Blogging Platforms

When it comes to blogging, it’s important that you choose the right platform. This lesson will teach you how to select the right platform based on your goals.

Starting a blog might seem like a daunting task if you’ve never created one before, but it’s much easier than you might think.

All you have to do is choose the right platform to host your blog, and then set everything up according to your preferences.

When selecting a blogging platform, it’s important to choose one that’s customizable, and easy to use.

The most popular blogging platform in the world is called WordPress. Approximately 27% of all sites on the internet use it to create dynamic websites and publish content.

And because WordPress is open source, you don’t have to pay any fees to install it.

The video ibelow explains how to setup a WordPress blog.

Once you’ve setup a blog with WordPress, you’ll want to make sure you spend some time playing around with the editing and publishing features.

You can also install third-party plugins on your WordPress site to add extra functionality to your blog.

A must-have WordPress plugin for bloggers is Yoast SEO.

As you may be able to tell from the name alone, this plugin allows you to optimize all your posts according to a particular keyword so that Google recognizes your content in search engine results.

In addition to adding blog posts, WordPress also gives you the ability to add forums, membership sections, and online stores to your site.

While these features require some technical expertise to setup, they can be an excellent way to engage with your audience after they’ve finished reading your blog posts.

Another popular platform for blogging is called Squarespace.

Squarespace is a good option if you’re looking for a simpler way to publish and share your blog content.

Squarespace isn’t as customizable as WordPress, but it does offer different paid plans with extra features you can use to improve the quality of your site.

Ultimately, the decision of which blogging platform to use will depend on your business’ current platform and the goals you want to accomplish with your content.

There’s an art and a science to making your content go viral across social media and other channels. This lesson explains the key components of a viral post.

The ultimate goal of any content marketer is to have their post go viral.

A post is considered viral when it reaches a massive audience in a short amount of time.

For example, remember when BuzzFeed posted an image of a dress and asked everyone to guess the color?

That post immediately went viral across all social media channels and brought in a lot of sales for the creators of the famous dress.

Although there isn’t a specific formula you can follow to create viral content, there’s a framework you can apply to your posts to increase your chances of attaining viral success.

This framework is called the STEPPS framework.

STEPPS is an acronym for Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, and Stories.

It was developed by Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at Wharton, to identify the characteristics that make certain posts go viral.

Social currency refers to our inherent need to look good in front of other people. As Jonah Berger puts it “people share things that make them look good to others.”

You can create social currency by creating content that will make your visitors look good in the eyes of their peers.

For example, you can create a “How To” post that shows how to solve a specific problem.

The Triggers component of the STEPPS framework refers to the “stimuli that prompt people to think about related things.”
In other words, viral content should contain something that will stick in the minds of your customers long after they interact with your brand.

For example, you could create content that people will recall every time they see something.

The emotion component of the STEPPS framework refers to people’s desire to feel something when they consume content.

If you take a look at some of the most viral posts on the internet, you’ll notice that the majority of them have a strong emotional hook.

Your content could cover any emotion, from happy to sad. However, light-hearted and upbeat posts tend to have the highest success rates.

Public refers to the idea that people tend to share and imitate things that everyone else around them is doing.

Therefore, it’s important to include social proof in your content when you can.  Social proof is evidence that the public has approved of your product or service. So this could include testimonials, recommendation, positive reviews from customers. 

The Practical value component is based on the idea that people are more willing to share content if it provides practical value and helps others.

Jonah Berger suggests that you should “package your knowledge and expertise so that people can easily pass it on.”

Finally, the Stories component of the STEPPS framework refers to people’s love of stories.

Stories have been popular since ancient times, and they continue to be a popular way to deliver information.

As a result, your content should always have a strong narrative that relates to your audience’s main pain points.

As a content marketer, its important to know which channels to use to distribute your content. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to create a content distribution strategy that works.

When creating a content marketing campaign, it’s vital that you choose the right channels to reach your audience.

The fastest way to select a suitable channel for your audience is to see what channels are currently being used by your business.

You might discover that there are channels that aren’t making an impact and channels that are consistently effective at reaching your audience.

To increase the effectiveness of your posts, you need to explore several distribution strategies until you find one that works the best.

The first distribution strategy you can use involves asking influencers to share your content with their network.

An influencer is someone who has authority and expertise in a niche, as well as a large following.

For example, Neil Patel is an influencer in the online marketing industry, and Bill Gates is an influencer in the technology industry.

