Penny Haynes, http://OnlineCommunityMagazines.com

We are bombarded by tons of information every day, but sometimes something just sticks out and you suddenly pay attention to it.  Personally, I believe that our subconscious is always at work, seeing everything and filtering out the things we don’t want to pay attention to.  In the previous tips we talked about changing your mindset to see things you normally don’t see.  In this tip, we’re talking about following your instinct – and a topic – that just seems to come to you.

TIP # 8

Go with your gut (and interests) and start there.  Then cluster related words and expand your ideas.  Before you know it, you’ll have a series in the works!

“There’s never a lack of subjects to write about. Keep your eyes open and trust your instinct. If something interesting jumps out at you, take note. Literally.

Read the newspaper and circle “faits divers” noteworthy items that catch your eye. Ask yourself why it is those particularly snippets of news made you stop. See if there’s a link to an area of expertise you, or someone else has, take it from there.

“Clustering” helps. Circle a word and write as many associative words around the central one. Next do the same for each of those words. Go on until there’s a shift in your consciousness, the AHA! moment – the instance when you know what it is you want to say.

If you want to stay ahead of local reporters, read newspapers of countries in a different time zone. Always trust your guts and instinct and you’ll hook’em baby!”

– Judith Van Praag author/journalist, artist/designer, public speaker http://hopefilledjars.blogspot.com/

I like Find-A-Word puzzles – always have, since I was a kid.  I like to look at all of the words in the list and then look at the puzzle to see what “jumps” out at me.  I clear out as many words as possible that way. 

Then, I systematically look for each individual word, BUT I do it with the thought that my subconscious has already seen that word, and will show me approximately where it is. 

95% of the time, it works, so I know the subconscious is accumulating information that the conscious mind is not paying attention to.  So why not put that to work in your content creation?

Penny Haynes, http://www.RSSzine.com

Sure, some topics are timeless, and people will always want to know “how to” do something. But other topics cause spikes in interest AND in search engine hits, and capitalizing on those areas of interest can help bring more traffic to your content.

TIP #7

So find out what people are talking about and searching for and try to incorporate that topic into your post.  Remember when Britney Spears shaved her head?  If you put “bald Britney” in your posts, you would have gotten hits you otherwise wouldn’t have had at that time.  Just make sure that the lesson you attach to the time-sensitive topic is NOT time-sensitive, and will make sense and be relevant when people find your post at a later date. 

But don’t take my word for it – listen to these experts:

“Topical and timely topics get a lot of reads, so before you blog, ‘cast or write, do some reading. Check out your Twitter feed to see what your community’s buzzing about. Read your local paper and a few industry rags. Then get to work with comments, observations, additional insight, etc.”

– Margot Carmichael Lester writer, consultant, activist, rabblerouser http://www.thewordfactory.com

“I use social media sites like Twitter to see what people are talking about. It usually sparks an idea for me, often several of them. I also subscribe to many RSS feeds, and they help me with research and idea generation.

Someone might post in their blog about how to find a good graphics designer. That might jog my memory, reminding me of how I shopped around to find a great PHP developer. That might prompt me to right about tips for finding a good web developer. It might also help me find a person to network with who might be willing to do a guest post on my blog.

Finally, I think the fear of running out of ideas is worse than the experience of it. So I keep a notebook where I jot down random ideas that occur to me, ones I don’t intend to act on right now. When I feel stuck, I turn to my notebook and find that an idea has been hiding in there, just waiting to be explored.”

–Monica Willyard Research Assistant at Veterans Administration  http://scannersguild.com/

So keeping abreast of timely topics can give you great content creation ideas.  And if you keep the lessons timeless, but the topics relevant, you can double your visibility and hits.

Penny Haynes, http://www.RSSzine.com

Sure, there are particular ways to exercise your brain or fill your vision with subject matter, but I like Mike Klassen’s take on content creation. He talks about expecting to find content in all areas of your life, and actually finding what you need.

