Blogging Article by: Roy Werner Karlsen
Welcome to the 4th part of the Become A Blogger Mini Course.
Inside today's lesson, I'll reveal three *extremely* powerful content creation techniques that will help you crank out content for your blog faster than you ever thought possible!
But first, let's talk about the importance of content for your blog...
Have you ever heard the expression, "Content is King"?
This is one of the most important concepts you will ever need to keep in mind as you travel your journey towards a MEGA successful blog.
Great content is the backbone of any successful blog, and without it, you can simply forget about gaining any kind of prominence in the niche that you are blogging about.
But it's not just *any* content that will do the job...
"The key is to create amazingly valuable and focused content on a regular basis."
Whoah! That's a mouth full!
Let's break it down a bit...
********************************************** First, you need to create amazingly valuable content... **********************************************
The more valuable you can make your content, the more people will like it. And the more people who like it, the more they will tell their online friends, and as a result, drive traffic back to your site.
Many newbie bloggers don't "get" this, and feel that they might give away too much content without charging anything for it.
But the reality is that the more you give away, the more attention and hence traffic you will generate to your blog over the long run. And of course, with lots of traffic, you basically have "the license to print money"!
But I'm getting ahead of myself here... Let's get back to that statement I just made.
********************************************** Second, you need to create focused content... **********************************************
By "focused", I mean content that is focused on your topic of interest - your niche.
Inside Part 2 of this mini course, I gave you plenty of tips to help you find your topic or niche. And all I'm saying here is that it's important to stick to your chosen topic by staying focused on content related to your topic or niche.
Now of course it's important to listen to your blog visitors, and to ask them what they want to learn about, but people will visit your blog because they are interested in your topic. And by staying focused on that topic, you will automatically give them what they want, which will keep them nice and happy.
************************************************* Finally, you need to create content on a regular basis... *************************************************
Creating content regularly for your blog is critical right at the beginning of your blogging career. We recommend you create a new piece of content every day for the first six months... or at the least every two days if you can't handle a new piece of content every day.
This will achieve at least 2 things:
One - it will help you get content out there fast!
And two - it will help you get traffic from the search engines.
The more keyword rich content you create over a period of time, the more chance you'll have of getting noticed by the search engines and getting listed.
But of course, two more additional benefits of creating content regularly is that (1) you will get into the habit of creating great content fast, and (2) your visitors will come to know you better as you "get in touch" with them more often.
And the better your visitors know you, the more they will trust you. And the more they trust you, the easier you will find it to influence them into a certain direction... like buying your products for example!
Ultimately, the content of your blog is THE MOST important aspect for the success of your blog. Without great content, you can't build a following. And without a following, you can't do diddly squat!
Okay... now that you understand the importance of "creating amazingly valuable and focused content on a regular basis" you are ready to move onto the second main part of this lesson...
******************************************** Three *Extremely* Powerful Content Creation Strategies For Your Blog ********************************************
Coming up with new ideas for content can be a struggle at best, especially at the beginning when you're not used to creating new and original content.
That's why I'd like to reveal to you some magical content creation tips now that will let you crank out content like a professional author on steroids!
Seriously, the tips you're about to read can make a HUGE difference to your creativity and coming up with amazing content for your blog.
Don't be fooled by the simplicity of these tips. Yaro and I use a combination of these ideas almost every day to help us create content. So, this is as good as it gets...
In particular, I'll show you three methods for coming up with content fast and easy:
1. The Mind Map Method
2. The Brain Dump Method
3. And the Talk It Out Method
Please note: The methods I'm about to tell you have been tried and tested over time, but don't feel that you HAVE to use these methods.
The bottom line is that you need to find a method or a technique that you enjoy using and find naturally easy to do.
These are simply some ideas you can use to come up with your own unique way of creating the content for your blog.
Each of the three methods are designed to stimulate your thinking, and to help you get your ideas from out of your head, and onto paper, or in this case, onto your blog.
Ok, let's move onto the first method...
*********************** 1. The Mind Map Method ***********************
The Mind Map Method could be one of the most powerful content creation methods you will ever use. I use it for almost all of the content that I ever create, whether it's for a blog, an article or even for a video.
It's one of the best methods I've found to help stimulate my mind and to come up with amazing ideas of things to write about, and to create a general structure for my content.
If you don't know what a Mind Map is, I strongly recommend you read Tony Buzan's book on Mind Mapping. He's known as the founder of Mind Maps and inside his book, he explains why it's such a powerful skill to have, once you've learned how to use it properly.
But just briefly, if you don't know what it is, Wikipedia.com defines a Mind Map as:
"... a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea."
I use a program called Freemind for all my Mind Maps, but there are a whole host of other tools that you can also use.
You could even just use a pen and paper if you prefer. But the rules stay the same, no matter what tool you're using.
Freemind doesn't cost anything and it works for both PC's and Mac and you can download it here:
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
For example, say you'd like a create a "How To" article on "Cooking Salmon Using A Fry Pan" for one of your key content articles.
You'd start off by creating the central idea as:
"How To Cook Salmon Using A Fry Pan" right in the center of your page.
This will become your main idea where all your other ideas will branch off from.
Then, without any critical thinking, simply just list all the things or ideas that pop into your mind related to this main idea.
For example, if I think about cooking salmon in a fry pan, one of the first things I might think about is what kind of salmon I should be using...
And then maybe, how to prepare it...
And then, how to fry it...
How to serve it...
