Brilliant Ideas for your Next Blog Post

Are you stuck trying to generate new ideas for your blog? Even when you find ideas, are they the right ones, i.e., ones that people will actually read? Use this guide for brilliant ideas for your next blog post (and ones to follow as well).

It's all about giving readers what they want. I have researched the following topics which represents what people are looking for:

• Storytelling
  
• Remind people why they matter
• People like to be surprised
• Reveal a secret or tip they probably have never seen before
• Challenge assumptions but in a respectful way
• Give readers a fresh point of view
• Take them on some kind of fun journey (this can be especially effective using video)
• Make them smile and laugh without offending them
• Encouragement is always a great topic
• Teaching is a good way to engage but do it in an entertaining fashion
• Remind them that they don't have all the time in the world, i.e., life is short, etc.
• Controversial information is always engaging but can backfire on you if not careful
• Get them to discover that dreams can come true
• David Beats Goliath is always effective
• Faith and beliefs
• Show them how to get back to the basics
• Showing people ways to take action is always a hit - also never giving up is big too.
  
• Take a Stand about something important - you could get challenged on this, but that's okay.
  

The above topics should give you plenty to work with for creating lots of brilliant blog posts. The best part is they tend to be evergreen so that you can use them again (just change the wording a bit). You could stop here and get started with your content generation. Or, you can continue where I describe each of these ideas in more detail (click on each arrow below to get details).

Storytelling

There's no question storytelling is (or should become) your content creation ally. Everyone loves a good story. In most cases it doesn't make a difference if you are writing stories of fiction or if you are trying to convey a message within a non fiction post on your blog. Translating your message into a story is going to sit well with your visitors.

Remind People Why They Matter

It helps if you are more of an authority figure (or you have a blog that holds that esteem). Nonetheless, making people feel like they matter in your writing is going to go a long way no matter who you are. When visitors see that you genuinely care, they will develop a trust for you and will want to come back to see what else you have to say.

Give Them a Surprise

People love surprises so if you can find ways to do that, they are going to appreciate it. You want to focus on good surprises whenever possible. If it's something bad, that could bite you in the you-know-what. Of course, sometimes that could be exactly what is needed to get your point across. Overall good surprises = good engagement.

Reveal a Never-Before-Seen Secret or Tip

It is probably impossible for you to know secrets that absolutely no one else knows. But you will know (or learn) tips and secrets that many people including most of your readers will not know. If you can create your content based on these, people will share these tips with their friends and social circles.

Challenge Assumptions but in a Respectful Way

Many people accept whatever is written or produced on the internet. They assume that every blogger or website owner has fact checked their information. That is simply not true and opens up a huge opportunity for you to challenge those assumptions. But as the heading suggests, you need to do so respectfully. Otherwise you risk alienated the very audience you were trying to entice.

Give Readers a Fresh Point of View

This could go hand-in-hand with the Challenge Assumptions item but a point of view does not always have to be based on assumptions. For example, if someone is an investor of stocks you could offer them information on alternative investments like bonds or even options.

Get Them to "Go On a Journey" with you

If you can somehow take your readers on a journey or an adventure, you are certain to captivate them. Travel related content is the easiest to do this with but it certainly can apply to other topics as well. Perhaps you have overcome something recently and you share that experience with your audience. Note this ties in well with storytelling.

Make them Smile and/or Laugh

We all love to be amused. If you can make people smile or laugh with your content you will certainly get them into your corner. You do have to use this with caution as people may not find everything as funny as you do. Unless you are going for controversy, try to keep topics on the safe side when presenting humor.

Encouragement Makes for a Great Topic

People can never seem to get enough of posts that encourage them or inspire them in some way. It sometimes can be the push we need to get something done or break through certain barriers that we set up for ourselves. It also elicits confidence that you are someone that can help break through those barriers.

Teach Your Audience Something and Do it in an Entertaining Way

Type in the words "How To" in a search engine and notice the number of results that are returned. Also, notice just how many different categories will be in the results as well. Whether people want to learn how to play guitar or they want to know how to grow juicier tomatoes, there is a vast wealth of content that teaches people how to do various tasks.

You may think that everything that is known to man exists as a tutorial on the internet but that simply is not the case. Many people that create tutorials online don't do a good job at teaching the particular topic. This gives you a tremendous opportunity to step in and do a better job. At the very least, you can enhance the training that others have provided.

Another possibility is that there are training modules in a particular topic that aren't bad as far as the information provided, they just are rather boring in how they were presented. Again, this is a golden opportunity to step in and create a module that is much more entertaining. If you aren't good at doing that, you can easily find someone that you can pay that is.

