We have more opportunity online these days than ever before.
Never in our history has it been easier to get your content published and READ by people all over the world. Whether you’re publishing on Medium.com, your own WordPress blog, YouTube, or Facebook.
There are hundreds of content distribution platforms and everyone now has an audience.
Heck… even your grandmother has an audience. I know plenty of grandma’s with 1,000’s of friends on Facebook. Don’t doubt the social influence of grandma.
Social media has given everyone a voice. And for the startup entrepreneur, this is an unprecedented opportunity to grow your audience, your brand, and your business.
But…
To become an influencer in your market, you’ll need LOTS of content. Feeding (and growing) your audience requires a consistent flow of blog posts, emails, and social media content.
Fortunately, there are some pretty cool tools online for coming up with endless content ideas.
Here’s how to serve up tasty content, even when you’re running low on inspiration…
1. Buzzsumo.
I’ll admit… I’ve got a bit of a crush on BuzzSumo.
As a blogger, it’s one of my all-time favorite tools.
Simply enter a topic and BuzzSumo will spit out the most popular articles on that topic. You can then sort the results by total engagement, Pinterest shares, Twitter shares, or number of Facebook likes.
You can also find out the most popular content on your competitors blog. Simply plug in the url of a related blog and BuzzSumo will show you which of their articles are getting the most social media shares.
With just a few quick searches, you’ll have an endless number of potential blog post ideas.
Plus, they also have what’s called the “Facebook Analyzer”, which allows you to plug in a Facebook fan page and find their most popular posts.
Pure GOLD right there.
Makes it super easy to come up with engaging posts for your followers.
The number of things that you can do with this tool are endless. Lots of hidden gems to be found 🙂
2. YouTube.
This is one I don’t see people talking about very often.
But YouTube is a treasure trove of content ideas and inspiration.
Click on any channel, then go to the “Videos” section of that channel. From there you’ll be able to sort ALL of their videos by number of views. Showing all the most popular videos on top.
I’ve found sooooo many great content ideas with this little trick.
3. Quora.
Quora is a question and answer site with over 200 million monthly unique visitors.
Simply plugin a keyword and you’ll unlock hundreds of popular questions on that topic.
You can also explore Quora via their topic portals. They have sections for just about any topic you can imagine. Everything from parenting and homeschooling to paleo and the keto diet.
Here’s a quick screenshot of the topic page for Search Engine Optimization.
You can also find the most viewed writers for each topic as well.
So for example, I can view Neil Patel’s profile and then view his most popular answers in the past 30-days. Which unlocks 100’s of new content ideas.
Quora allows you to quickly and easily find new blog post ideas, find key influencers in your market and create unique, well-researched content for your next article.
4. Twitter.
Before I write ANY article, I always do a quick search on Twitter to find out some of the most popular content being created on that topic.
Simply go to Twitter.com and put your keyword in the search box.
Click enter and you’ll find 100’s of the most popular articles on that topic. You could literally do all of your research right there on Twitter.
Plus, you’ll get lots of great hooks and headline ideas.
On the search results page, you can also click on “Photos” to see what kind of images people are using to illustrate articles on this topic.
Within 10 to 15 minutes, you’ll have everything you need to write your next great blog post!
5. Pinterest.
Pinterest has been a source of inspiration for how to decorate your house, what to make for dinner, and all the latest fashion trends.
But it’s also an endless source of content ideas!
Anytime you need some inspiration, just head on over to Pinterest and plug your keyword into the search box.
You can browse through 100’s of articles on that topic and take note of anything that strikes your fancy.
Plus, at the top of the search results, Pinterest will show you what else people are searching for around that topic.
So for example, when I search for keto, Pinterest gives you the most popular keywords in that niche.
Keto recipes
Keto meal plan
Keto diet
Keto meatballs
Keto fat bombs
Keto dessert
Keto before and after
Keto for beginners
Keto shopping list
So not only is Pinterest a source of content ideas, but it’s also a great little keyword research tool as well.
One other little cool trick for you…
If you want to see what your competitors are pinning, you can use the following url.
Simply replace websiteurl.com with any related website in your market. This will show you ALL of the pins from that website.
Endless content inspiration.
6. Reddit.com
Reddit is one of the lesser-known social media sites online. But it shouldn’t be ignored. In fact, this little powerhouse gets 14 billion pageviews per month.
And it’s a hotspot for endless content ideas and inspiration.
