What is content? And how to make more

What is content? And how to make more

by | Jun 2, 2021 | Content, Facebook™, Instagram™, Marketing, Mindset, Productivity, Social Media, Strategy, Time saving, Video, Video & YouTube, Website

I often hear people say that they are “Content Strategists” or the explain how to “Create Content”.

And although I know what content is, it seems to me to be a weird and jargon-ey term that causes so much confusion.

I was thinking that we could just rename it to: “Sharing your brilliance”

Because that is all we really need to do. We all know so much and have so much brilliance to share. But to clarify: what is content? And how can you make more?

Content comes in so many different forms. 

It can be: 

Image based

Written

Video

Audio

I am sure there are more categories too that I’ve glazed over.

And then there’s the length. I’m calling them micro (or snippet), small and long.

Examples: 

A reel on Instagram = I would say that is a micro-video. 

An Instagram image post with a caption = is a written and image small piece of content. 

A Facebook text only post around 2000 words = a long, written piece of content. 

That same Facebook post on your blog with images as well = is a long, image and written piece of content. 

A podcast of the same article would be = a long, audio piece of content. 

Using Headliner to turn that podcast into a video makes a snippet of video content. 

Transcribing that podcast into a written blog with images = is a long, written and image piece of content

But more important than the classifications and definitions is the purpose.

For a long time I found it really hard to create content and I did not enjoy creating content.

I spent a long time creating content with the idea in mind that I had to do it to reach clients and that content would help me sell my services. The only content I was able to make easily were “how-to” videos. I think these felt easy because they were of service to my clients with low expectations of reward. They were more of a selfless service. 

In the yoga tradition I studied for many years, selfless service is called karma yoga. In karma yoga you work for others and try to release your expectations of reward. 

Recently, I have been loving creating content. Short videos, long videos, short written posts, longer writing. All kinds. And I think what has changed is my frame for why I create content. 

Now, I create content as a practice for myself. As more of an enquiry and creative expression. The things I think about it are more like: 

“How can I say this in 60 seconds?”

“I wonder if anyone agrees with this?”

“How clearly and simply can I explain this in writing?”

“Can I explain those instructions in writing?”

“I wonder what my peeps think about this idea?”

And now I never really think: 

“I need to create this so I can sell my offer/service”

If I want to offer my service I just do it. I create a separate post, or separate piece of writing that speaks directly to the offer. 

Sometimes, while I’m developing offers, I do some research and get excited about that topic so I’ll naturally share about it, but since I separated my selling and my content, my content feels a lot cleaner and a lot free-er. I feel that I can experiment more and genuinely share with people who I care about. 

This is my story around creating more content. 

I wonder – what do you think about when you try to create content? Could those thoughts be hindering your ability to create content like mine were? 

“I pay my respects and acknowledge the people of the Yuin Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work. I also pay respect to all Elders — past, present and future.”

Learn more about Online Marketing and Business that doesn’t require you to sellout on your soul.

Do you just want to talk to me about your business and website?

I’d love to chat. You can book a free chat and we can discuss website set up and all of the other things I mentioned here. We can even set it all up of ryou and save you the headace. 

Go ahead and book a free chat here: 

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How to figure out what you should blog and write about

How to figure out what you should blog and write about

by | May 24, 2021 | Content, Email Marketing, Facebook™, Instagram™, Marketing, Mindset, Productivity, Social Media, Strategy, Time saving, Video, Video & YouTube, Website

Great!

You’ve decided that it’s time. You are ready to start writing and sharing your brilliance with your audience and the world. Your next thought now might be: What you should write about?”.

In this blog I will share some ways to generate ideas for your writing so you can have a big list of inspiring topics to dip into whenever you sit down to write.

This information also applies to “what should you make videos about” if you are into making videos.

A couple of important things to consider are:

What topic/s do you want to write about?

and

What do your ideal clients seek information about?

