Make Your Content Work For You
Many small business owners, especially those with an online presence, understand the importance of writing and publishing an email newsletter, or eZine. Without fail, they write well researched, relevant content and email it out to their customers and prospects, hoping to gain sales and customers.
What these small business owners/eZine authors don’t realize is that they are leaving easy money on the table!
One of the business owners I’m working with owns a local brick-and-mortar store. It’s a hugely successful garden center. One of the reasons it is so successful, even through the economic challenges and major road construction, and still able to compete head-to-head with the Big Box stores in town, is through the quality content that is emailed weekly to subscribers. The business owner knows the power of content and the garden center’s website has a wealth of resources hidden in its archives.
Since the garden center is known as the place to go to for local plants, garden supplies and knowledge, at first glance it looks like all that weekly content is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do: establish credibility and bring people in the door.
There’s work to write, edit, and publish each article. But after the customers are at the garden center, the content is no longer working on behalf of the business owner.
It like the old adage: make your money work for you. Most people agree that it’s better to get even the tiniest fraction of interest on money in a savings account than to have the money sitting in a sock drawer, lazing around. Money earning interest, even a miniscule amount, is money that is working.
So why not treat articles the exact same way? What do you do with your articles after you send out your newsletter?
If you archive it on your website and then forget about it, it’s the same as letting your money watch bad daytime TV while hanging out in your sock drawer! Content you’ve already written can be put work for you – bringing in additional dollars from a brand-new market in eBook and printed book sales.
I’m currently working to take all the great content that has been created for the garden center’s newsletter and repackaging it into books that will be sold on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other major on-line retailers. Even though it seems like a cut-off market, written specifically for this area, the gardening tips, tricks, and techniques are relevant for other gardeners facing similar challenges. The articles are relevant, well researched, and written by a gardening expert.
The brick-and-mortar store is the local market leader, hands down. While it brings in the lion’s share of all gardening dollars locally, at some point, there are few additional local dollars to be had. By repackaging existing content into a different format, we are able to add an additional revenue stream into the business and expand the potential client base far beyond a local reach.
When the books are sold on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc, the business owners is able to earn additional dollars that aren’t related to local sales. These book sales probably won’t result in additional retail sales due to simple geography, but they will add and additional revenue stream.
The business owner has already spent the time to write and edit the articles. And it’s paid for itself in customers walking into the store. But, each week, new content has to be written and edited for that week’s newsletter. Then the customers come into the store.
Just like vitamins or exercise, it’s a never ending cycle: write the article, email it out, and get customers. Repeat weekly for consistent results.
Through a one-time publishing process, the same content can start earning passive income as books. After all, the content is already written (and paid for)! Once the book is published on Amazon, it can be sold again and again and again with no additional effort on the part of the business owner.
This is how I got started publishing my own books. For years of I wrote newsletters about outdoor recreation translated into three camping cookbooks, three books of campfire stories, and a book on trout fishing. These books continually bring me income. All I had to do was repackage the content from the articles into books and now I receive a monthly royalty payment without any additional effort on my part.
Is your content working for you? Is it bringing you revenue from the largest retail website in the world? Or is it just archived on a website or hard drive? Find that great already-written content and let it work for you!
This article was first published in “Happier Healthier Women” magazine. Get your free copy today.
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