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How to Use Transcription Services to Repurpose Your Content

 

Keeping your audience engaged with your content is a full-time job in itself. You must constantly evaluate your current content’s engagement metrics while also anticipating the needs of your growing audience.

With this in mind, new and updated content is crucial to any successful digital marketer’s strategy. How can you generate new content without spending more time than you have available? With transcription services.

A marketer determines how often her brand should be blogging.

In this guide, I’ll explain what transcription services are and what they can do for digital marketers. This will include a look at one particular use case—repurposing content—to give you an idea of just how valuable these services can be.

 

What Are Transcription Services?

Transcription services are business services that transcribe audio to text. The audio is most often pre-recorded and is then transferred to transcription professionals, who are trained in shorthand. They are able to quickly and accurately transcribe audio from many different sources.

Otter is where conversations live

You also have the option of AI-powered transcription tools, such as Otter and Rev. These services combine AI with trained professionals to deliver a top-notch experience.

From podcasts and videos to workshops and live speeches, a transcription service can help you to preserve your audio in text format. This can later be used for reference or, as I’ll outline below, as a way to repurpose your marketing content.

Voice Recorder Screenshot

 

When are Transcription Services Used

Transcription services are most often used by physicians, scientists, researchers, and other technical professionals. Their spoken notes are transcribed into written notes and reports that can be used for reference or recordkeeping.

When you think of transcription, you may also think of court proceedings and police investigations. These, too, are used for recordkeeping (often public record) and as a way to make the proceedings accessible to all.

old is new

However, transcription can offer great benefits to digital marketers, too. One of the most effective ways to use transcription is to repurpose content and create high-value content in multiple formats.

 

5 Ways to Use Transcription Services to Repurpose Your Content

There are plenty of benefits transcription services can provide to digital marketers, and repurposing of content is just one. Here are five ways you can use transcription to expertly repurpose your content.

 

1. Turn a Video Into a Blog Post

Whether a new or established digital marketer, I can safely assume you never feel as if you’re hitting your weekly or monthly blog post targets. By transcribing your videos into blog posts, you can get that much closer to reaching your goal.

 

How many posts should you publish a week? According to HubSpot, the sweet spot can be anywhere from one post to five posts per week.

how often should you blog graphic for transcription services to repurpose content

However, this will depend on the size of your website and what you hope to achieve. For a small website with a goal of maximizing organic traffic, for example, three to four new posts per week is recommended.

Another benefit of turning videos into blog posts is accessibility. While many digital media platforms offer closed captioning, they aren’t always the ideal way to digest content. By turning videos into blog posts, you can ensure all of your traffic has access to your content in multiple ways.

Of course, you should aim to bulk up these blog posts in ways that benefit the readers. These include using visuals (e.g., images, infographics, charts) and adding more in-depth examples.

The transcription should serve as a starting point to creating engaging, valuable blog posts.

 

2. Turn a Podcast Into a Video or Blog Post

You don’t need to forfeit multimedia content entirely! You can “upgrade” your podcast to a video using transcription services. Just add some visuals and you can now share to digital media platforms like YouTube and Vimeo.

The greatest benefit here is the ability to reach a wider audience. While there is certainly crossover between podcast listeners and video watchers, there are some people who stick strictly to one format.

By turning your podcast into a video (or vice versa), you open your content up to a whole new audience.

You have a few options here when it comes to adding visuals to your videos. The simplest is using one image (perhaps a solid background with your brand and website URL) throughout the entirety of the video.

This isn’t appealing, but it will enable you to add your content to sites like YouTube.

For more appealing visuals, you can also try stock photos, digital imagery, or even b-roll.

How can you ensure the visuals you use are appropriate and appealing to your audience? Search YouTube for similar content keywords to see what types of videos your target audience is currently engaging with.

This can ensure you are on the right track, while also giving you ideas on how to improve your content over the current offerings.

Or, you can turn your podcast into a blog post.

For example, Content Marketing Institute’s Joe Pulizzi hosts a podcast, then turns the transcript into a detailed blog post. This allows users who don’t have time to listen to still access their content.

podcast into blog post example of using transcription services

 

3. Create a List-Building PDF

Do you have a video or podcast episode that would make great list-building content? Then consider hiring a transcriptionist to turn that content into text.

List-building content, also known as lead magnets, is a great way to build your email subscription list. It is an offer of free content in exchange for an email address.

However, it is not as easy to attract people to your list-building content as it was before everyone had a website. Your content must be truly compelling and high-quality.

There are plenty of lead magnet formats to choose from, including:

  • checklist
  • cheat sheets
  • e-books
  • infographics
  • case studies
  • white papers

Using a unique angle, you can use the above formats to attract a targeted audience. With such an array of content types, it’s likely you have a video or podcast episode that can easily be transformed into one of the above.

