by: AskPat 769 Episode Transcript
Pat Flynn: What's up, everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to Episode 769, AKA the last episode of 2016. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Here we go. Final question of the year, from Jeremy.
Jeremy: Hey, Pat. My name's Jeremy Deegen and this is actually the second time that I've called in to the show. The first time I called in, I had a general question for you, and this time I want to know something a little more actionable. However, I have another reason for calling in, and that's because a little while back I actually tweeted you and let you know that my wife loves the quality and style of the AskPat t-shirt so much that she has confiscated it from me and won't let me wear it. So, I'm hoping maybe if I get another question on the show, I can have my own AskPat t-shirt.
I've created a new website called Course.pub. That's www dot course dot P-U-B for publishing. Basically, on this site, I want to create a blog, a podcast, a video channel, and give out information on how other people can create their own online courses. I've been creating my own courses for over a year, now, and I love the process, I love education, I love helping others. So I want to take all that recent experience that I've learned and start putting out that content for others and helping others out.
However, as a new blogger, I recently heard another podcast of yours talking about a content audit for your blog, which is basically taking old or outdated information, or low quality information from your blog, and removing it so that you can actually up the quality of your website. But as a new blogger, I would like to know, is there any tips or tricks or anything that you can tell me to help me out, mitigate the content audit in the future, so that I am immediately producing the best quality.
One thing I have in mind is maybe instead of trying to just produce every day or every other day, just to get information out, maybe I produce one every week or two weeks, and really spend time crafting that article and providing the best quality and content. However, I just wanted to hear your opinion on what you thought, and any tips or tricks that you can give me as a new blogger, just so that I can start producing the best content and quality right off the bat.
Thank you so much for everything you do. We as a community love you. We love your shows and really appreciate all your hard work that you put into providing us with your great quality and content. I hope to meet you one day in the future or, hopefully, be a success story on your show. Take care, and thank you so much.
Pat Flynn: Hey, Jeremy. Thank you so much for the question. I'm sorry, but not surprised, that your wife confiscated the AskPat shirt, because the quality is definitely awesome. Hopefully, we can get you one as well. You'll hear from my assistant, Jessica, in the next couple weeks, or maybe a month or so, and we'll send you that other shirt so you guys can be a matching pair.
Now, can you produce great content to avoid needing to do a content audit down the line? Yes, you can. However, I wouldn't approach it that way. Anything you do for the first time, you will want to know that, later, you can go down and revise it and make it better, right? Just like when you're writing a book. This is what Tresidder talked about in episode 200, which is the one you were referencing, SmartPassiveIncome.com/session200, about content audits.
He talked about how he deleted a third of his content, and it increased his traffic by threefold. It tripled his traffic. It's because, when you start a blog, it's going to be one thing, and you're going to approach it one way, you're going to try and find your voice, things are going to work out, some things are not going to work out. Then, over time, you're going to find your rhythm, you're going to find your position. You're going to get your voice going and everything's going to be great, and you're going to begin to understand exactly who you're serving, what it is that you do, the products that you are going to promote, all those kinds of things.
When you go back into time, a year later, two years later, you're going to see that some of those older posts that you wrote were fantastic, and you're going to keep them there, as you should. But some of those posts are going to be irrelevant or just not useful anymore. Like when you write a book, your first draft, that's essentially what you're doing as a blogger. You're always posting your first draft, right? So, to go back into time and clean it out a little bit and make it better and more fine-tuned and refined, that's a smart thing to do.
Don't be sad if you find that you have to do that, Jeremy, down the road. But I like the approach of wanting to make what you create valuable content, and talk about and write about the things that you should be writing about. That's good. But don't consider yourself a failure if you have to do a content audit down the line, or you may have to do some redirects or deleting of content down the road. That's totally okay, and that's what you should be doing anyway, even if you go with the approach of wanting to create as much value as you can and write the things that you should, which, obviously, you're going to do anyway.
In order to get the best content out there, you want to know exactly what questions to answer. There's no better and more simple way to say it. Understand exactly the topics and the ideas and the questions and the problems and the pains and the needs that your target audience has, and address those. You can get a lot of inspiration from a number of different places, for example, forums or existing blogs, FAQs on blogs. Those are different places where you can go to understand, even without actually having a conversation with somebody, what types of content you should be writing about, what people are going to be most interested in.
Google is another place you go to to find exactly what people are searching for. Forums is a place that I would highly recommend. Find forums by typing in “forums:” and then your keywords related to your topic to find where people are, in your target audience, who are already talking about this particular topic, who are probably there, they're there right now and actually asking questions and looking for answers. Or they're there and you can see the most popular threads to see what topics are of most interest. That'll give you a good idea, too.
But, I was kind of hinting at this earlier, there's no better way to know how to help people than to actually have real conversations with them. So, Jeremy, if possible, get on a Skype call or start talking to somebody via direct message on some social media platform if you have access to them, to be able to actually discuss what their problems are and their pains are, and the kinds of things you should be addressing.
So that's how I would go and approach it, and that way you won't have to worry about being too far off when you start. But, again, like I said earlier, don't worry if you have to go back and actually make changes or delete things over time, because over time, that's what it's going to take to find exactly where your groove and your rhythm is. Give it time, and give it a good swing, and you'll hit it out of the park.
So, Jeremy, thank you so much for the question, the final question of the year, here. Like I said, we'll get you an email at some point in the near future so we can give you that AskPat shirt that you deserve, and you can be a matching pair with your wife.
Thank you all so much for your support this year. I appreciate you. If you have a moment to finish off the year, if you want to do me a quick favor. I know a lot of you listen to the show, and I don't ever expect anything in return, but I do want to ask you if you do find it in your heart, and you have a few moments, literally, just a minute. Head on over to iTunes and leave a review for AskPat to finish off the year. I'd really appreciate it. It's severely under-reviewed compared to my other show, and so if you have a moment, that'd be fantastic.
Again, thank you so much for all of you who have supported the show. It's not stopping anytime soon. I'm really excited for the lineup for next year, including episode 1,000, which we're going to do something special with. I don't know what, but my team and I will figure it out. Yeah, so celebrate the new year, and crush it. That's all I can say. Stay safe, stay happy, stay healthy, and here's a quote to finish off the day, from the same person who left us the quote yesterday.
This is one of my favorite quotes from Walt Disney, and that is, “A man should never neglect his family for business.” Very relevant for me, helps me keep my goals in mind, because my family's number one. You guys are number two, and number three, just keep pushing it, guys. Thank you, take care, and I'll see you next year. Bye.