Have freezer eye? You know, you stare at the computer long enough hoping to figure out which article ideas to write about only to have your eyes freeze. You ask yourself, “What do visitors want to read? What do I like writing about? What have I already written? What pertains to my website or blog? What will help sales? What will help people sign up for my newsletter?” And the main question most people ask, “What am I an expert on so I feel confident enough to write about?”, so on and so on.

Well, you don’t necessarily have to be an expert on anything for your article ideas. Yeah, that’s right.

Instead of feeling like an expert why not take a journalistic approach. Are journalists experts when they report on an event or when they conduct an interview? No, most likely not or someone would be interviewing them, right? But in many cases they have discovered a problem and are looking for a solution. It just so happens that the solution is found somewhere else.

How do you find the problems? How do you find the solutions? Well, here’s how I do it.

I. Questions People Ask Online

1. Search Engines

Plug in different questions into Google and other search engines. I would use at least 2 for each search. Play with word combinations.

- For example, there is a big market for my site’s theme on how to make dessert cupcakes. I admit cupcakes are not something I make a lot, so by no means am I an expert on cupcakes, but I have good content about the market and different niches on some of my pages. I found that many people were asking “how to deliver cupcakes” in Yahoo questions and in blogs. So after much playing with word combinations I found that, “how to transport cupcakes” wasn’t quite as competitive as, “how to deliver cupcakes”. In this case I created a written interview for another webmaster that has a website for cake and cupcake decorating. I took her answers and wrote up an article and plugged in backlinks to both our sites.

2. Your Site’s Statistics Dashboard.

What are the long tail searches people are typing in the search engines to find your site? For me many people ask “how to” questions looking for solutions: “how to send chocolate covered strawberries in mail”, “how to package chocolate covered apples for delivery”, “how to make colored chocolate lollipops”, “how to make filled chocolate candies”, etc. This is a great source of knowledge about both your current visitors and potential visitors.

3. Google Adword Tool.

Find the exact number of monthly searches for different questions. Again play with different word combinations and you will get back a big list. This is one of the best free tools for keyword and phrase searches. Type “Google adword tool” into a search engine to find it, if you haven’t ever used it.

4. Blogs and Discussion Boards.

Practically any market or niche market will have these and they provide a wealth of insight. Search for them and you will find them.

5. Q & A Page from your site. If you already have done the work why do more?

II. Solutions

There are a few ways to find the solutions.

1) You, the expert. This is the easiest way obviously.

2) Research the answer. Search for it online or in books at the library.

3) Ask an expert. Someone will help you. Think about someone you know or just go ask someone. Send the question to someone’s website, see if they answer. Offer to give them credit in your article. Or offer to conduct a written interview that you email them like I did and give them backlinks to their site or credit if they don’t have a site.

Solutions to problems are what people look for online. This is one of the primary reasons people use the internet to begin with. And the value of a well written article or page on your site with the solutions to these problems is immense. First, do the research to see which word combinations to use which have the best possible chance of being found.

Only write about 2-3 questions per article, preferably if they are related so the search engines will be more clear about the theme of the article. Break the article into clear and concise paragraphs to make it easy to read and understand.

Would you agree that people are always looking for solutions to problems online? You probably do.

Just think of all the questions you had about creating a website, writing an article, what information to put on your site and all the everyday questions you ask regarding your health, diet, financial questions, parenting, pet care, house repair, car repair, cooking, delivery, entertainment systems, household product reviews, vacation planning, etc. Everything on the internet starts with a question. Every potential visitor to your site has questions that need answers. Find the questions and provide the answers in your articles and I promise you will never run out of article ideas.

If you are an online business owner and are not yet active in article marketing, you need to get started as soon as possible.

Why write articles?

Article writing and marketing is one of the most powerful ways to boost your traffic and sales. Articles will build your reputation and credibility. Articles will allow you to make more contacts and establish more connections. Articles will improve your ranking and bring you more traffic. Articles will improve your online presence. Article marketing is free!

Writing an article is not as hard as most people think. You are not writing a dissertation but a simple and informative article.

Below are ten steps to help you write a more successful article.

Step 1: The Title

Be sure you choose a title that will grab people’s attention and catch their interest. Most people will decide to read an article or not just by the title. Be specific in what your article is about.

For example: How to Grow Vegetables vs. 5 Ways to Healthier More Delicious Vegetables

Which article would you read? I know I would read the second one.

Step 2: Topic of Interest

Be sure to choose topics that people will want to know about. Do some research to see what questions people are asking. Visit forums, groups, social sites and see what needs to be addressed. See what the buzz is about and write your article accordingly.

Step 3: Easy to Understand

There is no need to write a college dissertation. Use short, easy to understand sentences. Use 5th grade level words to be sure everyone who reads your article will understand what you are talking about.

Step 4: Easy to Read

Going along with the short easy to understand sentences, keep your paragraphs short but informative. Leave plenty of white space so reading your article is not hard on the eyes.

Step 5: Relevant Keywords

Research keywords when writing your article. Try to use some of the most popular search phrases that deal with your article subject. A good program to use is Google’s keyword search tool. But once you find the relevant keywords be sure not to overstuff your article with them. If you use them too many times your article will be too repetitive and will not do well in the search engines.

Step 6: Writing

When writing your article, write it as if you were explaining it to a friend. Don’t make it sound like a seminar or lecture. Add personal experiences when possible so your readers can identify with you and feel a bond and/or connection. Let your personality shine through and write from your heart!

Step 7: Lists

If you are including any kind of list in your article, be sure to write it in a bulleted or numbered list style. This will attract the reader’s eye and increase the chances of it being read through.

Step 8: Article Body

The first paragraph should be an introduction to what type of information your article will contain. Use it as a lead-in to the main body of the article. When writing the main body, be sure your writing flows from point to point and doesn’t jump around aimlessly. The last paragraph should sum up what the article meant and what points were made.

Step 9: Proofread

This step cannot be stressed enough. Read over your article several times to be sure all spelling, punctuation and grammar is correct. Things can be missed in just one or two goings over so do it several times to be sure.

Step 10: Resource Box

Your resource box is very important so you want it to be effective in getting people to click on your link and take you up on whatever you offer. Don’t try to sell anything in your resource box. Offer something free if possible.

For example:

John Doe is an expert in the SEO field. He can help you get your site to the top of the search engines. Click here to get his free step by step report.