 

4. Build a Resource for Social Media Content

There’s bound to be a Tweet-worthy quote or two from your latest podcast episode. Instead of replaying the episode and scrubbing through it, turn the episode into a transcript.

This will make it incredibly easy to find social media content to share.

Without the need to scour your audio, you can now spend that time creating attractive visuals using platforms like Canva or Adobe Spark.

These services allow you to create the ideal visuals for each social media platform, and they even include templates to get you started.

Do keep in mind the cost of transcription services may increase if your episode includes more than one person. This can take time and skill to navigate.

On the other hand, the added benefit of transcribing multi-guest content is that multiple speakers can add refreshing insight to your social media pages, especially if the guest has their own social profile to engage with your audience.

 

5. Create an E-Course

If you want to create a substantive course, then consider combining multiple videos or podcast episodes on a similar topic. The resulting e-course can then be offered as a lead magnet or even a paid course.

With platforms like Kajabi and Thinkific, you can host your online course with ease. How can you ensure the course you create is profitable?

The steps to creating a successful online course include:

As a paid course, the content should be of exceptional quality and it should go in-depth. Transcriptions of your previous content will be helpful to create an outline, but you should really dig deep and build out the content as best you can.

Before you employ a transcriptionist, take special care to pick your best audio and video episodes for transcription. These will form the basis of your course, but they’ll of course need to be bulked up with further examples, imagery, and more.

 

Transcription Services Frequently Asked Questions

Transcription is invaluable to digital marketers, but perhaps you still have a few questions. Let’s go over them.

How much does it cost to get a transcription of your content?

The cost to transcribe your content will vary. Consider that transcriptionists have various ways of charging for their work (e.g., per hour, by project) and rates will vary by experience level, location, and more.

How long does it take to transcribe audio?

Just as with cost, the length of time it takes to transcribe your audio will vary. The industry standard is two to three hours per one hour of audio.

However, that assumes the audio quality is clear with little to no background noise.

Transcription Value

Do transcribers use the software?

Even professional transcriptionists rely on software to ensure efficiency and accuracy.

With tools like Amberscript and Happy Scribe, you (or your editors) can collaborate with your transcriptionist in real-time. This ensures a seamless transcription experience.

happyscribe

Do transcription services accurate?

As with most services, you get what you pay for. The same can be said for transcription software tools, as well.

The more experienced your transcriptionist (or advanced the software you use), the more accurate the transcriptions are likely to be.

 

 

Repurposing Transcriptions for Content Conclusion

Your audience craves new and updated content on a regular basis. While this can seem a daunting task, audio transcription services can offer a solution.

With transcription, you can turn your audio content into text. This text can then be repurposed into other forms of content, including blog posts, social media content, and online courses.

marketing entrepreneurship podcasts

Transcribed content can help you to satisfy the needs of your growing traffic numbers, while also providing accessible content so as to reach a wider audience.

Depending on the quality of the services you use, you may not even need to spend much time editing the transcription. This will save you immeasurable time while also expanding your reach as a digital marketer.

Which of the above content formats will you transform your audio content into?


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How to Monetize Your Expertise

 

Whether you have used your time at home this past year to become an expert of something or whether you need an additional incentive to become better at something, the good news is that you can actually make money from something you know well.

Experts get Money too

In other words, monetizing your expertise is not just possible; it is also quite doable.

How to Monetize Your Expertise?

Here are a few easy options for you:

1. Write a Book

Write a Book

This may sound quite intimidating, but it is actually easier than you may think.

First of all, you don’t have to look for a publisher.

These days, there are powerful self-publishing platforms.

Obviously, writing and publishing your own book is a vast undertaking, but here are four key steps:

  • Identify your topic. Hopefully, you are already creating digital content, so what you really need is to update it for it to work as a downloadable and/or printable book.
  • Start working on expanding your content. Naturally, a book is a more in-depth asset than a blog article. So it is important to update your content to make it more comprehensive and thorough.
  • Create the book cover. Yep, you can do it yourself, so no need to start looking for a designer.
  • Start uploading your book to digital product selling platforms. This will take you quite some time for your first book.

Your first book doesn’t have to be perfect.

Unfortunately, too many writers never complete their books because there is an infinite number of ways to edit and improve them.

Consider publishing your first book as a learning opportunity.

Your next one will be better (and in many aspects easier), and your third one may be a perfect book.

Book publishing is also a powerful personal branding tactic.

Suddenly you’ll notice Google treat you as a brand and showing a Knowledge Graph for your name:

 

 

Google treats Rand Fishkin as a brand and shows a Knowledge Graph for his name.

Google treats Rand Fishkin as a brand and shows a Knowledge Graph for his name.

It will take some time for Google to start doing it or your name, but it will help you look like the real deal and sell your other products as well.