And maybe some special cooking tips...
You can then develop your ideas further by adding more branches and sub topics underneath each of the branches you just created...
As you can see, you can really go nuts with this, and add as much detail as you like.
The point of it all is to help the creative juices flow in your mind, and then to create some kind of a structure that you can use for when you start writing.
So, once you've got your Mind Map complete, you can go ahead and move the branches around into a logical structure...
That's what's great about doing Mind Maps on a piece of software like Freemind - it makes it so much easier and faster than paper based Mind Maps!
And once you're done with that, you can use the Mind Map as the structure for your article, and simply start writing little bits of content for each of the sections or branches.
This can often cut down your writing time tremendously, and it will also ensure a much higher quality level for your articles.
Ok, that's it for the Mind Map method. Let's move onto the next one...
************************* 2. The Brain Dump Method *************************
The Brain Dump Method is a fantastic method for creating content really fast, and ensuring that your content flows extremely well when people read it.
You can actually use the Brain Dump Method in conjunction with the Mind Map Method, but before I tell you how to do that, let's first talk about what the actual Brain Dump Method is.
This is probably one of my favorite methods for creating content really fast. In fact, as I'm writing this email, I'm actually using this very same method.
I first learned about this method from a gentleman called Dr Joe Vitale, and he's now written so many books using this same method, that he's lost count!
So, to me, that's enough proof that it works!
So here's what you do...
Step 1: Come up with the general title or topic of your article...
Step 2: Do all the necessary research you'll need to get a thorough understanding of your topic - unless you already know your topic really well of course...
Step 3: Turn your computer screen off...
Step 4: Start typing with the intention of creating an article focused on your selected title or topic, and just type anything that comes into your head...
And I really mean anything!
For example, if the thought coming into your head is: "I don't know what to write..." - type that out!
Just type.
Don't worry about spelling or grammar mistakes or anything else, just focus on typing whatever comes into your head (of course with the intention of creating a new article!).
Very quickly, you'll find that one idea will lead to the next, and your brain will simply start getting on a roll, and your fingers wont be able to type fast enough.
Before you know it, you'll end up with a number of pages of content in a matter of minutes!
I've personally tried this method many times over, and each time I use it, I am just amazed at how quickly I can create outstanding content.
The reason why this method works so well, is because when you turn your computer screen off, you can't actually see what you're typing (of course), and this prevents the editing part of your brain from wanting to make changes and modifications all the time as you go.
If your screen is off, you brain simply gives you all the content you need, without having to start and stop all the time for editing, and as a result, your final article will flow much better, and your ideas will merge really well to create a very easy to read article.
Of course, after you've done your brain dump, you can turn your screen back on, and then edit whatever you've written.
Sometimes it's much easier to edit something you've already written, than coming up with totally new information from scratch.
Of course you can just do this on paper as well since being able to type well is a key requirement for this method.
If you do decide to do it on the computer though, just make sure that your typing program is actually active - I've had a few occasions where I typed a wonderful article while my screen was off, and then, when I turned my screen back on again, there was nothing there because my typing program was not active. So just watch out for this.
Now, combining this method with the Mind Map Method can be very powerful. What you do, is basically come up with a general structure for your article, and then use the Brain Dump Method for each of the sub topics that you created inside your Mind Map.
Combining these two methods like this can help you stay focused and also ensure that your final product is more structured.
But just try them out separately as well, and experiment to see what works best for you.
If you don't believe that the Brain Dump Method really works, do try it out a few times first, and see for yourself.
I've just been amazed by it so many times now, and I think there is a good chance that you'll be amazed by it too.
Finally, let's move onto the last method...
************************** 3. The Talk It Out Method **************************
The Talk It Out Method is exactly that... You "talk out" your content.
This is another extremely easy way of creating content fast and easy.
All you have to do, is come up with your topic or title as you would normally do...
Perform all the research you need to do (read books, talk to people, read relevant information on the internet)...
Get a recording device...
And start talking about your topic while recording.
After you've talked about it and recorded it, simply transcribe the audio, and do your normal editing afterward.
You could even get someone else to do the transcription for you, saving you lots of time to start thinking about your next topic.
That's really all there is to this method. It will work especially well for people who prefer talking over writing.
Another variation to this method is to get someone else to interview you while you record the conversation.
All you have to do, is come up with a bunch of questions related to your topic, and then get your friend or a colleague to interview you while you record the conversion.
You can either do it face to face with a portable recording device, or you could use something like Skype (it's free) and the Pamela recording software that you can purchase for a small charge.
What's great about this interviewing method is that you can use both the audio recording as well as the transcript that results from it, and put both of them on your blog. Your readers will simply love having the option of both audio and text.
That's it for this method - it's a pretty powerful one - short and sweet!
This should give you enough ideas to help you come up with content quickly and easily.
Don't forget that you can modify these methods any way you want to, and even combine them with some of your own methods.
The whole point of it all is to simply help you get those creative juices flowing so that you can get your content out as fast and as easy as possible.
I encourage you to keep on looking for other content creation methods too, and to keep on perfecting your methods and techniques all the time.
Creating great content is the *number one* most important thing for the success of your blog, so the more you can practice, the better!
Inside the next part of this mini course, I'll reveal how you can boost the effectiveness of your blog using clever multimedia tricks and tools - what we call "X-Factor Strategies" for your blog.
Until then!
Roy Werner Karlsen
Become A Blogger
Part 4 of 7
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