Content Marketing:

Blogging &

Creating E-Books for

your Business

Jessica MaesOwner, Maes Consulting Group

Today’s Plan

BBB – Benefits of Blogging for Business

Blogging Best PracticesHow to Launch a Blog in 4 Minutes (or

Less)How to easily create an eBook with

existing (blog) content.

Jessica Maes

Business Owner since 2004 Virtual Assistant 2005-2011 Infusionsoft Certified Consultant ActiveCampaign Certified Consultant HubSpot Inbound Certified Blogging since 2011 Author of 6 eBooks

Jessica Maes

When your why is big enough you will always find your how.

What Is Blogging?

Online content on any and every topic you can imagine.

Blog posts can be written, images, audio, video and/or a combination of these.

Written Blog

Images Blog

Audio Blog

aka: Podcasting

Video Blog

Combo Media Blog

Who Blogs?

o Ordinary People (Creative Outlet)o Businesses (Marketing Strategy)o Anyoneo Everyoneo You?

Why Blog?

o A low cost way to rank high in Internet searches (Organic SEO).

o An effective way to establish authority.

o A way to provide free resources to your audience.

o In a nutshell: Exposure

Organic SEO

o SEO = Search Engine Optimization.o Organic SEO = Unpaid exposure on the

Internet.o Search engines return best match search

results. o Blog posts often match up with what people

are searching for.o The more useful content you produce, the

more you will show up frequently in Internet searches.

Case Study

o In January, 2013, I decided to generate online traffic to my website via blogging.

o I committed to blogging every business day.o Traffic to my blog increased 129% between month

1 and month 2.o Month 1: 189 visits to my blog.o Month 2: 433 visits to my blog.o Today, average is 4000 visits to my blog per

month. I measure this using Google Analytics.o Because of all of the content I now have, I only

have to blog 1-2 times/week to maintain these stats.

Case Study

“Jessica Maes, please report to the Principal’s Office…”

Establish Authority

They can’t put anything on the Internet that isn’t true.

Where did you hear that?The Internet.

-State Farm television ad, 2012

Free Resources

People need and want to experience your business at all price points.

Quality, free resources build trust and establish a relationship with your audience.

Advanced Strategy: Your blog can be your Lead Magnet.

Blogging Reality

The road to blogging……is paved with the best of

intentions.

Tips/Best Practiceso Blog consistently (at least 1x/week).o Consider being a guest blogger (great

exposure to other people’s audience).o Consider hosting guest blog posts (exposure

to other people’s audience AND less blog posts you have to write).

o Because of Google’s “Search Algorithm”, how-to blog posts are very popular (= Conversational Search).

o Cross post your info (put a video on your blog, and on You Tube).

o Use a social media scheduling platform (Hootsuite, Edgar…) to regularly share your content on social media.

Take Action!Launch A Blog This Afternoon!

If your website is built on Wordpress:o Create a PAGE and name it Blog. o PUBLISH the PAGE.o Click on Settings, Click on Reading.o Set the POSTS page to “Blog”o Start creating POSTS. They will now

publish to the Blog page on your website.

If your website is built on something other than Wordpress, check your Help docs for “Adding a blog”.

Take Action!Relaunch Your Blog This Afternoon!

This is what I did in 2013. Review: Went from 100+ views/month to 4000+ views/month.

Write and publish a post TODAY. Even a post declaring that you are going to blog regularly going forward.

Create a 1x/week blog schedule. Schedule guest bloggers ASAP so you don’t

burn out. Watch your stats. As soon as results hit, you

will be hooked.

Take Action!

Who is launching/relaunching a blog this afternoon?

Email me at jessica@jessicamaes.com when you do so I can check it out!

Blog Recap

o Blogging is so easy, so inexpensive, so impactful to any marketing strategy.

o The secret to success is simple: Consistency

o Begin (or begin again) TODAY.o Measure results and do not give up!

Blogging

But wait, there’s more!

You can use your blog posts to easily create an eBook!

What’s An eBook?

Online content on any and every topic you can imagine.

eBooks can be as simple as a PDF doc and as complex as a Kindle or Nook file.

Why Write eBooks?

To entertain and/or inform.To make $.Lead generationTo solve a problem by sharing a

solution.To position yourself as an authority.

eBooks

It’s Not All About You / It’s All About You

People consume eBooks to entertain and/or help themselves.

If people are entertained/helped by your eBook, you become an authority to them.

Do not write eBooks just to “hear yourself talk”. You will never get the results you are hoping for.

eBooks

Content Is Key You can write an eBook from scratch You can transcribe an interview and make it an

eBook You can take your blog posts and create an

eBook

Blog => eBook

Use Case For Taking Blog Posts and Creating an eBook

eBooks are an excellent lead magnet People land on a web page People then enter their email address You email them your eBook You follow up regularly to build a relationship

10 Step eBook Blueprint

Your 10 Step eBook Blueprint 1. Create a “working title” for your eBook. 2. Write the About The Author section. 3. Create “working titles” for your chapters. 4. Add your chapter titles to your eBook

Template. 5. Create your content (this takes the most

time).

10 Step eBook Blueprint

Your 10 Step eBook Blueprint 6. Decide on your eBook “Bonus”. 7. Create your Bonus. 8. Work on your “chapter flow”. 9. Write the Intro, Conclusion and Bonus

sections in your eBook Template. 10. Create your launch timeline and

marketing plan.

Chapter Flow

Especially when you are using blog posts as content, working on chapter flow is incredibly

important.

Let’s Do This!

Let’s log in to my website and outline an eBook using existing

content!

Content Marketing:

Blogging &

Creating E-Books for

your Business

Jessica MaesOwner, Maes Consulting Group