Blogging

Can’t Get Eyeballs On Your Content? Here’s The Fix

January 5, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Wondering how you can get more people to visit your blog, watch your video, or subscribe to your podcast? If so, you’re not alone. Even the most successful content creators want to get more eyeballs on their content.

Marketing nowadays is a race for everyone’s attention. Many brands capture people’s attention for several hours in a given day. Chances are you want to create a similar effect with your content in which some people will spend hours each day consuming your content.

If you’re struggling to get eyeballs on your content, then use this game plan to drive meaningful attention to your content.

Focus On One Traffic Source First

The biggest reason people struggle to generate more blog traffic is because they diversify their traffic sources. While this is a great long-term strategy, the short-term results in you spreading yourself too thin.

It’s difficult to master traffic generation when you’re trying to master 10 different methods for generating traffic. You’ll have a much easier time trying to master one traffic source and then expanding from there.

To speed up the process, you can hire a coach or an expert who is great at driving traffic via a specific traffic source. This will significantly help with your learning curve for one traffic source.

You can then master another traffic source as one traffic source is either completely delegated or a coach guides you step by step on mastering the other traffic source.

Direct Everyone To Your Email List

email marketing

No matter how much traffic you get, that traffic won’t do you any good if you can’t direct people to your email list. You may get short-term attention, but that attention won’t materialize into long-term revenue if you don’t get people on your email list.

There are plenty of methods to grow your email list, but you must pick a few that work best for you. My personal favorites are the following:

Promoting my landing page on social media many times each day
Getting partners to grow my email list (this usually means providing your partners with affiliate links)
Optimizing my blog with welcome mats, pop-ups, and other tools that boost my blog’s overall conversion rate

All of your efforts need to direct people to your email list. No exceptions.

Get Into Partnerships

As mentioned before, getting partners to grow an email list is one of my favorite methods. This is free and you build a lot of great relationships.

When I hosted the Content Marketing Success Summit, I had dozens of partners help me promote the summit. This resulted in thousands of new subscribers that I wouldn’t have gotten on my own. As an added bonuses, these were highly targeted subscribers since they went through the some of the summit’s 50+ interviews all about my niche.

To get involved with partnerships, you need a good reputation and have a funnel with high conversion rates. The higher the conversion rates and overall commissions received, the more likely you’ll get someone as your partner. As you get more success stories, you’ll recruit more partners and some partners will even come to you.

For the affiliate program, I recommend using SamCart. They offer a variety of integrations to email lists, Optimize Press, and more. In addition, SamCart will help you create sleek order pages with 1-click order bumps that can significantly add to your bottom line.

You’ll get a 14 day free trial to SamCart if you join with this link.

Activate Your Network

expanding network

Most of the advice you’ll hear about networks is how important it is to build your network. Get to know some influencers because they’ll help later on, and then the advice stops.

Building your network is easy. Just reach out to a bunch of influencers asking questions, praising them, or presenting them with an opportunity (i.e. appear as a guest on my podcast).

Activating your network is the harder part. In activating your network, you get people to promote your content, leave testimonials for your products, and advise you when you ask for advice. The best way to activate your network is to stay in constant touch.

If you haven’t contacted people in your network for more than three months, you need to contact those people this month. Whether it’s a “Hello” or “I found your latest content interesting,” you need to keep yourself in these people’s frames of mind. That way, they remember you when an opportunity comes up, or if you ask them to do something for you, they are more likely to do it.

Get Great At Creating Content

You spend all of this time attracting the eyeballs to your content, but you need to get people to stick around as well. Part of that is creating content that spreads, but also extending the experience visitors have on your blog.

In my blog posts, I intentionally link to some of my past content to enhance the experience people have on my blog. The more often you write content, the better you’ll get at crafting impactful content.

I recommend writing one blog post every day. This will force you to keep the chain going and provide your visitors with an intense amount of value.

In Conclusion

Every content creator wants to drive as much meaningful attention to their content as possible. Even the most successful content creators, or perhaps, especially the most successful content creators want more eyeballs on your content. You should (and probably do) too.

However, with time at a premium and a ton of content getting created each day, the growing gap between time and available content makes this goal more challenging to accomplish.