 

2. Become a Mentor, Coach, or Trainer

Global lockdowns have had one interesting outcome: People have learned to do everything from home, from shopping to learning and even traveling.

The demand for online learning has grown dramatically, which means there’s a huge opportunity opening for niche experts who can now monetize their knowledge in a particular subject by developing online training and coaching services.

It is true that there are lots of online learning opportunities already, so it is quite a competitive niche, but it is still doable. And examples of successful coaching business models are numerous.

Clients On Demand

One recent example is the “Clients on Demand” coaching program. It has exponentially grown because it differentiated itself as an exclusive, success-oriented “high-performance” community that only accepts entrepreneurs who are ready to evolve.

A few important takeaways from the above example are:

  • When building your own coaching program, find how your own personal expertise and skill set can make it truly unique and useful.
  • The best way is to start with a very narrow topic, something you know for sure no one else is doing better than you do. For example, instead of creating a generic SEO program, I once decided to teach people to search Google properly to find just about anything. Taking a very specific topic will help you stand out.
  • Try and look at your own journey and find what you have personally learned over time. Coaching programs that are based on personal stories are the most relatable and successful.

To monetize your expertise through coaching, use Appointfix, which will allow your clients to book online personal training meetings with you and immediately pay.

The tool also makes it easy to manage your schedule and send reminders to your clients.

Appointfix allows your clients to book online personal training meetings with you and pay right away.

Appointfix allows your clients to book online personal training meetings with you and pay right away.

 

3. Create a Video Course

This option works well with the above steps: all you need is to figure out your course structure and record some online coaching meetings where you talk about how to solve a particular problem.

If you need help figuring out your video course structure, use question research to find out which questions are being searched online.

This will also help your course get found online. Text Optimizer is a cool tool to use here.

It uses semantic research to help you discover popular questions on a particular topic:

Use question research with TextOptimizer to find out which questions are being searched online.

Use question research to find out which questions are being searched online.

Additionally, tools like Zoom make it extremely easy to record yourself talking about a particular topic, including clicking through slides or sharing your screen for a walkthrough.

This process took me minutes to figure out. And online video editing tools like InVideo enable you to create more entertaining videos, branded intros, and even professional listicles.

One video editing tools like InVideo enable you to create more entertaining videos and branded intros.

One video editing tool like InVideo enables you to create more entertaining videos and branded intros.

Once you have at least an hour of video content, you can start creating your course.

Platforms like Udemy handle the hosting, lead generation, and design.

You are unlikely to earn a lot of money from Udemy (because it’s incredibly limiting to content creators), but it is a good place to start.

From there, you can start working on your self-hosted course, which could be an advanced version of your course on Udemy.

 

Conclusion

As this pandemic colorfully demonstrated, when one door closes, another door opens.

Maxwell Hertan of Megaphone Marketing puts it, “the whopping 50% increase in Internet use” means a fast-growing demand for digital services and content.

This may be the best time to monetize your expertise!

A worker stands behind the counter at an empty restaurant

While many sources of income are being eliminated during these dreadful times (think entertainment workers, brick and mortar business owners, etc.), other opportunities arise.

Remember, you don’t have to pick one monetization method.

You can use each of them to empower one another.

For example, use your free Udemy course to find clients for your coaching program.

You can repurpose content from one method (coaching) to build another asset (a video course).

And while it can take time to figure out additional income sources, it can be done. Good luck!

The post How to Monetize Your Expertise appeared first on Content Marketing Consulting and Social Media Strategy.

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How to Get the Most Out of Your Goals Quickstart Masterclass

 

You’ve officially committed to improving your goal-setting abilities. Congratulations! Now it’s time to sit down and throw in the work to complete the Objective Quickstart Masterclass and learn how to set better goals.

Ready to jump in?

Here are a few handy tip-offs to help you get the most out of your Goals Quickstart Masterclass.

Haven’t signed up for the Point Quickstart Masterclass Yet? Reserve your Spot Now

masterclass

Don’t Procrastinate

If you haven’t started going through the material yet, don’t make it off any longer. Start now!

The sooner “you’re beginning”, the sooner you’ll finish — and the sooner you’ll be able to implement all of the useful information from the course into your life.

Don’t be intimidated by this course, and don’t let the word “course” throw you off.

There’s a lot of great information jam-pack into this masterclass.

But the class won’t take many eras or effort to complete.

In fact, you can finish the entire thing in less duration than it takes to watch an occurrence of Netflix — and the course will benefit you far more than a reality TV show ever could.

Stop procrastinating and start now.

No Procrastination

Invite A Friend

Create a sense of accountability by telling your friends and family about your commitment to this course.

According to a study conducted by the American Society of Training and Development, you have a 65% occasion of completion of a destination if you tell someone about it — and preparing a specific time to discuss your progress with them increases your luck of success by 95%.

