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Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

Remember that one from childhood? Useful anytime someone had the audacity to toss verbal ninja stars at us…but turns out it was false! Words most definitely can hurt you.

Using certain words could be having a negative impact on your online performance. To paraphrase Napoleon from Animal Farm:

“All words are created equal, but some are more equal than others.”

Deciding on which words to use – and which to actively NOT use – can be the difference between ranking well in the search engines, and languishing in obscurity (using keywords for SEO). Between a successful pay-per-click (PPC) campaign, and throwing your money away (using keywords for advertising). Words, words, words. If the pen is truly mightier than the sword, we must carefully choose our weapons.

And with 12 billion monthly searches in the United States alone, there’s a lot of words out there for the plucking. Grab yours.

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Content has been king for a few years now, but is it still lord of the manor, queen of the castle, um…duke of the duchy (okay, that last one is a bit of a stretch)? The short answer? Yes. The slightly longer answer? Yes, but…

“Content” is changing. It’s a living, breathing animal, but like any beast (and let’s face it, content marketing is a beast), it evolves over time. It’s not just blog posts and a Facebook Page anymore.

Content?

But before we open it up and play doctor, we need to define a few things. What exactly do we mean by content, and content marketing? What’s the difference between inbound and outbound marketing? What do you call the foam on a glass of beer? And what the heck is the day after tomorrow? These are the things we need to know moving forward.

Content Marketing

Creating and distributing valuable, useful, and consistent content to attract a defined audience and achieve a specific goal. The term didn’t really take off until early 2012, but it’s witnessed steady growth since then.

According to an authority no less than Seth Godin: 

Content marketing is the only marketing left.

Sheesh. If that’s not enough to keep content awake at night, nothing will.

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“Good Artists Copy. Great Artists Steal”- Pablo Picasso

Steve Jobs, who attributed this saying to Pablo Picasso, embodied this concept as a core philosophy in his construction of the mega-brand Apple has become today. What did Jobs find so endearing about this line?

The answer is Steve Jobs intuitively knew what all the great copywriters know: all great ideas start from a swipe file.

You might be thinking “But swiping sounds like plagiarizing…I don’t want to grow my business by stealing!”

That’s a perfectly valid concern. Which is why the first thing we’re going to cover is what a swipe file is versus what a swipe file isn’t. Then we will get into why a swipe file is important for your business, as well as how to build and use a swipe file.

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Blogging is easy.

It’s so easy, that millions of people are doing it. 

But building an audience and making money with your blog is, well, something entirely different. 

Since I began my first authority blog back in 2009, I’ve learned a lot. Both from the trenches and from dozens of books. 

In this post, I’ll share my favorite books for creating and running an authority blog. I’ve divided the books into four sections: business model, authority blogging, promotion, and content creation. 

Not sure where to begin? If you’re just starting your authority blog, see my top three recommendations at the end of the post.

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There’s an app for that. And that. And that. There are thousands of them. Some are useful, and some are not (I’m looking in your direction, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood). 

You know Buffer, and Hootsuite, Canva, and Salesforce (am I the only one who reads that to the tune of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”?). But there’s a digital plethora of lesser-known marketing services out there that are just as good – or better. Sadly though, they’re buried under several feet of marketing goodness that came before them.  

And that’s a shame because there’s some hidden gems. The ambitious among us will go digging. They’ll grab a shovel and roll up their sleeves. But the rest of us? We don’t have the time. Or the energy. Or the shovel.

But that doesn’t mean we’re not interested in them. So, consider me your spelunking guide, heading deep underground to find buried treasure on your behalf. I get dirty and chased by mole people while you reap the benefits.

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Any content marketer can recite the magic content mantra with their eyes closed: get the right content in front of the right people at the right time.

But what is the right content?

If you know your customer, you should know the right content. It answers their questions and solves their problems. They sleep like a baby because you eliminated the big problem that used to keep them counting sheep until the rooster crowed.

But how do you find out what keeps your audience in a state of constant panic? Check out this process to find out anything you want to know about your target audience:

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Are you a small business trying to corner your market?

Locally, regionally, or online?

