Content marketing tools and training.
The history of the internet has not been a particularly polite one.
The medium has been used in wonderful ways, and it has also been used in repulsive ways.
Human nature seems to amplify itself when we get online. Our generosity comes to the forefront, but so do our petty differences and our blind spots.
And it seems to me (do you agree?) that the upcoming election in the U.S. is bringing an unusual amount of spite, venom, and rage to the forefront.
It’s ugly out there.
Maybe you’re a writer. Or a business owner. Or a professional marketer.
Or all three of those.
Maybe you’re looking to widen your audience. Or you’re just looking for reasons to be a little more excited when you get out of bed every morning.
Maybe you want to launch a dream.
Maybe you’ve worked up the courage to want to do something epic.
Even if you haven’t shared that dream with anyone yet. Even if it’s still something private.
We’ve been telling you for awhile now that the old-fashioned “black hat” SEO doesn’t work.
The evolution of SEO means that keyword stuffing, buying links, content spinning, and other shady practices just don’t pay off the way they used to.
But Marie Haynes wrote a terrific piece over on SEOMoz about how the wrong kind of SEO isn’t just useless … it’s actively dangerous.
Dangerous enough to destroy a small business, and maybe even a business that’s not-so-small.
Know one of the most common issues we see from each year’s new crop of Teaching Sells students?
“I’m worried because …”
“I’m getting a little freaked out because …”
“I feel like everyone has already beaten me to the finish line …”
“When I look around, I feel overwhelmed and behind …”
“Everyone else seems to have it figured out and I feel kind of lost …”
This is the seventh post in the Content Connections series.
You know how we feel about digital sharecropping — we’ve strongly cautioned you about not building your business on rented land.
So why do we also tell you that guest blogging is one of the most effective strategies to build your audience?
Odd though it may seem, it’s because providing smart, well-written content on someone else’s site is a great way to efficiently hit a number of audience-growing strategies at the same time.
If you want to build your business online, there’s no better way to do it than by building an audience first.
An audience gives you everything you need — direct or indirect feedback, the sharing of your content, ideas for products and services, and eventually … revenue.
And there’s no better way to build a responsive, buying audience than with email marketing.
But how do you build that initial audience? How do you organically grow a responsive, permission-based, spam-free list?
