Any interesting or surprising results?

I’m sure one thing you may have noticed is how frequent your social media pages pop up on google and other search engines.

It just goes to show that it is very important to develop your own online brand by controlling what people can find out about you online.

To get you started and providing some food for thought, here is a bullet point list of 50 hints and tips from the personal branding blog. http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/50-tips-to-brand-yourself-online/

In the health and wellness market where you are relying on people to buy and pay for “YOU”….and that’s in your day to day business as well as online business….it’s become increasingly important to look after your online brand.

Let’s face it, if people were thinking about paying for your day to day services they are likely to research you and the subject area online.

Social media has been the catalyst for creating online identities. As a health and wellness professional if you have not given time, thought and planning to your social networks and the image they convey then you risk damaging how people perceive you.

It is for this reason I am not a fan of using social media profiles, such as Facebook or Twitter for both personal and business use.

These are the three steps I recommend for ensuring you are in control of your online brand……

Social media design and monitoring
Your social media designs should look professional tailored to the industry niche you operate in. I always believe that social networks can provide the “human” touch to your online business. People can understand the human behind the website or product. This helps people to develop trust and confidence in your business.

However, just having a profile or being a ghost in social media is not going to get your online health and wellness brand very far either. It’s important to be active within your media niche and join the conversations.

It is for this reason I recommend focusing your attention on no more two or three key medias, obviously depending on the time you can allocate. But it is better to have a strong presence on one or two medias that have a small ineffectual presence on many medias.

Also, it enables you to actively monitor what is being said within your niche and allows you to join conversations and communities that can enhance your brand and network.

Consider which media is going to be most beneficial to you. Below are some considerations before engaging with social media:
Where is the majority of your audience online socialising.
What type of content are you engaging your audience with? Video? Podcast? Blog articles? Images? Etc
Which media suits your type of business?
Which media will attract the most traffic?

Tailored and valuable content
As stressed many times in this blog your content has to be relevant and be perceived of high value by your audience. Your content should remain focused on the niche within health and wellness you have chosen to operate your business. Mix the content up with all different styles from articles to interviews, digital content and interesting links.

Allow your audience to join your conversations whether it be through article comments, email feedback, social media comments.

If your audience feels part of ‘your online world’ they will feel a sense of belonging, but not just any type of belonging they will feel they exist in a community they are passionate and enthusiastic about.

Your online brand and expert status will be held in high regard if it’s your content that is the source and catalyst of discussion and networking.

Connections
Your social media networks grow through developing relationships that become ‘connections’. Re-read that last sentence one more time and think which is the important word you should take on board?

……….’relationships’……..

…….Is the term most important here. Why?

Too many people that use social media for business reasons place too much emphasis on the number of connections or followers etc instead of the relationship that exists between the two people or businesses.

Again, it’s the less is more rule that should apply.

You will get more from your connections (particularly to gain their trust if you want them to buy from you!) if you have built a foundation to the connection first.

Having a constant relationship with your connections will allow your online brand and reputation to spread. Having connections where either of you do not know or understand what each other do is as good as no connection at all.

What is your best tip for cultivating an online brand? Do you engage with many media or do you prefer to focus on one?

I’m sure your natural instinct will tell you if that’s the case then the larger the email list the more money you will make. Is your instinct right?…….

……..WRONG!!

Many health and wellness professionals are constantly trying to build huge email and subscriber lists thinking that the bigger the number the greater chance of making money and having more web traffic.

The fact of the matter is that the health and wellness professionals who make more money online through affiliates and information products are the ones who have close relationships with their subscribers.

It is the relationship you have with your email list is the important component. Okay, so maybe you’re instinct is not entirely wrong as logic will tell you that if you have a very large list with relationships then that is obviously going to make you more money than a small list despite having close relationships.

But the key to making money from your email subscribers is to have a relationship with them first……that is paramount!!