But with every challenge lies an opportunity. Getting eyeballs on your content is a game of patience, smart work, and persistence, but once you get thousands and eventually millions of people to flock to your content, you’ll know that the effort was worth it.

What are your thoughts on these tactics? How do you get more eyeballs on your content? Do you have any questions for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

Hack Your Mindset To Publish 1 New Blog Post Every Day

January 1, 2018 by Marc Guberti 8 Comments

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Publishing new content is hard. You have to think of an idea, write out the content, do research, optimize the post, and schedule it. What about if you publish 1 new blog post every day? That’s a completely different ballgame.

At one point, I published 1 blog post every 12 hours. The blog posts were much shorter, and I didn’t prepare nearly as much as I have been. There are many steps that I take even after I’ve written the content.

I didn’t take those extra steps before, and those extra steps hurt my publishing frequency. I went from two blog posts per day to daily blog posts. Daily blog posts became weekly blog posts and then inconsistency followed.

I thought to myself, “This is okay. It’s just a growing process. I need to focus on other revenue generating opportunities and not spend as much time writing blog posts.”

The Awakening

After I took a long look at my content brand and read Flip The Funnel by Joseph Jaffe, I realized I over-prioritized customer acquisition. If you focus too much on customer acquisition, you forget to continue providing a better experience for current customers.

I realized that I needed a customer-centric brand, and writing daily blog posts allows me to create a better experience. The experience you provide also happens to be one of the seven pillars of customer centricity. With this new knowledge and my dream to turn Breakthrough Success into a daily podcast, I returned to daily blog posts.

The Big Flaw

blogging mistake

At the beginning of 2017, I set the goal of publishing one new YouTube video every day. There were far more steps to go from idea to published video than from idea to published blog post. I embarked on this challenge, and stayed consistent for almost two months. I then dropped back down to weekly videos and eventually become inconsistent.

There is a fatal flaw that prevents content creators from reaching the status where they can publish 1 new blog post every day. A lack of time isn’t that fatal flaw.

The fatal flaw is this: You need to be writing new content every day.

Yann Girad wrote a fascinating article on Medium about how he wrote a blog post every day for two years. In that article, he explained the mindset that leads to disaster:

“Maybe because if you say you want to do it on Monday and Thursday you still have five excuses left. You’d still have Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday as an excuse. So if you still have Tuesday, why do it on Monday? And if you still have Wednesday why do it on Tuesday?”

If you don’t write every day, you risk falling into this mindset where you backlog the work. You then say that you’ll write this week’s blog posts on Sunday because you’re loaded with work for the other six days. Sunday comes around and you get busy. None of the blog posts get written.

What About Content Batching?

With that said, I’ve been a big advocate for content batching, a process in which you consistently choose a certain day of the week to create all of your content. John Lee Dumas blew me away with this concept when he said he does all of the EOFire interviews in two days.

EOFire is a daily podcast, so he’s interviewing 28-31 people over the span of two days. He can dedicate the rest of his month to other areas of his brand.

At first glance, content batching seems to lead people towards the fatal flaw. I’ll get all of my content done on this day of the week so I can do other things for the rest of the week.

The moment I attempt to content batch blog posts and videos, I find myself on the path towards inconsistency. I miss a day, and since each day carries much more weight in a content batching strategy, my consistency falls apart.

However, you can batch other parts of your brand and even content creation itself. While batching doesn’t work for my blog posts and videos, content batching works just fine for my podcast interviews. I only interview people on Tuesdays and Wednesdays unless I need to make a special exception.

That means for the other five days of the week, I can focus on other areas of my content brand. It’s also easier for me to write blog posts during these five days. On Monday, I can write a blog post and do some extra planning so it’s easier for me to squeeze in the blog post on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

You can use this approach to theme your days to boost your productivity. This method will allow you to accomplish your goals and stay in a constant state of flow. Jack Dorsey uses this method to run both Twitter and Square.

Write Blog Posts With THIS

When people think about daily blog posts, they think, “Well, that’s great, but I don’t have enough time.”

I can refute that excuse in so many ways, but I’ll share a powerful hack that works wonders. You can write blog posts on your smartphone.

