great compliments on your services or products, these become priceless recommendations (or “testimonials”) that you can put on your website or in sales letters for that relevant product or service package.

If someone posts a testimonial on a highly public forum, you can technically print it without permission, but always ask (you may get more than if you “sneaked” it in: E.G. a headshot provided and permission to use their full name).

6. Insert Ads

Ads can bring income directly to you through your site, so choose blog themes that allow you to insert ad buttons and banners.

Avoid Google AdSense themes, however. The quality of ads has noticeably deteriorated this year, and you cannot guarantee that your site won’t become tainted by adult or inappropriate material you don’t want.

7. Comments

If you write a hot blog post, you’ll soon know it: It will incite a flurry of comments. Do put some screening in place for comments, however, so that you are not inundated with damaging spam. The Akismet spam filter is a “must”; and it’s a good idea to set your comments options to require moderation on the first post from a poster.

8. Have it Transcribed

Running a webinar or teleseminar is a painless way to create content, but make the most of it by having it transcribed into text.

Then you can offer your transcription as your blog content for that day – or you can offer it as a bonus to a paid offer or signup.

9. Create a “Round-up”

Another way to use other people’s content fairly: Create a Round-up of snippets from different sources dealing with a single topics. For example, “Top 10 Graphic Websites in 2013”; “Facebook Follies”.

10. Public Domain Visual Media

While it’s always best to commission or take your own original photos, finding public domain graphics can be a quick and handy solution. (Make sure they really are public domain, however!)

Here are three sources with multitudes of public domain photos and other visual media such as fonts and clipart…

11. Free Resources

You can insert resources such as calculators and dictionaries on your website simply by copying code into your HTML, such as TheFreeDictionary webmaster tools, which allows you to select options such as “Word of the Day” or “Quote of the Day”, among other features.

Just make sure your free resource is from a reputable site, and there’s no hidden code allowing traffic mining.

This type of HTML resource formatting is a good choice when your host website doesn’t allow App scripts.

12. Apps and Widgets

Better on blogs or websites written in .PHP rather than HTML. You can find apps for quizzes, polls, surveys, quotes – all the features available as HTML resources – and more. You can provide interactive, ever-changing content: E. G. a widget that displays Twitter tweets.

13. Plug-ins

You can do much the same thing with plugins and there is a wide selection to choose from at WordPress.org.

You can also download commercial plugins such as the nRelate related-content plugin.

14. Press Releases

Reprint press releases relevant to your target market’s interests on your website.

15. Intern Created Content

If you decide to take on an intern, one of her duties could be to create content for you.

16. Regular Features

You can create daily, weekly or monthly features that rely on externally-driven content. For example, regular “Guest Column” featuring different guest experts.

17. Using Quotes

One quick way to produce an article: Pick a topic and present “Top 10 Quotes About [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][your keyword]”. Then run a quick search, picking the best quotes from quotes aggregation sites such as BrainyQuote and The Quote Garden.

Don’t select all your quotes from one site, however. Mix and match.

18. Content Curation

Another practice that is quickly becoming a trend: Content curation – present content from aggregated sources. As free curation site, Storify says, “Make the Web tell a story”.

19. Templates

Templates may not be “content” as such, but they can help you quickly and instantly install or display content, doing the formatting part of the work for you.

And many WordPress themes incorporate widgets that add extra content to your site, such as blogrolls and archives.

You can get other templates too, to help fast-track your content creation. (E.g. review templates, blog post templates).

20. Public Domain material

You can build a blog or even just a week of posts around material that is truly in the public domain.

21. JV Partner Offers

You can insert ads from JV partners on your website – and free ones add special value.

Put them in a separate add banner or within your header. Very often, your JV partners will do the rest (sign up, sales or download pages).

In fact, ask them to provide their ad, too.

22. Reader Submissions

Invite readers to submit relevant written material to your blog, with the “prize” being publication (unless your blog serves professional writers, who would expect to be paid, of course).

Three popular types of writing you can invite:

Poetry
“Postcard” mini-writing contests
Asking for anecdotes regarding a specific topic: E.g. “What is your most embarrassing memory about learning to ride a horse?”

