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How do you do this: You should make content to establish yourself as an expert. I did for recruiting. Over the course of 6 months I went from some random perso

How do you do this: You should make content to establish yourself as an expert. I did for recruiting. Over the course of 6 months I went from some random person who knew nothing to an authority in the space.

joshklein 9y ago
Searching for the term “inbound marketing” should give you a good sense of the process. The website submitted for this thread is a textbook example of what you would create, as appropriate to your target client.
- raleigh_user 9y ago
  True. A lot are not very good though. A lot are covers for getting your email and trying to sell you services. I like Drift.com's Seeking Wisdom podcast and anything by Gary Vaynerchuk(I am sure this audience will hate him but he knows what hes doing)
raleigh_user 9y ago
To be honest, you'd be shocked how easy it is to do. One thing I struggled with for awhile was trying to make the perfect piece of content, editing and getting stuck in that paralysis. I was able to make a dent in recruiting because I am an engineer and know about problems engineers have. Further, I found a niche where recruiters want to learn how to write basic web scrappers and started teaching them how to do so. If you find a similar niche or compliment to the industry you want to enter that you have some experience in, its pretty easy!
hluska 9y ago
This can be as simple as: 1.) Find a niche. This is the most difficult part. If your niche is too obscure, you'll find yourself in a situation where you're an expert in a field that three people on earth have heard of. That's not a good way to get consulting leads! But, if your niche is too general, you're going to end up competing with so many people that your ability to become an expert will be a function of how good you are at marketing. In a perfect world, you would already have some expertise in this space, but this isn't a strict requirement, just be aware that if you're trying to attract consulting clients, it's very bad if your potential client knows noticeably more than you do. 2.) Start a topic board. (An outliner is an excellent tool for this, but you can use anything - a text editor, paper, a white board.) Chances are, as soon as you pick a niche, you'll believe there are an endless number of topics to write about. You'll start off strong, publish five good articles, then sit in front of your computer, try to start an article and realize you have absolutely nothing to say. Sometimes, you can generate a topic by reading some relevant news sources, but most of the time, you'll lose momentum, so it's important to have a repository of half baked content ideas. 3.) Figure out your medium. Are you a great writer? Do you have a good voice for podcasting? Do you have a good face for video? Do you have a good face for podcasting?? ;) When you get good, you'll likely want to branch out into other mediums. Think, for example, of the legions of marketing bloggers who have branched out into marketing podcasts. But, at first, it's easier to focus on one medium, get really good at it and then branch out. When you're new to producing content, it's too easy to blame the wrong medium when you should really blame shitty content. After you've been around the block, you'll get a sense of whether your treatment of a topic will work on your audience if it's presented in a certain medium. 4.) Find one or two people who you trust to serve as editors/first eyes. Ideally, this will be someone who cares about you enough to tell you that you sound like a buffoon. 5.) Build out a schedule. When you're getting started, your real task is to produce a habit, not produce amazing content. If you form the habit while producing great content, that's even better. If I was publishing a piece of content every Monday, my schedule would look like this: Sunday - Start new draft. Monday - Publish previous piece. Finish first draft of new content + send to editors. Tuesday/Wednesday - Wait for first round of feedback. Start picking a topic/finding sources for next week's article. As soon as you get that feedback, drop everything and make a choice. Can you salvage this piece by Monday? If yes, move forward. If no, bail and start on a new draft. Thursday - Send current draft to editors. Depending on the first round of feedback, this may be a first or second draft. Friday/Saturday - Wait for feedback, make sure all your sources are together for your next article and figure out what you'll really want to say. As soon as you get feedback, massage the article and prepare the post to be published Monday. Scheduling a post works great here. ---Repeat--- You'll notice there are only two rounds of feedback from editors. In my experience editing and writing, if I can't massage a piece within two rounds of feedback, it's best to put that topic back on the topic board and revisit it at another time. This problem is especially acute if you have more than one editor. For some reason I don't understand, if I'm working with multiple editors, by the time we get to a third draft, my editors start to diverge. The small lesson is don't waste time on fucked content. The bigger lesson is that if you routinely need more than two drafts to complete a written article, you're either a shitty writer who picked the wrong medium, or you're a shitty expert who picked the wrong niche. 5.) Always be open to learn.
- neya 9y ago
  This is great, actionable advice.
  - hluska 9y ago
    Thanks! That's kind of you to say. :)
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

joshklein 9y ago

Searching for the term “inbound marketing” should give you a good sense of the process. The website submitted for this thread is a textbook example of what you would create, as appropriate to your target client.