1. Talk to your people

Current Clients

If you are doing sessions with your ideal clients, you are getting great ideas on tap. Every session can provide you with ideas for writing.
What was the client’s challenge?
What did you do to help them?

I’m sure you’ve had days like me where you seem to say the same thing to about 5 people in the one week. THIS is great information to share as a written blog or video.

Friends + Market research

Current clients are a reliable source of ideas but you may not have many or any of those yet!
Other people that are YOUR people are your trusted friends. You could also have market research conversations with people who would be perfect clients with no pressure for them to buy from you.

The sole purpose of those conversations is to find out what they type in the Google search bar when they look for solutions or what questions and challenges they have around your topic of expertise.
You can do this more informally by being a great listener at parties and gatherings.
People are a great source of ideas.

A side note about your own ideas

You may not have a problem thinking up great ideas on your own.
Yay! 

Why are you reading this article?? LOL 🙂

Your own ideas are great, however I would make one loving caution about your own ideas. 

You may find that when you write from your own well of ideas that your writing doesn’t do as well as you had thought. As in: it doesn’t seem to get a response from your audience. 

If this is happening, I would suggest that you may be writing at a level too far ahead of your current client’s level of growth or understanding. 

Sometimes I write articles that I think are gold and no-one gives any hoot about them. And other times, I create something that I think is throwaway and that everyone already knows and people go mad over it. 

So, if you are experiencing this, I encourage you to have some conversations with friends who are like your ideal clients. Have those client or market research conversations to make sure you are speaking the right language for where your people are right now. 

2. Use the Google search 

Bring to mind a topic you want to write about. I used this method for MailChimp. 

(i) Type the idea into the Google search bar and don’t click search. 

Have a look at the drop down. 

Do you see a bunch of suggested search ideas?

These are ideas for blog articles or videos. 

(ii) Further down the page it might say “People also ask” with a bunch of questions and drop downs. The headings of these drop downs are also great titles for your blog. 

These two options give you ideas that the Google robot has noticed people asking a lot. So even if you don’t have conversations with people because you are clear on your topic, this method can help tease out a lot of ideas that a lot of people have definitely searched for in Google.

Creating articles that help you be found via Google search is a method of blogging that uses Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Google is a search engine, and you can focus on optimising your website and blogs to show up better in Google search.

If you are interested in how to grow your business with a blog, I have a course about that. I delivered it with the brilliant Melanie White. I also have an SEO course with the ONLY person I recommend for SEO, Karen Phillips. This one is called “How to get the right website visitors”. Both of those courses can help you with your SEO if this is important to you and your business. 

3. Use the YouTube search 

Similar to the Google method above, you can type your topic or vague idea into YouTube and see what other content exists on the topic. Simply type your idea into the YouTube search bar and look at the ideas that drop down. 

Once you have mined those ideas, click “Search” and have a look at the kind of content other people are creating and the other titles being used. You can write an article with the exact same title if you like!

Now listen though: DON’T GET INTIMIDATED IN THIS STEP

Even though other people may have already created content that you want to create, no-one is quite like you. You have a particular configuration and lens to see life through that is of unique value to the world.

So PLEASE still go ahead and write that blog!

4. Use Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere is a free tool you can add to your Chrome browser. It enables you to see more when  you do a Google search, when you do a YouTube search and when you view YouTube videos. It actually does way more than I use it for. I am not a major ninja at it but this method of using it simply will definitely help you find writing ideas. 

So, once you have installed Keywords Everywhere to your Chrome browser and you look at your results using the above Google and YouTube methods, you will see a bunch more info on the side:

These are just more things to, hopefully, spark inspiration for you. The beauty of these methods is, Google is such a large database. Millions (or billions) of people are using this every day. And it’s free for you to mine for ideas. Yay! 

Have these ideas been helpful for you? Let me know how you go and tag me in your social media post if you used this method 🙂

“I pay my respects and acknowledge the people of the Yuin Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work. I also pay respect to all Elders — past, present and future.”