Remind Your Audience that Life is Short

We all know this saying is true. And yet, there are plenty of us (yours truly included) that act as if we have all the time in the world. We don't. Creating content based on this premise is another motivational type of theme but it works. And it can be repeated multiple times throughout the course of your blog.

Controversy is a Great Way to Get People to Engage

I state this with a caveat that the type of engagement that may occur as a result of posting a controversial topic may be adverse to what you were expecting. Or, it could be exactly the type of engagement factor you were looking for. Just be aware that you will get both sides of an argument to chime in with strong emotion. Topics that offer the most potential are politics and religion.

I had a professor in one of my graduate classes that always took on controversial subjects to speak about. None of us could figure out what side of the political fence he was on and that is exactly the type of tone he wanted. He played the role of mediator in most discussions and often discussed points from both sides. That is a great angle to play on your blog as well.

Who Doesn't Want their Dreams to come True?

I think it's safe to say that most of us want our dreams to come true, whatever they happen to be. You could create content about this at a very general level or you could get specific about how to do it for a particular topic. It could be inspirational or simply steps to take to achieve the particular dream.

David Triumphs over Goliath

Who doesn't like a great tale about how a single person overcame the oppression of a large and powerful entity? Perhaps a giant corporation was found bullying an employee and the employee went onto create a business capable of putting that corporation out of business. Sometimes you could even approach this from the perspective of disbelievers that kept trying to knock someone down by saying it can't be done only to have the person do exactly what the naysayers told were impossible. This is a very powerful type of content creation tool!

Faiths and Beliefs

Not all faith related topics (or beliefs for that matter) have to be about religion. You could hold the faith that someone who works for you will improve their performance and this does not have to do with anything religious. Some would argue that it's the same thing but I believe it's all in the presentation. You could also choose to incorporate more of a religious spin in this type of post but then the lines are blurred as to whether it becomes more of a controversial topic, depending on just how your present it.

Get Them Back to the Basics

Humans love to over complicate everything we do. Sometimes we need a little reminder that what we are trying to accomplish is not as complicated as we make it. This makes for great "Ah Ha!" moments along with a little bit of embarrassment that we didn't see this for ourselves. But no matter. As long as we get our problem solved and you were the one to help us find that simple solution.

Motivate Your Audience to Take Action or Never Give Up (or Both)

How many times have you read online about the need to take action? Often, this is all you need to go for it. Yet, we never seem to tire of this type of message. This, along with the message of never giving up makes for some great content creation that never gets old.

Take a Stand

You may have recently remembered the hot topic going around the internet about net neutrality. The idea is that large entities such as Comcast and others would give faster based access paths to those who paid more (much like a toll on a highway). The battle is still being fought back and forth as of this writing. The FCC ruled in favor of keeping the internet neutral but apparently Comcast is suing them.

Writing about such topics and giving your opinion can be a great way to get your audience to comment on the topic. Once that happens, your content has the potential to go viral because people tend to share these types of posts.

Do you have an idea that you like to use as part of your content generation? Share it with us in the comment section below. We'd love to hear it! Also, please feel free to share this post using the social buttons below. Your followers could use the information for their benefit.

Other Great Content from Get Paid Boot Camp

Brilliant Ideas for your Next Blog Post
2015-06-30

Like for Like: Does it Work?
2015-06-19

7 Ways to Earn Quick Cash
2015-06-10

Do you Have a Loss Leader Strategy?
2015-06-01

How to Build an Email List Fast – Review of Free List Hack
2015-05-22

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Like for Like: Does it Work?

If you've been on Facebook for any length of time (and who hasn't been right?) you have probably seen some groups called Like for Like, Like Ladder, or Promote, Share, Like, etc. These groups allow you to post your Facebook pages, blogs, web pages, social media, etc., to the group in hopes that people will like your page. But do like for like groups work?

My curiosity got the best of me, plus I like to report about stuff like this to make sure my readers are informed. Because of this sometimes I have to jump down a few rabbit holes. Although I've been doing this kind of thing for a while now so I have a good intuition on which rabbit holes to avoid. So I joined a few of these types of groups and my findings are what this article is about.

My Results from My Jumps

The results were dismal. People are selfish when it comes to sharing back. And trust me I wasn't selfish. I shared, liked, promoted other peoples' stuff until my fingers almost fell off!

Within these groups, there were several occasions when people have posted something that is known as Like Ladders. The way this works is you will see a series of posts on the group that link out to other peoples' Facebook pages. These pages form a kind of Ladder, hence the name. You scroll down to the last entry and add your Facebook page. Then you are encouraged to like the pages of everyone before your post.