From the Reddit.com homepage, you can do a quick search on the right-hand side. Under “posts”, you’ll find some of the most popular articles and conversations around that topic.
You can also sort the results by relevance or popularity.
This one feature alone often helps me to generate a month’s worth of content.
But there are a few more tricks of the trade.
Whenever you’re doing a search on reddit, you can also use a number of filters to narrow down your results.
For example, I can search for:
title:”email marketing”
To find posts that have that exact phrase in the title.
Or I can use something like this if I’m searching for specific types of content…
title:content marketing infographic
And it doesn’t stop there.
One of my favorite ways to browse Reddit is through what they call subreddits.
Subreddits are like mini communities within Reddit, covering just about every topic you can imagine.
Here’s an example of a Subreddit on SEO…
But the real magic comes in being able to sort the threads by popularity.
At the top of every Subreddit you’ll see a link that says “Top”. When you click that link you’ll be able to sort the top threads in the last 24 hours, week, month, year or all time.
So much like BuzzSumo, you’re able to find some of the most popular articles, headlines and hot topics.
It’s a great source for blog post ideas, titles, email subject lines and more.
Just don’t copy! Tweak, modify and give it your own unique voice 🙂
7. AnswerThePublic.com
Here’s a cool tool that presents content visually. You simply plugin a keyword and their automated system uses Google Autocomplete to come up with 100’s of different keywords, content ideas, and frequently asked questions.
Plus, it gives you lots of long tail keywords that you can weave into your blog post. Great little keyword research tool. You can then scrape the results and plug them into a site called SearchVolume.com to find out how many searches per month each keyword generates.
If you do any sort of content marketing, this is definitely a tool you’ll want to keep handy.
8. Feedly.com
This is probably one of the best (and most affordable) alternatives to BuzzSumo. Using Feedly, you can stay on top of all your favorite blogs in one place.
And the cool part is that you can then sort the results by number of social shares. Allowing you to find the most popular blog posts within your feed.
It also allows you to quickly find the most popular content from any specific blog. So you can plug in your competitors and find what’s working best for them.
Plus, for just $7 per month you can upgrade to their Pro Plan.
Which allows you to find the most popular articles for ANY keyword. Much like Buzzsumo.com – but for a fraction of the price.
To get the best results though, you’ll need to effectively use the filters to find relevant results.
Here are the settings I find work best…
9. iTunes.
Here’s one that many people don’t take advantage of.
iTunes has a super cool feature that unlocks hundreds of new blog post ideas. Simply navigate to some of your favorite podcasts and then click on “popularity”.
This will sort ALL of the podcast episodes by popularity.
Every podcast is now an instant source of fresh content ideas.
10. Good ‘ol pen & paper.
After you’ve experimented with the strategies above, you’ll find that you often have LOTS of ideas swirling around in your head.
So now it’s time to get those ideas on paper.
Or what I call a virtual brain dump.
You can use ‘ol fashioned paper or simply open up a notepad on your computer.
Now that you’ve done your research, you should have lots of ideas flowing. Set the timer for 10 minutes and write down every content idea that comes to your mind.
There’s NO filtering here. This is a virtual brain dump.
No one is ever going to see this so there’s no need to filter your thoughts. In fact, that’s what often causes paralysis. We overthink what we’re writing instead of letting it flow.
The best content often comes from writing via a “stream of consciousness”.
So set the timer for 10 minutes and write down every content idea that comes to mind. Don’t stop writing until the timer is up!
By the end of this session, you should have a month’s worth of content ideas.
Another cool tool you can use is called “The Most Dangerous Writing App“. This app forces you to write without stopping.
If you stop typing for too long, all of your progress will be lost.
I find that I do some of my best work using this tool. Because it shuts off that nagging part of your brain that is always prejudging and overanalyzing everything you put to paper.
That’s why many great writers say… “Write drunk. Edit sober.”
After you’ve completed this exercise, you’ll have at least a month’s worth of content ideas ready to go. So the next time you sit down to write a blog post, you won’t be racking your brain for ideas. You’ll simply pull from your list of proven, popular topics.
Now… over to you!
Are there any other tips or tools you use to come up with fresh, new content ideas?
Have you told a story on your sales page and it’s flopped? Or, perhaps you’ve read all the books and articles on sales pages and all the books and articles on storytelling and are wondering if they merge… If so, then you’re in the right place to talk sales page and story.