Learn more about Online Marketing and Business that doesn’t require you to sellout on your soul.

Do you just want to talk to me about your business and website?

I’d love to chat. You can book a free chat and we can discuss website set up and all of the other things I mentioned here. We can even set it all up of ryou and save you the headace. 

Go ahead and book a free chat here: 

BOOK HERE
Why can’t I do what my mentor tells me??

Why can’t I do what my mentor tells me??

by | May 19, 2021 | Marketing, Mindset, Productivity, Strategy, Time saving

Do you find it hard to follow the instructions of your business mentor? 

Do you see the sense of what she is saying and really want to get your business up and growing, but there is some kind of block?

I would preface that question by asking you this: 

Do you have another job? 

Are you currently still employed? 

Do you acknowledge that being a mother is another job?

The thing is: 

Sometimes we choose a mentor because we love her success. She is doing so well and she tells us that she is going to help us succeed using the tools and methods that she used to grow her business. 

 

Now let me ask you another question: 

Did your mentor have another job or children in her care while she established her business?

If your mentor is not a mum, or she did not establish her business as a side hustle

AND

If you are trying to establish your business while you have a job or are parenting 

I WANT TO YOU STOP RIGHT NOW

INHALE

SEND YOURSELF SOME LOVE 

EXHALE

I think it’s great to have a mentor that inspires you and whose ideas really resonate with you. Someone who is really aligned on a values level with you – so you don’t have to compromise your integrity. 

BUT

I know from my own experience, that certain mentors advice can become either: 

Un-aligned from my personal values

Or

Unachievable for me to exactly replicate due to my responsibilities. 

For instance, my current mentor, George Kao, works 40 hours a week and has no kids. 

So, when I see his calendar, his content output and his success, I set my levels at exactly half of his at the most.

Because I have 20 hours a week while my kids are at school. 

Plus, the emotional intensity and unexpected requirements of parenting impact on my business and my ability to be available to work. 

That’s the whole reason I wanted to be in business.

For me, being a parent is more of a priority than my business.

Don’t get me wrong, I love being in business and I love what I do, but obviously, if I have to choose between my kids and my clients, that my family is going to trump the biz.

And the other beauty of being a parent is: I don’t have to worry about whether or not I am living on purpose! My purpose wakes me up every morning with a cuddle. 

So being “purpose driven” in my business has been harder for me to clarify, because my main purpose is the family, and having a business that is values aligned, that allows me flexibility to fulfill my parenting responsibilities and generates a bit of revenue is actually enough business clarity for me. 

I don’t need to go down some values investigation purpose reflection exercises. When I have in the past, I just felt weird and confused. 

This whole rant started for me because I saw a social media post where someone had suggested something along the lines of: 

If you are procrastinating, go and do something of service to others. 

I felt really defensive and ticked off when I read this. 

I personally feel that if I am procrastinating – maybe I need a break. Maybe I need some sensual self care. Maybe I need a cup of tea in the sun or a lay down. 

I’m usually serving others all night (my kids are still in my bed nearly every night). I’m serving others from the minute I wake up to the minute they go to sleep. And my business hours are my precious creative time to serve the world at large in a sustainable and self-nourishing way.

I am not into hustle. 

And I do a lot already!

So back off sister. 

And if you are a mum, or if you are growing your business on the side of a job: maybe you just need a day off. On the beach, or the forest, with your journal. Just laying in the warm rays of the sun. Daydreaming.

Just being.

It’s ok if you are “behind” but what really is “behind”?

Please don’t compare yourself to others who aren’t in the same boat as you. 

For sure, take advice and inspiration from them. Just don’t think you are going to have the same process as them. 

What has helped me the most is George Kao’s business levels (which you can learn about in this course). AND his recommendation that growing a business from nothing will take 1-5 years if you are working 40h a week. 

So by default, if you are working 5 hours a week in your business. It is just going to take a bit longer.