It’s better to have a captive of audience of just a few hundred than a non captive audience of a few thousand…..

….and it’s easier to build relationships by starting with smaller groups of email subscribers…….

Start one by one…….

…..Put the building blocks in right at the beginning. By building the list a few at a time you are creating manageable groups of people to begin your relationship process. You can’t be talking to everyone at once. This will enable you to start captivating your audience and building solid foundations towards long term relationships. It’s no good gathering thousands of email addresses in a short space of time, with no idea of who they are or what they want from you.

So, how do you build a relationship? ……..

……Again, it comes back to your content and that content is King. We are lucky in the health and wellness industry that we are already serving an emotion. Someone has landed on your website hoping to find the answers to their needs. If your content can provide that you will captivate your target audience. If they keep enjoying and finding benefit in the content you continue to supply them you will not only gain their trust and loyalty but also entice them to subscribe or offer you their email.

Value versus sales……

…….if your intention is to promote a product or affiliate immediately a subscriber signs up then you will lose their interest straight away. Focus your attention on delivering content that is of high perceived value to your group of subscribers.

A logical process should look like this….

• Before people buy from you they need to feel they trust and understand you.

• To gain trust and understanding you must      develop relationships.
• Relationships are built through engagement.
• Engagement comes from providing value
• Once people perceive you as a trustworthy and valuable source they may consider to buy from you.

An article that highlights the importance of relationships with your email subscribers can be found here and is definitely worth a read.

What about you? Are you having any success with smaller email lists? Or are you on a Holy Grail quest have email thousands of subscribers?

I’m sure you don’t need any more reminding that the Health and Wellness market is a booming niche on the internet with millions of people searching everyday for answers to their health related concerns.

The reason why I have chosen to put a 4 part series focusing on blogging is because I see so many health and wellness professionals’ personal sites with links to their blogs that looks as if it has fallen by the way side. You hear the following excuses:

• “Not enough time.”
• “Too many clients to attend to.”
• “I can’t get any traffic.”
• “It doesn’t bring me any business.”
• “It’s an unwanted hassle.”

Hopefully, I can dispel those excuses for you with this four part series as blogs provide a fantastic platform to showcase your knowledge and expertise.

The problem is many health and wellness professionals write blogs but don’t really leverage them to their full potential……

……..by “full potential” I mean that their blogs do not focus on two objectives:

1. Focus on catering for an engaged few. Too many think it’s about accumulating millions of followers from the get go.
2. Generate a re-occurring revenue stream………

……it’s seems their blogs just exist for the sake of existing with no real purpose or end product. So if you want to get more out of your blog this 4 part series is worth tuning in to.

Are you an Expert?…..

……..Without going over old ground if you have clients and followers that are already paying for your services / products and subscribe to the information you publish then to them you are an expert! What we need is to get more people perceiving you as the expert! Your blog can help you achieve this. To quantify what “more” doesn’t mean is that you have to attract hundred thousands of visitors per month. Sites that achieve this have either been established for some time, are established corporations or have plenty of capital supporting their advertising and SEO.

What you’re up against……

………as the health and wellness niche is extremely popular and lucrative, you are up against some stiff competition. There are already many other people blogging in this market. This is why your blog should focus on a niche within the health and wellness industry. Experts are perceived as experts because they know a lot about a little and not vice-versa. You should concentrate on delivering high value for a smaller audience instead of diluting your value by trying to serve everyone.

Competition does not always mean competition in the literal sense in the blogosphere…..

…….in the blogging world competition can be a good thing. Firstly, it shows there is a market place for your niche. Secondly, you need other bloggers in your niche to network and share traffic. Building your network and rubbing shoulders with other niche leaders will only increase your reputation but also link traffic back to your site.

Rubbing shoulders with the big boys and girls….

