As an entrepreneur, you invest in producing great content.

After hitting ‘publish,’ what happens?

How much of your budget goes to promoting or distributing that content?

Today, we will go philosophical:

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? – George Berkeley

If no one discovered your content, did it exist?

If fewer people discovered your content, why would you move on to create more (instead of promoting your existing work)?

Mmmm… Makes sense, right?

3 Stories: How to Distribute Blog Posts

You invest in content marketing.

You invest in creating content for your blog, social media accounts, and maybe your mailing list.

Who finds them, though?

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” – George Berkeley

If you produced content and no one is around to consume it… did you actually produce content?

The beauty of web content is scale.

Produce a video once and have it played back a million times.

Write a blog post once and all your website’s visitors can read it over and over again.

That’s why we love the Internet. It comes with scale.

Now, what’s the point of preparing for scalability if you never make use of it?

Today, we are talking about blog post distribution…

So we can actually maximize the best traits of web content.

Stay alert! You will get 3 actionable tips in the end.

Hello! I’m @AllanCaeg of NorthStories.io

We will dive into it as we go through these 3 hot stories around the web !

How to Overcome the Content Distribution Hurdle: Lessons from Someone Who Had No Idea What They Were Doing

Your Content, Everywhere: The 17 Best Tools to Get Your Content Its Largest Audience

16 Ways to Skyrocket Your Blog Traffic Through Content Distribution

Story #1: How to Overcome the Content Distribution Hurdle: Lessons from Someone Who Had No Idea What They Were Doing

Love these insights from Shannon Byrne!

She started off with sharing how they produced great content…

But they fell on non-existent ears

For sure, if our stuff is great, folks can decide to share them.

Imagine this though: you’re competing for your audience’s attention.

Much of what they consume were actively promoted by the authors.

There’s equally great content out there… but they’re the ones that reach the audience because of active promotion.

She outlines other great points:

Research distribution channels BEFORE producing your content

Don’t spam forums as they will flag you

Reach out and build relationships

Share your content multiple times

So much gold.

What I’d like to take away from this piece is the mindset.

Pay special attention to distribution and be aggressive about it.

Your 5-Minute Tip: review your content distribution budget

How much time and money did you spend on promoting your blog posts, videos, infographics, and other types of content?

Now, compare that with what it took to produce the content.

If you’re spending any bit more time producing content vs. promoting it, you might want to review your budgets.

Again:

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” – George Berkeley

Story #2: Your Content, Everywhere: The 17 Best Tools to Get Your Content Its Largest Audience

Love these time-tested tips by Kevan Lee of Buffer!

He listed tons of tools but one thing stood out to me.

They categorized distribution channels as

Owned

Earned

Paid

Owned media includes your own blog and social media accounts.

Earned media includes other people’s retweets and media coverage.

Paid media would exposure acquired through dolla dolla bills.

You want to distribute your content EVERYWHERE.

Your 5-Minute Tip: list your owned, earned, and paid channels

Just create an inventory of what’s at your disposal.

You could easily be losing out on high-ROI channels.

For example, you could be too busy paying for ads, yet you have a mailing list that is not being utilized.

With an inventory of all your distribution channels, you will be in the position to divide your efforts, allocate budget, and understand ROI between different channels.

Story #3: 16 Ways to Skyrocket Your Blog Traffic Through Content Distribution

Yet another great piece from Neil Patel.

Here, he suggests smart content promotion opportunities:

Repurpose your post in an infographic or a short video post

Hustle to get on BuzzFeed

Hangout on Quora

Turn your article into a podcast

Submit on niche content submission communities

Your 5-Minute Tip: list high-impact distribution channels

Neil’s list of 16 ways to promote your blog post includes some very smart and specific tips.

It takes tons of investment to hustle your way into BuzzFeed or to be a trusted Quora member.

You do not just want to spray and pray.

After identifying the owned, earned, and paid distribution opportunities…

See which of them are smarter bets for your time investment.

Alright! There you have it!

Let’s do a recap of the 5-minute tips!

review your content distribution budget

list your owned, earned, and paid channels

list high-impact distribution channels

Choose 1 that you will practice today!

Pledge your commitment! Tweet it to me: @AllanCaeg

See you again here next week!