If you want sales pages that are high converting (and who doesn’t) then it’s important to realize what you need certain components on your sales page and you can’t remove them because you don’t like them.
Sure we know the basic sales page elements
You also need to weave a compelling true story in your sales copy.
The purpose of the story is to inspire trust, elevate you in the eyes of the reader as well as make you memorable to them. In other words make you real to your reader and establish an emotional connection with them. Your story resonates with the reader and they feel you understand them.
The easiest way to do this is to craft your story by remembering what you want to say on that sales page and why you want to say it.
What’s the message that you want your reader to come away with? The story on your sales page is more than just a biography, it’s still sales copy. As sales copy the story should be weaved around the main purpose of the sales page. Notice I use the word weave rather than sew or mesh or weld… the story has to be an integral part of the copy and not an addition to it.
So get a pen and paper and work through this with me…
Think about the purpose of your sales page.
Enticing the reader to buy is a good purpose. Yeah, I know the first thing that springs to mind is that it must make the reader buy… but no one has yet designed a page that a hand with a gun leaps from forcing the reader to cough over their cash. You cannot make anyone do anything against their will on a sales page. Your sales page needs to persuade the reader and make them desire your product or service so they buy happily and willingly.
By the time they finish reading your sales page you want them to view you as someone they trust, like and know. You want them to realize that they need the item you’re providing, and they need it right now. Great sales copy does this through words and the story you tell. But, there is more to the purpose of the sales page than just that.
The Sales Page Sift
Not every person who lands on your sales page is your ideal prospect. A well-written sales page will qualify the person early on so that you don’t waste their time (and yours) trying to convince the wrong person to purchase your product.
That means every word, every image, and every part of your story should speak to that target audience and only that person.
I recently let a JV partner do a sales page. I’d left them with the instructions on how to personalize the page, and they handed the job to their VA… The resulting sales page was okay but it didn’t speak to the ideal prospect. This lead to the refund rate of the product being higher than it should have been! Be cleat in your instructions if you’re not doing your own sales page.
The biggest myth about high converting sales pages
High converting sales pages aren’t always just “business” focused. There is a school of thought that sharing your story is somehow unprofessional and damaging. In fact, sales pages work better if they’re down to earth and real. Your own life story and even your feelings about events are important to your reader and should be expressed in your sales page copy. If it’s real then your reader feels a connection.
You have to pick and choose from your story which parts to you need to share.
These must meet the objective to speak directly to your target audience about your offer. For example, if your target audience consists of women who work from home, your story should resonate with them. You don’t have to be that woman who works from home to be able to speak to them in a way that they love and connect with. But you do need to know how to recreate your story to let them know that you know and understand their needs. Maybe you’ve juggled family as they have and that becomes the story. Maybe you’ve been exhausted at the end of the day, like them, and want more energy. When you share similar stories that echo their own experiences and values then your sales page story is a winner.
You don’t have to use your own story in the sales pages – you can use the stories of others in your testimonials section. If your testimonials are from people like your ideal customer then the reader will still make the connection here.
By building your sales page around your story, and the stories of others via their testimonials you’ll create a connection with the reader that will convert into more sales.
When you’ve targeted the customers you want to work with and provide services and products to your sales page writing will become one of pleasure and ease. Your sales pages will practically write themselves because you’re aligned with yourself, your market, and truly understand the benefits of your products.
Over to you – share your sales page experiences with us.
“We are incredible at remembering pictures. Hear a piece of information, and three days later you’ll remember 10% of it. Add a picture and you’ll remember 65%.” Brain Rules.
****Free, no-optin visual content strategy at the end of the post****
If you want to create memorable visual marketing content – start here!
Visuals are a powerful way to stop the social media scroll and gain the attention of your ideal readers and dream clients. These 15 visual marketing tips will help you increase your social shares and traffic with images. Leave a comment and let me know your visual marketing tips.
Use the Principle of Repetition to Give Your Graphics Even More Impact
A love of repetition is hardwired into human DNA (that’s how we first learned how to learn). Just think of your three-year-old, wanting the same story, night after night. It isn’t the surprise ending that delights her so: It’s the same words, said in the same way. It’s the same scenario repeated multiple times (think “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”) we learn by repetition.
We carry that early imprinting over into adult life. That’s why audiences respond to repetition in movie memes; why we read what is basically the same cozy mystery plot told in seven different ways. Why we trust people we know more than people we don’t know.