Article writing is not as intimidating as it sounds. You do not need to know big fancy words. You do not have to be a scholar and you do not have to be a professional author to write a quality article with helpful information.

Some people do SEO article writing. Others write articles that readers really love. The trick is to combine the two and write articles that are keyword focused but that still make sense and appeal to human readers.

I’m sure you’ve seen SEO articles that were anything but appealing. They were loaded with a certain phrase that was repeated very conspicuously throughout the article. The sentence phrasing was awkward and hard to understand. The article looked as if it had been written by a machine and not a real human being!

These are not the type of SEO articles that you wan to produce. You can do so much better than that!

Just use these 5 very simple SEO article writing tips that any beginner can execute, and you’ll be writing articles that your readers (and Google!) will love.

Step #1: Research one keyword phrase to target in your article.

This will be a long-tail keyword phrase. A long-tail phrase is usually 3 to 8 words long. There is not a lot of competition for this phrase, so it will be relatively easy for your article to rank highly in the search engine rankings.

Step #2: Create an interesting title that uses this phrase.

Any time you use keywords in a title or article, they must be placed in appropriate context and sound natural. So, your title should sound natural and be grammatically correct. It should also be appealing to human readers.

Try to think of phrasing that a person might type into Google and craft your title after that.

For example, many people type ‘how to do xyz’ in the search box, so you could turn your title into a “how to”. Also, many times people type a question into Google, so you might try forming your title into a question.

Keep in mind that your title must be interesting to a human reader, be grammatically correct, and make sense.

Step #3: Write an article that is useful to your readers.

Keep your eyes on the prize for now–your goal is to write valuable content that your readers will love. Forget about your keywords just now–just write an educational article.

The ultimate thing that makes your article valuable in Google’s eye and your reader’s eyes is the helpfulness of the content. Keywords do not mean anything if the article does not contain information that readers can use.

The article content must deliver on what the title promised. For example, if your title is “How to Teach Your Baby to Read in 5 Steps”, then the article must present 5 steps that can be used in teaching a baby to read.

Step #4: Focus on creating timeless content.

Write an article that has relevance beyond this month and this year. If your article topic is evergreen, then people will be searching for information on that topic for years to come.

Step #5: Develop a list of phrases that are variations of your original keyword phrase.

For example, if the phrase you are targeting is “buying a puppy”, semantically related variations of that phrase would be:

*buy a puppy

*buying puppies

*where to buy puppies

*where to buy a puppy

*how to buy a puppy

You get the idea! Google recognizes related variations of phrases, so it is not necessary or desirable to repeat the same phrase throughout your article.

Take your list of semantically related phrase variations and choose a few to put in your article in a natural sounding way. You don’t want to force a phrase in the article–it should fit naturally in the context of your content and be grammatically correct.

Writing articles for SEO takes planning, strategy, creativity, and self-control. You are playing to both sides–you need to see your article from a human being’s standpoint and also create content that would appeal to a search engine.

When writing SEO articles, your goal is always to create content that is helpful and interesting to human readers. It takes time, but if you do your SEO article writing correctly, the piece of content that you create can draw search engine traffic to your website for many years.

Keeping you readers interested in your content is critical to the success of your company’s website, marketing materials, and newsletters. If you lose your readers’ interest after the first paragraph on a webpage, you are not going to get the click-throughs to your “money pages” (those pages where customers order products or services) and you are basically throwing all of the money that you spent on site development and management out the window. To catch and keep your reader’s attention, and inevitably direct them to your money pages, you need to develop content that is powerful, useful, creative, and practical to your target demographic.

Crafting Content for Your Target Demographic

One of the first mistakes of content development is that the information written about is simply not interesting to the site’s target demographic. For example, if your website’s focus is on selling remote control vehicles, you don’t want to invest in articles about doll collecting. While this seems like an obvious point, it is often overlooked. When a visitor lands on your page from a keyword search or an in-text link, they expect to find subject matter about a very specific topic. If that topic is not covered in your post or article, they will leave your page after reading nothing more than the page title or headers.

To craft enticing prose for your target demographic you first need to identify what they are looking for when surfing the Internet. You will then want to base your efforts on keywords that are commonly used by your target demographic to find information on your site’s topic or theme. By focusing your content on those keywords you will be able to create articles and blog posts that interest your target audience and it will improve the chances that they will navigate their way through your site using your in-text links to money pages or by using menu links to other site pages.

Powerful Content Creates Interest

Powerful content creates a dialogue or reaction from your readers. This is not your average stock information page – it’s a well-researched and well-written page that takes a position on an issue or that challenges the norms of a specific industry standard. The purpose of powerful content pages is to create controversy in an attempt to attract more people to your website. To achieve this goal you will need to set up your pages as a blog or interactive page where people can post their comments, views, and responses. To increase the value of these power pages you will want to include in-text links to your money pages or target pages where you want to direct your visitors.

Useful Content Keeps Your Reader’s Coming Back for More

While attracting a reader once can lead to a sale/conversion, you are much more likely to make a sale on your website or through your newsletter if the same reader returns to your website multiple times. One way you can accomplish this is to develop useful articles that the reader can use as a reference for a specific application, activity, or project. For example, “how to” articles are generating huge revenues on many sites right now simply because they provide useful information in a step by step format. This format keeps the reader’s interest because in order to complete the given task, they have to read the entire article. If you are able to create useful content on a regular basis, you can set up a library that will attract both new visitors and return visitors.

Creative Content Entertains While Educating

An article or blog post that is entertaining is another strategy that you can use to keep your readers interested. Creative content is fun to write; however, not everyone has a knack for it. It is because of this that your creative content needs to be handled by a writer who is skilled in entertaining, but informative, writing styles. In addition to using creative prose you can also enhance the readability of your web pages by integrating interactive features such as streaming elements, video, and widgets. These elements will keep your readers engaged in your article or web page by giving them a way to interact with it and to manipulate it to meet their needs.

Keeping Your Readers Interested

Internet success is elusive, but not unobtainable. The key is quality content created by skilled writers. It needs to be developed around topics that make sense for your target demographic. It needs to be powerful, it needs to be creative, and it needs to be useful. While many online success strategies have come and gone, the utilization of quality content is one strategy that remains a viable, productive strategy for search engine optimization and site performance enhancement.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we’re eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management. Be part of the professional business cards company.