But you will get there. 

Your work IS important and your time is coming. 

Let’s do this – gently. 

Do you want to read more about Sustainable Business practices? I don’t mean recycled paper!!! I mean you can sustain it for 10-20 years! Read more here.

I acknowledge the Djiringanj people of the Yuin Nation, the custodians of this beautiful land on which I live and work.

I also pays respect to all Elders past & present.

Thank you for taking such good care of the wild, beautiful places of Araganu, the coastline and forests where I get nurtured.

Learn more about Online Marketing and Business that doesn’t require you to sellout on your soul.

Want more help with your online business presence?

Do you need a hand with all the different ways your business can show up online? Video, Facebook, website, Instagram, Facebook ads, email marketing. The list can be overwhelming. 

Book a complimentary chat with me and let's see if I can help:

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Where to get pictures you can use on your website and social media

Where to get pictures you can use on your website and social media

by | May 3, 2021 | Canva, Marketing, Time saving, Website

Sometimes, the striking differences between an ok website and a great website are the images and the quality of the images. 

Partly, that’s because images communicate messages through the realm of emotion. Emotion plays a large part in the decision making process for humans because, if we are able, taking information in through our eyes is a long trusted source of information for our survival. 

The other factor that affects how good our websites look is the quality of the images. Low quality, low resolution or pixelated images really bring down the quality of a website, no matter how skilled the developer is. 

There is a third factor and that is: are the images meaningful, purposeful and aligned with your brand and message. If the images are just plopped there and out of context, it can give the reader a dissonant feeling that reduces their trust in you. Not a great outcome. 

But where can you get images? 

My top 6 sources are: 

Your own spaces and face

Unsplash

Canva

Inspired Stock Shop

Creative Market

Wellness Stock Shop

The first 3 are free options and the last 3 are paid options. 

Your own spaces and face

I think this is really the most ideal source. Images of your own workspace and your face are naturally embedded with your energy. It’s best if your clients can get a sense of your energy as much as possible to help them to differentiate you from all the other businesses out there. You can communicate your energy and uniqueness in a number of ways; your writing style and topics, your videos, your illustrations or drawings – and also through photos of you and your spaces. 

You can get good images using just a modern smartphone if you are aware of the light. You need the right light or a bit of editing to get the images to look good. 

You are looking for large files, for example 3-4000 px wide. 

Another great option is: do you have a bestie with a decent camera? Someone you can have a laugh with, who you feel really comfortable around? 

Images of you look best if you are happy and relaxed which is why sometimes, even if you pay a professional photographer, you may not feel good and so your photos won’t look good. 

Also I love the blooper shots. I want all the pics from the day. And if you go with a professional photographer, (i) they will want to “improve” your images (ii) they won’t give you all the pics. You just have to choose X images for Y dollars. When it’s your friend, you get all the pics, for better or worse 🙂

Obviously, if you have the money, and some good rapport with a professional photographer, you might like to go down that route, but that changes this to a “not free” option. 

A lot of the images on my own website are from a photo play day with a bestie of mine who has a decent camera. 

Side note: image size

Large images on your website take longer to load which affects the users. It also affects your SEO.

Images for a website banner only need to be 1920px wide, and for most large images on a website, 1080px wide is plenty. For 2 columns, 540px wide is great and so on, smaller pixels wide as you have more columns. 

Unsplash

Unsplash is a website where you can download good quality images for free. Why? Aspiring photographers upload photos there in the hope they will get exposure and increase their profile as photographers. And they let you use those photos without needing to credit or acknowledge Unsplash or the photographer, but of course you can if you like. 

I prefer Unsplash to other free image sites because they are generally more personal and less polished than Shutterstock and others like that. They also have an ok representation of larger women and older women – but still a long way to go in terms of representing those groups. 

I recommend you pop over and do a search – if your article is about “images for your website” you might search: photo or photographer. If your blog is about healing you can search for “healing”. But I find the range a bit limited at times. 