Use that bit of basic psychology in your content marketing. Always include repeating graphic elements in the same spot—for example, a logo in your resource box; a cartoon ‘mascot’ for a particular newsletter column; the same template for your newsletter every month; the same graphics placement and size in your posts. It reassures your readers and keeps you memorable.
Use Fonts to Reinforce Your Message
Take a tip from movie makers and book cover designers—use fonts to reinforce your message. For example, you will often see fantasy novel book covers with titles in ‘medieval’ or ‘Celtic’ fonts. Or you will see a movie title whose font and font effects reinforce both the actual meaning of the title and its mood.
In the example below, you can see how author Ava Manello uses a strong, edgy font like the wounded hero her book is named after.
Remember ‘Less is More’
The ‘less is more’ principle is ESPECIALLY important for graphics most of your audience will view on mobiles. Too many elements in a picture detract from the message.
Use graphic elements wisely. Once your visual has made its point—you’re done!
Keep Your Slides Simple
If you are going to use slides during webinars, videos or seminar presentations, keep them simple. Only put a limited number of points on each slide—and give your audience time to assimilate the information. Use lots of white space to emphasise the important information in your text. And do give your slide a heading that states, simply, what that particular slide is about.
Remember, the more complex the information, the less text there should be on each slide. You can find out more about presentations, slides and visuals from Dr. Simon Raybould.
Make Sure Your Images are Relevant
For a graphic to be effective in your blog, it has to not only catch attention, it has to be relevant. It should repel people who won’t benefit from your message and speak emotionally to people who are your ideal reader.
You will increase your chances of achieving this if you ask yourself three questions before using any particular graphic:
“Is this graphic the best one I could use to illustrate this point/post?”
“Why is it the best graphic?”
“Is there anything in this graphic that contradicts my message?”
Graphic designers and magazines such as Resource magazine know this trick: Putting a post headline UNDER the graphic that illustrates it.
Try it—and see if you notice an increase in conversions.
Do Your Own Photography—Learn How!
Do you have a smartphone? Then there’s nothing to stop you creating your own images. If you take your own photographs, get into the habit of reading photography books, blogs and print magazine—or take a digital photography course, so you can take your photographs from good to “WOW!”
This is a pic of two of my daughters. As you can see, I’m working on the wow stage :), and yes if it wasn’t PhotoShop, it would be my Middle Chick pushing the wrecking ball at her sisters.
Use Images that Tell a Story
The most mesmerizing images are ones that tell a story. They make your reader wonder things like, “Why is he doing that? What’s going to happen next? What is she crying about?” (And make sure it’s the same story your text is telling!). When you do this you’ll have a tonne more engagement on your post and a lot of social shares!
Use Images that Show What to Do
The only exception to the “tell a story” rule is an image that shows someone what you are talking about—literally. So if you are writing, “Click on the blue button under the ‘Finances’ tab” then a screenshot of a mouse clicking on that spot would be effective reinforcement for your reader’s learning process.
You can use a tool like Snagit to capture and save each step of the process.
Add a ‘Pin it!’ Button to Your Own Original Images
If you provide original images on your blog, consider allowing people to pin these images to their Pinterest accounts without having to ask you for permission. Every time they use the ‘Pin it!’ button, you will end up getting the credit you deserve automatically on Pinterest.
Keep Background Images Understated
Make sure they enhance your blog’s mood and message—but never, ever get in the way of your headlines and posts. They’re background images for a reason.
Invest in Images that Trigger Emotions
Nothing will make your blog post more irresistible to your ideal reader than an image that triggers the correct emotion. So don’t be afraid to use highly-charged photographs … and do remember that positive emotions trigger more shares than negative ones.
Don’t Use the First Image You See
When choosing images from a stock site, don’t go for the first image you find—especially if you have actually seen the image before on someone else’s site. Keep searching until you find the perfect image and then edit it on Canva to make it truly your own.
Overused stock images can actually detract from your blog’s value, making you seem slick, insincere and ‘the same as all those others’.
Consider Using a Video Header Theme
Instead of having a static photo for your blog cover photo, consider a repeating-loop video in your header area instead. Choose one that creates a positive feeling and tells a story—one that’s emotionally relevant to your blog focus, your brand and your ideal reader/viewer.