Finding the right influencers to promote your content can be a difficult task when you’re just starting out, so it’s important to build a following of your own before you go out looking for an influencer.

A popular tool for finding influencers is called BuzzSumo. You can also use it to find trending stories in your niche.

Another strategy you can use to distribute your content is to post in forums.

Forums like Reddit and Quora are excellent places to join discussions relevant to your products or services, and share links to your content.

One key thing to remember is that your primary goal is to add value to each conversation rather than sharing your link.

As you build relationships with people on forums, you’ll notice a significant increase in your inbound traffic as well as your perception as a thought leader.

Social media is another distribution strategy you can use to get your content in front of your audience.

The social platform you choose will ultimately depend on the preferences of your audience and the type of content you want to share.

For example, if you have a knitting company catered towards women between 35-40, you might see better results on Pinterest than you would on Facebook.

If your business sells products or services to other businesses, you may have better results promoting your content on B2B platforms such as LinkedIn.

You can also use search engines as a distribution channel for your content.

As we covered in the marketing theory course, the process of optimizing your content for search results is called SEO.

By using SEO on your content, you can ensure that your content shows up whenever someone searches for a specific term on search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo.

Podcasts have gained alot of popularity in recent years, and they continue to be an effective way for businesses to reach audiences. This lesson will give you an introduction to the world of podcasting.

Up until this point, we’ve seen how businesses can use blogging and visual content to engage their audiences, but did you know they can also use audio?

A popular way of sharing information through audio is by creating a podcast.

A podcast is simply an audio file that anyone can download and listen to using a software such as iTunes.

Audio is more convenient to listen to when you’re driving a car, at the gym, or even at your desk, and can help you build a strong connection with your users.

Businesses mostly use podcasts to share their opinions about a topic, conduct interviews with thought leaders and highlight any new changes in the industry.

They are very similar to radio shows but comparatively easier and cheaper to produce.

Once a customer subscribes to a podcast, they’ll automatically receive future episodes and be able to download them to their devices.

The good part about podcasts is that you don’t need a fancy microphone to get the job done. In fact, most podcasts are recorded with USB microphones that plugin directly into a computer.

Simply searching Google for the “best podcasting microphones” will bring up several available options.

The final choice of which microphone to use will depend on the podcasters personal preference.

The two most popular podcasting microphones are the Nessie from Blue Microphones and the Podcaster from Rode Microphones.

Microphones also require an accessory called a pop filter. The filter is a screen that you place in front of the microphone to prevent the popping sounds made when you say the letter P.

In addition to a good microphone, you’ll also need a quiet room where you can record your podcasts.

Once you’ve found all the equipment you need, the next step is to find an audience who will be interested in your content.

You can easily identify a niche by asking for feedback on social media or running a survey to find out what type of content people want.

You should also take time to think about the types of formats you’ll use in your podcasts.

The three most common formats include interviews, individual thoughts, and curated programs.

Interviews can be recorded in person or through chat programs like Skype.

Individual thoughts mainly involve the host sharing knowledge about a specific topic related to their business.

Lastly, curated programs are where hosts share news or updates from their industry.

The best way to figure out the best format is to look at what others in your industry are doing and see how you can add your own spin to things.

Your goal should always be to educate, inspire, or entertain your listeners.

Most importantly, your content should evoke an emotional response and provide valuable information. 

If you don’t deliver value in your podcast, your listeners will eventually stop listening.

Although creating a successful podcast takes time and patience, you can dramatically increase the quality of your work by regularly listening to yourself and making a note of which areas need to be improved.

With the rise of video technology, it’s now easier than ever for businesses to create videos for their audiences. This lesson will show you everything you need to know about using videos in your content marketing campaigns.

The use of video in content marketing has increased significantly over the last few years, and many companies are starting to turn to video as a way of engaging their audience.

In fact, YouTube is now the second-largest search engine on the web, and 71% of marketers say video conversion rates outperform other marketing content.

Studies have also shown that people are ten times more likely to engage with a video than a blog post or social media post.

People watch videos to learn about new topics, current events, and connect with their friends.

In addition, the availability of video production technology has also made it easier than ever for people to create videos at a very low cost.

For example, you can use a tool called Promo by Slide.ly to create videos using preselected clips and handpicked music. 

The video below shows you how to use Promo.

It’s usually easier for video marketers to track the performance of their videos than it is to track the performance of blog posts and other written content.