One of the skills that successful affiliate marketing requires is the craft of copywriting. The most powerful copywriting doesn’t overtly sell, it captures attention and retains it. It weaves persuasion around the reader.

Here are 15 tips on how to make your copywriting a compelling read for your prospects:

Keep sentences short. The average sentence should be in the region of 16 words. Waffling will lose the attention of the reader.

Research, research, research. Know your topic – without doing research beforehand you will end up using dribble.

Benefit in the headline. Use the biggest benefit as the headline. You can always edit it later on.

Benefits will sell your product. Clearly spell out the benefits to the readers – don’t rely on their imagination. Give it all to them on the plate.

Believe in your product. You need to feel passionate about your product to sell it. This is why it’s best to stick to products that you know something about and have an interest in. Use common sense backed by enthusiasm. Explain features and what the benefits of those features are.

Vary your sentence length. Long and then short will keep the flow sweeter to read and will retain the attention of your reader.

Split long sentences. If they are getting too long, split them into two. The use of good copywriting can really boost your affiliate marketing revenue, so is well worth the extra effort.

Write for every level of reader. Remove unnecessary words and language that couldn’t be read by a young teenager. If you over complicate your writing, you will be excluding potential buyers. The goal is to write as though you are having a one to one conversation with your reader in the same room.

Brevity. Use every word and sentence to make your point. Readers won’t hang around all day waiting for you to get to your argument.

Short paragraphs. These are easier to read online and allows the reader to scan the information.

Use bullets. Again, these make the copy easy to read. Benefits of a product are ideal to list in a list with bullets.

Simple language. Don’t use jargon or technical words, you’ll lose readers this way.

Positive language. Inspire your readers by telling them what they can achieve and attain by using your products. Don’t dampen their mood with negativity.

Use bold text. Aid skimming over your text with the use of bold, sub headings and bullets.

Use power words. Words such as ‘Free’, ‘proven’ and ‘new’.

When I write my copy, I usually try to do it all in one sitting. I will then return to it several hours later to refine it. Before using the copy, I will read it aloud. If there is anything in it that makes me cringe or that I would be too embarrassed to read out to another, then I know there’s something to be fixed.

Learning how to do good copywriting takes an investment of effort. One of the best ways to learn is to study the copywriting of others and learn what you feel works well and not so well. Once you’ve nailed it, you’ll see that your profits will definitely benefit from the time spent.

Clients have asked me for help because they feel stuck in a rut when it comes to getting the attention of their audience. Many feel they know only a limited number of techniques and seem to use the same strategies and angles over and over again. They’re bored and frustrated trying the same-old, same-old repeatedly and are pretty sure recipients on their lists feel the same way.

To the rescue is this list I created of bolder approaches you can try to freshen up emails, web pages, ads and other venues for promotional copy. Along with each idea, I’ve provided an example illustrating how you might put it to work.

I. In headlines, subject lines and elsewhere

1. Ask a weird or provocative question.
Whoever Heard of 77,000 Opt-ins From a Single Email?

2. Play up an emotion.
Take Command of Your Email Inbox.

3. Refer to current events.
Avoid Being Blindsided by a Blizzard.

4. Issue a challenge.
Can Your Widgywidget Pass the Steamroller Test?

5. Use a line of dialogue.
Pssst, Your Benchmarks Are Outdated.

6. Cite a specific number.
Here’s Why 45,682 Managers Trust Us.

7. Confess something.
We’re Embarrassed to Admit It, But…

8. Present a quiz.
Take the Readiness Roadmap Quiz.

9. Highlight case study results.
How Apoxya Achieved 458% ROI.

10. Quote a client.
“Helpful. Hard-nosed. Hassle-free.”

11. Say what the reader is probably thinking.
Why Can’t Metrics Be Simpler!

12. Guarantee something.
Quicker Payback – Guaranteed.

13. Connect to social trends.
Help Green Your Marketing Department.

14. Promise to get rid of an annoyance.
No More Compliance Hassles.

15. Compare before and after.
Before: 25½ Passwords. After: Just One.

16. Name the exact audience you’re targeting.
For the Manager Not Confident About Reaching This Year’s Targets.

17. Create suspense.
To Be Unveiled at the TTT Tradeshow…

18. Invoke imagination.
Imagine All Your Emails Effortlessly Organized.

II. Within your copy

19. Use un-businesslike language.
Time to cut the crap, wouldn’t you say?

20. Use vivid metaphors or similes.
When your to-do list feels like Grand Central Station.

21. Include surprising but true facts.
Only one government contractor in five knows that…

22. Compare costs/other factors to everyday items.
Solve your IT headaches for less than it costs to treat everyone on your team to a double latte.

23. Make predictions.
Prevent next year’s biggest risk now.

24. Tell a story.
When one of our clients took our new RXV234 back to the office, his IT manager at first refused to install it. Two days later he became an evangelist for it. Here’s why.

25. Write from an unexpected perspective – for example, from the night cleaning crew or the daughter of someone who now gets to go home from the office at a reasonable hour.

One fairly conservative corporate client surprised me at the number of items on this list he became excited about trying. Remember, the goal is to wake up the reader from their slumber of disinterest and to get them paying attention. Unexpected language, suspense, mysteries, relevance and promises are just a few of the techniques that belong in your expanded bag of tricks. Try being different, informing and entertaining without giving offense, and you’ll not only awaken your prospect, but also re-energize your own excitement about your product.

Are you experiencing writer’s block?

Whether you are a new writer or an article writing and marketing expert like me, there comes a time when you just stare at the blank white screen with your hands ready at the keyboard – but they’re not typing. The dreadful writer’s block is stopping the words from flowing as they should.

It is frustrating to be stuck especially when you know when you write and submit articles online you will get more website traffic, prospects and profits. So, you start pulling your hair out and grinding your teeth.

See, I know exactly how you feel. There were many times that I wanted to throw my laptop and my desktop right out the window. I know what it is like to try to force yourself to “work through it”, and when you sit down to write you are numb and feel like your brain is composed of concrete.

I also know that the longer you stay in this state the more discouraged you get, which makes it even harder to write. That’s why I am going to help you get out of that dark, cold, gloomy corner and see the light so you can start writing articles faster.

7 Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block and Banish It Forever

1. Use instant article writing templates — You want to use article templates that literally guide you through the article writing process. For example, my 40+ Instant Article Writing Templates Kit, is filled with worksheets and ideas. All you have to do is enter the information that the template asks for – where it asks for it. Not only will you generate article ideas, but you’ll be able to organize your ideas in a way that gets your prospects to read your articles from top to bottom.