23. Reader Photographs or Artwork

Another type of contest people enjoy: Original artwork or photograpy.

Not only does featuring the results give you lots of free content, it also increases reader engagement and interest.

24. “[Something] of the Day”

Another type of reader-driven content that increases engagement: “[Something] of the Day” features.

Try:

Tip
Word
Quote
Horoscope
Thought
Photo

25. Recipes

You don’t have to be running a cooking blog or website to invite readers to share their favorite recipes, if your demographic is female. In fact, all you need to do is post an appetite-stimulating photo and a post that gets your readers salivating.

It’s like the Pet niche: Just as people love nothing more than writing in about their particular, unique, cuddly pet so do many love sharing their favorite recipes.

26. Retrospectives

Feature your own or others’ most popular past articles, photos, stories or other content.

Done right, this tactic can help build and strengthen your online community by making readers feel they have a “say” in your site.

27. Run a Themed Site

Creating a themed site entirely from reader-driven content (like accepting reviews for example) can be a virtually painless way to provide high quality, unique content as a background for displaying ads.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Publishing Your Content – What is the Last Step?

by Nicole Munoz

Once you’ve gone through the work of creating your content, the next step is to make it available to your audience. It’s time to publish. In general, the publication process doesn’t take too long. However, there are a few time-saving tips you can embrace here as well. Heck, every minute you save is a minute you can spend doing something else for your business or for yourself.

#1 Use a Plugin

There are WordPress Plugins that take the work out of uploading and publishing content. Some work like a content management system and create custom field types. Your content is automatically optimized and organized on your site by type. Ultimate CMS, http://wordpress.org/plugins/ultimate-cms/ is one example of a content management plugin as is My Content Management, http://wordpress.org/plugins/my-content-management/.

SEO plugins help you optimize the content for search engines. All in One SEO, http://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/ is a popular WordPress plugin.

Additionally, there are plugins like APLC Speedy Publisher, http://contentrix.com/aplc-speedy-publisher/254 that make it possible to upload several articles or posts at once.

Plugins can make the data entry aspect of content publishing much more efficient.

#2 Pre-Schedule

WordPress allows website owners to pre-schedule their content. This means you can upload a month’s worth of content in one sitting and be done with it. Of course, this means that you need to have a content plan and have written your content in advance. It may take a little time to adopt this type of content writing and publishing system. However, once you make it part of your routine you’ll realize how much time you can save. The next challenge will be to decide what you’re going to do with all that free time.

#3 Outsource It

Once the content is created, you can outsource the publishing to someone else. In fact, if you have a skilled virtual assistant, you might hire them to edit, format, and publish your content. This gives you the free time you need to brainstorm, plan, create and enjoy the profits.

Ideally, publishing your content will be the step you spend the least amount of time on. Explore the technology available to reduce your time and effort.

So, What’s The Last Step?

The last step of the content process is to test and track your results. Not only do you want to create systems and use analytics to track the success of each piece of content, you also want to test and track your content process.

Track the time it takes you to brainstorm, write, research, and publish. Look for ways you can optimize your new systems to save even more time. Remember, each hour you cut can be an hour spent making money or pursuing other interests.

Content is so important to a business, but publishing it shouldn’t be a chore. With a little planning and using techniques and tools that support you and your business you can make quick work of writing and publishing your content.

Bogged Down By Content Research? 6 Tips to Make the Process Fast and Painless

by Nicole Munoz

Let’s be blunt here for a second. You can waste tons of time researching your content. In fact, it’s not uncommon for someone to spend twice as much time researching for their content than writing it. That’s precious time. Time you could be spending doing something much more fun and interesting.

#1 Write First, Research Later

One common suggestion is to write your content first. Write what you know and say what you want to say. As you’re writing your content, whenever you come to a point where you want to insert a statistic or share data, highlight it. Continue writing.

Once you’ve finished the piece, then hit the search engines and find those key data points you want to share. This helps you save time because instead of looking for random information, you know exactly what information you need to search for. You’ll spend a few minutes researching instead of a few hours.