For example, Facebook’s video analytics lets you track key metrics such as click through rate, the number of times watched, and drop-off points so you can see exactly which parts of your video you need to keep and which parts you need to take out.

According to data from Facebook, approximately 65% of all viewers on Facebook watch more than 75% of a video. 

That’s significantly more than the percentage of people who read an entire blog post.

Using video in emails has also proven to be an effective way to increase click through rates.

By sharing videos in your content, you’ll have the ability to evoke emotions in your users in ways that you won’t be able to with written content.

Your users will be able to experience things like tone of voice, face expressions, and music – all of which are unavailable when reading a blog post.

Videos are especially effective when a company launches a new product or a service. 

Animated videos are also suitable for explaining complex topics in an easy-to-understand format.

Visual content is often more effective than written content. In this lesson, you’ll learn about the different tools and strategies you can use to make your visual posts stand out.

Studies have shown that the human brain can process visual information about 700 times faster than written content.

It’s because of this fact that businesses are starting to turn away from traditional blog posts and transitioning to visual content.

Visual content includes infographics, animations, videos, and photos. They can appear on social media profiles or embedded in blog posts.

There are several tools you can use to create visual posts, but we recommend that you use Canva.

Simply go to canva.com and create a free user account to start using it. 

Once you’ve gone through the setup process, you’ll be able to create a variety of visual posts using premade templates.

You can use it to create just about everything from social media posts to infographics and newsletters.

It’s important to ensure your posts are well-designed and professional-looking before you share them with your audience.

If you publish poorly designed images, you could end up damaging your brand’s image and losing customers as a result.

For the best quality, you should always save your images in a .PNG format. 

If you discover that the .PNG format is too large, you can save your image as a JPEG file instead.

In addition to creating images that look good, you also need to take time to understand how your audience consumes information.

Visual posts may not always be the best solution for your audience. It’s important to continuously measure user engagement on your posts and collect feedback from your audience.

For example, suppose you discover that writing a blog post about a topic generates 200 shares, and an infographic of the same topic generates 240 shares or 20% more shares.

If you notice this trend over an extended period, you can conclude that your audience prefers visual posts more than blog posts.

Based on this data, you’ll be able to readjust your content marketing strategy to include more visual posts and less written posts.

Shares, likes, engagement and comments are all valid metrics that you can compare to decide if you should use more visuals or blog posts.

In this lesson, you’ll learn the basics of blogging and find out how blogs can be used to increase a business’ visibility and user engagement.

Blogging is a great way for businesses to attract different customers to their website, and establish authority in their niche.

According to research from Hubspot, companies with a blog receive 97% more links to their website.

Studies also show that a further 81% of online consumers trust information and advice from blogs.

By blogging on a consistent basis, companies can show their brand’s personality and create a voice that matches their target audience.

And because blogs are often shared on social media, they can help businesses increase their social media following across different platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The great thing about blogging is that you don’t need to be an amazing writer to achieve amazing results.

The most important thing is that you understand your audience and create educational content that addresses a main point.

If you don’t consider yourself a good writer, you can use a tool like Grammarly to correct your work for common grammatical and spelling mistakes.

Another great tool for beginners is the Hemingway App. You can use it to see your writing level, and to improve your word choice and sentence structures.

When writing a blog post, it’s also important to pay attention to word count. Typically the longer your blog posts, the better.

A study revealed that the average Google first page result contains 1,890 words. Anything lower than that resulted in a lower search engine position.

While the thought of writing a 1,890-word blog post may seem overwhelming, you can reduce your learning curve by regularly reading blog posts of other popular bloggers online.

A few great bloggers you should check out include Neil Patel, Tim Ferris, and Rand Fishkin.

Neil Patel is the founder of Crazy Egg, Tim Ferriss is the author of the popular 4 hour workweek book, and Rand Fishkin is the founder of SEOmoz.

Neil Patel is the founder of Crazy Egg, Tim Ferriss is the author of the popular 4 hour workweek book, and Rand Fishkin is the founder of SEOmoz.

The video below contains 10 quick tips you can use to get started as a blogger.

Setting the right goals is critical to the success of your content marketing campaigns. In this lesson, you’ll discover how to create goals that drive results for your business.

Without the right goals, it will be very hard for you to create a successful content marketing campaign. That’s why it’s important to start every campaign with a goal in mind.

Every business you work with will have different goals depending on their size and target market. 

In this lesson, we’ll cover the most common goals businesses can achieve with content marketing.

The first main goal involves increasing brand awareness.

