Why Most Businesses Get Crappy Results from Content Marketing

Jon Morrow 69 Comments Last Updated Sep 22, 2016

Let’s start with a simple question…

How, exactly, does content marketing make money?

Because that’s the end goal, right?

You’re not hunched over your keyboard, racking your brain for attention-grabbing ideas because you enjoy it. You expect to get clients, sales, or some other tangible result for your business. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but sometime in the future, all that work you’re putting into creating and publishing content had better pay off.

Except… what if it won’t?

What if your entire understanding of the way content marketing works is wrong?

What if all the time you’ve invested into creating content was, in fact, a senseless waste of time, never possessing even the slightest chance of turning a profit?

It would be a tragedy, and yet I believe that’s precisely what’s happening. Not just to you, but to millions of entrepreneurs around the globe.

Is it because content marketing is just a fad? Or worse, an elaborate hoax?

No. On the contrary, I believe the hype is totally justified. If you execute the right content marketing strategy in the right market, the results are breathtaking.

But that rarely happens. There are lots of reasons why, and I might eventually write a short book explaining them all, but by far the biggest reason why most businesses get crappy results is they completely misunderstand what content marketing is about.

Here’s what I mean…
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Mistakes/ Standing out/ Writing

297 Flabby Words and Phrases That Rob Your Writing of All Its Power

Shane Arthur 188 Comments Last Updated Sep 15, 2016

You’re not stupid.

You know what writing is truly about.

It’s a never-ending battle for your readers’ attention.

Every sentence is a link in a taut chain that connects your headline to your conclusion.

And you are just one weak sentence away from losing your reader forever.

So you take your craft quite seriously.

You ignore all but your best ideas.

You work on each piece of writing for exactly as long as necessary to get it right.

And you edit until your words are crisp and clear.

But what if that isn’t enough?

What if weaknesses remain that are almost impossible to spot?
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Mistakes/ Writing

7 Cruel Ways Writers Torture Themselves

Glen Long 77 Comments Last Updated Sep 9, 2016

Seriously, what is it with writers?

You’d think they actually enjoy pain and misery.

After all, writing is hard enough without inventing new ways to make yourself suffer. But suffer they do.

Perhaps it’s the image of the writer as a tormented artist, or a form of occupational masochism, but something seems to make writers seek out pain.

Maybe without it, they don’t feel like “real” writers.

But what about you? Are you a misery magnet? Is pain your faithful muse?

Here are seven ways that writers torture themselves. See how many you recognize (and discover how to avoid them.)
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Writing

From Blog to Book: The Simple Strategy Smart Authors are Using in 2016

Cathy Presland 63 Comments Last Updated Sep 1, 2016

Don’t try to deny it; you’d love to write a book.

In fact, you’ve been dreaming about it so much you can visualize it.

Seeing your name on the front cover of a published book.

Revelling in the fame, fortune, and fulfilment that comes from being a successful author.

But then, you dismiss it.

“What me?” you think. “Who am I to publish a book?” Or some other variation of nagging self-doubt.

But it isn’t an impossible dream.

As a blogger, you already have everything you need to become an author.

You just need to start believing it.
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Beginners/ Money

A Practical, No-Nonsense Guide to Earning Passive Income Online

Jon Morrow 71 Comments Last Updated Aug 25, 2016

It sounds so enticing, right?

Tinker around on the side, creating a few websites, and before you know it, you’re earning hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month, giving you the freedom to quit your job, travel the world, and live like a millionaire without anything tying you down.

It’s the dream lifestyle, and everywhere you turn online, someone is offering to sell you a course, showing you how to do it.

You have to wonder, though… is all this Internet stuff real, or is it just a scam?

And if it is real, why isn’t everyone doing it?

Today, I thought I would take a moment to answer those questions for you. Normally, we only talk about earning money online from a blogging perspective, but I thought it might be helpful to step back and address the topic of “passive income” in general.

The sad fact is, there’s a lot nobody tells you. I wouldn’t exactly call it a cover-up because I don’t think most “gurus” are deliberately hiding the truth about how it works, but I do think they have a vested interest in not giving you the whole story.

So, that’s what I’d like to give you. First, a few important details:
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