Something to say?
Most of us, including YOUR customers, will pay more attention if you have something interesting to say.
Still here?
Great! So far you’re probably wondering where this is going.
Let’s see if we can get you to the bottom of the article and give you some money making ideas!
Speak in your own voice
Whether you create your websites entirely from scratch and take months to do so, or you build on templates and ready-made sites, you gain a following by being authentic. But how can you be authentic with templates and done-for-you content and sites?
Let’s cover a couple of simple ways to be authentic, gain a following and make it easy.
Edit, rewrite
Take a blank piece of paper and decide what to write about – it’s tough for everyone. But if you have something in front of you it’s way easier to change it.
You’ll automatically know which parts you like and which you don’t.
So the easiest way to show your authentic voice is to edit and rewrite done-for-you content so that it “feels” more like how you’d speak.
Here’s a paragraph of content generated by SynThesis (a unique content creation tool).
While there are many options when it comes to weight loss for women, one of the most common is to use a healthy diet. Even just a small weight loss of five to ten percent of the total weight you currently weigh is going to make significant health improvements, including decreases in blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels. Even just a little weight loss, anywhere from two to three pounds, can drastically change your life. You will be able to reduce the risks associated with being overweight or obese, which include heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, gallbladder problems, osteoporosis, cancer, and obesity. Even just ten percent drop in your daily caloric intake can dramatically lower your risk of these diseases.
And here’s the same paragraph with more of “my” voice in it. Same meaning, same content, different flavor.
Hidden in the huge number of choices for losing weight, perhaps the most common for women is the “D” word – diet!
Even with 5 to 10% weight loss there can be massive health improvements. These can included better blood sugar control, healthier blood pressure and better cholesterol levels. Impressive that losing even a few pounds can have a big impact on your life.
All the risks associated with being overweight can be reduced and even a small reduction in what you eat can help with that. A 10% reduction in calories can have a beneficial outcome in the longer term. With so many possible health implications from being overweight, any positive outcome is worth a little effort.
That took me just over 2 minutes to change. The overall feeling is the same, but is more “me”. If every post on my site has my “voice” there will be no jarring. Imagine listening to your favorite singer and right in the middle of the song your most disliked singer took over for 30 seconds. How jarring would that be? The written word is no different. That’s why people have favorite authors. It’s why they have favorite marketers! It’s even why people like to be served by the same people in retail stores.
When you connect with people through your authentic “voice”, the connection is stronger. And a stronger connection leads to more revenue – they’re more likely to trust what you recommend.
Add YOUR content
Just as with Betty Crocker cakes (mentioned in our other post) you can take the done-for-you cake mix and turn it into something unique.
You can add flavorings, decorate the top with different coatings. You can split it into different size tins to make several smaller cakes.
Or you can combine two or more mixes to create a bigger cake.
In other words the starting point is the same for everyone, but the end result can be unique.
Add your own flavor and you turn done-for-you into unique to you.
How would you do that? We’ll actually show you how in a webinar a couple of weeks from now, but here’s the super simple technique.
- Read the content you have
- Create (or buy) some unique content that relates to what is already there
- On the existing done-for-you content put in-context links to your new unique post(s)
- There is no step 4!
Simple enough?
Why does this work?
As we’ve alluded, the people who will like YOUR voice are the ones who stick around and are most likely to become your customers.
They’re more likely to become YOUR fans.
You can’t please everyone – nobody can.
So it makes good sense to please the group that you already please by giving them more of what pleases them. And what ultimately pleases your site visitors is a combination of
- Interesting content
- Quality content that informs them, educates them or entertains them
- Your authentic voice – if people feel you’re not authentic they tend to look elsewhere