2. Host a Teleseminar – Greg Ivers of Church Loan Services, an article marketing coaching client of mine, has the hardest time putting the information inside his head into words. No matter how much time I spent with him – he just wasn’t getting it like many small business owners. However, he has no problem speaking about his expertise. So, using Instant Teleseminars, I’m having him do a Teleseminar recording that he can use as a lead generation device. He’s then going to use the recording to create a number of articles to promote his free audio program.

3. Keep a digital or analog notebook with you 24/7 — They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Coming up with compelling ideas to write about is sometimes the hardest challenge of all. But, if you have an “idea pad” with you at all times, you can build a reserve of good topics to draw upon as you need them. You’re working proactively to prevent writer’s block.

4. Start writing without constraints– Consider this: Have you ever been blocked while playing Frisbee? Eating doughnuts? Dancing naked in your living room? Those are joyful things and there’s nothing at stake. If you fail, who cares? Nobody. If there are no rules, and no judgment, psychological blocks are impossible. So, start writing without constraints. Deliberately write badly, but write.

5. Write about how it feels not to be able to write. It’s sneaky, but, it works. The voices in our heads are always saying something, so get it down. Imagine yourself as a recording device, writing down the radio broadcast of some other person who happens to live in your head. Eventually your mind will hit thoughts on the topic itself and, presto, you’re on your way.

6. Make Lists – List making is never as threatening as “writing”, so go there first! As far as I know, there is no shopping list block, is there? For example, when I created this list article, I kicked my list around for awhile. I made changes. I did lots of moving and shuffling. Then once it reached critical mass, I put in a document and created my article.

7. Keep writer’s block away by writing daily — Just like someone who is out of shape could not run a mile in a respectable amount of time, someone who doesn’t write frequently will not be able to write high quality articles fast. You have to train your body to run, just like you must train your brain to write. And, you become a faster runner and writer through repeated practice and perseverance.

So, pick up my article writing templates at www.StartWritingArticlesFaster.com and put these ideas to use. You’ll be amazed how fast ideas will start racing to your mind.

Recently a potential client contacted me to write content for his site for a new product.

The brief was as follows:

“The text is for Google not the public. The language needs to be “normal verbiage” in original copy but does not have to be technical. I want a key word density of 8%.”

At that level of density the keyword would have appeared at least every second line, and this was for a piece of work of 1500 words.

I declined.

I don’t write for Google, I write for humans. Keywords are important – essential – for search engines. But it is people who read the online content, who pick up the phone and who place an order. Who has the patience to read 1500 words with the keyword stuffed in so monotonously that the content becomes unreadable?

But the bigger question is: How did a website owner become so convinced that this was how content must be written? His commitment to the keyword density was unwavering and he even sent me examples of how easy it was to do. It would have been a challenge to make it work but a waste of time for me and the client. I’m not sure if someone out there took up the project – I’ll keep monitoring the site to see if it appears.

Keyword obsession is a dangerous game. The roulette spinner, aka Google, dominates the market for keyword promotion, ably assisted by SEO marketers and companies who have become enslaved to the idea that keywords equal profits and they are the one true path to success. Ten years ago the term “keywords” was not part of everyday lexicon. A search in Google (sigh) returns 301,000,000 results for “keywords.” All of this has undoubtedly contributed to the belief that filling content with keywords so it’s fatter than Santa’s sack is what matters in online content.

While the jury is still out on the appropriate density of keyword frequency (and I’ve seen some SEO companies recommend 10 to 12 percent) a creative approach to including keywords in content can overcome unreadability and obvious stuffing. Well written content, that is engaging, interesting, covers the keywords, answers customers questions, creates trust, and makes the customer want to do business with you is a more successful model than content written with an overblown emphasis on keywords.

As a professional copywriter I ask my clients to send me a list of their top ten keywords, in priority order, along with all the other information necessary to compile the content for their sites. Copy is prepared with the keywords included, but written with the ideal customer in mind. Good copywriters will always have “Think like a customer” as their primary focus. “How will this copy rank in search engines?” should always be second.

Writing for people is far more enjoyable than writing for a search engine, and I’m sure readers respond accordingly. Overuse of keywords alienates readers who feel they are being talked at, rather than communicated with. Why risk your credibility with customers unnecessarily?

People crave bite-sized pieces of information online in the form of articles so they can quickly research and decide which topics to investigate further. Truth is, anyone can use article marketing to promote just about anything because article marketing rates as one of the most effective ways to generate traffic online. However, the pivotal key to effective article marketing, the article title, usually receives the least attention. This lack of thought and attention seriously undermines the otherwise great results people could have gotten through article marketing with just a little more effort. The following 7 keys should help every level of article marketer improve their titles, and therefore, massively improve their results.

Key # 1: The Article Title Is The Single Most Important Part
The fact is, a great title combined with an average article will outperform a bad title and great article! In the end, your title serves as the headline for the article, just like the headline for a sales page or advertisement. Your title grabs attention and lets people know the article is relevant to their needs and they should stop and read it right now.

Key # 2: Titles Should Contain The Main Keyword Phrase
You should know the #1 keyword phrases your audience searches for online and every article you write should center around one of those main keyword phrases. Also, every article title should contain one of those main keyword phrases. Why? Because it helps automated software that trolls for articles to find you and add you to content sites. It also helps you show up in the search engines when people search for that particular phrase. Most importantly, it lets people know instantly that your article is relevant and they should read it right now.

Key # 3: Titles Should Create Curiosity
A great headline gets people to say “Hmmm. That’s interesting. I wonder what that’s all about. Is there something good in there for me?” Remember: the #1 purpose of a headline is to get people to stop and read the first sentence of the article. Curiosity rates as the #1, proven way to get people to stop, drop what they’re doing, and start reading your article.

Key # 4: Titles Should Evoke Emotion
Emotion in the headline creates the urgency to push people into actually reading the article itself. Make people mad. Make them sad. Make them laugh. Make them afraid. But whatever you do, don’t bore them! Emotional involvement is the key to getting the most people to feel the need to read your article once you arouse their curiosity. Creating an emotional reaction starts with your article title.

Key # 5: Titles Make An Immediate Promise
“5 Specific Ways To Get Your House Sold Without an Agent” vs. “General House Selling Tips.” Which is more compelling?