#2 Find and Bookmark Key Resources

Depending on your niche, there are likely a few reputable resources you can turn to. For example, if you’re in the nutrition industry, then you might turn to Harvard’s Health Letter for information. If you’re in the dog niche, then perhaps you turn to the American Veterinary Association or Cesar Millan. Identify your key sources and bookmark them. This makes it very easy for you to locate information from trusted resources.

#3 Use a Search Friendly Browser

Some web browsing tools are easier to use than others. When you’re researching online try a few tools. For example, if you often use Chrome, then try Bing or Firefox. Use a browser that allows you to open multiple tabs. This makes it easy to find, and keep, the information you need.

#4 Note Taking Software and Applications

Do you have a system for organizing your research? Consider using a tool like EverNote, https://evernote.com/ , or Microsoft’s One Note, http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/. These tools make note taking and research easy. You can also use them in combination with your topic brainstorming sessions.

For example, as you’re making your list of content topics for the month, you can also identify key sites for information and even outline your content in the note taking application. Technology can make the content creation process streamlined and efficient.

#5 Source Your Information

Always give credit where credit is due. For example, as you’re writing your article on puppy care, if you use data from the American Veterinary Association, then source it and let your readers know where you found your information.

As you’re researching for your content, take notes on the relevant and useful information and don’t forget to note where you found the information. Then, you can be sure you’re linking to the appropriate website or person and it makes it easier to go back to verify the information.

Research doesn’t have to take long. In fact, ideally it should only take a minute or two per content piece. Organize your favorite sites, document your sources, and research only the information you know you need to save the most time. Speaking of organization, your systems are an important element of success.

Most popular articles in August

by Nicole Munoz

50 Tips for Marketing Your Website

As amazing as your website may be, it’s not going to market itself. If you want people to come to your website, you have to get the word out there. Once a few thousand people see your website, it can start to pick up steam and spread through reputation. In the beginning however, you have to do the ground work.

Top 10 Ways for Creating an Effective Online Brand

If you’re not actively branding your business, you are wasting golden opportunities to strengthen your online position in your niche. Creating a uniform goal and plan can help you make sure all your branding efforts are on target. Then incorporate the following top ten ways for create an effective online brand.

Top 10 Email Subject Line Tips

The subject line is one of the most important components of any email. It helps the reader decide whether or not a message is worth reading. As an internet marketer, it’s important to make sure that your subject lines always make the reader want to open your email.

How to Claim Your Local Business on Facebook

In order for you to be able to manage your place, merge it with a page and in general take full advantage of your place’s capabilities, you need to claim the place as your own.

Top 10 Tips for Creating an Editorial Calendar

If magazine editors waited for inspiration or for free time, no magazine would ever get published. So how do they churn out high quality content, month after month? By using an editorial calendar. And top bloggers have learned this secret too.

How to Write Quickly – Get Your Thoughts and Ideas onto the Page and Published In Less Time

by Nicole Munoz

How long does it take you to write a blog post or article? For many business owners, the answer is an hour or more. Yet an experienced writer can write three quality blog posts in the same amount of time. It’s not because they’re better writers. Rather, it’s because they have embraced writing systems and practices that support productivity.

As you read through the following ideas, know that not all of them will work for you. However, if you’re able to embrace just a few of them, you’ll cut your writing time down significantly.

#1 Work in Batches

Joe is a business owner and writes all his own content. On a productive day, Joe can write four or five blog posts in an hour. The trick that works for him is to focus on writing his content in batches.

For example, he might spend an hour writing reviews. Later, when he sits back down to his writing desk he might focus on writing a handful of tips articles.

There are many reasons why this system works. One of the primary reasons is that the batch approach doesn’t require Joe to shift focus. In his case, each article in a batch has the same basic format. He can approach them almost as if he’s writing from a template.

Batching content by format isn’t the only approach you can take. You can batch by topic or subject matter as well. For example, someone in a coaching niche might focus on writing motivation content for the first hour. When they return to their computer they might shift gears and focus on writing a few how to stay confident articles.

#2 Set a Time Limit and Goal

Another common practice is to set a time limit for your writing session. Give yourself an hour to write and set a goal. For example, if you’re writing a report, then maybe you want to have three pages completed by the end of your hour.

Once the hour is up, get up and take a break. Nothing slows down the writing process faster than forcing yourself to sit at your desk and write until you’re bleary eyed and exhausted.