When you’re waiting for anything or anyone (public transportation, watching advertisements before the movie starts, etc.), you can write some more content for an upcoming blog post. I’ve written dozens of blog posts with this one method.

I didn’t make any changes to my schedule. I just utilized time that was normally wasted. I don’t want to even think about how many extra hours it would have taken me to write those blog posts if I didn’t write them on my smartphone.

Don’t Make Them Perfect

I don’t spend much time in the editing process. At the most, I’m looking for places to insert more links to past blog posts and valuable articles on the web.

It’s okay if your blog has a typo. As long as your blog post is valuable, people will overlook the typo. As you write more blog posts, the value will come natural. You’ll think of the ideas and sentences much faster.

If you find yourself analyzing the same sentence over and over again, you need to move on. The marketplace only rewards the ideas that get implemented, and to write a blog post every day, you need to do a lot of implementing.

I’d rather publish an imperfect blog post every day than never publish a perfect blog post. Even if you think it’s perfect, it’s not. Perfection is a myth, and the quicker you realize this, the easier it will be for you to write daily blog posts.

Delegate, Delegate, Delegate

delegation

Publish 1 new blog post every day…it sounds easy. The goal gets difficult when you factor in the other tasks within your business, and let’s not forget about life as a whole. Writing a blog post takes less than an hour, but so many things compete for our attention.

The best time hack I’ve come across is delegating various tasks within your brand. There are a plethora of necessary tasks for my brand that I don’t perform. If I still had those obligations, I wouldn’t be writing a blog post every day.

Create a list of all of the necessary tasks you perform for your brand. Any task that you don’t enjoy performing is subject to delegation. I recommend you start by delegating the most time consuming task first and then go from there.

You can make the revenue back by optimizing your blog to gather more email subscribers and then optimizing the autoresponders to generate more sales.

Establish A Routine

Yann’s Medium article from before inspired this one, so I don’t want too much overlap. The final tactic I’ll mention is that you need to establish a routine. I’ve tried a variety of writing methods. Here’s the method I’m currently sticking with:

#1: Outline The Blog Post The Night Before. My outline looks very simple but gets the job done. I just identify the blog post’s title and the tactics I’ll cover.

#2: Research Some Relevant Articles The Night Before. This research is based on the outline.

#3: Write The Blog Post In The Morning. I do some research as I am writing the blog post when an idea floats in my mind. Some bloggers prefer to wait to do this extra research after writing the blog post (the internet can distract you from your work). I prefer to get the research over with so I’m not thinking about it as I’m writing the blog post.

#4: Schedule The Blog Post In The Afternoon Or Evening. I prefer scheduling blog posts on the same day I write them. I always have a buffer of blog posts scheduled in advance in case I can’t schedule a blog post on a particular day. I’m okay with batching this method, but I am no longer okay with batching the writing process.

I no longer write more than one blog post each day. If I have a burning desire, I’ll craft the outline and intentionally ignore the burning desire. Surprise, surprise, the burning desire only builds, and I have no problem writing tomorrow’s blog post.

Consider your schedule as you write and plan out blog posts. Since I batch my podcast interviews on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I’ll use Mondays to write more detailed outlines for the Tuesday and Wednesday blog posts.

For a more detailed outline, I do everything in the simple outline but also write the introduction and conclusion.

In Conclusion

Publishing a new blog post every day isn’t easy. However, there are many content creators proving that it’s possible every day.

Writing blog posts doesn’t just help with acquiring more leads, but daily blog posts will also strengthen the relationship between you and the audience you’ve already built.

What were your thoughts on this content creation approach? Do you have any questions for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Make Money By Writing Content

November 28, 2017 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

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If you’re reading this blog post, chances are you want to make money by writing content. The common script for bloggers is that writing the content is easy but monetizing that content is difficult.

For a long time, I followed that common script. Blogging was an expensive hobby, and while I wrote a lot of content, making money from that content was a different story.

That narrative has now changed, and it can change for you too. In this blog post, you’ll learn how to make money by writing content.

#1: Get Clear On What You Want To Write About

Many successful writers generate their revenue by focusing their content on a few topics. With that in mind, you must specifically choose topics that you will stay passionate about for many years.