In several instances, I participated and liked about 30 pages in one session. I also saw from my email notification that several others were posting below me, easily 10 to 15 pages at a time. And this was a common occurrence per session. So it should follow that for each session, I should get about 10 or 15 likes on my Facebook page right?

Actual Results

If I was lucky I would get one or two likes. Most of the time however, I would get zero.

I spoke to other members of the groups and they complained of similar results to mine.

So there you have it folks. If you are thinking of participating in these types of groups, my results should dissuade you.

Will Facebook View It as Gaming the System?

Another problem I have with this, it's quite possible that Facebook will eventually discover these types of groups and ban them. I no longer participate in them but I have to decide whether I want to unsubscribe to them (I am only in two or three so it won't take long). I like to see some of the pages that are being included as this helps in brainstorming for content creation. There are however, other ways to brainstorm that will not associate myself with these groups. It's likely that I will unsubscribe.

Like for Like is Artificial

When I did my little experiment with the groups, I admit that I didn't really read through the pages that I liked. In fact, when you post a link to another page in Facebook, it shows a picture of the page and a like button right within the post.​

Oddly enough, by placing this button directly on the post, Facebook is actually encouraging situations of Like Ladders to occur whether they know it or not. If you are able to like the page directly from a post without visiting the page, people will blindly like pages.

Are You Engaged?

No, I am not asking about your personal life regarding plans to get married in the future. The question is about engaging in the pages that you liked. If the answer is no, then even if these like for like groups were legit, the likes are going to be worthless under Facebook's EdgeRank system. In fact, idle likes may even hurt you from showing up in the search results. And if you aren't engaging in these pages, you can bet that the people that like your page aren't either.

Like Ladder Group No Longer Active

In doing research for this article, I searched for the term "Like Ladder" in Facebook's search box. The first group that comes up is appropriately enough, called LikeLadder. You can see it here:

http://ift.tt/1GW06zc

Then I went to look at the rules of the group. You can find that when you scroll down a bit and on the left in the Apps section, it displays a link, "Ladder Rules". When you click on it, the following message shows:

Like Ladder's Campaign is No Longer Active

Hmmm. That's interesting. Is Facebook already cracking down on these kinds of groups? Although, if they were banned the group probably wouldn't no longer exist. Perhaps this particular group only runs campaigns like these once in a while. I don't believe they work so for me, no harm no foul.

What Do You Think?

I would love to hear what your opinion about Like for Like groups or Link Ladders. Have you had any experience with them yourself? Let me know in the comments below what your thoughts are on the subject. I will respond to any valid comments.

On this website (GetPaidBootCamp.com) I offer tips, reviews, advice, etc., on programs that help you get paid. Many of the programs require you to market your pages (whether it be Facebook pages, blog posts, etc.)

I continually research such things as Like for Like along with many other schemes and pass along my experience. If you want to be notified whenever I post something new to this website, simply leave your email which you can find on your right.

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7 Ways to Earn Quick Cash

You may be strapped for cash and find it impossible to take on another part time job. Here are 8 ways to earn quick cash.

eBay

We all have stuff lying around the basement or attic that we simply don't use or need anymore. eBay is a great means of getting rid of those items and getting some money for them too.

What's great about eBay is you can easily find which items sell be searching its Completed Listings section (you'll need to be logged in to do this). You search on the item in question and then check off Completed Listing option on the left hand side of the eBay screen.

In order to get the most out of your listing, make sure you specify the condition of the items your are selling and take several pictures of each item at various angles. Be clear on what your shipping policies are and also be available to answer questions that potential buyers may have.

You want to make sure that you level of customer service is top notch. Even though you may only be selling a few items, you never know when you may want to sell again in the future. Having a good seller's rating helps in a big way when it comes to sales.

Fiverr.com

​Fiverr.com is a place where people buy and sell services for five dollars. This may seem like a small amount of money to offer your services from but if you set up your gigs in the correct way you could easily earn more.

The key is to offer upsells or what Fiverr calls premium services. For instance, suppose you offer video creation services and you have a gig that offers a 30 second video. You can add additional time to the video for $5 for each additional 30 seconds, etc.  Or you could add voiceover services, etc.

You will need to have 10 successful gigs before you are allowed to include premium offers to your gigs so those first 10 gigs you won't be able to take advantage of them.

As with anything else, you want to make sure you deliver great customer service as your reputation can mean the difference of getting gigs or getting ignored. You want to keep your reviews as high as possible so do everything in your power to make your customers happy.