If an hour seems like too long, set a timer for twenty or thirty minutes. Experiment and find a length and goal that works for you.

#3 Outline First

You can make writing a speedier process by outlining the content first. You don’t have to get too detailed with your outline, unless you want to. What’s most important is to identify the key points you want to make in your piece. That generally includes your subtitles and bullet points.

An outline helps you stay focused on what you want to say. You may likely find that you don’t pause to determine what you want to say next because it’s already outlined. You can flow from one point to the next without stopping.

#4 Templates

If you tend to write similarly formatted content, consider creating templates. For example, a review article or blog post will likely have a recognizable structure. You can visit the reviews you’ve already written and published and use them to create a template for future reviews.

The same is true for how to articles, tips articles, and lists and so on. A template approach means you simply have to fill in the blanks and can really speed up the writing process.

#5 Eliminate Distractions

It’s tempting to sit down in front of the television at night and work on tomorrow’s blog post. However, it’ll take you five times longer to write that blog post than if you wrote it without distractions.

You see, contrary to what many people have been taught, multitasking really isn’t possible. Each time you pull your eyes away from the television to write, you have to shift focus. It may take an entire hour to write an article if you’re distracted. Sit down in a quiet place and it may take you a mere ten to fifteen minutes.

Distractions aren’t always on television. Consider the following and ask yourself if they’re distractions for you:

Email
Social media
Music
Phone
Family members
Chores

You may find that the longer you sit at the desk trying to write, the easier it is to be distracted. The next tip may be a perfect solution for you.

#6 Write When You Can Focus

Are you a night owl? A morning person? Chances are there is a time of day that you feel more focused and productive. And there’s a time of day when all you want to do is take a nap.

The ideal time to write is when you feel focused. That might be first thing in the morning if that’s when you’re most alert. Get to know your personal productivity patterns and schedule writing time when you’re more likely to be successful.

#7 Be Opportunistic

Are you having a creative day? Are you feeling inspired or motivated to write? Seize those moments and capitalize on them. Those are the days when content will flow freely and you’ll be able to write quickly.

Even if you don’t “need” to write, allow yourself the opportunity to get ahead on your content. Or create something extra. Additionally, if you find you have free time during your week, and you’re feeling productive, use it to create content. Be opportunistic.

#8 Write Now, Edit Later

Do you find yourself rewriting the same sentence several times because you’re trying to make it grammatically correct? Do you use spellcheck more often than the “enter” key on your keyboard? If this sounds like you then you may benefit from trying this tactic.

Write your entire piece of content without editing anything. Let all those red lines under misspelled words sit there without being corrected. Don’t run to your thesaurus or your Chicago Manual of Style. Just write.

Once the content is completed, then go ahead and start the editing process. Use your spellcheck. Fix awkward sentences and format the content the way you want to.

The reason this approach works is simple. Each time you halt the writing process and edit, you’re stopping the thought flow. When it’s time to return to the writing process and putting words on paper, you have to shift gears again. It may not seem like the shift in focus is significant, however it does slow you down.

Give it a try. You may be surprised by how quickly you are able to write content when you don’t stop to edit. In fact, you may need to experiment with several of these tactics to find the strategies that work best for you. For example, you may find that outlining your content actually slows down your writing process because you feel too restricted. Conversely, you may also find that working in batches cuts your writing time in half.

Because content often needs to help establish credibility and authority, it’s important to take a look at the content research process. This is where many people lose precious time.

Time Saving Tips, Ideas, and Tactics to Brainstorm Your Content

by Nicole Munoz

As one of the most important elements of online marketing success, content can consume vast amounts of time and energy. It’s not unusual for a business owner to spend several hours a day brainstorming, writing, and publishing their content.

While you can’t really eliminate your need for content, you can reduce the amount of time you spend on it. By embracing tips, tactics, and systems that support you and your business, it’s safe to say that you can cut your content time in half and still create the same great content you’ve been creating.

Your time is precious. By becoming more efficient and productive, you’re able to reallocate that time you saved on content to other profitable tasks. For example, if you’re a coach and you free up 5 hours a week, you can spend those five hours coaching clients and making money.