That symbolizes the chance of not achieving your goal is a mere 5 %.

And that represents telling a person about your masterclass might be crucial to your success.

You don’t have to stop by just telling a friend about the class.

Consider inviting them to join you!

Go through such courses with a friend or family member and learn to set effective goals together.

Greet A Friend

Make an Action Plan

Now that you’ve adjusted your goals regarding the course, it’s time to employed a plan in place to actually achieve them.

And I’d recommend you start with a piece of paper and a pen.

Did you know that if you write your goals down, you’re 42% more likely to make them happen?

If you don’t have a notebook handy, you can use an app on your smartphone, too.

But seeing your goals written down in black and white will motivate you to work toward actually getting them done.

Choose a specific time and situate to complete the course.

Write it down and then tell your accountability partner about your program: “I’m going to do the Goals Quickstart Masterclass this Friday at 11 A.M. in my home office.”

This is another way to ensure you’ll remember to sit down and terminated the masterclass.

Yearly Planner

How to Jumpstart Your Personal Development

Now that you’ve mastered goal-setting, move on to conquer the artistry of epoch management and productivity with my Personal Transformation Masterclass.

In this course, you’ll learn about the mindset and techniques you need to achieve personal emergence and reach your dreams.

Personal Transformation Masterclass

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Secrete of Successful Blogging- Sky in Arizona

What is the Secret to Successful Blogging?

“What’s the secret to successful blogging?”

“How do I build a profitable blog?”

I get asked these questions a lot. And my mission with ProBlogger is to address them.

Let me start by answer the first question. There is no secret to successful blogging and no magic formula for a successful blog.

But there are some common things many successful bloggers share—decisions, behaviors, disciplines, and habits—that take them closer to a profitable blog.

Social Features on the Blog

It’s the accumulation of the basic little things you do every day that makes you a successful blogger.

Small but consistent actions such as creating and publishing new content, responding to comments, and interacting with your audience are more important than almost anything else in building a sustainable blogging business.

Habit-forming was the big thing I noticed that really escalated the growth of a blog.

Setting up routines, getting into the flow of all the different blogging activities, and being disciplined about taking action is the not-so-secret to building a successful blog and making money from it.

So how do you do this?

What do you do first?

What if you’ve tried and failed?

31 Days to Build a Better Blog was created to answer these questions, and provide the solution of what to do.

When I first came up with the idea for a 31-day blog post series back in 2006, I’d noticed that the things that really improved a blog, and the things I observed other full-time bloggers doing, we’re taking small consistent actions over time.

From a blog post series to an eBook and now a course, 31 Days to Build a Better Blog has certainly evolved. And in doing so it has helped tens of thousands of bloggers.

While a lot of people come looking for the secrets of making money blogging at ProBlogger, what I learned in the early days of ProBlogger was that what seemed to help bloggers the most was challenging them to take action rather than just gain knowledge.

Buy 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Course

What’s in the Course?

31 Days to Build a Better Blog is designed to make you think, but more importantly DO. The course is divided into 31 easy-to-follow tasks you can work through in your own time. Each step in the course contains:

  1. Teaching – You’ll be given in-depth video instruction on both the WHY and HOW of the task of the day.
  2. A Task – You’ll also be given something to DO in that step so you make actual progress using worksheets, printouts, and step-by-step guides.
  3. Further resources and reading – Finally, you’ll be equipped with the tools to help you dive deeper into any task.

We’ve designed this three-pronged approach so you come away from the challenge having not only learned how to build a better blog but also achieved something with the knowledge. By the end of the 31 days, I want you to have taken 31 actions.

In fact, by the end of the 31-step course, you’ll have:

  • Set objectives and goals for your blog
  • Identified and really understood your audience
  • Learned techniques for coming up with new post ideas
  • Promoted your blog in a variety of ways and found new readers
  • Deepened reader engagement with current readers
  • Developed an editorial calendar for your blog
  • Discovered ways to be more connected to your niche/topic
  • Designed a plan for the next month of your blogging
  • Explored opportunities for monetizing your blog
  • Clarified your next steps on the path to a blogging business

 

Can This Course Help Me?

If you’ve just started your blog and figured out all those first steps of getting your first few posts published you’re probably thinking, “Now what?”

This course will give you direction in building successful foundations for a profitable blogging business.

Or maybe you’ve been blogging for a while and have lost your way or your ‘blogging mojo’.

Consider this course a ‘lifesaver’ for your blog, with a month of actionable prompts to kickstart your blog again and get it on the right path to becoming a profitable business.

 

Special Offer For You to Take the Course

As a ProBlogger reader, we’d like to extend an invitation for you to take the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Course at a discounted ‘launch offer’ rate.

Instead of the usual price of $99 you can buy it now until 30th June 2018 for $49, which is less than half the price.