What does “corner your market” even mean?

Who knows? 

Breaking down the definition of success is tricky.

So we decided to ask. For today’s post, we’re showcasing real-life examples of small businesses who are succeeding in large part due to their blogging techniques. They’re trying to corner their market… and their techniques are working. 

From law firms to yoga instructors, blogging is often the least expensive answer to the biggest problem small businesses and agencies have:

How do I maximize my reach? How do I corner my market?

We asked and they answered. These small business owners are telling you exactly what kind of blogging they did to get ahead. 

What it takes to get ahead — and stay ahead — of your competition can seem like a mystery.

But all of these businesses have one thing in common: while they may not be the biggest, baddest business in their market, they are thriving, successful, and profitable. All because of blogging.

If you don’t have (or want) a big marketing budget, this post is for you. 

Here’s 8 examples of small businesses who have cornered their marketing by blogging. 

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You’re a smart content marketer.

You’ve embraced the power of inbound. You recognize the need to be consistent with your content production schedule.

Heck, every single post on every single authoritative content marketing blog you regularly read hammers all this home.

But you’re struggling to get on a consistent schedule with your content production. You just don’t ever have the time to get it done. 

You’ve got a time management problem.

Whether you’re just procrastinating, overwhelmed, or truly don’t have the time, it’s keeping you from doing something you know you need to do.

And if you’ve ever wondered if it’s just you — it’s not just you.

In fact, of the top five challenges identified by respondents to a survey conducted by the LinkedIn Technology Marketing Community, three touch on time management and productivity problems:

• Lack of Time/Bandwidth to Create Content (51%)

• Producing Enough Content Variety/Volume (50%)

• Developing Consistent Content Strategy (34%)

And it’s not just B2C marketers, by the way. Another study, this one conducted jointly by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, found that a full 57% of responding B2B marketers named “producing content consistently” their top content marketing challenge.

So yeah, Houston, we all have a problem. I think it’s especially true if you’re in business for yourself or are a freelancer — two types who tend towards maverick-y, go-it-alone-ness, by and large.

Yes, we’re self-starters by nature — that’s the shiny side of the entrepreneurial coin.

But we also get the not-so-pretty flip side: it’s all on us, and we just feel icky about shuffling stuff off on to others. We resist hiring, delegating, outsourcing. But we also (too often) resist doing.

Couple that with the fact that we want to do our actual work, not market our businesses, and really, is it any wonder that we have a time management problem? 

Even freelance copywriters fall victim to the trap by getting out of the habit of content marketing — or so I hear. I have no direct, personal experience with this. (I have a lot of direct, personal experience with this.)

The solution depends on the exact nature of the “why” behind your procrastination problem.

There are no short cuts.

There is no one weird simple trick.

There’s no magic tool or app that’ll straighten it all out for you once and for all.

Yes it’s important to have a streamlined, effective system for creating content in place, to reduce the time it takes to create each piece of content you publish.

But that’s just one piece of the solution. If you want to up your time management game and get your content marketing back on schedule, read on. 

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My name is [insert here] and I am a [select one from below]:

• Blogger
• Author
• Copywriter
• Content King

Wait, you’re not any of those things?

Oh, that’s right. 

You’re a small business owner.

Your job is to grow your business and implement strategies that generate revenue.

Blogging needs to be a part of your content strategy. You know that.  

You’re blogging about things that matter to your audience, but it’s just not clicking. People are responding. 

Audience or share wise.

You could hire someone, but spending the money right now isn’t an option. Free and low-cost guest bloggers abound (here’s how to find them), but your blog needs a consistent voice. 

You don’t have time to deal with freelancers and edits. 

Bummer.

Still, content must be generated, concerns addressed, help provided. If you want to build your online presence, blogging plays a vital role in the success of your online presence.

Every blog post you publish builds your brand. 

Your brand’s attitude is most obvious in blog posts. 

What’s your blog really saying?

If you’re just throwing up some words and thoughts on your blog, freeze. 

Unless you’re a really good writer, those random posts are scaring away potential customers.

You have to write the right thing, share shareable things, and connect with your audience. That’s how a blog supports a business.