The one that makes a specific, immediate promise for the results or information the reader wants. Make a promise of immediate results and specific information your target audience can use. Offer an inside “scoop” they wont’ find anywhere else in the form of secret tips or tricks. If you followed the first 5 keys in this article, this should actually be one of the easiest parts (making a promise). Just tell them you have what they want and all they need to do is read the article.

Key # 6: Titles Continue A Conversation
Everyone, especially online, has a conversation going on in their head at any given moment. It may be organized or disjointed, but everyone’s headed in a certain direction.

When they look for information, they want the information they want – not what you think they should want. That means using the words, phrases, and questions they use so they stop and say “Yeah! That’s what I’m looking for!”

Example: Someone wonders “How can I get my house sold without an agent and save the commission?” When they see article titles like “Thinking of Selling Without and Agent?” or “How To Sell Without An Agent” or “5 Specific Tips For Selling Without an Agent” – they pay attention.

Article titles like “FSBO Tips” or “Home Selling Advice” will not continue that conversation nearly as well in the minds of potential readers.

Key # 7: Titles Should Lead To A Next Step
People aren’t stupid. They know you can’t solve all their problems in one article. They also realize (consciously or subconsciously) that your article is probably just one stepping stone along a path they must follow to reach their final goal. So ask yourself, “What’s the next logical step they should take after this article?”

Knowing that next step before you even write the article will help you lead them from the article title, through the body of the article, all the way to the resource box.

Knowing the “big picture” turns your article into one giant slippery slope that shoots the readers straight into your list and sales funnel with a win-win proposition!

Jim Edwards is a 10 year veteran syndicated newspaper columnist who specializes in helping info-marketers and info-publishers maximize their results.

Content curation, a term that gained popularity in 2010, is the art of culling relevant, valuable and useful information from the vast ocean of data, and presenting it in a cohesive, interesting and comprehensive style that gives a ‘big picture’ view of a specific niche topic.

No longer can anyone claim that they can peruse and make sense of all the content that exists (and is being constantly added) on even a very narrow range of subjects. 47 million websites were added in 2009 and an estimated 550 billion documents exist online today.

The role of a content curator was first proposed around 2004, when the catchy term ‘Newsmastering’ was introduced by Robin Good of MasterNewMedia.com to describe a dedicated content analyst who would gather, collate and categorize content from various sources and compile it for consumption by those who are interested.

What makes content curation necessary?

Three factors drive the demand for content curation.

Too much information – Its volume is growing day by day, minute by minute, and in every possible direction.

Too little time – The things you need to get done seem to keep growing in inverse proportion to the time you have available for them.

Too uncertain – However diligent and dedicated you are in researching information, it’s still possible you missed something important.

Because many people need to remain up to date with developments and information in specific areas related to work, career or education, there is a growing need for professionals who are expert at finding and presenting this on a continuing basis.

What does a content curation process involve?

The first step is gathering news and information, preferably in real time as events unfold. This can be critical in certain areas. Aggregation of content from various resources has been possible for many years. But with the accelerating rate of information growth, mere aggregation alone is no longer enough.

That’s why a second level of analysis needs to be layered over it. Human curators, with specialized skills and an intense interest or passion for the subject, study the multiple news items and stories that have been aggregated, remove duplicates or shallow commentary pieces, and weave together the most relevant tid-bits that present an overall picture of the events that are unfolding.

An even higher level of content curation is when the curator, aided by vast experience in the field, includes expert opinion, feedback and insights that add even higher value than from just patching together a collection of informative news feeds.

Why would content curation work today?

Everything boils down to trust. Or rather, a lack of trust in conventional media channels to present all the latest news in the form of unbiased information, complete stories, different perspectives, or multiple facets of the same event. Also, every consumer is aware that there is an underlying agenda, political or otherwise, that governs and influences the kind of coverage traditional media provides.

Content curation done by a trusted expert has the potential to bypass this lack of trust by presenting information along with direct links to the original sources, and commentary that can easily be validated and confirmed by facts and data presented in those sources.

By respecting a consumer’s intelligence and presenting concise summaries along with pointers to the source data for further study and verification, content curation can easily engender trust, overcome doubt and speed up the knowledge acquisition process.

So is content curation only about collecting news stories?

Absolutely not. Content curation is a quantum jump from content aggregation. Good content curation adds value to the individual news stories, helping a reader or viewer make sense of the broader picture that’s unfolding, staying abreast of recent developments, and digging into diverse sources for the latest data.

Content curators pore over RSS feeds and blog posts, breaking news stories and archived articles, books and journals, interviews and conferences, even social networks that break news fast – and then figure out the best way to present only relevant information from this deluge of data in a way that makes sense, and will cover all future developments as well.

Viewed in that sense, content curation is “story-telling in real time”, with a focus on specific niche interests.

Is content curation profitable?

Considering the rush in the recent past to project content curation as the next wave in information marketing, it is natural that profit models exist – or soon will.

One area that is already making money for early adopters is the provision of curation services and tools. Priced to suit a range of budgets, these services offer a variety of aids to content curation for different purposes. Some allow management of a complete modern news room, while others help niche marketers find extra content snippets to share with their core audience.

As yet untapped, but with great future potential, is the concept of sponsoring channels created through content curation. Specialized niche information and news which is presented in a way that helps target audiences stay ahead of the curve in their chosen areas of interest will easily attract advertisers and sponsors. Some curated channels may even become paid subscription products themselves.

Even more exciting is the potential of building communities where people willingly pay to get more and better in-depth information on a well-defined set of topics they are deeply interested in keeping up with. And surely there will be many more ways innovative pioneers of content curation will monetize their rare, in-demand skills.

In summary, those seeking to explore content curation as an infopreneur success model for the future must view their role as being similar to curators in museums who pick and select the choicest masterpieces to showcase in their gallery, and create exhibitions that delight discerning audiences enough to keep them coming back for more.

Content curation is a specialty whose time has come. Will you master it quickly enough to add value to your audience as an infopreneur?

One of the most difficult aspects of article writing and marketing, once you have been doing it for a longer period of time, is how to come up with fresh topics to write about. It is even more difficult to put your finger on ideas that are hot and related to your topic.

Here are some suggestions to help you get those creative juices flowing again.

* Visit forums related to your niche. Spend 30 minutes a day in forums related to your niche. Write down common questions or inquiries and use those to craft articles.