 

Buy Course Now

Your course registration includes:

  • A 60-Day Money-Back Guarantee
  • Instant Access to Online Course Materials
  • Videos, Audio, Slides, and Writable Worksheets
  • A Structured Facebook Group for Progress and Accountability

 

I’d love to hear your stories, case studies, and more after doing the course.

Make sure you submit your testimonial so we can contact you about your better blog story and share it with the ProBlogger community.unsplash-logoGreg Rakozy

The post What is the Secret to Successful Blogging? appeared first on ProBlogger.


     

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Take Note of Blog Schedule

253: I Guarantee This Will Improve Your Blog

From a blog post series to an eBook and now a course, 31 Days to Build a Better Blog has certainly evolved. And in doing so it has helped many people. Today’s episode is based on information about the course.

 

Fingers typing a blog

I created the course, which is a combination of repurposed teaching from places on ProBlogger and the blog post series to:

  • offer teaching that inspired action
  • help people develop good habits
  • give them a variety of things to try.

The goal is to give you 31 modules that each contain teaching, a challenge, and further reading using a combination of videos, audio files, printable worksheets and links.

There’s also a private Facebook group just for the students in the course to share what they’re doing and interact with each other on their journey.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

  • Who is it for? Those who already have a blog; beginners to advanced bloggers; and groups.
  • Does it have to be done daily? No, it can be done at your own pace.
  • How much work is it? It varies depending on the stage you’re at; it usually takes 1–5 hours a week.

Tips for Taking the Course:

  • Regularity is key
  • Be accountable
  • Take action

We’re extending the Early Bird price of $49 until the end of June. When it turns midnight (Pacific time) on June 30, the price goes up to $99. So if you’re interested, sign up now.

Links and Resources for I Guarantee This Will Improve Your Blog:

Courses

Join our Facebook group

Hi there and welcome to episode 253 of the ProBlogger Podcast.

My name’s Darren Rowse, and I’m the blogger behind problogger.com, a blog, podcast event, job board, series of ebooks, and courses all designed to help you to start an amazing blog that will hopefully change the world, change the lives of your readers, but also change your life as well both through the blogging experience which can bring you a lot of joy and ideas.

Help you to develop your ideas, but also hopefully will become a profitable thing as well, that’s what we teach over at problogger.com.

Click ► to expand…

Full Transcript

Today’s show notes are at problogger.com/podcast/253 that’s number 253.

In this week’s episode, I want to touch base with you about our 31 Days to Build a Better Blog course, which I have mentioned a few times in passing over the last month or so.

I’ve been talking about how it was coming and then last week, I mentioned that it was ‘live’ and I had a number of you give me feedback that you needed a little bit more time to make a purchase.

A couple of things I want to let you know, firstly we’re going to extend the early bird discount a little bit until the end of the month but I also wanted to answer some of the questions today that we’ve had about the course and also talk a little bit about the backstory of the course as well.

I want to talk today about why I first came out with 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, how it has evolved, and particularly this last step in the evolution to bring it into a course rather than an ebook.

I want to talk a little bit about why I think this format has helped so many people. I hope you find that interesting for those of you who want to build a course, or a product as well.

What is it in the course?

We’re going to talk about what’s in it, who it’s best suited for, and I want to answer some of those frequently asked questions about who it is for, how much work is involved, and then also want to give you a few tips on taking this course as well.

For those of you who’ve already purchased and there are quite a few of you who are already enrolled in the course as well.

If you’ve been wondering about whether this course is right for you, 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, or if you’re just interested in the back story, and journey of creating a product like this, I hope you find this week’s episode useful to you.

Early Bird Bonus

It is worth mentioning we are extending this early bird bonus until the end of June, so at midnight Pacific Time, on the 30th of June this year 2018, the price will go up from $49 US to $99 US.

You’ve got a 50% discount to get in early, and there’s one little condition on that, we do want your feedback on that.

We’re sort of considering you as early bids as well so we want to gather as much information as we can from you on how we can improve that course.

We’ve already been improving it from our early testers but we like to hear from you as well. If you do want that early access through the course, make sure you head to problogger.com/31days.

It will also be linked in the show notes.

The reason we are extending the price is for two reasons, really. One, to allow those of you who need a little bit of time to get that money together.

I know a $49 now for some of you isn’t that much money but for others of you, it is a big deal, and you need that little bit of late time to grab that together, so we wanted to extend that to make it as accessible as possible, and also we’ve had a few server upgrades going on at the moment.

There have been a few brief periods over last the week because our resources area has been down and we got a few emails from people saying that you’ve been trying to access it.

We just want to make sure everyone gets access to that by the 30th of June. Let’s get into today’s show.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog Idea:

The first question that I have had from a number of people is about the journey of 31 days. I know some of you are familiar with where 31 Days to Build a Better Blog came from.

