One of the Best Content Sources for Infoproduct Creators and Affiliates

Content creation for your online business is one of the biggest stumbling blocks many of us face.  I have to admit, sometimes I still find it challenging to come up with good content ideas.  If you feel the same way, maybe this little tip will help.  This is especially useful if you create and sell your own infoproducts or promote affiliate products.  Sorry, can't say there's any rocket science here.  No "ninja tricks" or secret sources for push-button article writers.  But since I just had this "DUH" moment, I thought someone else might find it useful too.

Take a look at the product you're promoting.  If you're an affiliate, hopefully you have a copy of the product or have used it in the past.  If it's your own product, then you're already in good shape.  Read through it, watch it, listen to it or whatever.  As you do that, take note of any times when you mention lists of items, resources, tips, etc.  I mean literally take notes as you go through the thing.  Also, take a look at the sales letter.  Pick out any bullet points that lend themselves to lists of "stuff" you could talk about without giving away the entire course.

Then, create articles, blog posts or other content based on those lists.  Talk about what the product does, what's in it for the customer if they buy it, the problem that it solves or give an overview of the tips included in the product.  You may or may not want to include everything that's mentioned in a particular list.  What if you create a series of articles about this product?  All of them together may give away so much info that no one needs to buy the product.  However, your article should still cover enough to be of value…the person should be better off after reading your article than they were beforehand.

Two quick examples:

1. Say you have a course about online video.  You have a section that covers 10 ways you can use online video on your website to boost conversion.  You could easily create an article that outlines some (or all) of those recommendations…places people should test video within their sales process.  But in your course, you may also include "what to say in the video" or some other bit of info that would make the job easier - and that people will likely also want to know (rather than figuring out through trial and error).
2. Or maybe you offer a dog training course.  You could easily create content covering the most common training problems for new dog owners, with one problem covered in each article/podcast/blog post.  But of course, you have 101 training techniques included in your product, including recommended training tools, resources and so on…which you can recommend at the end of your article.

The end result is content that, on it's own, contains valuable information that someone can actually do something with (not just a bunch of fluff).  The idea is NOT to just create a mini sales letter.  So that's the obvious benefit to the reader, but here's how it benefits you:

• It gives you a natural way to include a good call-to-action at the end of your content to mention your product as a way to find out more about that topic
• It helps educate your target market about why they should consider buying your product (e.g., in example #1 above, maybe the reader doesn't realize how much online video can help).  So you also get an educated customer, which is a better customer.

Like I said, simple enough and probably nothing new.  But I was shocked at how many content ideas I came up with just by going through my own stuff again.  Hopefully that will help you promote your products (or affiliate products) too.

P.S. - This same idea can be used to promote the freebie you're giving away to build your opt-in list too.  Can you think of any other uses?  Leave a comment below.

 

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Simple Solutions For the Content Creation Roadblock Nearly All Online Business Owners Face

Ever find yourself with writers block when it comes to creating content (articles, blog posts, multimedia content, etc.)?  If so, here are a few sites you might want to keep an eye on for idea generators for creating content.  Remember, no STEALING people's stuff…use these sites for idea creation, NOT your own personal swipe file.  Don't be a knucklehead!  Okay, nuff said.

1. TrafficJam.com
The newly-released flipside of the Blogrush network (similar to how Adwords and Adsense are two sides of the same coin).  Regardless of what you may think of the traffic you get (or don't get) from the Blogrush network, TrafficJam looks like it has the makings of a pretty decent site for researching your market.  One thing to keep in mind though is that the categories are pretty broad, so you may need to drill down into multiple categories to find different ideas that are relevant to your topic.

2. Article Directories
While some people argue how useful it is to submit to article directories, they can still be a good place to brainstorm ideas for new content.  Of course, the idea is NOT to just go in here and pull someone's article and use it on your site (even though that's generally okay).  Nor is the idea to rewrite their article in your own words to avoid linking back to their site (which is sketchy at best). 