I love the unique spin Simona Frumen has on the video header – it’s in the footer. Take look at how her visuals pop on her home page – https://www.simonafrumen.com/
Use a Hashtag with Your Social Media Graphic
According to Buffer Social, photos and image quotes posted to social media with a hashtag show an increase of 16% in shares. Find relevant hashtags, ALWAYS check them in Twitter Search to make sure you’re not using one that doesn’t mean what you think it means (or belongs strictly to someone’s brand)—and ask people to share.
So there we have it – 15 things that will help you make the most of visual marketing. What tips would you like to share about visual marketing that have given you big wins?
Sarah
P.S Share from this box and gain your scroll-stopping visual content strategy – 28 Days to Scroll Stopping Visuals
Visual Appealing content <—- Right click the link and “save-as” to your desktop. Print and implement!
I’ve never been a planner. I’ve always found that I can work through chaos (or even a hurricane) because I learned discipline and focus from an early age. A naturally organized person? Nope, I did not get that gene, and it’s only through discipline and focus that I’ve learned to love planning and strategizing.
Keeping all the aspects of a business organized and running smoothly is difficult at best, especially if you don’t have a system or a plan of what to do when. Even if you have a big picture plan of where you want to be in five years, you need a daily plan to get those admin tasks completed along with your marketing tasks and your content creation as well as selling your products and working with your clients. It’s enough to make your head spin, isn’t it?
Daily Task List
Creating a plan of action or a daily task list will keep you organized and focused from the moment you sit down to do work. Over at the Online Visibility Academy we call these “can-do” lists. You know exactly what has to get done, without question. You’ll know when you need to write blog posts, when to send emails, when to do your invoicing, and when to schedule your client calls.
Make Yourself Your Client
As much as you want to be fully booked, leave some space for yourself to complete your administrative tasks. Running your business is equally as important as caring for your clients, so make your business tasks a priority, including your content creation.
Blocking time is a popular way to schedule longer tasks, such as blog post writing or email marketing. Set aside an hour or two, write up those posts or emails, get them scheduled, then move on to the next list item. If you block enough time, eventually you’ll start having two or three (or more!) pieces of content ready to publish at any given time, which will relieve your pressure. In fact you’ll find it becomes easier because you have the space to create.
Eliminate Writer’s Block with a Content Creation Plan
No more sitting at the computer to write a blog post only to stare at a blank screen with no thoughts!
Schedule some time on your calendar to plan out your writing, video recording, or other content creation; not only when you’ll get this done but what topics you’ll discuss.
Create an editorial calendar and make note of important topics or themes. Is there a big event coming up in your city or in your niche? Write about it. Interview panelists and speakers.
Become an affiliate for those companies sponsoring the event and interview them
Are you planning the launch of your signature product? Schedule special content around the launch date.
Outsource Your Content Creation
If creating content isn’t your strength, I’d be happy to have a chat with you. But keep in mind, you still need to have a plan or an editorial calendar. This way your content creator has deadlines to meet and you will have a stress-free outsourcing experience.
As you can read, all of this is actually fun and doesn’t feel like planning at all!
Use a Planner
I also use planners extensively to track my time. I’m an advocate of Zero-White Space in my diary. You can get a planner for everything these days and you’ll find two or three planners that you love and will use them the most. Planners are a great investment.
I have a superb content planner that will cover a year’s worth of content, and enable you to track your results with ease. Get it here – https://www.sarkemedia.com/contentplanner
You can also create your own planners using these templates and then get it printed using Lulu.com if you don’t want to use all your printer ink! The great thing about planning templates is that you can use them to create lead magnets and content upgrades for your business very quickly and easily!
So to recap…
Use a daily task list and track everything
Make yourself your client
Create a content plan so your content and your offers align
Outsource your content creation if it gets overwhelming
Use a planner
Over to you – What did you do to love planning?
Sarah
P.S Here’s a free, no-optin 5-day planner so you can try your hand at using a planner to gain results in your business.
“No. We’ve never spoken. I wanted to write a post about Zebra Knitting* and now she’s published it. She’s stolen my idea.” (* = topic changed to protect the innocent)
“Okay” I reply “How are you going to raise the conversation with her that she’s stolen your idea? What evidence will you show her that the idea is yours, associated with you and is your intellectual property?”
“What do I need as evidence so I can write to her?”
“Have you any articles published on Zebra Knitting?”
“No”
“Any video content on Zebra Knitting?”
