Tips Tuesday – Content Inventory, Google Cookies, Cloudflare Tutorials
Tips this week include:
- Why now is a good time to do a content inventory
- Evergreen content may still be seasonal
- How your metrics can tell you what’s seasonal
- New digital download creation course in the works
- It’s time to update to WP 6.6.1
- Cloudflare tutorials have been updated
- Webmaster survey for new services to offer and support
- Google says they won’t deprecate 3rd party cookies after all
- How your site traffic is holding you back
- Why to be a big fish in a smaller pond
- Sell emotions, not products
BlogAid Happenings
Here we are in the last few days of July.
And that means it’s time to start gearing up for the posts and products that will take us through the end of the year.
As online entrepreneurs, we have to stay ahead of the seasonal changes. And that means getting things out there in the 2-3 months before the next season goes into full swing.
And that means we have to start planning for what we’re going to put out there at least 3-4 months in advance.
Content Inventory
How’s your content planning going?
Do you already have content that you will be reusing for the upcoming seasons?
Do you have gaps in your content?
Are you paying attention to the latest trends and changes in what’s hot?
Perhaps now is a great time to take an inventory of your content and how it’s doing.
Here are a few things to help you with that.
- WP All Export – it’s super easy to get a full list of all your posts and sort them by category. See my tutorial on how to use WP All Export to download them into a spreadsheet.
- Content Silo – there is a FAR better way to group your seasonal posts beyond just using categories. Create a Content Silo of them where you can place them in the order that gets your top posts the most attention, and/or takes your site visitors on the journey that gets them deeper into your content. It’s also fantastic for your SEO too. See how to create a Content Silo in the DIY SEO course.
- EZ Metrix – to do effective content marketing you HAVE to know what’s working and what’s not. You also need to know about hot trends. That’s where checking GA4, Search Console, and YouTube analytics comes in. And the EZ Metrix reports makes that a fast and fun thing to do. You can see exactly what got attention last year and what needs a little help or a revamp. And you can get all manner of keyword ideas too.
Evergreen Content is Still Seasonal
You’d think something like my DIY SEO course would be immune from seasonal fluctuations.
It’s not.
I have to consider when folks in that course have time to consume the tutorials/workshops as well as having time to make the changes to their content and create new content.
That’s specifically why I run the live workshops starting in January and finish them by the end of spring.
Those are the seasons when my course members have the most time to devote to their SEO because the holidays are over and kids are in school.
And they have everything in order by the end of summer so that they are fully ready for the push to the end of the year, which is their busiest time.
So, even if you think your content is not seasonal, think about when folks are most interested in consuming it.
The Truth is In the Data
Watching your metrics can help you see those seasonal engagement trends too.
And when you do see a big swing up or down in your metrics, especially on specific platforms, the cause is not always an algorithm change on that platform.
Sometimes world events can affect viewership. Or maybe it’s when folks are on vacation or busy getting kids ready to come out of school or go back in.
Watching year over year metrics and considering what’s going on in the lives of your viewers will help you apply some discernment to what you’re seeing in the charts and graphs too.
It’s super easy to set the EZ Metrics reports for a full year and see the trend change from the same time last year. In fact, there are Delta percent changes all over the reports for overall trends and on specific posts.
There’s no calculating anything. The up and down arrows and numbers are right there on each page of the report.
Digital Download Creation Courses
Creating your own products can seem intimidating, and learning the best way to sell them can feel overwhelming.
That’s why I’m creating new courses for the eCreators Hub to help you do both.
Right now I’m working on the first of the Digital Downloads mini courses, which will be on PDFs.
I’m starting with how to create them in Google Drive.
I know a lot of folks like Canva for doing this, and I’ll have a mini course on that too.
But some folks find Canva overwhelming. And some folks don’t want to pay for the Pro version just to create things now and then.
Plus, Canva has been pretty vague about which of their assets you can include in paid products.
I’m finding that Google Drive can do an excellent job of creating all kinds of digital downloads that you can deliver as a PDF.
I’ll have some snazzy examples for you to see soon too.
WordPress Tips
Update to WP 6.6.1
I believe it is safe for most everyone to update to WP 6.6.1 as they got the big bugs worked out in this minor release.
I sent special update instructions to my site audit Hub members and Webmaster Training members last week with the proper order to do things and what to check.
Webmaster Tips
Updated Cloudflare Tutorials
Cloudflare made a slew of changes and feature additions over the course of a couple of weeks.
All of the Cloudflare tutorials in the Webmaster Training course have been updated, including the full tour of all settings.
And there is a new tutorial for how to set up a manager role so that you can get access to your client’s Cloudflare account and any tokens or such will be sent to you.
That’s going to be super helpful for folks who offer site maintenance packages.
Webmaster Survey
I sent a survey to my webmasters to ask what services they are offering now and what training and support help they need.
The fact is, most of us have changed what we offer quite a lot since we first started helping folks with their sites, like all of the new done-for-you services that I’m offering on both BlogAid and eCreators Hub.
That’s because the tech has changed so much, and so fast.
Plus, there are so many integrations for 3rd-party platforms available that we need to stay on top of which ones are the best and which ones will cause headaches.
So, this survey will allow me to better understand the challenges that webmasters face now and help support them better too.
Monetization Tips
Google Won’t Deprecate 3rd-Party Cookies
Google has done nothing but lie to us and string us along for the last 5 years over 3rd-party cookies.
Every major browser except Chrome has gotten super serious about privacy, including the removal of 3rd party cookies.
Honestly, I think Google has just been trying to delay the lawsuits while they test and try to figure out how to make money without 3rd-party cookies.
The answer is, they can’t.
I want you to read the last 2 paragraphs in this news post about Google and 3rd-party cookies.
They are 100% dedicated to this crappy Sandbox fix, which has never worked and never will.
It’s also creating an unsustainable problem for small publishers.
On top of it, now the only tracking metrics we can get are from Chrome users. Some of my clients have huge Safari user audiences.
Here’s the other fact I know.
Google is not incentivized to display links from small, independent publishers anymore.
And searchers who once turned to Google for those voices and perspectives and tutorials are now looking elsewhere.
We, as those small publishers, need to ensure we are showing up where they are looking.
Go where the eyeballs are.
How Your Site Traffic is Holding You Back
If you count on ad revenue, then the only way you can make money is to get folks to visit your site.
If you have revenue from a product or video, then it makes no difference whether folks visit your site or not.
I can make direct sales on:
- YouTube
- TikTok
- Newsletter
I don’t need folks to read a blog post as my only means of making money. And I don’t have to hope they find a product or affiliate link in that post.
I can send folks directly to my money makers – even if that is just watching a YouTube or TikTok video.
Think about how many more opportunities you could have to make money if you didn’t have to care whether folks clicked over to a blog post.
Big Fish in A Smaller Pond
And there are other ways to get paid for writing blog posts.
Have you ever considered making posts exclusively for Medium or Substack?
It’s a great way to get paid for creating content.
It’s also a LOT smaller pond to compete in compared to competing with the whole world on Google search or such.
Consider all of the folks who jumped into Pinterest. They made bank.
You might be able to do the same on these blogging sites – and get paid directly for writing it.
But, you will need to create exclusive content, meaning that it can’t be freely available on your blog too.
Well, okay. Do a spin off on your existing content. And ensure it is different enough to qualify as unique.
Sell Emotions, Not Products
This Tik Tok is one of THE best examples of what companies sell.
Think of this while you’re creating your next landing page or optin.