If you are planning to use these images, I recommend you resize them so that they don’t slow down your website load times and SEO.

Canva

Canva is a free graphic design tool that I love and use nearly every day. They have a lot of free images available inside the tool. You can also go to this page https://www.canva.com/photos/ and find free images that you can use in Canva designs. 

You will need an account with Canva to use them. 

It is easy to sign up for Canva and you get a LOT on the free plan. Plus, if you are planning to use these images as a banner or on your website, it is best to resize them rather than use the image in its large, original size. 

Inspired Stock Shop (ISS)

This is my current favourite place for images that aren’t my face and space. Claire of ISS, has found a way to fill the gap I mentioned in the Unsplash library. She has gorgeous images that us spiritual babes love. She is also increasing the number of images of us plump goddesses and older wise women. Yay. The only thing is: you have to buy them. Or she has a membership option which works out pretty affordable if you have a project in mind. You also get access to the full library as soon as you join and you can start downloading as many pics as you like. 

I am going to be recommending ISS a lot in the next while, because people always seem to need good quality images of real women for their websites and socials and I feel like I’ve finally struck gold. 

ISS also has some great social media post templates, Canva templates for workbooks and more. Highly recommended. 
I love them so much I am an affiliate. This is my link 🙂 

Creative Market

Until I found Inspired Stock Shop, Creative Market was my recommendation when people couldn’t find images in Unsplash or Canva. 

Creative Market is the proper wormhole for fancy fonts, images, graphics and more. Be careful if you go in there. It’s amazing what you can buy from graphic designers to sparkle up your online presence. You might see some of my website elements if you venture deep enough 🙂

Wellness Stock Shop

This source of images is an Australian version of the Inspired Stock Shop. This option looks gerat too – especially since she in in Australia, although I am struggling to see many plump, older women so hopefully this will change soon.

I’m probably going to have a crack at this membership once my ISS one runs out. 

“I pay my respects and acknowledge the people of the Yuin Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work. I also pay respect to all Elders — past, present and future.”

Learn more about Online Marketing and Business that doesn’t require you to sellout on your soul.

Do you just want to talk to me about your business and website?

I’d love to chat. You can book a free chat and we can discuss website set up and all of the other things I mentioned here. We can even set it all up of ryou and save you the headace. 

Go ahead and book a free chat here: 

BOOK HERE

Better targeting for Facebook ads: mine your own interests

Better targeting for Facebook ads: mine your own interests

by | Apr 26, 2021 | Ads on FB + IG, Facebook™, Instagram™, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Time saving

If your ads don’t feel like they’re working there are a lot of things we can tweak to get better results.

One of those is targeting. But what do I mean? 

When you are creating your ad, and you’re in the “Ad Set” you can choose “Interests” – this is one of the best tools you have at hand.

But what should you put in there? 

I have a great way to mine for ideas; it’s in your own Facebook profile. 

Here’s how you can find your own Interests and use them in your next ad

Did you know that you are served specific ads based on posts & pages you’ve liked, things you’ve typed in the search bar and websites you’ve visited?

Facebook calls this your “Interests”.

You can find your interests by going to:

Account > Settings and Privacy > Settings > Ads > Ad Settings > Categories used to Reach You

Why would you look at your interests?

Quite often

Your client is you

6 months ago

or 2 years ago

In which case, your interests are her interests and you can get great ideas from there. Alternatively, in a market research interview, your interviewee may be willing to let you see their interests. You might need to teach them how to find them 🙂

How did you go with the video? 

The best way to make use of this video is to work along with me. 

Watch it again and:

  1. Find your interests
  2. Create an ad using one of those interests

If you get stuck comment or get in touch with me and I’ll make another video

 

“I pay my respects and acknowledge the people of the Yuin Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work. I also pay respect to all Elders — past, present and future.”

Learn more about Online Marketing and Business that doesn’t require you to sellout on your soul.

