Become a Blogger "part 4 / 7 "

Welcome to the 4th part of the Become A Blogger
Mini Course.

Inside today's lesson, I'll reveal three
*extremely* powerful content creation techniques
that will help you crank out content for your blog
faster than you ever thought possible!

But first, let's talk about the importance of
content for your blog...

Have you ever heard the expression, "Content is
King"?

This is one of the most important concepts you
will ever need to keep in mind as you travel your
journey towards a MEGA successful blog.

Great content is the backbone of any successful
blog, and without it, you can simply forget about
gaining any kind of prominence in the niche that
you are blogging about.

But it's not just *any* content that will do the
job...

"The key is to create amazingly valuable and
focused content on a regular basis."

Whoah! That's a mouth full!

Let's break it down a bit...


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First, you need to create amazingly valuable
content...
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The more valuable you can make your content, the
more people will like it. And the more people who
like it, the more they will tell their online
friends, and as a result, drive traffic back to
your site.

Many newbie bloggers don't "get" this, and feel
that they might give away too much content without
charging anything for it.

But the reality is that the more you give away,
the more attention and hence traffic you will
generate to your blog over the long run. And of
course, with lots of traffic, you basically have
"the license to print money"!

But I'm getting ahead of myself here...

Let's get back to that statement I just made.


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Second, you need to create focused content...
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By "focused", I mean content that is focused on
your topic of interest - your niche.

Inside Part 2 of this mini course, I gave you
plenty of tips to help you find your topic or
niche. And all I'm saying here is that it's
important to stick to your chosen topic by staying
focused on content related to your topic or
niche.

Now of course it's important to listen to your
blog visitors, and to ask them what they want to
learn about, but people will visit your blog
because they are interested in your topic. And by
staying focused on that topic, you will
automatically give them what they want, which will
keep them nice and happy.


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Finally, you need to create content on a regular
basis...
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Creating content regularly for your blog is
critical right at the beginning of your blogging
career. We recommend you create a new piece of
content every day for the first six months... or
at the least every two days if you can't handle a
new piece of content every day.

This will achieve at least 2 things:

One - it will help you get content out there fast!

And two - it will help you get traffic from the
search engines.

The more keyword rich content you create over a
period of time, the more chance you'll have of
getting noticed by the search engines and getting
listed.

But of course, two more additional benefits of
creating content regularly is that (1) you will
get into the habit of creating great content fast,
and (2) your visitors will come to know you better
as you "get in touch" with them more often.

And the better your visitors know you, the more
they will trust you. And the more they trust you,
the easier you will find it to influence them into
a certain direction... like buying your products
for example!

Ultimately, the content of your blog is THE MOST
important aspect for the success of your blog.
Without great content, you can't build a
following. And without a following, you can't do
diddly squat!

Okay... now that you understand the importance of
"creating amazingly valuable and focused content
on a regular basis" you are ready to move onto the
second main part of this lesson...


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Three *Extremely* Powerful Content Creation
Strategies For Your Blog
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Coming up with new ideas for content can be a
struggle at best, especially at the beginning when
you're not used to creating new and original
content.

That's why I'd like to reveal to you some magical
content creation tips now that will let you crank
out content like a professional author on
steroids!

Seriously, the tips you're about to read can make
a HUGE difference to your creativity and coming up
with amazing content for your blog.

Don't be fooled by the simplicity of these tips.
Yaro and I use a combination of these ideas almost
every day to help us create content. So, this is
as good as it gets...

In particular, I'll show you three methods for
coming up with content fast and easy:

1. The Mind Map Method

2. The Brain Dump Method

3. And the Talk It Out Method

Please note: The methods I'm about to tell you
have been tried and tested over time, but don't
feel that you HAVE to use these methods.

The bottom line is that you need to find a method
or a technique that you enjoy using and find
naturally easy to do.

These are simply some ideas you can use to come up
with your own unique way of creating the content
for your blog.

Each of the three methods are designed to
stimulate your thinking, and to help you get your
ideas from out of your head, and onto paper, or in
this case, onto your blog.

Ok, let's move onto the first method...


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1. The Mind Map Method
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The Mind Map Method could be one of the most
powerful content creation methods you will ever
use. I use it for almost all of the content that I
ever create, whether it's for a blog, an article
or even for a video.

It's one of the best methods I've found to help
stimulate my mind and to come up with amazing
ideas of things to write about, and to create a
general structure for my content.

If you don't know what a Mind Map is, I strongly
recommend you read Tony Buzan's book on Mind
Mapping. He's known as the founder of Mind Maps
and inside his book, he explains why it's such a
powerful skill to have, once you've learned how to
use it properly.

But just briefly, if you don't know what it is,
Wikipedia.com defines a Mind Map as:

"... a diagram used to represent words, ideas,
tasks, or other items linked to and arranged
radially around a central key word or idea."

I use a program called Freemind for all my Mind
Maps, but there are a whole host of other tools
that you can also use.

You could even just use a pen and paper if you
prefer. But the rules stay the same, no matter
what tool you're using.

Freemind doesn't cost anything and it works for
both PC's and Mac and you can download it here:

http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

For example, say you'd like a create a "How To"
article on "Cooking Salmon Using A Fry Pan" for
one of your key content articles.

You'd start off by creating the central idea as:

"How To Cook Salmon Using A Fry Pan" right in the
center of your page.

This will become your main idea where all your
other ideas will branch off from.

Then, without any critical thinking, simply just
list all the things or ideas that pop into your
mind related to this main idea.

For example, if I think about cooking salmon in a
fry pan, one of the first things I might think
about is what kind of salmon I should be using...

And then maybe, how to prepare it...

And then, how to fry it...