…….is a fantastic way to grow your reach and awareness. By building reputations with other bloggers you may have the opportunity to:

• Write guest blog posts.
• Receive back links to your blog from other well trafficked blogs.
• Increase your credibility by writing for others.
•  Create potential affiliate partners for any information products you create.

Content Is King……

…….your content is part of your glue mixture that makes readers eyes stick to your blog. If you provide entertaining and engaging content that your visitors enjoy and find solutions to their problems they are more likely to perceive you as the go to expert in your niche. Your posts are also your gateways into your blog, therefore you should be thinking about your keywords, headings and url’s to get seen among the web clutter.

Great Content is Your Currency……

……if you are consistently providing great content that is engaging regular followers and subscribers who perceive you as the go to expert your content will become your income stream. This takes time of course. Too many people expect that at a click of a button or instantly after someone subscribes to their blog that they will immediately hand over cash for your products. This is not the case!! And not the right mind-set to adopt!! Just like in any walk of life you have to work at your relationships and gain their trust and loyalty before they start handing over their hard earned cash.

Be active and be seen in your niche blogosphere……

……to build relationships and be seen you should also be active in commenting on other peoples blogs in your health and wellness niche. It’s another opportunity to showcase your knowledge and expertise but also show appreciation to other people’s good work. Praise will go a long way when wanting to start new relationships!

To get started in the blogging world you should consider the following 8 steps first:

1. Develop the right mind-set first. Realise you are in this for the long haul and it will take time and effort to get the results you want.
2. Find your niche to write about and become the expert in.
3. Have a good name and title for your blog that is reflective of who you are and what you do.
4. Find out which other bloggers are worth building relationships with to help share traffic and content. If you are just starting out, why not find a few others who are also nearer the beginning of their journey and help each other to grow. Unfortunately, the big boys and girls will only take note once you have some reputation in the niche.
5. Plan and strategise your content to ensure your content is engaging and optimised for search.
6. Design your blog layout. Make it captivating, easy to navigate and tailored to your purpose and niche.
7. Build your social network platforms around your blog
8. Plan and design your first information give away.

Stay tuned for Part 2!!

So I’m going to give you all a helping hand and throw up 50 potential health and wellness niche markets that will be profitable.

It is as much to stimulate your thought as it is to provide some ideas.

1)      Weight loss for post pregnancy

2)      Wedding weight loss

3)      Healthy eating for busy executives

4)      Keeping fit for busy professionals and business travellers

5)      Stress management for executive females

6)      Back pain for regular office workers

7)      Injury rehabilitation for manual handlers

8)      Baby boomer fitness

9)      Baby boomer weight loss

10)   Healthy living for 60+

11)   Personal development for young entrepreneurs

12)   Muscle gain for men

13)   How to get a six pack

14)   Preventing acne for teenagers

15)   Heart health and fitness for hypertension.

16)   Exercise and nutrition for diabetics

17)   Beat cancer with nutrition and exercise

18)   Exercise for stress

19)   Improving confidence for young females

20)   Improving confidence for young males

21)   Strength training for the serious athlete

22)   Aerobic training for the serious athlete

23)   Beauty tips for young females

24)   Time management for mumpreneurs

25)   Fitness for busy mums

26)   Rehabilitation for sports injuries

27)   Rehabilitation for work related injuries

28)   Chiropractic solutions to Spinal Decompressions

29)   Motivation for weight loss

30)   Motivation to quit smoking

31)   Preventing headaches

32)   Relationship advice for over 40’s

33)   Executive massage and relaxation advice

34)   Life coaching for successful people

35)   Natural remedies to bolster the immune system

36)   Increasing your energy levels

37)   Nutrition and exercise to stop fatigue and tiredness

38)   Anti-aging skin formulas for women

39)   Sport specific training

40)   Products for weight loss

41)   Products for muscle gain

42)   Beauty products for the busy female executive

43)   Stress management with Yoga

44)   Health for the family

45)   Beauty regimes in the home

46)   Fitness and nutrition for young children

47)   Personal development for successful career

48)   Nutrition that stimulates the brain

49)   Spa and beauty product review

50)   Massage Therapy for back and joint pain

Can you think of any others? Could some of these niches be broken down even further?