Of course, if you’re looking for a way to enjoy a shorter work week, you can use those five hours spending time with friends, family and enjoying personal pursuits. So, let’s get to it. The Speedy Content Publishing Tips are divided into the following sections:

Brainstorming – learn to brainstorm faster and more efficiently.
Writing – Yes, you can write more quickly and still create exceptional content.
Researching – Too many people waste precious time researching. Learn how to find what you need quickly and painlessly.
Organizing – Proven tips to organize your content for productivity and efficiency.
Publishing – You can even save time when you publish your content.

Let’s dive right in and start with what can be the most difficult part of the content process, brainstorming.

Do you have a regular content brainstorming session or do you simply let the ideas come to you? There’s no “right” way to brainstorm content. However, there are steps that you can take to make the process more efficient and also more effective.

#1 Be Prepared

Many busy entrepreneurs find that the best content ideas come to them when they’re not working. Maybe you’re at a family picnic or sitting in traffic. You’re thinking about your business and a brilliant idea comes to you.

If you’re not prepared to document the idea, chances are you’ll forget it by the time you get home. And let’s face it, it’s easy to believe you’ll remember the idea – after all, it’s a great one. However, most often the idea fades away.

One of the fastest ways to brainstorm content is to keep a running list of ideas. The ideas may not be complete thoughts, but the concept can help you brainstorm content when it’s time to sit down and get to work.

So how do you prepare to capture every content idea when it comes to you?

Notebook – yep, good old fashioned pen and paper still work
Phone – even a simple note-taking application can be useful
Voice mail- leave yourself a voice mail if you don’t have an opportunity to write down your idea
Email – send yourself an email. That way, it’s waiting for you when you get back to your home office.

#2 Monthly or Weekly Ideas Session

Do you find that there is a particular day of the week or the month where you’re usually motivated and inspired? For example, after the weekend, many entrepreneurs are ready to get back to work. Monday and Tuesday are often exciting and motivating days. By the end of the week things can wind down. Identify your best time to brainstorm and capitalize on your energy by scheduling a brainstorming session.

When brainstorming:

Set Aside A Moderate Amount Of Time. An hour or two is probably long enough to brainstorm. Your mind will start to wander and you’ll stop being productive. Don’t worry, once you’ve started the creative process, more ideas will come to you throughout your day.
Go To An Inspiring Location To Brainstorm. Imagine trying to brainstorm content ideas as children are running circles around you as you sit at the kitchen table. Not very productive.

Instead, find a peaceful place where you feel inspired. Put on some music if it’s not distracting; kick your feet back and begin thinking about the various types of content you can create to help your audience.

Review Analytics. Great ideas are often inspired by past successes. Look at the content that received the best comments, links, and feedback. Review your analytics to find your most popular articles or posts and brainstorm more ideas on the topics.
Use Creativity Tools. There are many different brainstorming tools to consider. For example, mind mapping is quite popular. You can also use a vision board or even creative prompts. You can create your own brainstorming tools, too. For example, you might create a series of flash cards that ask questions like: What problem is my ideal customer facing today?
Identify Inspiration. Are there certain blogs, magazines, or websites that frequently inspire you? If so, organize them into a folder on your search engine toolbar. Create a folder to make them easy to access. And yes, your competition may be a key source of content inspiration.

#3 Broaden Your Horizons

One of the reasons it can become tricky to brainstorm ideas is because people get stuck in a rut. They create the same type of content over and over again. Remember you can create:

Audio
Video
Lists
Tips
Content series
Worksheets
Editorials
Q&A
Interviews
Info graphics
How To articles
Reviews

And much more. As you’re struggling to come up with ideas, try to create ideas for many different formats. You may find that a “tips” article fits nicely with an interview and create a sense of cohesion and flow on your blog or website.

Brainstorming can often be a frustrating process. Embrace systems and tools that support you to succeed. Additionally, if you find you’re having a tough time coming up with ideas, take a break or consider outsourcing the topic idea research for a month or two. You may simply need to step back and look at your audience and niche from a fresh perspective.

So once you have your list of content ideas and topics, it’s time to sit down and start creating the content. Let’s take a look at a few proven methods for enjoying productive writing sessions.