Bidding Sites like eLance and Freelancer.com

There are plenty of jobs available at these types of websites but the biggest problem is standing out from the rest of bidders when trying to get the gigs. Nevertheless, if you have a decent portfolio already built up you can have that displayed in your profile. This will serve to increase the visibility of your profile and get more gigs.

Sometimes, it may be worth it when first starting out to simply come in at lower bids and build up your reputation. As your reputation gains, so to will your ability to increase your rates.

Craigslist.org

It is possible to sell just about anything on Craigslist. Of course, there are much more possibilities for scammers to hit using a site like Craigslist. Your listing is bound to get some great visibility so you will likely get responses when posting on here.

Again, it pays to be cautious because Craigslist is still like the wild, wild west of selling stuff. With sites like eBay, Amazon, and eLance, the management tries to ensure a smooth transaction (as long as payment is made via PayPal on eBay, there are protections for purchasers). But Craigslist has no such controls in place. The buyers and sellers are matched up directly.

If you decide to go with selling your wares on Craigslist, it is always a good idea to include pictures of the merchandise whenever possible. Even services should include some kind of graphic as to stand out from the many of listings that don't include graphics.

If you find that the buyer and seller need to meet up to make the exchange happen try to arrange for the meet up to occur in a busy area where people will be (like coffeeshops, etc.) Beware of any meet ups that will be in remote locations.

Etsy.com

​Selling on Etsy.com is for those that are good with crafts and homemade types of items. Etsy allows its users to set up stores and that's why it's important to have a tightly focused theme for your store. If you are selling handmade, knitted clothing items, you should avoid trying to sell paintings unless you set up another store dedicated to paintings.

The key to success with Etsy is to have a fair amount of inventory built up before you even open your store. This will prevent you from having to fulfill orders in panic mode. It also gives you flexibility in certain instances, of offering bundles (where applicable).

As with many of the quick cash ideas of this article, displaying your item with several pictures can really help you stand out as people want to remove doubt in their purchase decisions. Excellent customer service is a must!

Sell on Amazon

People are often surprised at the amount of different ways they can use Amazon to sell their stuff. I've written a complete article on this that profiles all the ways currently available. Instead of reiterating that here, I will simply give you the opportunity to read that article (opens in new window).

Sell from your Own Website

Having your own website, whether free or paid, is generally a good idea. Even if you are using the other ideas to generate quick cash, it can't hurt to build up a web presence in order to increase traffic to your offers.

Although it's beyond the scope of this article, you could also create an ecommerce website if you happen to have products that you want to sell and are comfortable with such items as payment processors, fulfillment of orders, shipping, returns, etc.

Many people often start with Amazon (see above) and then as they grow, they branch out into developing their own website. In the end having your own website gives you full control but you will have to manage everything.

Arbitrage

It's not necessary to focus on one of the way to make quick cash online. In fact, there are plenty of people who are creating arbitrage opportunities and banking some good money in doing so.

Arbitrage is the purchase or sale of an asset and the simultaneous purchase or sale of that asset. If the first transaction is a purchase, the the simultaneous will be a sale and vice versa. The concept is very popular on Wall Street and serves to keep market prices at equilibrium. If a price on one market is out of whack, the arbitrageurs will step in to bring them back in line.

Luckily with respect to making money online, arbitrage is a much simpler concept than the one used on Wall Street although the dynamics are identical.​ Let me illustrate with some examples:

• Find products on Amazon and list them for a higher price on eBay. It's best to choose products that have a price of $35 or more as this usually qualifies them for free shipping. Two great aspects of this strategy is you only buy from Amazon if the product sells on eBay and you can have Amazon ship directly to the winner of the eBay auction (or fixed price).
  
• People are always listing jobs they want done on Craigslist. Simply find a job and contact the person who listed the job and quote them a price. If they accept, find someone on Fiverr or eLance that will do it for less than is quoted on Craigslist.
  

These are just two methods that people use arbitrage to make money online. I am sure you could try it with some of the other items from this page. As long as you can sell for more than you buy you have an opportunity to take advantage of arbitrage.

Next Steps...

Step 1 - Take Action

​The methods outlined in this article on how to make quick cash can all be started fast and in most cases, without shelling out a whole bunch of cash. But none of it will work unless you take action. Get started on one or several of the methods and just make it happen. Who knows, you may turn a quick cash situation into one that you make a full time business. It happens more than you think.

Step 2 - Share this Article

​If you liked what you saw here, could I ask you to share it with people in your network? I am sure they would get something out of this and you show you care about them by passing along good information. I very much appreciate it!