Companies can increase their brand’s awareness by publishing relevant content and building their reputation as a thought leader.

They can then measure their influence by looking at the number of social media mentions they receive from other influencers and reputable online sources.

Content marketing can also help businesses generate leads.

The greater the number of leads, the higher the chances of a business closing a sale in the future.

Content marketing can also be used to reduce costs associated with traditional marketing.

Advertising campaigns are usually expensive when compared to content marketing, and they only generate results when particular ads are running.

However, content marketing campaigns can generate results long after the original publish date, which leads to reduced marketing costs.

Your content marketing campaigns can also be used to increase revenue.

For example, if you’re launching a new product, you can use content marketing to build awareness days before the product becomes available.

When your product does eventually become available, you’ll be able to enjoy higher sales because people already have familiarity with the product. 

It’s important to keep in mind that every content marketing goal you set needs to have a metric assigned to it so that you can track your progress over time.

You should never pick a goal that won’t result in any measurable benefit for your business.

For example, you should avoid setting goals such as “get 20 likes on a picture” because those likes don’t necessarily translate into any meaningful results for the business.
A better goal would be “to increase social media referral traffic by 20% over a period of 30 days.”

As you collect more data about your audience and content marketing campaigns, you’ll be able to quickly identify what works and what doesn’t work.

Based on this knowledge, you’ll be able to increase the effectiveness of your content marketing campaigns.

Content marketing is an important part of growing your business online. In this lesson, you’ll discover all the benefits of adopting a content marketing strategy.

Although content marketing has gained a lot of popularity recently, the majority of marketers still have a hard time understanding how it all fits within their overall strategy.

In this course, you’ll discover the tips and tools you can use to start increasing the effectiveness of your content marketing campaigns today.

Content marketing is simply the process of creating valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage your audience.

Watch the video below to learn more about the history of content marketing.

According to recent research, 71% of consumers trust companies that provide useful information without trying to sell something. 

A further 62% of consumers trust businesses that provide information and best practices for tools they’ve bought.

As a marketer, it’s important that you understand how to create content for all stages of the buyer’s journey.

For example, if you’re a business in the health industry, you can create blog posts about workout routines and diets for your audience.

Some customers will prefer to consume information through blog posts, while others will prefer videos and images.

Your job is to figure out the best media for your audience and deliver valuable content that solves a problem.

In addition to creating useful content, you should also be able to keep track of relevant metrics to assess the performance of your campaigns over time.

Throughout this content marketing course, you’ll discover which metrics to measure, what types of content to post, and how to create content based on your customer’s needs.

This lesson will cover best practices for recording and creating content.

So now that your channel is optimized and you have a sense of what your audience wants to see, it’s time to record. Let’s learn more.

What exactly goes into recording a video people want to watch? The video on the next slide will walk you through the anatomy of creating a killer YouTube video.

Once you record and edit, it’s also important not to forget to optimize your videos to get more views.

There are several ways to optimize your videos to get more views. First, like Pinterest, you need to invest time in keyword research to identify terms and words with a high search volume. Use Keywords everywhere or Google Keyword planner for this task.

Next, add these keywords to your video in the title, the video description, and in the video tags.

Each video’s description should have a unique section of a few sentences describing what it’s about. Make sure to include a link to your website or landing page, your keywords, links to your other social accounts, a link to your products or services mentioned, and a call to action.

Here is more info about creating a strong description.

The next way to optimize your video is to use timestamps. Youtube timestamps are like breaking your video into chapters and allows viewers to skip to the sections they are most interested in. The video on below shows you how this is done.

Another aspect of optimizing your video is creating an engaging video thumbnail. Besides your title, it’s the only other thing users have to decide if they want to watch your video or not.

Check out the video below for information on creating video thumbnails that drive more views.

You can upload and schedule videos directly from within YouTube Studio. Pick a posting schedule and stick to it.

YouTube channels that post more than once a week typically perform much better and get more recommended views. If possible, post to YouTube three or more times per week. Keeping a regular schedule with multiple posts per week can quickly raise your channel in the algorithm.

Once you post, make sure to respond to viewer comments. More comments will boost your video in the algorithm and will be seen by more viewers.

Lastly, make sure you are tracking your data. YouTube’s built in analytics provide detailed information on your subscribers, views, watch time, and where your audience is coming from.

Use this data to make informed decisions about where there may be room for improvement. Keep track of this, post regularly, optimize your channel and your content, and you’ll be well on your way to creating a popular YouTube channel.