It really came from, I think it was back in 2007 or 2006 even, where I came up with this idea for a 31-day blog post series.

The reason that I first ran that first series is that I noticed that the things that really improved a blog, and the things that I’ve noticed in the journeys of other full-time bloggers that I’ve met was that the secrets really were around, people were taking small consistent actions over time.

In fact, the small consistent actions that they were doing, writing a new blog post, responding to comments, these basic things were actually more important than almost anything else.

Write Blog in Early MorningHabit-forming

It was really habit-forming, that was the big thing that I noticed that really escalated the growth of a blog. Setting up routines, getting into the flow of creating content, getting into the flow of interacting with your audience, having an editorial calendar, and experimenting with different types of content.

What I realized is that while still a lot of people were coming to ProBlogger, looking for the secret sauce, or the secret technique, those things can be interesting, and they can be fun, but what really was growing blogs was the small consistent actions, and habit forming, and doing was more important than knowledge.

A lot of people came looking for the secrets of making money blogging at ProBlogger, but really, what I learned in the early days of ProBlogger was that what seem to help bloggers the most was when I challenge them to take action rather than just to gain knowledge.

I wanted to create this 31-day blog post series that was a little bit of teaching every day, a little bit of knowledge sharing, but was more based on challenging readers to take action.

I came up with this idea, by the end of the month I want you to have taken 31 actions.

I did this blog post series and it went viral. It went crazy, bloggers from around the world, thousands and thousands of them took this challenge that I put out there over a month.

By the end of the month, I was getting feedback from readers saying, “My traffic doubled this month.”

Or “I’ve had more comments this month than I’ve ever had before.” Suddenly, I know what I’m doing with my blog.

I’ve got a vision for my blog and I started getting these feedbacks from people that they really saw a lot of benefit from the learning but more importantly the doing.

I ran this series of blog posts three times over a number of years, and every time I did this series, I updated it, I added more depth, I tweaked the challenges because over the years, blogging has changed and some of the things in that first challenge really didn’t relate three years later when I did it again.

I tweaked it every year, and in the last year, I think it was 2009 or 2010, I turned it into an ebook, and that was based upon readers saying, “Hey, we know it’s all on the blog already for free, but we want it in the one kind of place where we can keep coming back to it.

We want to be able to print it out, we want to be able to keep coming back to it, and doing it again, and again.” Because it was actually a 31-day process that you could do more than once.

I turned it into an ebook, not really sure whether anyone would buy the ebook, but very quickly found once I released it that it was a very popular product, and we sold tens of thousands of copies of that ebook in the year or so after I launched it.

Self-improvement of Freelance Blogger

Updates

I updated it again in 2012 because as I said, things were changing in the blogosphere, and some of the challenges were becoming a little bit dated, so I came up with seven new challenges for the second edition.

Late last year, we realized, well 2012 when we did the second edition was quite a long time ago, six years have passed and again, things have been changing, and this product, this ebook needed to be updated again, and we began to ask ourselves, should we do it as an ebook?

Should we do it as a course, or in some other format? We kind of landed on the idea all modernizing it, updating it, both in terms of the challenges.

There are some new challenges in this one if you’ve taken it before, but also in terms of the delivery method.

I realized that a lot of people were benefiting from the podcast that I’ve been doing, and a lot of people preferred hearing and viewing content teaching.

My team and I begin to put together this new version of 31-days to build a better blog as a course.

The course is a combination of a number of things, some of it is repurposed, you all have had little bits of it on that podcast in the past.

There are some references and further reading to blog articles as well, there are some printable worksheets that we’ve put together for it.

The idea is still the same, every day or every module I should say, you’ll get a bit of teaching, and then most importantly, you’ll get a challenge to go away and do, and you also get a little bit of further reading as well, and to actually share what you’re doing in our Facebook group as well.

This has been involved since the early versions of the ebook, some of the challenges are still the same activity but we’ve added depth, we’ve added some further reading, we’ve added some more suggestions, so it is a deep and different experience to those of you who have had the ebook before.

Video Presentation

Every module, you get a video presentation and you can also download that as an audio file if you prefer just to listen while you’re out on your walk, you get printable worksheets, and also some links to some further reading, and some for that listening as well.

There’s also a private Facebook group just for course students where you can share what you’re doing, and interact with other students on the journey.

A few other commonly asked questions that we have been getting about this, the number one is who is it for?

ProBlogger listeners span the whole breadth of experience. we’ve got people listening to this podcast right now who have not even started a blog, we’ve got others who have started a blog in the first month, and then others who are three or four years in, and then others who listen to this who are 10, 12, 15 years in the blogging as well.

So who is this course designed for?

