Learn to create effective content by putting it through the RITE test

By Mark Schaefer

Here’s a proven method to consistently create effective content: Put it to the RITE test.

RITE is an acronym that stands for Relevant, Interesting, Timely, and Entertaining. If you create content that hits at least three out of these four angles, you’ll be spinning gold my friend. Let’s take a deeper look.

Relevant

What if you have multiple interests like books, pets, and cars? Can you create content about everything you’re interested in?

The answer is … kind of.

You don’t want to confuse people. If you started a video series about woodworking and then did a commentary on French history, your readers would think “What’s going on here? I came here for the woodworking tips!” You’re no longer relevant.

Now, that’s not to say you can’t bring your hobbies and interests into your content. Here’s an example of how I did it.

I mentor a young man named Elijah who is very active in sports, so I find myself attending many games. At one basketball game, Elijah’s team was pummeling the opponent at halftime by a score of 48-0.

Finally, a scrawny little guy on the other team stole a pass, dribbled down the court, and made a beautiful lay-up. But the entire gymnasium gasped in horror because he had run in the wrong direction and made a basket in the opposing team’s hoop. The poor kid actually scored for the other team!

This made me think: “Just goes to show you. It doesn’t matter how well you execute if your strategy is wrong in the first place” … which became a great blog post. I brought my interest in sports and an everyday observation into the blog and made it a teachable moment. I’ve used inspirations from history, art, travel, literature and other areas of interest to enliven my blog posts, but they are relevant to my core topic.

Interesting

The “I” in RITE is Interesting. Publishing your content isn’t a creative writing contest. It’s a war for attention. Every single piece of content you produce must be interesting. If you can’t do that consistently, you’ll lose your audience to competitors who can hold their attention.

How do you stay consistently interesting?

When I create content that’s particularly provocative, somebody in the comment section will typically write “How did you know this was on my mind?” or, “How did you know we were just talking about this at work?”

I suppose the difference is, I don’t just think about things that interest me — I write about them and open a public discussion. It takes some guts to put yourself out there, especially when a view is incomplete or controversial, but that’s the key to remaining interesting, isn’t it?

You don’t need all the answers to be interesting. You simply have to ask the right questions.

Timely

One of my biggest advantages is that I don’t have a formal editorial calendar. Sounds crazy, but being flexible and tuned-in to the world allows me to create content that is “first to market” on breaking news and trending ideas.

Here are opportunities to create content based on changes going on in your environment:

• Wow news — In every industry there’s somebody producing a newsletter that curates the latest news (If there isn’t, go do that!). Read this news every day. If there’s a news item that makes you go “wow!” it’s probable that others are going “wow,” too. Open up your laptop at that moment and write a post about the implications of that news from your point of view. Publish that same day and your readers will love you.
• Comment on a commentary. Let’s say your passion is fire-fighting. If there’s an event that affects your industry like a budget cut, a new regulation, or a technological breakthrough, there are news stories already out there about it. Do a web search to find others commenting on the issue and then 1) summarize their points 2) provide a link to the original source with attribution, and 3) add your own perspective to the original view.
• Create a round-up post – If there’s a breakthrough in your area of sustainable interest, ask thought leaders to send you a paragraph, video clip, or soundbite of their views and present a round-up of opinions. You’ll be creating great content with the secondary benefit of quoting industry leaders who may share your post.

Entertaining

The final factor in the RITE formula … but perhaps the most important aspect of content creation today.

Why do you share a piece of content? Because it’s entertaining in some way. Maybe the video, podcast, or blog post makes you laugh, inspires you, or amazes you.

Thinking in terms of “entertainment” may create a point of differentiation for you. Most people aren’t putting their content through the “entertainment” filter … they’re just reporting. Could you stand out from the crowd and become known because of your entertaining style?

Like Greg Kinman, for example.

