Power of Daily Content
The other day a friend of mine lost his cat to old age.
Seventeen years of constant companionship can leave a terrible hole in your heart. In addition to my sympathies, I told him, “Be prepared to be looking for the cat everywhere, all the time for the next few months.”
I even do this each time I eat in a restaurant, I’m constantly looking to take a piece of meat and throw it on the floor like I do at home for old Bally the Dog. I think I even did that once in Vegas.
And for the first three months after my father passed away, I couldn’t climb the stairs out in our old farmhouse without making a detour into his bedroom. You see, each night he’d create a candy stash on his nightstand and I’d go in and raid it. And when he was gone, I still made that right turn into his bedroom, expecting there to be some Twizzlers beside the bed.
Do you see the power of habit?
Once started, it’s difficult to stop.
That’s why you want to get your readers into the daily routine of visiting your website.
This is the power of “The Online 3rd Place“.
If you don’t know the phrase, “3rd Place”, it was made popular by Starbucks owner, Howard Schultz. He said after home and work, Starbucks was the 3rd place that everyone should want to go to every day. This has become a powerful habit for millions of North Americans.
(My friend Alwyn Cosgrove even turned his gym into the 3rd place of his local community.)
Of course, in order to get people to visit your site every single day and to make this a habit, there must be a reason why for them to visit.
Enter the concept of valuable daily content.
People often ask me, “How often should I post on my blog?”
The answer is twofold:
1) Every time you have something good to say
2) How often do you want people to visit your blog?
There’s no reason why you, an expert, couldn’t have something good to say a couple of times per week. And with a little effort, every day is not unreasonable…
…feel free to use QnA sessions, success stories, and commentary on other articles as easy content creation.
But if you can put out great content on a daily basis, then you can build a powerful habit amongst your readers that brings them back to your site EVERY day.
And that’s a strategy that almost no one can take away from you.
Google can’t “slap” the habits of your readers.
Facebook can’t “deny” the habits of your readers.
Your merchant account can’t “shut down” the habits of your daily readers.
That’s why daily content works.
And the more goodwill you create with readers, the deeper their habit becomes ingrained.
They go online, check their email (1st place), visit Facebook (2nd place), and then head over to your site (their online 3rd place).
That’s about all anyone can handle…three places.
Other sites might be on the list to visit, but they’ll do so sporadically. But even on a busy day, no one gives up their Starbucks, or gives up their 3rd place online.
So how is this working in my business?
I’ve started a Daily Dose column in our Virtual Mastermind
membership site.
Each morning I put out a 500 word column that is filled with advanced business and internet marketing strategies. Content that is even better than what I give you for free here.
The purpose is many fold.
First, we want our members to check my column every day as habit. That will then encourage them to use the forums, and watch the videos, and read the additional content that we put in their to help them succeed.
Second, it makes me a better teacher. I can identify what topics are “hot” and where our clients need more help.
Third, it makes future content creation easier…because I’m banking this content and can incorporate into future newsletters and full-length presentations.
And finally, here’s the kicker…it serves my “Million Monkeys” theory.
Surely you’ve heard the old saw…”A million monkeys typing on a million typewriters will eventually type the entire works of William Shakespeare.”
Now you’re thinking, “Uh, yeah, I’ve heard that…so what’s your point?”
My point is that ONE expert (you) writing ONE column EVERY day for several months will eventually hit on an idea or a particular articulation of a BIG IDEA that will connect with your readers and become a big breakthrough for you, whether in terms of a product idea, a “viral” message, or a headline idea for your sales copy.
It works like this. If you want to become a better writer, then write more often. And likewise, if you want to have better ideas, generate more ideas.
Both are accomplished when you force yourself to write every single day.
That’s my Million Monkey theory applied to Internet businesses.
If you keep going and going and going, eventually you’re going to come up with some killer content and ideas.
But if you only write once per week, or worse, once per month, you probably won’t have rapid progress.
Now one last thing to argue…
You might be thinking, “Isn’t EVERY day too much for my reader?”
The answer is of course, No. Not for your BEST reader.
You see, you could publish three times per day every day and your best reader would still probably NOT be getting enough of you.
True fans can never get enough.
Think about your obsession. Perhaps it’s a show, a Youtube channel, a music artist, an author, or a website.
Does your obsession create ENOUGH content to keep you fully satisfied?
Do you not wish they would tweet more, film more, write more, post more, or email more?
I know I feel that way about the people that I’m really into.
So don’t hold back.
Remember the two rules about content:
“How often should you create content?”
1) Every time you have something good to say
2) How often do you want people to visit your blog?
If you want to create a powerful daily habit amongst your readers/clients, then create great content as often as you can and don’t hold back from sharing it.
Craig Ballantyne
PS – To start receiving access to my Daily Dose column…
…and to experience all of the benefits of our Virtual Mastermind program, get started here:
The Virtual Mastermind Program with Matt Smith and Craig Ballantyne
Our program is guaranteed to help you achieve MORE in the 60 days than you have achieved in the last 6 months.