Interruption

We’ve actually designed it for a number of groups, probably not everyone in that spectrum. Particularly those who are just starting out, so those of you who have a blog, and I need to emphasize that if you haven’t yet got a blog, this course isn’t for you.

I would highly recommend you go back and start out, start a blog course, which is a free course that you can also find on ProBlogger.

This course, 31 Days to Build a Better Blog is much better for those of you who have just started a blog, that’s one of the groups that I think it’s ideal for. If you’ve done the start a blog course, this is designed almost to take you on your next steps.

We kind of almost toyed with the idea of calling this your first 31 days of blogging. We didn’t do that because I think it also is relevant for those of you who are a bit further along the journey as well.

If you’re just starting out, this is a great course to follow. It’s a good companion course if you like to start a blog course.

The number two group that this is ideal for is anyone who’s got an intermediate kind of level of blogging but maybe your blog needs a kick start in some way.

I can relate to this, it’s been periods in my own blogging even in the last few years where I’ve kind of just needed a burst of something to really kick start the blog again.

I spoke with one blogger this morning who is loving doing the course. She’s been blogging now for four or five years, but her bloggers hit a plateau.

It grew and grew, she’s a full-time blogger but it’s just been slowing, and whining a little bit, and she realized that some of that was because of her, some of that was because she was a bit bored with blogging. She needed this kind of little injection of energy.

She found 31 days as a good way to give her a framework I guess to be more intentional about her blog.

I also spoke with another blogger who is using 31 Days to Build a Better Blog to re-launch her blog.

Her blog has been dormant for a couple of months because she’s had some other stuff going on in her life, and so she is using this course to help her kind of get it back up and going again and to refocus it in some ways.

I do know a few advanced bloggers who also have used the ebook version of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog as something to I guess give him that little injection of energy every now and again to give them a little bit of inspiration.

The way we’ve designed this is that you can take it as 31 days in 31 days if you like and I’ll talk about the frequency of how you need to take it in a moment.

You can also come back to it again, and again, and one of the things I found really interesting, I was actually at a conference late last year, at a theme con and someone came out and said, “You know, I do 31 Days to Build a Better Blog every year.”

And I was like, why do you do it every year?

Own Domain Name

And they bought it in 2009, they’re doing the first version every year, and he said, that it was just something that he does every October, and October is the month that he does it, and he works through it and he’s found it really helpful to kind of just ask himself the questions around the daily challenges, and once he doesn’t learn a lot from it, the challenge of doing something in each of these 31 areas has been enough for him.

It may be useful for those of you who are more at that advanced end, but we have designed it more for beginner bloggers and intermediate bloggers particularly, and that’s who we’ve seen getting the most value out of it.

The other thing I mentioned is that it is also ideal for bloggers who want to do it together, there is a group, a very small group of fashion bloggers, we’re going through it together right now, I’ve had an email from one of those this morning.

It’s just a little Facebook group of five fashion bloggers, and they’ve all enrolled in the course together. That’s something that I’ve seen in the past that has worked quite well, bloggers within a niche doing it together, or even bloggers outside of a niche.

There’s a couple of Facebook groups around who have taken the ebook version together in the past.

That’s one of the things I actually have noticed, and we’ll talk about this in a moment, when you do this together, when you have that accountability, it can really help to accentuate the good things that come out of it in some ways.

The second most common question that I get asked is, does it have to be done daily?

Absolutely not. Whilst we’ve certainly called it 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, that was because the first blog post series was rolled out on a daily basis.

We’ve actually designed this course version to be taken at your own pace.

We actually ran this course with about 100 beta testers a few months ago, and we’ve surveyed them, and most of the responses that came back are that they took it, or they’re expecting to take it over two to three months.

So it seems like the average is that people are working through a module every two to three days instead of a daily basis. That’s possible because we’ve added a little bit more depth into this version of the course.

Also, we’ve all got plenty of other things going on in our lives, and really to take this course, you need to put aside a little bit of time for learning, to listen to, and watch the video presentation and work on the worksheets, but then you also need to put aside a little bit of time for doing the activity, and some of the activities do take a little bit more time than others.

Which leads me to the third question I get asked is, how much work does it take? Let me just say though, I do know bloggers who have taken this course faster than 31 days.

If you do have a lot of time in your hands at the moment, maybe you are having a mid-semester break at college, or university, or maybe you’ve got a couple of weeks of work, you probably could do the whole lot in a couple of weeks if you really pushed hard, but most people do seem to be taking it at a slower pace.

I know a number of people who are even doing it one module per week, and they got a list of to-do after 31 weeks.

That next question, how much work is it? That’s an interesting one, there’s no one answer to this.

We’ve designed the module so that you can consume each module in terms of the teaching of the module in less than an hour, some of them are less than that, some of them are kind of pushed right up to the A mark.