One of the topics I write about often is content marketing. It’s a type of marketing that continues to fascinate me to this day, and that’s why I’ve easily written thousands of blog posts and dozens of books over the years.

Before settling with content marketing and a few other key topics, I didn’t always enjoy the writing process. It wasn’t the process itself that was painful, but rather the topic. You can have the most effective writing process, but if you put the wrong topic into the process, you won’t be a great writer.

Your favorite authors would appear as terrible writers if they wrote about topics they weren’t passionate about. Make sure you focus on a topic that you are passionate about because the full-time income only comes with patience.

#2: Determine How You’ll Make Money From Your Content

There are three main ways to make money by writing content:

Blogging to build an audience, get subscribers, and boost product sales

Freelance writing (ghostwriting or otherwise) where people pay you to write content for them

Writing a book which gives you instant authority, but you’ll need an audience to expand that book’s reach

Blogging is the best long-term strategy for generating revenue because you grow an audience which sets you up for a more successful book launch or other campaigns.

Freelance writing is the best short-term strategy assuming you can find people who are happy to pay you for your content. I rarely freelance, but many of my freelancing opportunities were direct results of the effort I put towards my blog.

I’ve heard of freelancers finding success on UpWork, but it’s better to have a successful blog. Then people will come by with several freelancing opportunities.

You can also attain a massive audience solely from writing books, but you need to know how to crush it on Amazon first. My friend Chandler Bolt wrote an amazing blog post which TKTK

To grow an audience with Kindle books, you must put a landing page offer at the front of your book. That way, people can receive the free offer (and become a part of your email list) without having to actually buy the book.

Some Amazon customers who use the free preview will determine your book isn’t for them, but they love the free offer, sign up for it, and possibly buy the next product you promote to your email list.

#3: Form Partnerships

The moment you get clear on your writing topics is the moment you should focus on forming partnerships. Let’s go back to my example.

As a content marketer, one of my goals is to write effective copy for my sales pages. Many people in my audience share this goal.

Some people have more skills in areas like copywriting than I do. I learn from these people and like to share their content with my audience.

That’s why I partner up with Ray Edwards each time he releases his Copywriting Academy course to the public. I share free content that provides value to my audience, and I make a commission each time someone buys Copywriting Academy.

I can promote a variety of training courses, but I choose to promote Copywriting Academy because it’s a valuable course that my audience will benefit from (I went through it myself).

Forming these types of partnerships will allow you to connect with high profile people who can present you with a lucrative affiliate marketing opportunity. And you never know. Some of these same people may decide to promote you or partner up with you when you release a product.\

Regardless of what type of content you create and which topics you focus on, forming partnerships is critical for your success.

In Conclusion

You can make a full-time income by writing content. Many bloggers and authors have proven that over the years. The challenge is applying what you know and creating that narrative for yourself.

The most important quality for becoming a full-time writer is persistence. Rejection is a part of the process that you must embrace. Some people won’t like your content and ideas, and that’s okay. Chances are you liked this blog post since you’re still reading.

However, some people will not like this blog post. They’ll skip it or even say something bad about it. That’s just the nature of writing content, and more generally, life.

Believe that you can, and you eventually will.

What are your thoughts on these tactics for making money with your content? Do you have any other tactics for us? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Find More Time In Your Day To Create Epic Content

November 7, 2017 by Marc Guberti 10 Comments

When school is back in session, I always make adjustments my work flow. The long summer hours are getting shorter and I have less time to craft content for my business.

Whether you’re a student, 9-to-5 worker, or even an entrepreneur, it seems there’s never enough time in the day to get everything done.

You may write blog post, promote your content, or respond to an email, but you’ll likely find yourself struggling to accomplish several things in one day.

Some people use this reality as a crutch: “I simply don’t have the time,” they say, but that’s a classic excuse for not getting more done.

The truth is, making excuses allows you to believe that you have more important things to do with your time.

But finding more time isn’t always a solution. There comes a point in which working longer hours results in a decrease in overall productivity, rather than an increase.

So it’s not about the number of hours you spend working. It’s about the quality of those hours, which is another way of saying “work smarter, not harder.”

I no doubtedly work on my brand for far less time than most people each day, but the time I do spend working is far more intense.