Kinman is a retired middle-school English teacher from the rural community of Pleasant View, Tennessee (population 4,149). Kinman, better known as Hickok45, is a YouTube sensation, with more than 2 million subscribers to his channel, lucrative sponsorships, and paid appearances.

This is what he does on YouTube. He shoots guns. That’s all. He shoots old guns and new guns, brown guns and blue guns. He shoots bullets at gongs and pumpkins and watermelons and books and tanks full of water. Week in, week out, he is a grandpa who just shoots. Occasionally he dresses like a cowboy, if he wants to get a little fancy.

You might think this talent has the same entertainment value as the refrigerator repair channel, or the “My Favorite Napkins” podcast … but no! You get sucked into watching this guy’s mutant-like ability to blow things up at long range. A lot of people do. One of his videos has nearly 15 million views.

This example might seem outlandish, but it’s actually sort of predictable. It’s entertaining. Kinman had his biggest viral video success by carving a face on a pumpkin by pumping it full of bullet holes. The idea was so entertaining that it was featured on a national news broadcast.

Before I publish any piece of content, I think about how I can make it more Relevant, Interesting, Timely, and Entertaining, and I think this is a concept that will work for you, too.

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The Ultimate Guide to Online Branding and Building Authority Part 1 – Blogging

What is the difference between online branding and building authority? Some would consider it the same thing, but in reality it can be two completely different processes. Online branding is a way to get more exposure for your brand on all levels of online marketing, especially search and social.

Building authority takes online branding to the next level by making each online presence for a brand authoritative. It goes beyond just about creating a blog or social media account. The following are ways you can build your online brand as well as your authority.

Start a Blog with Awesome Content

Blogs are beneficial for brands for three reasons. First of all, blogs help you rank well in search engines – Google loves fresh, unique content on websites that are constantly updated. If you’re looking to meet this goal, be sure to use WordPress – Matt Cutts, the public face of Google, says that “WordPress takes care of 80-90% of SEO” in his SEO for bloggers presentation (see slide #12).

Next, blogs provide for great content to share on social media networks. It’s hard to get traction if your just sharing product and sales pages. But if you’re sharing informative blog posts about your industry, you’re likely to get a lot of traffic and social shares.

Finally, great blogs can help your brand build authority in your niche. This is where you go above and beyond cookie cutter posts that talk about your product to creating awesome content in the form of:

• Tutorials
• Infographics
• Videos
• Industry Interviews

Awesome content will show fans of your industry that you know your stuff and therefore are the brand to go with for their business needs. A great example of this is the blog you are reading right now – KISSmetrics has infographics that have been tweeted and liked over 3,500 times (see The Science of Social Timing) and posts that have been viewed on StumbleUpon over 7,000 times (seeIncreasing Traffic with StumbleUpon).

There are two great fears that brands have when it comes to blogging. One is that they won’t have anything to blog about, and this is a complete myth. Everyone can find something to blog about. You just have to expand your definition of the target audience. Imagine you had a bait shop. You probably won’t get a lot of attention if you’re writing about worms and crickets all the time, but you will if you think about broader topics that would interest the people likely to shop at a bait shop. You can blog about the Deadliest Catch or River Monsters to grab fans of those programs. Or you can blog about environmental issues to grab environmentalists. Just think bigger!

The other fear is that they will be giving away “trade secrets” and lose their business. This one is especially common within industries like SEO, where a brand might feel like giving out ten steps to link building will give their customers the info they need to just do it themselves. But this just isn’t true. I have found that most of the time, if you give a complex, in-depth tutorial, a potential customer will see that your brand has the knowledge to do the service, but they won’t have the time or resources to do it for themselves. Hence, they’ll go with you because they feel confident that your brand has the expertise demonstrated in the content provided on the blog.

The key with your brand’s blog is to make sure that it is apparent who is behind the content. Whether you have your blog on your domain (yourbrand.com/blog), as a subdomain (blog.yourbrand.com), or as a separate site (yourbrandblog.com), be sure that it is matched to your brand. Check out Southwest’s site and blog (on separate domains) as an example of great branding.