raleigh_user 9y ago
True. A lot are not very good though. A lot are covers for getting your email and trying to sell you services. I like Drift.com's Seeking Wisdom podcast and anything by Gary Vaynerchuk(I am sure this audience will hate him but he knows what hes doing)

raleigh_user 9y ago

To be honest, you'd be shocked how easy it is to do. One thing I struggled with for awhile was trying to make the perfect piece of content, editing and getting stuck in that paralysis. I was able to make a dent in recruiting because I am an engineer and know about problems engineers have. Further, I found a niche where recruiters want to learn how to write basic web scrappers and started teaching them how to do so. If you find a similar niche or compliment to the industry you want to enter that you have some experience in, its pretty easy!

hluska 9y ago

This can be as simple as: 1.) Find a niche. This is the most difficult part. If your niche is too obscure, you'll find yourself in a situation where you're an expert in a field that three people on earth have heard of. That's not a good way to get consulting leads! But, if your niche is too general, you're going to end up competing with so many people that your ability to become an expert will be a function of how good you are at marketing. In a perfect world, you would already have some expertise in this space, but this isn't a strict requirement, just be aware that if you're trying to attract consulting clients, it's very bad if your potential client knows noticeably more than you do. 2.) Start a topic board. (An outliner is an excellent tool for this, but you can use anything - a text editor, paper, a white board.) Chances are, as soon as you pick a niche, you'll believe there are an endless number of topics to write about. You'll start off strong, publish five good articles, then sit in front of your computer, try to start an article and realize you have absolutely nothing to say. Sometimes, you can generate a topic by reading some relevant news sources, but most of the time, you'll lose momentum, so it's important to have a repository of half baked content ideas. 3.) Figure out your medium. Are you a great writer? Do you have a good voice for podcasting? Do you have a good face for video? Do you have a good face for podcasting?? ;) When you get good, you'll likely want to branch out into other mediums. Think, for example, of the legions of marketing bloggers who have branched out into marketing podcasts. But, at first, it's easier to focus on one medium, get really good at it and then branch out. When you're new to producing content, it's too easy to blame the wrong medium when you should really blame shitty content. After you've been around the block, you'll get a sense of whether your treatment of a topic will work on your audience if it's presented in a certain medium. 4.) Find one or two people who you trust to serve as editors/first eyes. Ideally, this will be someone who cares about you enough to tell you that you sound like a buffoon. 5.) Build out a schedule. When you're getting started, your real task is to produce a habit, not produce amazing content. If you form the habit while producing great content, that's even better. If I was publishing a piece of content every Monday, my schedule would look like this: Sunday - Start new draft. Monday - Publish previous piece. Finish first draft of new content + send to editors. Tuesday/Wednesday - Wait for first round of feedback. Start picking a topic/finding sources for next week's article. As soon as you get that feedback, drop everything and make a choice. Can you salvage this piece by Monday? If yes, move forward. If no, bail and start on a new draft. Thursday - Send current draft to editors. Depending on the first round of feedback, this may be a first or second draft. Friday/Saturday - Wait for feedback, make sure all your sources are together for your next article and figure out what you'll really want to say. As soon as you get feedback, massage the article and prepare the post to be published Monday. Scheduling a post works great here. ---Repeat--- You'll notice there are only two rounds of feedback from editors. In my experience editing and writing, if I can't massage a piece within two rounds of feedback, it's best to put that topic back on the topic board and revisit it at another time. This problem is especially acute if you have more than one editor. For some reason I don't understand, if I'm working with multiple editors, by the time we get to a third draft, my editors start to diverge. The small lesson is don't waste time on fucked content. The bigger lesson is that if you routinely need more than two drafts to complete a written article, you're either a shitty writer who picked the wrong medium, or you're a shitty expert who picked the wrong niche. 5.) Always be open to learn.

neya 9y ago
This is great, actionable advice.
- hluska 9y ago
  Thanks! That's kind of you to say. :)
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]