Step 3 - Leave a Comment Below

​I would love to hear what you thought about this article and if you have any of your own ideas, feel free to use the comments section below to tell me about them.

Step 4 - Sign up to My Newsletter

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Do you Have a Loss Leader Strategy?

Question: Would you spend $10 to make $100?

Seems like a rather silly question, doesn't it? But let me ask it another way:

Would you lose $10 in order to gain $100?

Once I introduce the word "lose" it takes on a whole new meaning. And that is exactly why people have a problem with a concept known as loss leaders. But if you want to make money, sometimes having an effective loss leader strategy can be exactly what's needed to earn money.

Loss Leader Defined

The concept originated with retail sales and it is essentially a product (or service) that is offered at below market value (or even free) that helps to stimulate sales of other higher end products.

The loss leader's role has expanded to include online marketing channels as well. You have likely experienced squeeze pages where you are being offered something, a report for instance, in exchange for certain information, like your name and email.

How this Ties into Online Marketing

I've already described how offering a free report can entice visitors to your website to sign up to your email list or newsletter. But is this effective anymore? The answer is yes, it can be but you need to follow some guidelines:

• Keep the report that you offer short and to the point
  
• Offer incredibly valuable information
• Be sure to include some calls to action within the report
• Graphics and images go a long way in helping to keep the attention of viewers
• Try to find ways for the report to engage interactively with those who you send it to
  

Keep the Report Short and to the Point

If you try to give out a report that is the size of War and Peace, I can almost guarantee that you will not get anyone to read it. People are busy and while they want valuable information they want it to be concise.

The best lesson I learned in this regard was to focus on only one area instead of trying to cover every aspect of the topic of the report. Make it something that the reader of the report can take action on let that be the only thing included. This let's the user see that the information can help them in some way without being too drawn out.

Offer Incredibly Valuable Information

One big mistake that I see people make over and over again is to grab any old report that they find on say, Private Label Rights(PLR) websites, and pass these off as the report that they give to their subscribers. The trouble is most PLR is low quality or lacks useful information.

I am not here to bash PLR in its entirety nor am I suggesting that it has no use in the process of including it as a loss leader. What I am suggesting is that if you decide to go that route, make sure you read the PLR report and enhance it significantly such that it becomes valuable. It could even be worth rewriting the entire report with your own spin. This way no one can accuse you sending out the same stale report that thousands of others are doing.

Be Sure to Include Some Calls to Action in the Report

While it is great to capture emails in exchange for your report, you are missing out if you don't include some kind of call to action within the report that you send. The best way to do this is to tie the solution that you are offering as part of the offer itself.

As an example, if you are offering a tip on how to quit smoking, see if you can find some affiliate program that offers something that can help to that end. Try to ensure that the product claims are legit before doing this however. Other calls to action could be for products related to whatever the solution you are targeting. For the quit smoking niche, perhaps you could include offers for electronic cigarettes, etc.

One caveat in all of this is to not go overboard with too many offers in the report. This will backfire as it can be quite annoying to your subscribers and shows them that the only thing you care about is selling something. Offer great information in the report and having a couple of promotional items (as long as they are related in some way) will be fine.

Include Graphics and Images

Anytime people read anything, they often translate words into images. By including images within your report, you make it much easier to capture the message you are trying to get across. They have less translating that they will need to make.

You should make sure that you have rights to use whatever graphics or images you include!

Interactive Engagement

If you can, see if you include some elements of interactivity within the report that you send. This can include things like contents, polls, or surveys, or perhaps you can include some kind of fun quiz. By doing this you establish a higher level of trust with your subscribers.

Another way to accomplish this is to ask the people on your list to tell their story as it relates to your market or niche. Tell them that if the story is compelling enough that you will include it (with their permission) in your next blog post or as part of an email send, etc. You can also offer to include a back link to the person's website if they have one.

How Can a Free Report Be Considered a Loss?

One big misconception is that just because a report is free that it didn't cost anything to make. Now, if you simply grab a junkie PLR report and use that as your free gift, I would agree didn't cost any upfront money, but it will cost you losses with respect to your reputation.

To make it worthwhile for your subscribers you will have to spend a fair amount of time developing this valuable report.

Even if you have the luxury of working full time on your own online business from home, you still have the same 24 hours as anyone else. When you spend time working on one thing, this takes you away from spending it on something else. So the free report that you are working on could be taking you away from developing a blog post, a magazine article, a chapter in a book, etc., all things that have the potential to earn you money in the future.

It is a very real cost to create a report that is going to be useful to your subscribers!

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