Content Marketing : Hope for Bloggers

It’s been quite some time that I have been associated with the online market’s development and trend; and equally long time working on contents too. Sometime back I saw a spurt of bloggers all around and then came Facebook and most of those bloggers opted for few lines of Facebook updates than a full-fledged blog. However those really passionate stayed and slowly grew in number.

Off late, I am seeing a number of good bloggers around. And like me, quite a few of them also wonder if they can monetize these skill and passion of them. Well the good news is, content has always been the king, it still is; especially after Google has hit the online world with its Penguin and Panda updates. These two significant updates from Google has penalized all those site which used tricks like link farming to get better SEO results.

Even the traditional customer life cycle in Marketing is getting re-defined by Jim Lecinski and Google, where in their research shows the existence of “Zero Moment of Truth” (ZMOT). As per it consumers after the initial stimulus, no longer directly moves to the store to buy, but goes online to read reviews and ask for opinions before going to the store. Hence online content to motivate the consumers from the “Stimulus to Purchase” needs to have enough positive content online to influence their decision – and the content scores again.

Zero Moment of Truth

Even a recent article on Forbes that talks about the “Trends That Will Dominate 2014”, list as the top most trend as – “Content Marketing Will be Bigger Than Ever”

Now let us have a look at some encouraging trends in Content marketing for us bloggers:

• B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who don’t. (Social Media B2B)
• 37% of marketers say blogs are the most valuable type of content marketing.(Content+)
• 62% of companies outsource their content marketing. (Mashable)
• 61% of consumers say they feel better about, and are more likely to buy from, a company that delivers custom content. (Custom Content Council)
• Blogs give websites 434% more indexed pages. (Content+)
• Companies with active blogs receive 97% more leads (Content+ 2013)
• 27,000,000 pieces of content are shared everyday. (AOL and Nielsen)
• 55% of B2C marketers plan to increase content marketing spend next year. (Content Marketing Institute)
• 78% of CMOs think custom content is the future of marketing. (Hanley-Wood Business Media)

And that’s precisely why all over the Internet clouds, web site owners and CMO’s have accepted the importance of useful content for their online presence. And there is no better way than Blogs to include regularly updating content that is related to your business objectives. The complexity of maintaining diverse blog contents are also forcing companies to outsource blogs, and thus comes the scope for bloggers and content champions.

The million dollar question (or at least thousand dollars) is that “Who do we get the work from?” and more importantly – “Why will they give the work to me?” Well the first one is easier. All you need to do is Google it and get a list of companies looking for freelance bloggers. Besides the sites such as “oDesk” and “PeoplePerHour” as well as other similar sites, lists a number of opportunities. However the tough job is to convert those opportunities into actual paying activities. So that’s the tougher question to ask.

One good tactic could be to establish your credibility in the niche that you want to write content for. For example if you love writing about festivals and celebration – you can look at the niche of Retailers willing to cache on them. And to ensure that the company you want the writing work for values you as an authority, you need to have a reputation in your niche. You need enough people liking and commenting on your write-ups; not only in your own blog site but elsewhere too. To do so – what you need to master is “Guest-Blogging”. Google it or plan it up as a guest blogger says on “audiencebloom” (this itself a site that lets guest bloggers write on their site).

And this is how you can start getting established as a “Guest Blogger”:

1. Have you Social Media Profiles up and running
2. Find out the topics you want to write – topics that are trending; find them at “AllTop” or think of festivals and industry events coming up
3. Write a bunch of contents that are long enough for Google to like (around 1000 words or more), and are segmented with sub-headers
4. Google to find sites that lets Guest Bloggers write for them, and mail them your request
5. Follow up; once you get positive responses, agree on acceptable article titles and formats.
6. If you get your articles published – use it market to others; don’t forget to thank the site though!
7. Comment on similar blogs and forums

If you feel that doing all these just to establish your credibility as a guest blogger is going to be a long drawn waste of time, just have a look at the Benefits of Guest Blogging:

• Builds and improves Author Rank
• Creates links to your website
• Strengthens awareness of your brand
• Aligns your brand with industry leaders
• Builds your personal brand
• Generates leads and traffic
• Creates social signals

All these will ultimately help you to improve your online credibility. Make sure you generate enough valued incoming links to your blog thus boosting your Pagerank and “Author Rank”. Author Rank is Google’s system of calculating the credibility of the author of a particular content in a page, affecting how well that page ranks in search. Trusted, authoritative, credible authors receive “bonus points” in the rankings for articles they write related to their niches of expertise. And once you have achieved all this – Voila! The companies you are pitching for “Paid Writing” assignments will start noticing you. Happy Blogging!

Let me know if this made you start your Paid Blogging career or at least made you chalk your future strategy to stardom!

Related articles

• Content Marketing Helps You Be More Transparent (business2community.com)