Guest Blog for Others

When it comes to blogging, you don’t want to keep the good stuff all to yourself. Guest blogging is a great way to build your online brand presence and authority. The basic goal is to find a blog whose audience will be interested in your brand, and create a great piece of content for that blog.

Notice I said great piece of content. I would go so far as to say that the content you create for another site’s blog should be even better than the content you create for your own site. You want the content you create for another blog to rock. You want that content to generate additional social shares, comments, and traffic for the blog owner.

As you create guest posts for others, be sure to save the links to those guest posts for future reference. As you approach new blogs that you would like to guest post upon, you will want to include those links as examples of your successful guest posts elsewhere. If you can convince the blog owner that your post will be a perfect fit for their audience and will drive significant traffic and response, the blog owner will have a hard time resisting.

My main tips for guest blogging for your brand include:

1. Find the best blogs to guest post on.

When it comes to blogs you want to get a guest post on, your goal is to find those whose audience would be interested in your brand. The blog should get a significant amount of traffic and social shares as well – there’s no reason to post on a blog that has no visitors just because it has high PageRank or any other criteria – you want to get some brand exposure out of this! Use directories like Technorati, PostRank, and Alltop to start your search for blogs in your niche or industry.

2. Find the blog’s guest blogging policy.

If you see that a blog allows guest bloggers or outside contributors, the blog should have some page or post on their site that describes their guest post policy. If you can’t find it easily on their navigation or using their search box, you can always try Googling site:blogurl.com guest post which should yield the site’s guest post page or at least the fact that they accept guest posts from others. If they do have a policy page or post (like KISSmetrics recently published), then be sure to note any and all criteria.

3. Start building a relationship with the blog owner first.

Now that you’ve found the blog you want to pitch an idea to, don’t just jump in and pitch them yet. Start by getting to know the blog owner first by following them on Twitter and their Facebook fan page. Comment on some of their latest posts – make those comments valuable to enhance discussion and demonstrate your writing skills and expertise in the industry. Tweet their posts using their Twitter handle and like / comment on the post on the Facebook fan page. Do this for at least a week or two before pitching content to them.

4. Research and pitch great topic ideas.

Don’t create the content first and then try to find it a home. Once you’ve found the right blogs and started engaging with the blogs themselves, you’ll get a feel for the type of content they publish.

To get an even better idea of what content is successful for each blog, subscribe to them in your Google Reader and (using Google Chrome) add the PostRank Extension. Then you will be able to see the site’s latest posts and their social engagement scores. The higher score, the more comments, tweets, Facebook likes, and other social shares the post received. Use these high-scoring posts as an indicator as to what content does well on each blog.

Now you can craft a personalized (ie. get the name of the blog owner – do not address them as webmaster, blogger, or some other generic tag) email saying that you have recently enjoyed reading their blog (as evidenced by your commenting & social sharing) and would like to contribute to their site as a guest blogger. After reading their guest post guidelines, you would like to see if they would be interested in the following topics. Then add three to four great post ideas that you believe will fit their audience to choose from. And of course, if you’ve done guest posts elsewhere, include some of your best links. If not, just include some great links from your own brand’s blog.

5. Create Awesome Content.

Once you get approval from the blogger, your next job is to create an awesome piece of content. Make sure it fits the guest posting guidelines you found earlier and that it has the overall feel / tone of the blog you are submitting to. Also be sure to add in relevant links throughout your blog post – not to your own properties, but internal links to the blog itself. This shows the blog owner you’re really giving it 100% for them and their audience and not just trying to promote yourself.

The self-promotion piece should come at the end with your guest bio. Check out other author bios on the blog and create yours to match. This is where you can say you are John Smith, an industry enthusiast from ABC Company. A great example is Leo Widrich’s bio from a guest post he submitted earlier this month:

About the Author: Leo Widrich is the Co-Founder of a Twitter App called Buffer. Every week he tweets more Twitter Tips on the Buffer blog.