TIP #6

Always be ready to find new inspiration and ideas, no matter where you are or what you are doing.  I actually found a great business podcast idea from a trip to the amusement park 6 Flags.  Andrew Lock once did a podcast from Disney World, sharing business principles he thought would be profitable for every day entrepreneurs.  Here’s Mike Klaussen’s take on this idea:

“I suggest doing away with the myth that one can’t come up with enough content.   I had those same feelings before starting a newsletter, which then morphed into a blog. At least for me, once you’ve settled on the area that you’d like to cover (generally your career field or area of expertise), the ideas really do start flooding in.

Recall the example people give about thinking of buying a green car of some model. Suddenly, you start seeing those cars everywhere. It wasn’t that they weren’t there before, but you weren’t keyed into it.

Same with content… once you start thinking about it, suddenly just about everything looks like potential content. You begin filtering what you see and hear through the idea of “how does this apply to my field that I can use to help others?”  Then, somewhere down the road, all those posts/articles have the making of an eBook.

Also, many of my blog articles started from questions that I saw here on LinkedIn Q&A. They weren’t always directly related to my field, but I was able to address the topic and spin in such a way that it was relevant for my audience. Same thing with articles I read in my field.

It’s somewhat of a leap of faith… you just jump in and trust that the ideas will be there. If you really have a mission about providing people with useful info, the ideas will come.”

–Mike Klassen Direct Market Layout & Graphic Design Professional http://www.mikeklassen.com/

So start looking freshly at tv commercials and shows, a trip to the supermarket or gas station, what your spouse or kids say or do, etc., to spur you onto new and fresh ideas for your content.

Penny Haynes, http://www.RSSzine.com

If you have created an RSSzine and want us to share it with the rest of our community through our library, blog andnewsletter, please send me a link to the PDF, or I can host it on our site.

Click on any of the publications below to view them.  

101 Things To Do With Audio And Video (To Promote Your Business)	The Treasury Of Infopreneur FAQs	WE Magazine Spring/Summer 2009
Women Of Today Magazine Spring 2009	Jason Hartman’s Financial Freedom Report July 2009	Self Creation Workbook (Excerpt) by Yvonne Brown
MELTA Spring 2007 Newsletter

From August 1 – August 9, 2009,
we are offering a special
50% commission sale for our affiliates. 

If you know of anyone who may be interested in creating a PDF from their blog or podcast, or a turning page publication from their PDF, please send them our way.  Just remember to sign up as an affiliate first, and use your affiliate link and/or banner.

Thanks again for being a member of the RSSzine community. I hope you have been enjoying the Content Creation tips as well.  If you have some ideas to share with the rest of the community, please feel free to submit it to me, so everyone can benefit from your experience.  Of course, I’ll include the link to your business with your post!

Until next time, have a great and prosperous month!

Penny Haynes, http://RSSzine.com

If you have some valuable information, why only show people who go to one particular site?  Or why only share it with people who read blogs, or listen to podcasts, or read articles?  Why not go where the different people are and offer your information in the different formats THEY like?

Tip #2

Take me, for example.  Don’t give me a book to read.  Chances are it will never be opened.  BUT, give me an audio book, and your chances increase 100 fold that I’ll listen.  Why?  I don’t have time to sit around and read, but I can listen while I drive or exercise, or lay in the hammock. 

Think of the different ways that people learn, and create content in those different formats.  Or find out where they hang out, and create the content to fit that place’s format.  If they like Twitter, create posts that are 140 characters or less. 

“If you’re creating content for your firm, a client, yourself, a brand, or any purpose – do the work once and then use it wherever you can after the fact.

Let’s say you have a blog entry on cats, here are a number of ways to stretch that content and get more link juice and attention for your writing and blog.