Instead, simply use the titles and general themes you see authors writing about as ideas for your own content.  If you're in the online business market and see an article covering "10 Tips for Getting Traffic From YouTube", maybe you can come up with your own list of however many tips you know of.  Or write more detailed, individual articles on each of your tips.  Or take the opposite stance and write about why you may not want to get traffic from YouTube (huh?).  The list is nearly endless, just us a little imagination and you'll come up with tons of great ideas.  I'd recommend EzineArticles.com, Buzzle.com and ISnare.com.  The others probably aren't worth the time.

3. About.com (or other Mega-Content Sites)
If your target market is featured as one of the categories on About.com, this can be a fantastic way to brainstorm content ideas.  For instance, I had an online store I was trying to create content for.  One of the articles posted on About.com was something like "The Top 10 {topic} Gifts This Holiday Season".  Great idea.  I just wrote my own article similar to that, based on what had been selling well in my store and would make good gifts.  That could have spawned other articles based on specific holidays or other occasions.  Again, it's just about finding the IDEA, not swiping someone's entire article.  I didn't sell some of that stuff in my store anyway so that would have just been stupid.

4. Technorati.com / Google Blog Search
Want to know what other bloggers are writing about?  Why not check out Technorati.com or Google's Blog Search and look for other blogs in your market.  Using either of those services, you can find related blogs in your market and get a feel for what the hot button issues are.  For instance, if you're in the online business market, you could use mine a an example.  I just posted an article about "The 5 Reasons Why You Should Upgrade to the New Version of Camtasia Studio".  Maybe you really agree, but have a different set of reasons.  Maybe you think I'm nuts and that there's no reason to upgrade.  Maybe there's another useful piece of software you could highlight the most important features of, either in an article or video.

5. Google Alerts
Want to know when Google finds new information about your market?  Just setup a Google alert and get emailed anytime Google finds new pages referencing your keywords.  This is great if there are specific terms, products, authors, etc. in your market that you'd like to follow.  I have alerts setup for things like "camtasia" because I work with that program quite a bit, as well as for a few other software tools.  If there are specific terms in your market that you need to keep tabs on, Google Alerts is that way to go.

6. Yahoo Answers / Google Answers
How about finding out what sort of questions people are already asking about your subject?  How powerful would it be to be able to answer those questions with a quick video, special report or other content that gets people to your site?  You can check out Yahoo Answers and do just that.  If someone's asking about it there, other people in your market or viewing your  content online are probably wondering the same thing.  And even if some of the questions are closed, they can still be good fodder for coming up with content ideas.  The same goes for Google Answers…a good source for ideas.  But it's been closed for some time now, so you won't find any new questions being asked there.  Depending no how fast things change in your market, that might be a show-stopper for using this site.

7. YouTube, etc.
Checking out the top-viewed videos in your market on YouTube or other video sharing sites can give you some great ideas for what people are looking for and what's of interest right now in your market.  And of course, if you can't find ANY videos in your market, that might be a warning sign that there's just not that much interest.  See what's popular, who's creating that content, and what else they're up to.

8. Big-Boards.com / Forums
A lot of people bash on forums, but I think you're absolutely NUTS if you're not tapping in to these valuable research sources.  You definitely want to find forums where people are talking about your topic (either forums you already know about, that you find on Google, or through a site like big-boards.com).  Much like Yahoo Answers, you can get a good idea of what's on people's minds right here and now.  Not only that, but you can provide useful answers and content for people.  If you see the same question coming up over and over, why not create a free special report or other high-value content that answers that question?  Then add that to your signature and offer it for free, or to build your optin list.

Bonus Tip: Use RSS feeds or email updates to stay on top of all these sites
You're going to find a LOT of sources as you're searching online.  One of the easiest ways to keep tabs on all these great sources is to subscribe to each site's RSS feed (hopefully they have one available…nearly any blogs do and many forums do too).  For other sites, see if there's a way to sign up for email updates.  The point is to be able to get updates PUSHED to you, rather than you having to go out to each site periodically to see what's new.

Coming Soon…
We'll go over what to do with all these great ideas and how to keep everything organized in a future article so you can maximize the use of your content.

In the meantime, do you have  any favorite research sites?  Leave a comment below…

~Kenton Newby

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