Again, be sure to consider the blog’s guidelines and previous guest author bios when deciding to add one or more links back to your brand. The blog owner ultimately reserves the right to edit it as they feel is necessary.

6. Support your guest post once it goes live. It’s not over yet. After that guest post goes live, you should give it your unconditional love in the form of social sharing with your brand’s audience on Twitter, Facebook, etc. as well as coming by to respond to comments. That kind of response on your guest post will further boost your brand’s reputation as a great guest blogger as well as a confident authority in your niche.

Don’t Forget Blog Commenting

Blog commenting is a great branding and authority building exercise you can do on any blog in your niche. I would suggest subscribing to the top blogs in your industry in Google Reader, and each time there is a new post, be sure to read it thoroughly and add a valuable comment. Remember this isn’t about link building – this is about building your brand’s presence online as an authority in your industry.

You can use the blog’s previous comments as a guide as to how you should format yours. Some blogs require you to only use your real name, while others are a little more lenient in using your name – your company. I would suggest linking your comments to your blog as people are more willing to click through to a brand’s blog than their main website.

Your Online Branding & Authority Building Strategy Using Blogs

What is your brand’s strategy when it comes to building your brand’s authority using blogs? Be sure to share what you find brings your brand the best results in the comments!

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How to write a blog post in 30 minutes

Talking is always faster than writing, Here are top 5 tips how to write a blog post in extremely short time.

8 Must-Have Ingredients of a Successful Blog Post

When it comes to marketing online, you’ve probably already heard that “content marketing” is one of the best ways to spread the world about your site and position yourself as an industry expert. But content marketing is not the same as churning out blog posts day after day. 

There’s more to a great blog post than just words on a screen. What follows is my list of essential ingredients for a successful blog post. If you’ve been focusing on just publishing words each day, step back, consider this list, and find out how your blog might improve. 

1. The article needs a point 

I’m surprised at how many blog articles have nothing to say. Well, maybe they have plenty of things to say, but they don’t have a point. An article is supposed to communicate a point.

When your article has a point, it gives readers something memorable to latch onto. They are more compelled to share it, comment on it, and engage with it. An article with a point is an article that accomplishes a mission and is therefore successful. 

There’s another benefit to having a point: Using specific keywords. As part of a content marketing effort, you probably went through the exercise of planning the keywords to target, and creating content that would advance those keywords. Now, you can implement those keywords by writing an article with a succinct point.

2. Images

You won’t see an article on my blog without an image. It just doesn’t happen. I know that content is the most important thing for search engines and crawlers, but I’m not writing great stuff so crawlers can read it. I’m writing content so you can read it. And I know that you want pictures.

Your goal isn’t just to add eye candy, though that’s probably a good thing. Your goal is to add strategic images that help your readers, and enhance your content. 

3. Structure

This is one of the most-overlooked aspects of an article. In order to communicate a concept, you need to organize your thoughts. Otherwise, you’re going to have a scattered assembly of sentences and statements. That accomplishes nothing.

When you have a structure, it will be reflected in the layout of the article. An article will have headings, subheadings, paragraph breaks, and maybe a bullet point or two. All of these features provide flow for the reader, and make it easy to skim and digest content.

Here’s the model you should follow:

• Introduction: Set the stage for your discussion.
• Make your point. Explain it. 
• Make your next point. Explain it. 
• Do this for as many points as you have.
• Conclusion: Wrap up the article with a call to action. 

That’s the general idea. However, it needs some specificity depending on the type of article you’re creating. In my Advanced Guide to Content Marketing, I discuss 12 structures to help you have an organized approach to virtually any type of content. 

4. Unique content

First, you need to have something unique to say, from a thematic perspective. In other words, you don’t simply want to make the same point that everyone else is making. You need to have a unique angle, approach, or spin. 