* Visit the Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers. If one person has asked the question, chances are there are many more who have it but are afraid to ask. Answer the most common questions you see with a new article.

* Check the news. Being on top of the industry news will help you be able to write related articles as the news events take place. This can also be a great way to grab expanded exposure. By piggy backing off the hot topic you can grab way more readers then you would with a normal topic. And not just the big news stations either. Some of the smaller more local stations may have topics not covered by the larger ones and can be a potential goldmine for ideas.

* Set up a Google alert for your topic. This way you’ll be emailed how ever frequently you choose, with up to date blogs and posts and new stories related to your topic that you can get and gain ideas from.

* Spend 30 minutes brainstorming. Do not allow yourself to focus on anything but your topic. This will get easier the more times you do it. It can be difficult the first few times to get your mind to actually produce something, but once you’ve done it a few times your mind will know you mean business and will help you populate ideas quite quickly.

* Use Google’s wonder wheel for ideas. Instead of using it to get keywords, use it to help you get some ideas as to what to write about.

* Create a mind map about your topic. And then each and every sub-topic that you come up with, until you have multiple mini mind maps and plenty of ideas to source article topics from.

* If you’re really stuck, check out the competition. Seeing what they are writing about may give you ideas of what to write about.

* Re-purpose old articles. But, not by rewriting them. Instead approach the same topic from another angle. If your topic was say 5 tips to succeed in article writing, a new approach would be 5 things to avoid in article writing, or 5 tips to improve, or a better way to do it. Just using the same general idea, and giving it life in a new way can be the perfect method to get unstuck.

* Check out the bookstore or the library. The ones that have real books. Look at some of the ones related to your niche and see if you can’t gain some writing ideas from them.

* Go to e-book sites as well. Do the same thing as you did with Amazon and the library. Look for titles in your niche, and use those to help you get new creative ideas to write about.

* Use seasonal events to your advantage. Instead of just writing about autism, write about how to help autistic children cope with Christmas, or other such seasonal event related topics.

* Carry a notebook with you. Ever feel like you’ve got the perfect idea but are not at home and able to write the article right away. Carry around a notebook so that when the idea strikes you can jot it down before you forget it again.

* Get away from the computer for a bit. Real life and real life situations may give you ideas you never would have come up with by simply sitting in front of your monitor. Use real life experiences and events to create ideas and creativity for your articles.

* Talk to industry leaders. Just a quick Q and A with someone in the industry may prompt ideas you would have never thought of otherwise.

* Read. By reading what others have wrote on the topic you may be able to come up with ideas of your own, or a new twist on an old idea. The best writers and the most avid of readers.

* Along the same lines as reading, read articles in some of your favorite authority blogs and websites. One of my favorite blogs is Mashable.com. They may bring to mind a thought or idea you may not have thought of otherwise.

* Join a mastermind group. Being able to float ideas around with others and discuss your topic can help breathe new life into a topic you found going stale. And, it is a great way to set up potential cross promotions with others in your niche for the future.

* Use your imagination. Put yourself into the mind of your target audience, and figure out questions and topics that may be important to them and write about them. Just a little bit of imagination and role playing can lead to many new ideas.

* Watch movies or television shows related to your niche. They may cover topics or ideas you may not have previously covered or thought about.

* Think about your own personal experiences. There may be things within them that you can revisit and create topics about, with a good solid base of reality to make for a more interesting and informative article.

Hopefully these ideas will help you come up with and create your own ideas and topics to write about. Ideas are limitless, you just need to develop the skills to mine the topics and ideas out of the things around you. The more you write and the more you strive to generate ideas, the more ideas you’ll eventually come up with.

Everything online requires content, and articles are just one form of content. Learning how to write articles and create content should be a focal point for anyone looking to start a business or even a hobby online, after all like the saying goes, content is king.

Here are some tips to help you write better articles:

1. Write with an end goal in mind. Different types of articles work for different reasons. If you are looking for syndication and publication on authority websites, you’re not going to want short, full of fluff 300 word articles. Instead, you’ll want to go with long informative 800-1000 word articles that actually deliver quality information on your topic, in a format that works well for ezine and authority publishers.

2. Do your research beforehand. The better you know the topic, the easier it will be to write for it. Simply by knowing your topic, you can drastically cut down on the time it takes to create informative articles your readers will enjoy. Attempt to comprehend your topic, before you sit down to write.

3. Just write. The more you write, the better you will get at it. And not just on your topic. Challenge yourself. Write on anything and everything, and your overall writing skills will improve, not to mention your typing speed. Both things will help you reduce writing time in the long end.

4. Write with the reader in mind. Instead of writing for your own purpose, think about it from the readers perspective. What is the reason they are reading your article? Are you addressing their needs and concerns? If you can get into the mind of your reader and what they are seeking from you and your writing, you’ll be better equipped to write an article they will appreciate.

5. If you are writing for back links, keywords matter. If you are writing for readers, forget about them. Keywords only help you get found in the search engines. If you are preparing high quality articles for syndication, you’ll get the readers from the sites you are published to. That’s not to say you want to go completely off topic, simply that keywords aren’t vital, and if you are writing on topic anyways, the search engines will figure out where you belong in their search results. As Google recommends, create your content for your reader, to improve your chances of ranking well in Google. In my articles, I have found that to be true.

6. Learn to craft captivating titles. Titles are one of the most important parts of the article marketing and writing battle. It doesn’t matter how informative or well written your article is, if the title doesn’t make readers open the article. Spend some time on your title. Actually focus on making it reader friendly and interesting. Your bottom line will thank you for this.

7. Write with passion. If you are bored to tears by your topic, chances are your writing is going to reflect your boredom, be dry and present less than glamorous prose. If you are in love with your topic, it will shine through your words and come across to the reader. This is one reason many suggest when you are just getting started to go with a passion. It is much simpler to write about something that you get emotional about, than to write about something you have no emotional investment in.

8. Don’t proof read and spell check as your write. Stopping and changing your mind frame from creation to editing can interrupt your flow of thought. Instead focus on getting the thoughts and ideas down, and then go back and do the spelling and grammar checks. You’ll find your mind thinks and writes that much quicker by using this method.

9. Focus on quality. There will forever be the debate over quality and quantity. Few take into consideration that quality will naturally breed quantity, through syndication and other methods. If you are consistently providing high quality articles, publishers will love utilizing your content and do so on a regular basis. And the more publishers that take notice of your work, the more targeted traffic you will be getting. Much more targeted traffic then that coming from article directories and other such places.

