25 Ways to Create Contagious Content [Infographic]

Content is the foundation for blogs and websites. It is what makes your readers and viewers come back for more.

The range and type of content that is available on a social web is extensive and includes multimedia such as videos, images and infographics and of course plain old simple text.

Content can achieve different objectives including

1. Educating (How To’s)

2. Informing (News)

3. Entertaining (eg. Funny Videos)

4. Inspiring (Provide motivation)

The challenge is to come up with the ideas and the content that people find valuable and want to share. This is something that all writers and bloggers struggle with. I have tried all sorts of content on this blog and sometimes I am surprised with what works and what doesn’t.

25 Content Creation Tips

Here are some ideas to help you create content that I have often applied myself. Don’t be afraid to try different ideas. The learning is in the action of “doing”.

1. Curation

Compile a list of 10 favourite blog posts from other blogs.

2. Brainstorming

Ask your friends and colleagues for ideas.

3. Ask your Readers

Don’t be afraid to ask your readers for ideas. You could even run a survey on Facebook.

4. Interview someone

I have often taken my video camera and interviewed someone that I believe my readers will find inspiring. One of those interviews was Greg Savage from Firebrand Talent.

5.  Ask for Guest Authors

I have been doing this over the last 12 months and it allows other experts and passionate bloggers to share their ideas which keeps your blog content fresh. eg Top 5 Mobile Apps for Online Marketers

6. Create Best Case Studies

One very successful article I did using this idea was an article I did on Coca Cola  5 Lessons from Coca Cola’s New Content Marketing Strategy 

7. Worst Case Study Articles

I have often found that providing a great example of how not to do something drives more traffic than a positive story.

8. Review a Product or App

People love to hear about the latest products or apps. One of the most successful articles on this blog used this  approach. “10 Must Have WordPress Plugins Of 2012 Every Blogger Should Know About”

9. Share Success Stories

People like to hear what has worked for you. Example “How To Get 53,000 Twitter Followers: My Story”. It doesn’t have to be complex but a simple success that worked for you.

10. Share Failures

These can be stories about what hasn’t worked for you or someone else.

11. Revitalise Old Articles

This could be a compilation of  your 5 best articles on a particular topic.

12. Use Name Recognition from Movies

This involves mashing together two unrelated subjects into one post eg “What Batman can Teach you about Blogging”

Find more ideas in this Infographic from a favourite blog of mine that I read regularly – Copyblogger.

I have also included some other ideas below this infographic.

Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

23. Compile the latest Statistics about your Industry

People like to hear about the latest facts and figures. This can be done in a variety of ways including Infographics. Example: 48 Significant Social Media Facts, Figures and Statistics Plus 7 Infographics 

24. Create a Blog post from a Powerpoint Presentation

This something that I do regularly and it achieves two objectives. Drives traffic to the presentation on slideshare and creates more blog content. eg “Winning with the Fantastic Four of Digital Marketing”

25. Turn your Article into a YouTube Video

Take a blog post that provides tips and make it into a short YouTube Video.

How About You?

How do you come up with ideas for creating content? Do you prefer video or text asa a blogger? What has worked for you?

Look forward to hearing your stories.

More Reading

• 5 Lessons from Coca Cola’s New Content Marketing Strategy
• 10 Reasons Why “Liquid” Content Should be Included in Your Social Media Marketing
• What are 10 Addictive Types of Content?
• How to Increase Your Blog Traffic by 55% with One Button
• 5 Motivations for Sharing Content
• 20 Ideas for Social Media Content that Engages
• Is it Better to Share on Google+, Facebook or Twitter
• 9 Questions to Ask your Customers When Creating Content

Image by Sterin