“No”
“Any webinar content on Zebra knitting? This would be good because you can see if she’s attended and you have an evidence trail”
“No. I don’t have anything. She’s got away with stealing my idea”
“What if we explore the idea of synchronicity and coincidence. What if we focus on bring our ideas to the surface faster than worrying about the ones that are stolen?”
Unfortunately, despite what you may have heard from late-night television commercials, there is no effective way to protect an idea with any form of intellectual property protection. Copyrights protect expression and creativity, not innovation. Patents protect inventions. Neither copyrights or patents protect ideas.
According to Dictionary.com, the definition of plagiarism is “an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author’s work as one’s own, as by not crediting the original author.”
In other words, if you take someone’s report, blog post, or infographic and pass it off as your own without crediting your source, then you’re probably plagiarizing. Copying a few sentences or paragraphs from a blog post on the internet and pasting it into your own blog post or report is also plagiarizing. Taking a blog post from someone else and turning it into a video is still Plagiarism if you don’t credit your sources in the content. Better still – get permission to do this rather than just taking it.
A good rule of thumb for deciding whether you should ethically do something is to ask yourself “How would I feel if someone did this to me?”
Follow it up with “How would I feel if someone did this to me without my permission?”.
If you wouldn’t like it done it done to you, then the chances are your moral compass is guiding you correctly.
Plagiarizing is something you should avoid at all costs, from the workplace to schools to your own content creation activities. No matter the reason, it’s theft of someone’s intellectual property. And ignorance is no defense in the eyes of the law.
Some online entrepreneurs have the misunderstanding that “repurposing content” means taking someone else’s content and rewriting it or reconfiguring it so it matches their brand, with their own voice. What you’ve done is theft of content or theft of an idea or concept. The absolute best way to think of repurposing content is to think about only the content that YOU created and how you can use that content in a different way.
Not only is plagiarism wrong but Google may hide your plagiarized content in search results, so follow these three tips for avoiding plagiarism claims:
Cite sources properly. Using a quote from a favorite author, or cult classic movie is perfectly fine IF you give the proper citation. Generally, that means putting quotation marks around the exact words and adding the person’s name or movie’s title. Better still, link to the source so your readers can see your inspiration. If you’re writing an academic piece, then a formal bibliography is necessary with more information but this simple citation is fine for general internet writing. The worst case of this I saw published by Hay House in a book for entrepreneurs. None of the quotes were attributed to the person that said them. If a big publishing house can get it wrong, you can see how easy it is to do.
Borrow topics or themes, not words. Esteemed author Mark Twain believed, “There’s no such thing as a new idea,” and others argue this point today. Whether you agree with this or not, you can certainly write content about why Zebra knitting is the in thing (for example) but you need to put your own experience and perspective on the topic. You are completely unique from the other people out there and that needs to come through in your content. You have a different voice, different experiences, different clients, and all these things will give you a multitude of ways to write about a broad topic that thousands have already written about.
Focus on the content YOU have created already. Look at your blog posts, videos, webinars, etc. and plan your repurposing strategy with only these pieces in mind. Take bits and pieces from YOUR content and weave it together to create a new blog post, video, or webinar. In this instance, since YOU created this content, it’s okay to copy and paste YOUR own words into a new format.
The Rights To Use A Piece of Content
A few months back I was talking music with a client. He had a piece ready for his podcast. It was him playing his Cello. His podcast was on Optimism and the benefits. The Cello piece was dark and melancholy. I said that I didn’t think the music fitted the topic. He replied with mock outrage “But it’s My Way by Frank Sinatra! I’ve played it slower”.
Now that’s a great song. Everyone knows it. But it belongs to someone else and you need a license to use the music on a podcast.
Not only was the tune setting the wrong mood, but my client could also be fined for stealing the music.
Here’s a Cello cover of My Way from Vesislava:
If you want to use other people’s content, particularly music, then you need to get a PPL PRS license. If you record a webinar and play a song at the beginning and the end to raise the energy of the room you need a license to do that. You’re broadcasting. Even if it’s an invitation-only broadcast. Play music at events? Either you or the venue needs a license.
Copyright theft isn’t just written words.
Unconscious Absorption
Unconscious absorption is something that so many people are unaware of when it comes to creating content. I demonstrated this in a live training a few weeks back.
I was taking a group of people through rapid product creation. I showed how I formed an outline from my research, and as I was sharing screens the source material displayed a testimonial from Kate Moss, the model. I carried on creating the product, and I was editing and adding, and then we reached the part of the naming the ideal client this product is for… And without thinking I called her… Kate.