The key to earning significant financial rewards is to generate re-occurring revenue all of the time. In other words you are still earning when you are not able to attend to your clients, you are earning during the downtime of your day to day business.

To succeed with this you need to turn your service into a product or in other words you can use your unique health and wellness expertise to package into a product.

Naturally, in tune with this blog I am talking about online products, more specifically information products.

Attending personal one to one sessions with clients can be exhausting and to reach any earnings of significance you have to fill your diary with 6-8 hours of bookings, 5 days a week or convince people why they should be paying a premium for your service.

If you put in place a strategy and also some time to create an information product, providing it sells well you could be making significant money 24/7 and adding to your day to day earnings.

Developing an online product can even enable you to:

• leverage your online reputation to increase your perceived value for you to charge more per hour for your health and wellness service.
• Reduce your hours and the need to service one to one clientele.
• Lift the earning cap that your service business model restricts you to.

In your day to day business you are selling, marketing and sharing your expertise to your client all the time. So, why not lift the barrier that a service business model strangleholds your earnings with and open it up to a global audience who need your expertise to solve their problem right now.

And that is one of the great benefits of information products is that people can get the answers to their needs and problems immediately.  There is no wait for delivery and you as the product owner is paid upfront and instantly.

There are so many freelance health and wellness professionals who are slogging away every day in search of being paid by the client. I’m not saying ditch that and change your business solely to an online business because that would not make business sense. I’m also not going to promise that creating information products is easy, effortless and get rich quick scheme. For the product to become a significant revenue stream it takes time, effort and some know how.

What I am advising is that by getting the balance right between your day to day service and online selling you can significantly increase your earning potential and job diversity.

Being in the firing line of day to day service work enables you to gather fantastic ideas and collate great resource that can be the foundation of your information products. Here is a checklist of things that are transferable from your service work to your product:

√  The programmes you write for your clients.

√  The written expertise and advice you provide to your clients.

√  The research you collate.

√  Your backlog of materials and resource.

√ Your clients’ feedback. They will tell you what answers they need and give you clues what people are likely to be searching for on the internet.

Most of you have started your health and wellness business because you are passionate and enjoy the niche you operate in. All you need to do from here is to combine your passion and resource together and you are halfway to creating a product that can provide you with a significant re-occurring revenue stream.

There are literally thousands of articles published on the web where people have posted their views on content. The topic itself could be a book topic so what I have chosen to do is curate some content and share with you some of the posts and resources that I believe are worth a read:

Top 12 Proven Tactics for Selling Content in a Free Content World. The market for paid-for content continues to grow……but how do successful subscription and membership website publishers manage to sell their content in a world where so much content is free? These are the lessons we have learned from our many clients who run subscription websites……

Where To Sell Content Online ? Long back, we discussed about how to make money by selling content ? Content selling is one of the interesting strategy of making money from Internet. If you have the right content then you could make great money out of it…..

How to Sell Your Content Online. Hi there, The Digital Marketer here, ready to help you put the power of the Internet and technology to work for your business….

Creating Powerful Membership Sites When You Have a Small List. When it comes to marketing and making money, size does matter. The size of your newsletter list, Facebook Fan list, Twitter follower list and connections on LinkedIn that is.

Did you find the additional content useful? Do you like the curated content format?

CONNECT WITH CONTENT

As we know, Linkedin is an attractive social media portal to connect with industry peers but also connect with people who share a common interest.

Linkedin’s development of a news section and a share icon for content publishers have enhanced the content sharing culture throughout Linkedin.

Your health and wellness content is not only increasing your respect among your peers but also potential busy executives who want to improve their health and general well-being.