Some people can only manage to squeeze in brand-building activities for 15-30 minutes a day, while others can handle much more. But anyone should be able to find short bursts of time for creating content each day, working smarter with the time they have.

Now you might be thinking that without knowing your schedule I can’t possibly be sure that you can find more time for content creation.

But even the time people spend rambling about their schedules to friends, family, and themselves is better spent more productively – creating epic content.

If you believe this doesn’t apply to you because your schedule is just too tight, prepare to have your mind blown.

Batch Individual Parts Of The Process

Every blog post contains an introduction, body, and conclusion. For a long time, I wrote entire blog posts from start to finish exactly in that order.

I was surprised to learn that this is an inefficient approach to writing blog posts. Instead of writing one post at a time in a traditional format, it’s better to come up with ideas for several blog posts at once.

After that, write the introductions for all of them. And after you’ve written the introductions, move on to the conclusions. Finally, wrap them all up with research and body copy.

This is definitely something that is rarely taught in the blogging world. The traditional format resembles essay writing, but blog posts are different, and require an altogether different approach.

Choose one day to write all of the introductions and conclusions. And another day to conduct research and write the bodies. Repeating the same bite-sized tasks over and over enables you to maintain a higher level of focus.

Without this batching process, you’re forced to make transitions each time you move from introduction to body, from body to conclusion, and from one blog post to the next.

Each of these transitions takes time that you can save by staying in the introduction mindset as you write the intros for several blog posts. Once you’re in the right frame of mind, you simply extend it to cover more ground.

How Much Time Do You Really Need?

It usually takes me around 30-60 minutes to write a 1,000-word blog post – likely because I’ve written dozens of books and thousands of blog posts. But I’ve been able to reduce this further simply by eliminating those nasty transitions.

At some point, your fingers either fall off or you become a fast typer. Not only will the batching process help you type faster, you’ll also think faster as you write each post. The result is a higher-value blog post in a shorter period of time.

If writing a 1,000-word blog posts intimidates you, there’s nothing stopping you from writing 250-500 word blog posts. Make it as easy as possible for yourself to write and publish content on your blog.

But the next time you write a blog post, keep track of how much time it took. That’s the amount of time you’ll need to make available each day or week, depending on your publishing schedule.

Use Opportune Moments To Write Your Posts

People most often write blog posts on a computer. Nowadays, you have a computer in your pocket. It’s called a smartphone, and while I’m not saying anything new for now, just read the next line.

Use your smartphone to write blog posts.

Anytime you’re waiting for an Uber, sitting on a train, suffering through tv commercials (or any other moment in which you’re waiting in line or for something to happen), add more content to a future blog post.

I’ve written dozens of blog posts from start to finish on my iPhone. That’s several months of additional content without any extra time investment. I wrote these posts during commercials, while waiting for class to begin (college life), or any other moment in which I found myself not doing much of anything.

You can also write blog posts while driving. No, I’m not advocating texting and driving. I’m taking about speaking and driving. Just install an app that transcribes your voice into text and speak out your blog post.

When you are in front of a computer with the transcription, you can then make edits and schedule the blog post for release.

It amazes me how many hours people spend commuting in a given year but how few of people turn those hours into opportunities.

Dictating blog posts is one option, but you can also turn your car into a university on wheels by listening to as many audiobooks and podcasts as possible (if you’re looking for a podcast recommendation, I recommend my Breakthrough Success Podcast with full, complete, and utter bias).

In Conclusion

We all have the same 24-hours in a given day. Your success is determined by how you utilize every one of them. I once heard that the average American spends at least four hours a day watching TV.

With those same four hours, I can write 10,000 words for my latest book, create an entire training course, or read several books.

And that’s just four hours repeated 24/7/365. Maybe you don’t watch TV for four hours a day, but chances are you do something similar that you can adjust.

For instance, I used to play a lot of video games. Then, I went cold turkey after a two week vacation (the vacation helped ease me into it). Now, I only let myself play video games when I’m visiting friends.

Your desire to create epic content must be greater than your desire to do other things.

What are your thoughts on these tactics for finding more time in your day to create epic content? Do you have any other tactics for us? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

The Best Content Creation Calendar Strategy…PERIOD

November 4, 2017 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Consistent bloggers often decide between writing all of their content at once, shortly before their due dates, or writing several blog posts in advance.