10. Turn off your word count tool. Stop checking the word count and simply write until the idea has been fully explained to the reader. If that takes 300 words so be it. If it takes 1000, then let it. Stopping the flow of ideas simply to stay in line with a word count is a sure fire way to leave your articles lacking that finished feel.

11. Read. Yes, read. The more you read and the more you expand your horizons, the better your writing will be. Simply taking in the written word, exploring and understanding other writing methods and formations will help you in your own writing. It can also help you increase your vocabulary and find styles that really reach out and grab readers by the eyeballs.

12. Check out what the competition is doing, and do it better. If your competition is providing lackluster articles, that barely wet your taste for the subject, go above and beyond, and your readers will notice. By knowing what kind of content you are trying to compete with, you can improve your own skills and marketing mindset.

13. Use the language of your target audience. If you are writing for highly educated people, your writing should reflect that. If you are writing for mass appeal, stick to relatively lower level writing, think grade 8 levels. If a grade 8 student could read and interpret what you are saying, you have succeeded. If they cannot, you may want to revise your writing style and language.

14. Understand that writing is a skill. And as such, needs to be constantly worked upon. Malcolm Gladwell stated in “Outliers” it takes 10,000 hours to master something. Master writing by continually working on it and the improvement of your skills. And by the time you reach 10,000 hours of work, you’ll have mastered the skill and no longer need others tips and technique to make your writing vibrant and a success.

Hopefully these tips will help you master article writing and marketing. In the end, all that matters is that you actually do it. No amount of tips or tricks are going to help you if you don’t just get started and get that writing underway. Begin writing and over time your skills and abilities will improve, and your writing will reflect your growing knowledge and skills. Writing starts the same way for everyone, with a blank page waiting to be filled. Get started filling yours today.

For those webmasters and e-marketers who can remember a web without Google, life was much less complicated and a lot less tumultuous back then. Since Google came onto the scene and became the dominant search engine in the world… things have changed drastically.

And not necessarily in a negative way, those same webmasters probably jumped for joy when they reached the top of Google for their keywords. Then they complained just as loudly when Google made one of their never-ending changes to their algorithm and these webmasters saw their rankings drop or in some severe cases, disappear from the web altogether. In those early days, most of Google’s major updates were kept secret until the fallout got webmasters fuming or rejoicing.

However, in recent algorithm updates or changes, Google has openly broadcasted these changes to anyone who was listening. The same openness applies to Google’s recent changes dealing with “content farms” and “low quality content” in Google’s SERPs. Matt Cutts stated in his blog, “we’re evaluating multiple changes that should help drive spam levels even lower, including one change that primarily affects sites that copy others’ content and sites with low levels of original content.”

Basically, what Google is trying to do with these changes is to increase the overall quality of their search results by lowering the rankings of sites which it perceives as low quality and containing little or no original content. These would be sites that have scraped content from other websites and that have displayed it, usually along with ads and/or links to affiliate products or other related sites.

At present, this only affects search traffic in the States, but this is no small update since 11% of the queries have changed. And as some webmasters have noted, these changes are indeed improving search results.

One interesting find comes from Alexis Madrigal at www.theatlantic.com that looks at Google’s new improved search results for the keywords “drywall dust” and shows that there were indeed less “content farm” listings in the new results.

However, it’s Google’s definition of “content farms” which has many long-time webmasters concerned. As an online marketer who attributes most of his success to article marketing, Google’s recent updates have me somewhat worried. I contribute articles on a regular basis to many online article directories, most of which are free for other webmasters to use as long as they keep my resource box and links attached. These articles get picked up and displayed on countless sites around the web. I also feature many of those same articles on my own site. I am sure there are thousands of webmasters who do the same thing and who are also worrying how Google’s new changes will affect all this duplicate content.

In most cases, my articles in Ezinearticles usually get displayed at the top of the rankings in Google, sometimes even above the same article on my own main site. This is understandable since Ezinearticles is a much more respected authority site in the eyes of the search engines. Also, all sites come with their own unique keyword ranking “DNA,” which means they optimized for those keywords and any keyword related content which is added to those sites will rank higher in the search engines, especially Google.

Years ago, I tried on several occasions to use “spin software” to make all my articles unique, but I could never bring myself to accept the resulting spins or versions of my articles. They just didn’t seem right and didn’t have the right flow. For me, writing has always been more of a pleasure than a chore and corrupting it in any way is just not worth it. Besides, I have been horrified more than once by seeing fragments of my articles mutilated on some of the aforementioned low quality sites which have scraped my content from the web.

Instead, I started writing unique articles or content which I placed on other sites. One of the main directories for this was Buzzle which switched over to only accepting unique content two or three years ago. I have monitored Buzzle over the years and noticed that it’s traffic stats keep increasing in a steady line upwards, probably due to adding all this constant, unique content. Other article directories seem to have a more see-saw flow to their traffic numbers, if you compare them on sites like Alexa.

I believe this whole issue comes down to quality content and what the search engines perceive as quality. Just because something is unique, doesn’t mean it’s quality content. Google has to judge the quality of the content it finds on the web and it has over 200 ranking factors which it says can filter out the top content and present it to the searcher. The recent “content farm” update is difficult to evaluate… just because content is duplicated or appears on another site doesn’t mean it lacks quality.

As a webmaster, I have always placed related videos and press releases on my sites to complement my own content. I also reference other sites and data in my articles to back up an opinion or to prove a point. Although going forward, I will be very wary of placing content on my sites which is not unique.

Sometimes I find it ironic that Google, since day one, has not created any unique content… its robots crawl the web and compile that information into search results. The quality of those results largely depend on the quality of the scraped content and how well its algorithm can filter out the low quality stuff.

Supposedly, no human eyes judge this whole process which I don’t believe for a minute. Google’s engineers are constantly monitoring the results and constantly adjusting its algorithm to filter out what they don’t like which brings us back to the question at hand. Can Google really perfect a system where only the quality content on the web rises to the top?

Obviously, they can use such factors as bounce rates, time spent on-site, pageviews per visitor, direct access, backlinks from authority sites… and bookmarks in the social media/networking sites. Let’s face it, if a piece of content has 2,000 re-tweets, it must contain something of interest/quality for a lot of people. Likewise, if a piece of content or video has 5,000 comments attached to it and 10,000 Diggs or Likes…chances are good that it is of high quality.

