If you value your content like you value a product, you realise that you can “sell” your product every time you create and publish content. Usually, like a product, the only content that sets the difference is that we create our own crafted content, not the one we’re taking from somewhere else and simply sharing.
Take a look:
Newsletter / RSS / Database
To provide quality content that makes a change in a free private newsletter, take a look at what Carlos Bravo is doing. Monday or Tuesday could be a great day for this. Perhaps you may consider doing it over the weekend, aiming to create a tribe outside the noise of the busiest days. That’s exactly what Chris Brogan does, with a long, active database that he nurtures, giving him a competitive edge. I’m currently working on the daily RSS subscriptions to my blog, which continues to rise. The greater the audience, the more new people I “bump into”. This has led to an increase in the average business opportunities (“leads”) coming through my blog: increasing to 0.9 per day (up by 0.3 compared to 2012).
Audio / Podcast
Provide audio content. Have you considered carrying out a weekly podcast that your audience may listen to while practising sports, working or going from one place to another? Juan Merodio has been doing this with his posts for a couple of years, and they have now been listened to 200,000 times. Another idea is turning this audio content into subscription podcasts published through a program (for instance, iTunes), allowing you to choose your periodicity.
Video
Video as content. Valentí Sanjuán entertains, connects, and has something to say in his channel. He reaches more people with his videos than any other blogger in Spain. His reach and impact continue to grow daily due to the significant emotional bond his audiovisual content provides. Valentí has created a line of branded content tightly linked to a community of followers that continues to grow with every video he publishes. It’s easy to see how he cleverly “calls to action” in every video, pointing towards other videos that may interest his audience. This maximises the experience, contact and bond with the content, making a huge impact. In the case of Valentí, this is further strengthened by the great personal brand he’s building around himself and his work.
Ebook / Book
You can compile your best and most valuable posts into a book or ebook for offline or online use. In that way, people can read you while they travel by train or plane. This has worked for Seth Godin or Guy Kawasaki with “What the plus!”. However, you don’t need to be a celebrity to compile a book based on your articles or posts and turn it into an ebook; anyone can do it with the next-to-nothing marginal costs involved. This makes it possible for anyone who writes to become their own publishing house. If the content is good, you will reach hundreds of thousands or, who knows, maybe millions of readers. Couldn’t it work for you? I’m going to try this out. I’m currently preparing my second book, which I was writing at the same time as my first. Let’s see what comes of it!
Sharing content is great, but tell me something: why look at you if you do the same as anyone else?
Bonus: perhaps “anyone else” has been doing that for many years.
Photo credit: Gauravonomics.