Therefore, the benefits are two-fold:

• Peers who like your content will share it throughout their social networks providing you with a burst of traffic and opening you to a new audience.
• Tapping into the corporate market of busy executives (more about this another time!).

Firstly, let’s start with the widgets that you can plug-in to your Linkedin profile. Anyone who is interested in who you are and what you are about will glance over your profile. It’s only natural you should plug-in your best and most up to date content on your profile homepage to showcase your knowledge and abilities. Below I have listed a few that are appropriate to the health and wellness expert.

Slideshare and Google Presentation

Slideshare and Google Presentation are superb and leading online tools that as both names suggests allows you to create professional slides. Slideshare and Google Presentation can be used in a number of ways, such as:

• Presenting research.
• Case Studies.
• Success Stories.
• Summarising whitepapers.

……I came across an article on slidehsare’s blog describing how they have integrated Slideshare with the Linkedin share widget and how it can be optimised. Check it out!

Blog Link and WordPress

This widget allows you to connect your blog or WordPress site to your profile, where people can view your latest updates and content. It can help drive a small trickle of traffic to your blog, and providing they like what they see will either choose to subscribe to your updates or request a connection on Linkedin.

Tweets

Automate your tweets onto your Linkedin profile to share with your connections. Be careful with both frequent tweets and blog updates as they are published on your connections home page feed. Whilst you want to maintain a modest level of mindshare with your connections be careful not to litter their homepage with just updates coming from you. Most people tend to turn off updates from people who update and appear too frequently and therefore resulting in zero daily mindshare.

Box.net Files

An under used widget that allows you to upload documents on to your profile. This could be a good opportunity to upload any certification or awards that you have received to show credibility.

E-Bookshelf

If you have created your own E-book product then using this widget to upload to your profile can not only lend further credibility to your online brand but might also even provide a trickle of sales.

Events

Even though much of this blog and content focuses on your activity and sales on the Internet, meeting potential prospects face to face should not be underestimated. Highlighting and inviting your connections to events that you will attend give you a perfect opportunity to meet people in person and strengthen the relationship you may already have or even begin new relationships.

Polls

Linkedin is a great place to conduct industry specific research. Polls can be used either for research to base your own future decisions or to share with your own connections and audience to facilitate discussion

To check out the above applications on Linkedin click this link

Secondly, let’s take a look at the share icon that Linkedin have implemented…..

As you can see at the bottom of this post, you will see the social media icons, one of which is the Linkedin icon. This enables you to not only share content with your connections but also with groups that would be related to the theme of your post.

It’s a fantastic way to drive a little bit of traffic back to your site but also highlight your expertise to a relevant audience. It will also add value to the group as the group will receive regular industry news.

Check out this post from the linkedin blog for a step to step guide on how to share your content.

Just a little hint: Try posting news especially to “open” groups. These groups are indexed through search engines meaning that your news link could crop up on search engine rankings increasing your visibility to people outside of Linkedin……no no, its okay, don’t mention it!!

As you are reading this post there should be already one important aspect coming to mind……..did you figure it out? ……LINK BUILDING!!

You can see that by including widgets on to your profile and sharing news in groups you are increasing the amount of links (with very little effort on your part) directing traffic back to your website(s).

That’s the end of four part series on How to Use Linkedin to Promote the Expert in YOU. Linkedin for most health and wellness professionals (unless you target the corporate market) is not going to be your main driver of traffic. But you can see how beneficial it can be to invest a little time to Linkedin into your social media mix to help build your online identity and start making peer connections.

The other three parts can be found here:

Part 1 – How to Brand Your Profile

Part 2 – Building Connections

Part 3 – Become a Group or Community Leader

I say it is part of the new media rules that have turned traditional or should I say “old fashioned” publishing and journalism on its head. I say old fashioned because new media is fast becoming the tradition and the ones who can’t adapt to the rules will be drowned out by the plague of new media content.