Of course, there is also the technological/mechanical side to site quality. If a site loads slowly and has countless dead links, then it can be easily ranked as low quality. Google has always maintained a user/surfer’s experience is important to what it lists in its results. Content farms and sites with little or no unique content would probably be high on Google’s list of what not to display.

However, judging the quality of a piece of information or writing, without human eyes viewing it, is not so easy. Unless Google has a thousand little Watsons running quietly in the background, intelligently reading and rating all that content, making only quality content king of the web will be extremely difficult for Google to do. Time will tell.

repose by ~marenkathleen on deviantART

Article marketing and social media have worked well together since 2008. You can start telling people about what you are writing, finish writing your article, and then discuss the content of what you have written once it is published. I have tweeted three hundred word articles, sentence by sentence, but there is more to it than that.

When you are combining article marketing and social media marketing, think about the topics you will cover, the target audience you are trying to reach, and the purpose of what you are doing in terms of how it will build your online business.

I ask the people on my list, in my blog posts, on Twitter, on Facebook, and on LinkedIn which topics they are interested in knowing more about. This is how I come up with the articles that are making me so much money. Ask the people you are connected with online what type of information they want from you, and then provide it for them.

If you are not an expert in the area they are asking about, spend some time doing research and you will become more and more of an expert as time goes on. I honestly believe that we can become experts in almost any area having to do with the Internet is two months or less. I have done this myself since coming online at the end of 2005. Writing lots of articles will help you to do this faster than ever. Reach out to your target audience. They are already online, so find them and invite them over to your sites to join your list.

This is best done with an opt-in page, but you may want to start with a blog, as long as there is an opt-in box there for them to use to sign up. Once you start the conversation about your niche topic by writing articles on everything you know, you may be surprised at how many people find you on the social media sites. Remember that it’s all about keywords, so use the words your market understands in order to reach them. Once you begin finding your target audience, decide how you will monetize what you are doing.

This should really be your focus from the very beginning, but there is no time like the present to figure out what you will sell. Remember that someone must purchase something, either directly from you or through your affiliate link, in order for you to make money. Keep that in mind as you begin to create your own products and recommend those of affiliates.

Article marketing gives you content that can be easily repurposed into products that will sell. Write your articles and share them on social media sites. It will not take long for you to build a profitable business, as well as have enough content to create whatever type of products or membership sites you want to set up.

People are a notoriously self-interested lot. They avoid activities that don’t benefit them, skip events that bore them, and reject content that doesn’t interest them in some way. They aren’t going to go out of their way to read up on an article simply because it has all the information the author thinks is vital and important if they personally feel that article is a waste of their time. Indeed, nothing is a surer waste of someone’s time than a crappy, poorly assembled article. A piece of copy could have the very recipe for successful nuclear fusion buried on page 14, but if it bored readers away on page 9, no one will ever dig deep enough to find it and society will continue to churn out dirty coal and uranium waste.

This raises the natural question: What exactly is “crappy” content? The short and almost tautological answer is “content that people don’t like,” but simply saying that doesn’t get a writer anywhere. There are many kinds of crappy content, each with its own unique reasons for being a dull and uninteresting lump rather than a well-polished gem of online commentary.

Type 1 – SEO Smash

First, let it be said that there are few techniques as important to online brand marketing at this time as Search Engine Optimization. Google rightly can claim to rule the web by means of its indexing power. A recent merger between Microsoft’s software and the Yahoo! search engine was described in terms of its ability to challenge the reigning king, Google, not on its own merits. So, the ability to get content noticed by search engines through the use of keywords, meta tags, and proper formatting is all a vital portion of the content process.

However, any article first approached from the angle of creating an SEO-perfect piece, rather than with a focus on presenting an existing idea through the lens of an SEO effort, is going to get called out as crap. SEO-centric writing leads to articles that are little more than keyword phrases badly hashed together with poor grammar and unusual contortions of the English language, and people notice this kind of writing. They might pop by for a look, but they won’t stick around. First have something to say, then learn the best way to say it.

Type 2 – Humor Bludgeon

There’s a trend on the web for articles to be entertaining, funny and even to an extent snarky or sarcastic. This trend can be seen in the success of biting commentary sites such as Something Awful or the new Rifftrax DVDs (a series dedicated entirely to making fun of poorly-made movies).

Everyone wants to imagine they’re a clever, witty genius who can turn a fairly dull piece of writing into biting social commentary and satire. Most of these people are not such paragons of humor, however. Instead, their writing comes across as forced and scraping for obvious jokes that seem tired and strained. As a rule of thumb, if a funny turn of phrase comes to mind on its own, a writer should feel free to give it a try. If the writer has to consciously think about how to make something sound funny, it probably doesn’t need to sound funny – and doesn’t belong in the article.

Type 3 – The Meme Beam

A variation on the topic of humor and witty banter above, memetics is a theory of social information transmission. Memes are ideas that are passed and replicated between people, and on the web they tend to take the form of popular sayings or pictures that catch on and go viral. Caturday is a meme, being the tendency of people to post funny pictures about cats on Saturdays. Other memes reference an imagined rivalry between pirates and ninjas, zombie apocalypses and other esoteric topics of web discussion.

A well-referenced meme can make an article more entertaining. A forced meme gets nothing more than rolled eyes and a disparaging snort in most cases, and quickly-spread criticism in the worst instances. Unless there’s a compelling reason to include a meme – such as a particular target audience, or the fact that your brand focuses on a specific meme – don’t try.

Type 4 – Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing

Few things are more irritating than wasting someone’s time. The above examples are bad, and each one can lead to an article being dismissed, but they are also forgivable and won’t produce as virulent a reaction as presenting someone a piece of content that does them no good at all. Avoid this trap with all possible effort and ingenuity, because the moment it gets out that a brand has nothing to contribute, that brand is finished.

Instead, make sure every piece of content put up as part of a brand contributes something to the lives of the readers or viewers absorbing the content in question. Provide a tip about acquiring the product, a handy maintenance routine for keeping it running or even a story explaining how the brand has learned from its mistakes in its latest ad campaign and that it’s listening to the audience. Do something to contribute to the conversation. If the brainstorming meeting can’t say in less than 2 minutes why a particular piece of content is going up, don’t put it up.