• Comment on cat blogs and reference your post with a link.
• To find similar posts, use Google Alerts or similar search tool.
• Find forums and communities about cats and share your information – USEFULLY – to the members and readers.
• Leverage Facebook’s fantastic search engine and see if there are Fan pages or people with cat-specific pages.
• If you used photos in your post, toss those on Flickr and link back to your blog from those shots.
• Use the blog post to write micro-blog tips.
• Call in to cat podcasts or video shows featuring cat content and position yourself and your post as expertise on that topic.
• Turn the blog post into one chapter of an ebook on pets.
• Share your content with cat product manufacturer sites.
• Break the post into installments and run it as three posts instead of one.
• Reference the post in your other blogs and other posts.
• Submit it to Cat Fancy and other pet-specific publications.
• See if the local ASPCA accepts freelance submissions

And there’s much more. What if the topic was technology and not cats?”

- Jeff Cutler, Social Media and Content Specialist, http://www.ideas2words.com

So stop thinking that everyone else likes the same things that you do, and goes to the same places that you go.  Widen your horizons, and think outside of your box.  Then create content in every format imaginable.

Penny Haynes, http://www.RSSzine.com

Many people choose to do it via info products, such as ebooks and recorded classes or webinars. This series will share with you ways you can get more mileage out of the content you already have, and also help you get the right mindset before you start your next series.

Tip #1

First, get your mind wrapped around the overall concept of re-purposing and re-packaging your content. 

Then, think about the different ways your content can be distributed before you even write (or say, for podcasters) a word.  Keeping the end goal in mind before you begin can help you be more creative.

Peter Wilson’s overall strategy sums it up beautifully:

“Start with the idea that you will produce your content once and publish multiple times – you will then start to think about all the various ways you might use that content at the very start – for example you might then take photos of the podcast being recorded for use on flickr.  You might post questions on twitter to help you create the content and then feed it back into your blog. Write once, publish multiple times – can’t remember who I stole that off but they were spot on.”

– Peter Wilson, Digital Strategy Manager at Sage

This response is appropriate to mention in this tip because this series of blog posts will eventually become an RSSzine ebook, but it started out as a series of questions I asked on LinkedIn.  There’s no better way for me to get the answers to the questions people might ask about content creation than ask others who know more than I do.  And I can first pass the information to my subscribers in online posts before compiling the answers into an ebook I can later give away. (Of course, always give credit where credit is due.)

What else can I do with this blog series?

• I can go through my Marketing With Audio And Video podcasts and see if there are any audio clips with great tips that I can use. 
• I can compile those clips and create a short audio book and attach it to the ebook or sell it separately, and
• have those clips transcribed and add it to this ebook and blog. 
• Then I can create videos from the audio clips and post them on video sites. 

I think you get the point.

So the next time you start a project, think about the different places you can get the information from, the different places you will be able to display it, and the different formats you will be able to use.   It will exponentially expand your income potential.

Penny Haynes, http://www.RSSzine.com

1. Import a copy of your Blog or Podcast feed, so you can edit your posts without touching the originals. Many of us:
   - write time-sensitive material in our posts, or
   - have automatic signature lines that are fine for live blogs, but would look funny in an online book, or
   - have several blogs or podcasts we’d like to combine, or
   - have posts we want to remove that don’t fit our present subject matter. 

   However, few of us want to edit our original posts, because they are achieving their purpose as they are.  So we have provided a solution – we give you a free feed upon purchase of any RSS to PDF package so you can import your blog or podcast and clean out what you don’t want in your book.

   You can even import multiple feeds, so you can combine several of your blogs and podcasts to achieve your desired results.

2. Image Resizing for your RSS to PDF ebook. 

   You upload your Header Logo, and/or Cover Image and Author Image, and then we let you save  to your computer whichever resized image you choose to use in your book. Then you can upload images with the correct dimensions. 

   Not everyone knows how to resize an image, and for your RSS to PDF to look its best, you need to have correctly sized images.   Now, our form actually helps you do that. 