The problem with writing all of your content just before their due dates is rushing or missing the mark. The problem with writing all of your content in advance is missing out on new trends.

I admit that for the first time in my blogging journey, these problems caused me to be inconsistent.

And not because I was slacking off – I was in the middle of organizing my first virtual summit. In fact, since I’m quite good at planning ahead, I had scheduled the summit’s launch one month before final exams (basically preparing for the summit while studying for my finals).

And now that I am back to blogging — and getting more contributors at the same time — my publishing schedule has become more complicated (when do I post? when do my contributors post?)

Mark Asquith to the rescue!

Mark was one of more than 50 speakers at my Content Marketing Success Summit. And he spoke about consistently creating epic content.

One of the questions I asked Mark was what he considers the best approach to creating a content calendar, addressing the two problems I mentioned above—cramming versus planning ahead.

His response blew my mind. In October of 2016, Mark had identified all of the blog posts he would write for 2017. And by the end of the year, he had written all of them.

Mark began 2017 with all 24 blog posts he’s publishing this year. He publishes one every other week.

But let’s say I pre-wrote all of my content for 2018, and then something significant happens in the industry: SnapChat comes out with another revolutionary feature. Facebook advertising comes out with even more targeting.

How can I write about these major updates if I have all of 2018’s content waiting in the queue? Here’s the answer…

If, like Mark, you schedule all of your new blog posts for every other week, you can simply write new blog posts in between.

For instance, if you’ve scheduled blog posts for October 1st and October 15th many months in advance, you can publish a new blog post about a recent trend on October 8th.

This way, you can incorporate new content while having the bulk of your content scheduled in advance. And if all of the blog posts you write in advance are evergreen, then it doesn’t matter whether you publish them in 2017 or 2027.

For example, a blog post about productivity will be relevant every year because productivity tips do not rely on trends.

So, why is this such a great strategy? Let’s capture the scope of its impact:

#1: You Can Write About Trends Without Content Calendar Conflicts

As mentioned before, you can publish trend related articles in between the content you schedule in advance. You don’t have to tinker around with rescheduling content; you schedule in advance intentionally leaving room for gaps.

#2: You Can Warm Up Your Audience To Launches

I promote several products in any given year. Yet my 2018 calendar remains fairly open apart from a February launch that I’m participating in. I can prepare for that launch now by writing relevant content.

But let’ say Chandler Bolt asks me to promote Self-Publishing School in April, and my pre-written blog posts have NOTHING to do with writing a book (or even writing content)?

I can still write relevant content ahead of time and insert it into my content creation calendar. In fact, writing about content creation, and how to become a successful author, will warm up my audience up to this promotion.

#3: You Can Enjoy More Freedom

I wrote this entire blog post off the cuff without an outline. Of course, I still sent it to my editor, but the post remains a case of “just cuz.”

Not only will you have your content scheduled far in advance, but you will also have the freedom to write and publish additional content anytime you feel like it. Win-win!

I believe too many people miss out on this part of blogging. They are so focused on planning and writing their next blog post that they don’t truly feel free when writing.

This feeling of freedom is based on the fact that you can write about a topic that interests you while not feeling pressured to schedule the post you’re working on.

It’s more of a choice and less of “I need to publish this piece of content so my blog gets new content.”

In Conclusion

Mark’s concept got me thinking about my 2018 publishing schedule …even though we were in May of 2017 when we pre-recorded the interview.

The ability to have all of my content scheduled in advance removes most of the stress associated with being a blogger. And it’s easier to write from the heart because I’ll have so much more time.

Another concept that came up during our interview was batching. This is something also used by John Lee Dumas (discussed in Episode 38 of the Breakthrough Success Podcast).

All Mark needed to do was write all of the blog posts he’d planned for 2017 from October 2016 to December 2016 (with the exception of additional content).

Similarly, John Lee Dumas chooses two days a month to interview the 28-31 guests he has on his podcast every month.

You can choose one week to write blog posts for two months. And if you follow Mark’s posting strategy, you only have to publish one blog post every other week (or two blog posts per month). Then you’re covered for two months!