Coincidence? Nope. When you read and digest other people’s content – even if you skim it- you take some of it with you. In this example, it was the name that embedded in my brain and appeared in my work. It could have easily been ideas, content or the brand.
Did you notice earlier I mentioned the phrase “Moral Compass”. We’ve all got one right? You know what that means. but yesterday I attended a training from Core Sense around aligning your compass. It was unconscious absorption manifesting in a different way.
Repurposing your content is a fantastic way to grow your reach
Make sure that when you do repurpose your content that you don’t plagiarize.
Ensure you create your content legally, credit your sources and inspiration.
Check your moral compass.
And, check whether you need a license to use the content.
The last thing you want to lose your business to heavy fines because you didn’t know what you were doing.
I’m an accidental and somewhat reluctant entrepreneur. My motivations for achieving career status and business status aren’t different. They’re very much the same. So what motivates you to build a business?
The answers lie in the things you said about your employment (past or present).
“I can’t wait to get away from this awful job.”
“I just want to be home with my kids.”
“This dead-end job is going nowhere.”
“I’m tired of working crazy hours and holidays.”
“I know I’m worth more than they’re paying me.”
These and many, many other yet similar thoughts go through the heads of every would-be business owner, and are often the driving force behind that final, “Enough! I’m starting up on my own.”
Whilst these thoughts are great for lighting a fire and encouraging you to make a scary jump to business ownership, they’re not so fabulous at motivating you to grow and improve. They won’t inspire you to increase your skills and raise your rates and be brave and authentic in your marketing. They won’t help you find the courage to hire a new coach or launch a brand new program.
To find the motivation to make your business thrive, you have to identify the real reasons behind what you do. This has been popularised by Simon Sinek’s Book “Start with Why”.
Sinek’s “Start With Why” suggests that when an organisation understand the reason why it exists then its leaders inspire their teams more effectively. With this in mind let’s look at the types of Why and how they motivate.
Passionate Whys
“Passion based” is a phrase that’s found a massive following in the past few years, and seems to be the holy grail of entrepreneurial adventures. And for business owners with a true passion for their field, it can be a strong motivator. Some business owners are passionate about a subject, spending all their waking hours learning about the topic. Some are passionate about a market, and would do anything to help their ideal client achieve his or her goals.
Whichever type of passion-based business owner you are, learning to harness that passion will help take your business to the next level.
Financial Whys
Maybe you want to retire at 40 to travel the world, or send your kids to an elite private school. Maybe you love fast cars, and dream of driving a brand new Ferrari. Whatever your big dream, you knew you’d never make it while putting in time at the day job. While everyone seems to go on and on about those passion-based dreams, the truth is there’s nothing wrong with wanting financial fulfillment. Money is a necessary tool. We need it, and the more we have, the easier life is. And wanting more of it is nothing to be ashamed of, as long as you maintain your integrity and authenticity in pursuit of it.
Philanthropic Whys
Plenty of online business owners go into business so they can have more to give. You’ve no doubt heard of—or maybe even know—marketers who use their earnings to fund mission trips, build schools in war-torn, third world countries, and support a variety of charities at home and abroad. Others use the time freedom they’ve built into their business to volunteer with local hospitals, animal shelters and children’s organizations.
If you have a heart for a cause, a philanthropic why might be the driving force that takes your business to the next level.
What most people don’t realise is that any one of these three main “whys” can activate at any time. You may be financially motivated and that leads to philanthropic motivation. This, in turn, can ignite a passion motivation. As you’re a smart, ethical entrepreneur and business builder the question is how can use these “whys” to reach the top of your game?
To find your own motivation, consider your biggest dreams.
If money were no object, what would you be doing?
If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
If you didn’t have to train what would you do?
If you want to change the world, how would you do it?
Answering the above 4 questions in your journal will give you the some of the answers you’re looking for. Start with the “Money is no object” question and see where it takes you.
Please note, sometimes this can be a difficult question to journal because all you can see are obstacles. Visualise a day in the life of your dream.
Describe what it looks like
What does it feel like?
How are the people around you?
How do you feel achieving your dreams?
If you journal through your hopes and dreams you’ll start to see a pattern. You’ll start to see your true motivations emerge and you’ll be happier for it.
What’s my motivation? I love sharing knowledge because the application of knowledge powers our dreams
We have more opportunity online these days than ever before.
</a.
Have you told a 
