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Consistently keeping our readers interested and engaged requires lots of content and the biggest challenge that I hear most frequently is that you don’t know what to write about.
First, it is important to remember people are following you in the first place because they believe you are offering content in an area they want to learn more about and they value your expertise. To keep our readers loyal and coming back for more requires you provide value. If you always keep in mind “What’s in it for them” and “How can I solve my readers problems” then there is a never ending stream of content all around us.
I know for example, that you read my content because you want to learn how to gain more exposure easily and learn in a way that is easy to understand and implement. So I provide the content that helps you with ideas and steps you can take to grow your business and be heard in this noisy online world.
So, how do you create a steady stream of valuable content?
Totally understanding your target audience and the types of problems they incur is key to providing content they want to consume, here are some ideas:
1.) Periodically poll your readers if you have an active email list with 2-3 questions that will tell you more about what they want.
2.) Write articles on the most frequently asked questions you get from working with people in your niche. Each FAQ could be a headline of a blog post.
3.) Join LinkedIn groups where your target audience is most likely to be participating. By engaging in the conversations, being helpful and courteous and not spammy you will learn more about what your target audience wants to learn and then get involved in the conversation, write about the discussion.
4.) Curate content from other sites that you can share on your site and via social media channels. All the content you provide to your followers does not have to be authored by you to provide value. If your followers look to you as a go to person in your niche, they will be grateful you shared good content regardless of where it came from.
5.) Set up a google alerts account using key words, this allows you to monitor interesting topics that you may wish to share with your readers and it is delivered right to your email account!
What is content curation and how will it help you?
The term content curation means finding content and sifting through it and choosing the most relevant content for your audience. So here is an example, let’s say you are an image consultant. You could search the internet for current stories using many different key words, but for this example let’s use these: fashion, style, jeans, and spring fashion colors. You will get many articles that may or may not be what your audience cares about – so you want to sift through the articles. Once your choose some articles you can then post the headline and link to the article to your social media platforms. You certainly could write a blog post on the topic of an article and refer to the article as well and include a link.
Here are come great sites to search for content:
www.huffingtonpost.com/ (one of the best content curators online)
JoAnne,
Thank you for this great article. I do have this problem and your recommendations and ideas sparked new ideas for me. I printed the article and hung it in my office. Please keep the great content coming. Michele:)
Michele,
thanks for reading the article and glad to know you found some value in the ideas. There is lots of great content to share with our audience and hope this tips I provided gave you some ideas. – JoAnne