The way I see it – I need to step up my game in three main areas if I want to maximize the results of the 90-Day Content Marketing Challenge (and beyond, of course).
These opportunities for improvement are:
- Increase Social Networking efforts
- Achieve more wide-spread content distribution
- Identify additional forums/blogs and get involved
In other words – I need to do a better job at content promotion.
Because I write for others, it is probably not all that surprising that creating the content itself isn’t my biggest challenge (although finding the time to write as much as I’d like is an ongoing concern). Instead, carving out the time and making a concerted effort to find an audience for that content is where I sometimes lag behind.
My goal with this site is to build something real and long-term – and hope to find an audience/build relationships through the work I do here. I strongly believe this process needs to be a two way street – you need to give back as well as hope to benefit. Therefore, I struggle the most with #1 and # 3 – because with my current workload, I am unable to spend as much time on those activities as I feel I need to. (Plus, I am the first to admit I am a bit of a Twitter dork 
– I think it is fascinating (and I know it helps my business and this site) and one of these days I really do mean to master it… will probably be after all the really cool kids have already moved on to something else, though.. ).
The forums are a challenge, as well. I really enjoy the main one I belong to – and have found a certain comfort zone there. Plus, there is more valuable information available there than I could ever possibly absorb. However, I need to identify at least one or two more in order to reach a wider, more diverse audience.
The second opportunity for improvement (wider content distribution) is simply a matter of execution. The 90-Day Challenge was set up to include 3 articles/week to 25 different directories. It takes a lot of time to do that manually – and if it comes down to that activity or a paying project… guess which one wins? (For that matter, if it comes down to submitting articles manually and… just about any other activity… guess which one wins?? ) The content is created and is on a number of directories – but not all articles are on 25 different directories as yet.
(Speaking of article directories, I AM glad I structured the Challenge this way because 1.) it is giving me great material for the free report on Article Marketing/ top article directories I will be offering to my eNewsletter subscribers in a few weeks and 2.) I’m feeling a review of article submission services (not software) and/or virtual assistant options coming up, as well! ).
Of course, there is no way to create more time and because of this, there will always be limits to how much we can accomplish in any given day. However, I do believe there are things we can each do to become more efficient, more productive and get the most return on the time we invest into our online content creation and marketing efforts.
A good first step to achieving these objectives is to take stock of what is currently working for you and where your own opportunities for improvement might be. What can you do different or better than you are right now? Is there one area you can work on that would make an immediate positive impact on your business? Grab a pen and paper and write those things down. I think you’ll find that identifying what specifically you need to work on is more than half the battle.
Once you know your target, at least you can aim in the right direction.
Til Next Time,
PS Be sure to sign up for the WebCopyResults.com Tuesday Tips (sign up box in the upper right hand corner of the screen) – subscribers will get my upcoming free report on article marketing and the best article directories!
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