Do you just want to talk to me about your business and website?

I’d love to chat. You can book a free chat and we can discuss website set up and all of the other things I mentioned here. We can even set it all up of ryou and save you the headace. 

Go ahead and book a free chat here: 

BOOK HERE

Case Study: Shoshana Sadia

Case Study: Shoshana Sadia

by | Apr 6, 2021 | Case Study, Email Marketing, Marketing, Mindset, Productivity, Strategy, Time saving

Today’s case study is focussing mostly on the work I did with Shosh, supporting her with her MailChimp, although we have done lots of other things together like course creation, Facebook ads and website development. 

Shoshi is a “Womxn’s Empowerment Mentor and Cycle Guide”. She helps women to use their cycle as a superpower which invariably creates a lot of magic in their lives, harnessing the energy that is available and nourishing themselves when that is called for. 

If you want to have a better relationship with your womb, you can grab her free Womb Meditation or if you want to go all the way to SuperHero status you can take the 5 week course, “The Cycle”. Or you can just follow her on Instagram for loads of inspiration and tips to make the most of being a woman creatrix. 

When I started helping Shosh with her MailChimp she was finding it hard to get her emails to look good.

She found that the formatting and fonts were always weird when she copied the text over from a word doc or from her socials. I also noticed lots of in-text links instead of buttons because she didn’t know how to get sexy buttons. She wanted to have reliable templates, so she could use that one good email with text, buttons, images and colours in place and then just duplicate it to create automated email nurture sequences and to send out campaigns.

Shosh has the lowest paid version you can get on MailChimp, so she gets 3 audiences, and automations but she felt like there was more she could do using tagging and segments if only she knew how. 

All of this together meant that she didn’t feel comfortable sending out emails to her gorgeous people and she wasn’t hosting free webinars, masterclasses or launching her course. Because she couldn’t use the tool. 

We did a mixture of things to get her MailChimp account ship shape and highly functioning. 

One thing Shoshi was nailing already was creating landing pages in MailChimp and using tags to deliver freebies all through her one list (before she upgraded to paid). But some of those landing pages weren’t as sexy as she hoped. Step one was a revamp of her landing page header images and text formatting. 

What I was seeing was inconsistent fonts and way too many different fonts in general.

I recommend choosing one font for headings and one font for body text. No more than that 🙂

So I edited the landing pages to have consistent font use and sizing which gave us an immediate relief. 

I also created a new header image for the landing pages that was just like the images on the website banners.

Getting Shoshi a template she could use for all emails and automations was another easy fix focussing on these 3 things: 

  1. Consistent font types
  2. Consistent font sizing
  3. Creating branded buttons

Once I set these, Shosh had a template email she could use for campaigns and automations. 

There was another trick too: the address had changed but that wasn’t showing up in the footer even though Shosh had edited it in the email. This is because the “From” address in the footer isn’t set on a per email basis. There are actually some settings in your account info you need to go and edit. You go to Account > Contact Info and edit your address there. So that is fixed too!

The final step was to set Shoshi free to create gorgeous emails for herself. I did this by making short, screen share videos of how to set the fonts, how to create the buttons and a number of other things she does on the regular like moving people from one list to another. I use a screen recorder tool and do the task with verbal instructions which I then send over to my clients so they can follow along and do it themselves. These recordings are available as long as the interwebs exist as a future resource for my clients. 

Shoshi hardly needs me for MailChimp related support at all these days and can use her email marketing smilingly and confidently.

“I pay my respects and acknowledge the people of the Yuin Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work. I also pay respect to all Elders — past, present and future.”

Learn more about Online Marketing and Business that doesn’t require you to sellout on your soul.

Do you just want to learn how to master MailChimp?

I’m currently delivering MailChimp mentoring in a group program which will probably run again later this year. I also love helping people 1-1 with MailChimp so feel free to book a free chat or check out the MailChimp mentoring info here: 

LEARN MORE