Second, you need unique content. You hopefully wouldn’t copy and paste content from another site onto your own. But you may be tempted to do a link roundup or “best of the web,” in which you curate a list of articles that you’ve found to be interesting. 

I think this is a fine idea, and it can certainly help you to establish thought leadership and gain readership. However, because of the risk of duplicate content, I’d suggest doing this infrequently. Unique content is more likely to be linked and shared. People are going to go to your content because it’s one of a kind.

5. Substantial length

Ah, the perennial question: How long should my blog post be? 

The short and easy answer is, as long as it takes to say what you need to say. But -- and this is a significant “but” -- longer is better. 

My research, experience, and data all point to long-form content performing better in social sharing, search indexing, organic traffic, and conversions. If you’re regularly creating content that is in the 1,000- to 1,500-word range, you’re doing well. If most of your articles are about 200 to 300 words then you could probably beef up a bit. 

6. Internal linking

An internal linking strategy -- for which you link to other, related posts within your own site -- and can serve to enhance and deepen the overall value of a website. It isn’t complicated. Here are the basic points:

• Create enough content throughout the site. You’re going to need stuff to link to.
• Create text links with diluted anchors. No optimized anchors allowed. In other words, the text of the links (the part people click on) shouldn’t contain keywords.  
• Link internally to “deep pages.” The deeper the link is within your site, the better. A good example of this is linking to pages that are not your home page, or any other major page on your website.
• Use links that the reader will be interested in. You want them to engage with your content and site.
• Link to relevant data on your site. Topical relevance between the pages will bolster the authority of both pages. 
• Use enough internal links to make it worthwhile. I’d suggest anywhere from 3 to 10 internal links per post.

7.  Attention to proper spelling and grammar

When I first drafted this article, I wrote this point as “Make your article grammatically impeccable.” And then I changed it. It needs to be proofread and copyedited...at least.

Let me share a thought or two about mistakes. To err is human. Mistakes happen. Now and then, a typo will slip through. Work to avoid it, but be prepared to accept it. Being human has its drawbacks. 

Here’s a helpful approach to proofreading and copyediting your articles: 

• Just write the article. Don’t nitpick, parse, check thesaurus, or fix your spelling. Simply put the content on the page -- structured, organized, but not proofed. 
• Wait a few hours. A day is even better. You’ll be able to look at it with fresh eyes when you go in for the copyedit phase. 
• Copyedit the article. Here’s where you give the article a renovation. You may change entire paragraphs, elide sections, alter wording, and adjust your approach. Your goal is to make the copy read well. 
• Proofread the article. Examine every comma, apostrophe, capital letter, and spelling issue. This is where you make sure your article will pass muster in a college-level composition course. When you’re done, proofread it again.

8. A call to action 

The call to action is the magic ingredient that makes a blog post worth it all. You have all this wonderful long content with an amazing point, a beautiful structure, internal links, great images, and flawless style and grammar. Now what? 

Every post needs a call to action. The reader is ready to respond, to do, to click, to engage. What do you want them to do? Whether it’s capturing an email address, visiting another page, purchasing a product, or downloading an ebook, you need to have an explicit call to action for each article, every time.

Call to actions are the key to bringing in more conversions. Truly effective calls to action begin and end with strong, compelling copy. 

So, write your copy, but don’t stop there. Write your call to action as well.

I could have ended this list by telling you “Write a conclusion.” Of course you need a conclusion. Any article needs to have a clear ending. But somewhere in that ending needs to be an appeal -- the reader should be invited to take the next step or do the next logical thing. 

If you scroll to the end of this post, you’ll see an example of my call to action. It’s at the end of every article. 

Conclusion: Churning out content on a blog is not the path to success. Carefully consider your strategy in light of these eight points. If you have an approach that follows this methodology, then you’ll start to see significantly higher success rates with your content marketing.

What other must-have blog tips would you suggest?

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