How to serve it...

And maybe some special cooking tips...

You can then develop your ideas further by adding
more branches and sub topics underneath each of
the branches you just created...

As you can see, you can really go nuts with this,
and add as much detail as you like.

The point of it all is to help the creative juices
flow in your mind, and then to create some kind of
a structure that you can use for when you start
writing.

So, once you've got your Mind Map complete, you
can go ahead and move the branches around into a
logical structure...

That's what's great about doing Mind Maps on a
piece of software like Freemind - it makes it so
much easier and faster than paper based Mind Maps!

And once you're done with that, you can use the
Mind Map as the structure for your article, and
simply start writing little bits of content for
each of the sections or branches.

This can often cut down your writing time
tremendously, and it will also ensure a much
higher quality level for your articles.

Ok, that's it for the Mind Map method. Let's move
onto the next one...


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2. The Brain Dump Method
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The Brain Dump Method is a fantastic method for
creating content really fast, and ensuring that
your content flows extremely well when people read
it.

You can actually use the Brain Dump Method in
conjunction with the Mind Map Method, but before I
tell you how to do that, let's first talk about
what the actual Brain Dump Method is.

This is probably one of my favorite methods for
creating content really fast. In fact, as I'm
writing this email, I'm actually using this very
same method.

I first learned about this method from a gentleman
called Dr Joe Vitale, and he's now written so many
books using this same method, that he's lost
count!

So, to me, that's enough proof that it works!

So here's what you do...

Step 1: Come up with the general title or topic of
your article...

Step 2: Do all the necessary research you'll need
to get a thorough understanding of your topic -
unless you already know your topic really well of
course...

Step 3: Turn your computer screen off...

Step 4: Start typing with the intention of
creating an article focused on your selected
title or topic, and just type anything that comes
into your head...

And I really mean anything!

For example, if the thought coming into your head
is: "I don't know what to write..." - type that
out!

Just type.

Don't worry about spelling or grammar mistakes or
anything else, just focus on typing whatever comes
into your head (of course with the intention of
creating a new article!).

Very quickly, you'll find that one idea will lead
to the next, and your brain will simply start
getting on a roll, and your fingers wont be able
to type fast enough.

Before you know it, you'll end up with a number of
pages of content in a matter of minutes!

I've personally tried this method many times over,
and each time I use it, I am just amazed at how
quickly I can create outstanding content.

The reason why this method works so well, is
because when you turn your computer screen off,
you can't actually see what you're typing (of
course), and this prevents the editing part of
your brain from wanting to make changes and
modifications all the time as you go.

If your screen is off, you brain simply gives you
all the content you need, without having to start
and stop all the time for editing, and as a
result, your final article will flow much better,
and your ideas will merge really well to create a
very easy to read article.

Of course, after you've done your brain dump, you
can turn your screen back on, and then edit
whatever you've written.

Sometimes it's much easier to edit something
you've already written, than coming up with
totally new information from scratch.

Of course you can just do this on paper as well
since being able to type well is a key requirement
for this method.

If you do decide to do it on the computer though,
just make sure that your typing program is
actually active - I've had a few occasions where I
typed a wonderful article while my screen was off,
and then, when I turned my screen back on again,
there was nothing there because my typing program
was not active. So just watch out for this.

Now, combining this method with the Mind Map
Method can be very powerful. What you do, is
basically come up with a general structure for
your article, and then use the Brain Dump Method
for each of the sub topics that you created inside
your Mind Map.

Combining these two methods like this can help you
stay focused and also ensure that your final
product is more structured.

But just try them out separately as well, and
experiment to see what works best for you.

If you don't believe that the Brain Dump Method
really works, do try it out a few times first, and
see for yourself.

I've just been amazed by it so many times now, and
I think there is a good chance that you'll be
amazed by it too.

Finally, let's move onto the last method...


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3. The Talk It Out Method
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The Talk It Out Method is exactly that... You
"talk out" your content.

This is another extremely easy way of creating
content fast and easy.

All you have to do, is come up with your topic or
title as you would normally do...

Perform all the research you need to do (read
books, talk to people, read relevant information
on the internet)...

Get a recording device...

And start talking about your topic while
recording.

After you've talked about it and recorded it,
simply transcribe the audio, and do your normal
editing afterward.

You could even get someone else to do the
transcription for you, saving you lots of time to
start thinking about your next topic.

That's really all there is to this method. It will
work especially well for people who prefer talking
over writing.

Another variation to this method is to get someone
else to interview you while you record the
conversation.

All you have to do, is come up with a bunch of
questions related to your topic, and then get your
friend or a colleague to interview you while you
record the conversion.

You can either do it face to face with a portable
recording device, or you could use something like
Skype (it's free) and the Pamela recording
software that you can purchase for a small charge.

What's great about this interviewing method is
that you can use both the audio recording as well
as the transcript that results from it, and put
both of them on your blog. Your readers will
simply love having the option of both audio and
text.

That's it for this method - it's a pretty powerful
one - short and sweet!

This should give you enough ideas to help you come
up with content quickly and easily.

Don't forget that you can modify these methods any
way you want to, and even combine them with some
of your own methods.

The whole point of it all is to simply help you
get those creative juices flowing so that you can
get your content out as fast and as easy as
possible.

I encourage you to keep on looking for other
content creation methods too, and to keep on
perfecting your methods and techniques all the
time.

Creating great content is the *number one* most
important thing for the success of your blog, so
the more you can practice, the better!

Inside the next part of this mini course, I'll
reveal how you can boost the effectiveness of your
blog using clever multimedia tricks and tools -
what we call "X-Factor Strategies" for your blog.

Until then!

Gideon and Yaro
Become A Blogger