You can take this concept even further and write 12 blog posts in one week — it’s very possible if you believe in yourself — and that would give you a total of six month’s worth of content!

You can fill in the gaps by writing content about trends, inviting contributors, or by not filling them at all. Only fill in the gaps when it’s relevant to do so.

What are your thoughts on Mark’s strategy? Have any advice on carrying this strategy even further? Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Batch Content Creation So You Can Pursue Bigger Projects

October 31, 2017 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Consistently providing valuable content keeps your content brand alive, and generating revenue from your efforts allows you to thrive.

Content creators often struggle with generating revenue from their products while continuously creating fresh content.

While I believe both can be interwoven together (maybe the idea for a future blog post?), one proven approach is to batch your content creation so you can dedicate more time, attention, and energy to revenue-generating activities.

What Is Content Batching?

Content batching is as simple as committing one day to producing an extraordinary amount of content.

John Lee Dumas, for example, designates two days a month for conducting interviews (his daily episodes over at EOFire mean he’s interviewing 15+ people on a regular basis). John also dedicates one day per month as an interviewee for more than 20 podcasts.

If you choose one day to write a month’s worth of blog posts, you can then focus on product launches, brand building or other initiatives for the rest of the month.

How To Batch Your Content Creation

Batching content creation begins with nailing down a date to write all of your content.

Prior to writing, set one day aside to come up with ideas. So if you decide to create all of your content on the first Tuesday of each month, you should create a list of topic ideas no later than Monday.

If you want to use the content batching strategy for your podcast guests, start contacting people 2-3 weeks in advance. Booking guests for your podcast is different from batching blog posts because of the time needed for emailing and scheduling the podcasts.

But in either case, you must be hyper focused once you have your ideas clearly in mind.

Becoming Hyper Focused

You may choose one day to create your monthly content, but if you frequently get distracted, you are not fully unlocking your potential.

To succeed, you must be actively engaged in your work for most of the day. This means not only thinking about how you work, but also getting smart about the environment in which you work.

Always choose a commitment-free day for content batching. For example, I enjoy participating in cross country and track meets – which usually take place on Saturdays – so I wouldn’t plan my content batching initiatives on the weekend.

Choose a day that isn’t surrounded by work or outside commitments.

The day before you’ve committed to content batching, remove all distractions from your environment. Since each of us is distracted by different things, it helps if you create a list of potential triggers.

Writing a list of potential distractions will help you prepare in advance: you’ll know what to avoid while working, and what to ignore before you even get started.

Advice On Pursuing Bigger Projects

Once you begin creating content in batches, you’ll have extra time to work on bigger projects. Don’t take that time for granted because your next content-batching day will arrive sooner than you think.

In addition to creating lists to assist you on your content-batching days, create a detailed plan for how you’ll pursue bigger projects.

What progress must you make by the end of the month? How will you plan each week to reach your monthly goals? What will you do each day to accomplish your weekly goals for each week of the month?

If you struggle with keeping yourself accountable, ask someone to help you. In a sea of free information, hiring a coach is one of the most underrated investments you can make for your success.

A coach will steer you away from common mistakes and move you towards success, but in this case, your coach will keep you accountable.

Advice On Content Creation

One of the dangers of content batching is the tendency to consider content creation as a necessary evil.

Viewing content creation as a chore keeps you from content marketing, and always pursuing bigger projects prevents you from enjoying the work at hand.

Once I’d focused so much on content marketing and bigger projects that I saw content creation as an obstacle. This is one of the main reasons my blogging consistency dropped from two posts a day to once per week.

Before I changed my mindset, I was even inconsistent with publishing the weekly post. So if you decide to batch your content 1-2 days per month, never forget to look forward to, and enjoy, those days.

In Conclusion

Content batching allows you to focus solely on creating content 1-2 days each month, giving you the rest of the month to concentrate on promotion and additional projects.

You can also apply the batching method to any time-consuming task in your business to open up more time in your month for other tasks.

But you must be careful not to look at batching activities as a necessary evil. Rather, try to appreciate those days as time to be hyper focused on something that brings you pleasure.

If you see any of your tasks as necessary evils, change your thinking! If you can’t, eliminate or delegate them.

What are your thoughts on content batching? Do you have any suggestions? Have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.