So what is content curation? Have you heard of sites like Huffington Post? They are the giants of curated content!

The easiest way for you to see what content curation is to show you as an example here: Our subject matter is Content Curation Definition. Here it goes:

Macmillian Dictionary Blog

the process of analysing and sorting Web content and presenting it in a meaningful and organized way around a specific theme…..

Econtent

Content Curation is the act of discovering, gathering, and presenting digital content that surrounds specific subject matter….

Social Media You Can Trust

Content Curation basically means that – out of all the content you find on the social web – you pass on the most valuable stuff to your network….

Beth’s Blog

Content curation is the process of sorting through the vast amounts of content on the web and presenting it in a meaningful and organized way around a specific theme….

There you have it…..I have curated content from all the clutter around the web and presented you with content specific to the subject of defining Content Curation.

If you take a look at these definitions you can see there are re-occurring terms such as “discover”, “gather”, “sort”, “present”, “specific theme” etc.  To summarise, content curation is simply where a human has gathered various pieces of content regarding a specific area of interest and stored and presented them in one place.

Honestly, it didn’t take me very long to find the information and paste in the links for you to click through to the relevant content.

Why is it valuable to you as a Health and Wellness content publisher?

Firstly, as we know Health and Wellness is one of the most searched for subject areas on the web. There is so much information out there it can be a problem for your readers to find exactly what they are looking for. Your readers perceive you as an expert and value your opinion. Therefore, you can:

• Save your audience time to sift through the web clutter.
• Ensure they get the right information and not the scammy rubbish that exists out there in abundance.
• Present your audience with a different type of reading experience.
• Present your audience with different voices and views to enable your reader to determine their own opinion on the subject matter.
• Be perceived as a gatekeeper of valuable information, which is of course beneficial to your expert status.
• Create list and top 10 style articles.

Secondly, it benefits your content strategy and business by:

• Building relationships with other content publishers in your health and wellness niche by linking to their site.
• Providing your content strategy with a speedy alternative to writing a post when you are working to tight schedules.
• Allowing you to research deeper into your subject area.

Before you go off and start curating to your heart’s content its worth sharing with you some of the disadvantages:

• Unoriginal content – as old fashioned publishers like to argue if everyone curates content there will be no original content. Whilst this is unlikely to ever happen you have to be careful not to alienate your audience because after all, if they have chosen to follow or subscribe to your content it’s because they value your voice and writing.
• Reduce your credibility – this may sound contradictory to the above, but if you over publish curated content it may lead to your readers thinking you do not really know your stuff but more just an expert at searching the internet for information.
• Alienate your “old fashioned readers” – you might want to have think about how many in your readership would loathe you to start curating content and would see it as an insult to their more traditional world of publishing.

In my opinion, if content curation is used wisely and in moderation it can be a very beneficial tactic. Think about how and where you can integrate curated content in to your strategy. Do you have a specific subject area in your health and wellness niche that is hot topic and lots of new content being published daily. Why not curate this content for your readers to make sense of all the jargon?

What about you? Do you have a particular view on Content Curation? Do you think it’s all buzzword and hype or have you any experiences to share highlighting its real value?

How on earth are you going to find the time to publish regular content that is engaging, marketable and sellable? GeeeWhizzzzzzzz!! You might say.

Yes GeeeWhizzzzzz indeed!! Well, I am never going to make the promise that earning money from your online content and information is going to be easy. Your expert reputation is not going to be built over night and neither should it take over from your “day to day” business, at least not in the early stages!

If you hate clichés skip this next line…….

……Rome was not built in a day people!!

Now enough of the lecture. Here is what I really wanted to share with you……

You’re reading this post because you have decided that you want to or are publishing regularly but struggling to juggle it with your everyday business practice.

Writing is a skill and an art and the better you get at it the easier it will become. Unfortunately, the hardest and most challenging time to keep your blog updated is when you first start out.