3. Play a Special Audio Message to your recipients in your Downloadable Turning Page Magazine. You can record and send in an audio recording to be included as a part of your Downloadable Turning Page Magazine.  It doesn’t have to autoplay, as that annoys a lot of people, so readers can just click play to listen. 

   This gives you the opportunity to add something fresh to your compilation of blog and podcast posts, or perhaps an update since you last published your ebook.  In either case, you get to add your personality through your voice to these downloadable ebooks.

I’m trying to think of everything that people would need to make this service easier, quicker, more enjoyable, and provide more valuable benefits.  So if you have any suggestions for the service, please let me know.  Just use the Contact Us form to share them with me.

Thanks for joining me for the launch of RSSzine.  I’m hoping that those of you who are affiliates are busy promoting the 1/2 off sale on Thursday, June 25th.   I really need your help, as I’m a creator much more than a marketer.

Have a great day, and I look forward to seeing what you accomplish on Thursday!

Penny Haynes, http://www.RSSzine.com

1. Import a copy of your Blog or Podcast feed, so you can edit your posts without touching the originals. Many of us:
   - write time-sensitive material in our posts, or
   - have automatic signature lines that are fine for live blogs, but would look funny in an online book, or
   - have several blogs or podcasts we’d like to combine, or
   - have posts we want to remove that don’t fit our present subject matter. However, few of us want to edit our original posts, because they are achieving their purpose as they are.  So we have provided a solution -
   we give you a free feed upon purchase of any RSS to PDF package so you can import your blog or podcast and clean out what you don’t want in your book.

   You can even import multiple feeds, so you can combine several of your blogs and podcasts to achieve your desired results.

2. Image Resizing for your RSS to PDF ebook. You upload your Header Logo, and/or Cover Image and Author Image, and then we let you save  to your computer whichever resized image you choose to use in your book. Then you can upload images with the correct dimensions. 

   Not everyone knows how to resize an image, and for your RSS to PDF to look its best, you need to have correctly sized images.   Now, our form actually helps you do that. 

3. Play a Special Audio Message to your recipients in your Downloadable Turning Page Magazine. You can record and send in an audio recording to be included as a part of your Downloadable Turning Page Magazine.  It doesn’t have to autoplay, as that annoys a lot of people, so readers can just click play to listen. This gives you the opportunity to add something fresh to your compilation of blog and podcast posts, or perhaps an update since you last published your ebook.  In either case, you get to add your personality through your voice to these downloadable ebooks.

I’m trying to think of everything that people would need to make this service easier, quicker, more enjoyable, and provide more valuable benefits.  So if you have any suggestions for the service, please let me know.  Just use the Contact Us form to share them with me.

Thanks for joining me for the launch of RSSzine.  I’m hoping that those of you who are affiliates are busy promoting the 1/2 off sale on Thursday, June 25th.   I really need your help, as I’m a creator much more than a marketer.

Have a great day, and I look forward to seeing what you accomplish on Thursday!

Penny Haynes, http://www.RSSzine.com

I will also be giving away a coupon for 10% off of unlimited purchases for the next 6 months. People can purchase as many specials as they like on June 25th for future use, as the Passcode that they receive never expires. 

I’ve decided to add to the Grand Opening Special an EXTRA BONUS.  I will also create an excerpt of their book for them if they like, so they can market their ebook with a sample of the turning page book.

I am not directly advertising the site’s Grand Opening to the public - only through my affiliates, so you get first dibs on new clients.  Then I will start a social media and marketing campaign to the general public.

If possible, I would love for my affiliates to run one of their feeds (or someone’s feed) through the RSS to PDF program in demo mode, and send me that (or another) PDF to convert as an excerpt / sample.   You can use that as a marketing tool to the people you are promoting to. 

If you have any questions or comments (and thanks for the feedback you guys have been giving me – it has been invaluable), please contact me at info@rsszine.com.   But until then, I’ll be programming my little heart out and creating instructional tutorials…

Thanks again for everything!

Penny Haynes