As I mentioned a few times, you’re not going to get a lot of benefit out of this course if you just do the learning parts of it, you really need to turn that into action.

Every day, we do give you a challenge, and in a couple of days, we give you a couple of things to do as well. This will vary a bit, depending on the day.

Some of the days take a little bit more work than others, some of the days, you probably could do in an hour, so the learning might be half an hour, the doing might be another hour.

Some of the days, you might actually need to put aside a few hours as well.

It will also vary a little bit as to whether you’re a beginner blogger or a more intermediate blogger because some of the things you’ll find, if you’re an intermediate blogger, you might have already done some of the challenges, and so, you may be able to use that day more to evaluate how you’re going.

Email Newsletter

Plan before a Day

For example, day 19 is about email newsletters, and so, for those of you just starting out, the challenge is to start an email newsletter.

You’re going to have a bit of work to do, we’ll give you some tips on things to think about in doing that.

Now, if you’ve already got a newsletter, you don’t need to do some of that work, but you could use that day to evaluate how your newsletter has already gone. that might take less time, so it will vary from person to person, most of those who are already doing the course, again, we survey them, and most of them are saying they’re spending between one and five hours a week on the course.

Again, it’s designed for you to take at your own pace. If you don’t have five hours a week, you could just slow the pace down a little bit and work through it, and move on to the next module when you are finished.

We do have some emails that will go out during the process just to prompt you to keep moving for the course, we want to keep people moving through because we know the people who get the most value are the ones who complete it but really, you are able to take this completely at your own pace.

Lastly, I want to just give you a few tips for those of you who are thinking about doing the course, those of you who are already signed up, the number one thing that I found in talking to a lot of students of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog is the people who do get to the end, the people who do get the most benefit are the people who seem to send a scheduled time to do it.

I’ve been guilty of this, I’ve signed up for courses, I’ve taken ebooks, and I think to myself, well, I’m going to do that course one day when I get time, and I know that when I take that attitude with any kind of teaching, whether that be a formal learning qualification at a university or something else, like an ebook, or a course online, I don’t tend to move through it.

I don’t tend to finish it unless I’ve scheduled time for it.

Schedule Tasks before a Day

I would highly recommend that you put in your diary a little bit of time every day, or a limited time every week, depending on your schedule but actually, put aside time to do it.

As I say, don’t just put aside time to learn, put aside time to do, that’s really important. The second thing I’ve noticed is that the people who seem to get the most out of this have accountability.

Whether you are going to use our Facebook group for that, there’s a private Facebook group, or whether you’re going to take a buddy through the course, or do it as a group, or whether you’ve just got an offline friend who knows nothing about blogging who you ask to keep you accountable, I really encourage you to find some way of keeping accountable to keep you moving through this course, and to keep you taking action, and that’s the most important thing again and again.

This leads me to the last tip, the people who get the most out of this really do take action, the temptation is just to listen, just to learn, and then to put the doing aside for one day.

As we all know, one day tends not to happen, and it leads to regret later on. Schedule time to learn, but also schedule a time to do, and that’s really important.

The last thing I will say is that we do have a 60-day guarantee on this product. We always have had guarantees, money-back guarantees on all of our products.

Personally, I would much rather have you as a happy, ongoing reader or listener, than having your $49—$49 will be great, that helps me to sustain ProBlogger to keep the podcast running, to pay my team, and fund my life and my children’s life as well.

I much prefer to have an ongoing relationship with you as a listener, as a reader, then having your $49.

Feel free to take advantage of that guarantee, to enroll, start interacting with the course, find out whether it’s for you or not, if it’s not quite for you, contact our support team and they will arrange a full refund for you, no questions asked.

Do feel free to take advantage of that, and lastly, I really would love your feedback on how we can improve it if you’ve already taken the course, let our team know, just send our team an email via our contact form, or send it to [email protected] and let us know how we can improve that course as well.

Lastly, remember the early bird price is $49 US, that’s 50% off, but that will go up on the 1st of July midnight, on the 30th of June.

Again, go to problogger.com/31days for the link and more information on what’s included.

I hope that answers all your questions, if you do have more questions on 31 days, any aspect of it, please shoot our team an email, [email protected] or you can shoot us an email via social media or in our Facebook group as well.

Thank you for listening today, we look forward to chatting with you next week in episode 254, and I look forward to seeing some of you in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Facebook group as well. Thanks for listening, chat next week.

You’ve been listening to ProBlogger. If you’d like to comment on any of today’s topics or subscribe to the series, find us at problogger.com/podcast. Tweet us @problogger. Find us at facebook.com/problogger or search ProBlogger on iTunes.

This episode of the ProBlogger podcast was edited by the team at PodcastMotor who offer a great range of services including helping you to set up and launch your podcast as well as ongoing editing and production of the podcast that you produce.

You can check them out at podcastmotor.com.

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