But if you put the hard yards in early, your blog will work like clockwork stopping you from having to work around the errrr…..clock.

Follow these simple steps and you should start to find how you can not only utilise your time more effectively but also make your writing quicker and easier so it does not take a big chunk out of your day.

Plan ahead. At the beginning if you write your first 4-6 weeks of content before you go live with your blog you will always ensure you have content ready even when the day to day diary is looking full. You will only have to commit to writing the odd post here and there to stay in schedule. When you start getting down to only one or two articles in the locker set aside time to repeat the plan and develop the next 4-6 weeks of content. You will find throughout a year you will only have to set aside significant chunks of your time 3-4 times per year.

Short and Sweet. Keep your content short, snappy and entertaining. Most people when following blogs are not looking to sit down and read pages of information. They tend to scan the information and pick out the points that catch their eye.

Curate Content. Content curation is hot topic at the moment. If you find good resources and articles curate the content into one article and share it with your own audience. You can include videos from Youtube and Vimeo to make the post interactive and links from other blogs and websites. It not only helps you establish relationships with other bloggers and peers (they will be delighted with the free back links, traffic and exposure) but also your audience will thank you for saving their time to find interesting content.

Q&A Interviews. Offer interviews to other industry leaders or people with expertise related to your niche. An interview is fun and provides added variety to your content mix. It saves time on writing long posts and the only time and preparation is the development of questions and editing of video / audio content should you wish to use this format of media.

Guest Invitations. Another good way to establish your relationship with other bloggers and industry peers is to invite them to post an article of interest on your blog. Extra content from you, a different voice for your audience and provides a good addition to your content mix.

Write about what inspires you. If you write about topics that inspire you it will not only come across to your reader how enthusiastic and passionate you are, but you will also enjoy writing content.

How do you successfully manage your time and workload? What challenges do you have to overcome?

This counteracts the reason for developing content in the first place. Your reputation will be at stake, your website will have very few loyal followers and your content will not make you much money.

But before we delve into the nuts and bolts of such a strategy there is something that needs to stick in your mind.

A content strategy of course includes the title of your articles and what you are going to write…..BUT….

……..IT HAS TO BE STRATEGIC!

“Strategic”? “well duh” you might say…..it’s a content “strategy” so of course.  But what I mean by this to break it down even further is…….

……KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE!

When putting your strategy in place you have to be thinking strategically about your audience and you won’t successfully do this if you do not know them. In your content strategy you should include:

• who they are,
• where they are,
• what they know,
• what they want to know,
• how they look for what they want to know.

Once you have a good understanding of the above bullet points can you begin putting your content strategy in place. For each type of content you create the above should always come into consideration.

Now let’s get you on the track to building great content. Start considering the following:

• The purpose of your content. Write down what it is your content is trying to achieve.  Think about your purpose and reason for writing!
• Your key message.  Write down the key message you want to get across to your audience. When someone visits your blog the message, meaning and purpose of the blog should be immediately understood. If not there will be zero engagement and the back button will be hit even before anything is read.
• Your keywords. From all of the above you should have an idea of the keywords that will improve your seo and make sure your content is seen ahead of the clutter.
• Your key channels of distribution. Your content should not be static. With the various social media’s, link building, blog network, news distribution sites to name some of the most popular channels you have the opportunity to mobilise your content to be seen. Picking the most effective channels of distribution is an essential part of acquiring traffic.

If spend some time re-visting your strategy you will not only reap huge rewards but I find it keeps me focused, motivated, maximises my strengths, improve my weaknesses, optimise my opportunities and counteracts any threats to my business. It allows you to maintain the strategies that work well and eliminate the ones that have bombed!

Your content strategy is critical for all you health and wellness information marketers. Without it your roadmap is a winding, bumpy ride that is likely to grind you to a halt.

How often do you assess your content strategy? Do you like to plan religiously or do you prefer to be more free spirited and off the cough?