Top 10 Ways to Find Content Ideas Quickly

Many online entrepreneurs get stuck when it comes to writing their blog, newsletter or finding content for their pod or video casts. Here’s 10 quick ways to find content ideas!

1. Check your inbox or sent folder in your email. Your clients have no doubt emailed you questions right? Take those questions and answer them! Leave out your client’s name of course.
2. Take a look at your blog categories. Like most bloggers you probably have over 15 different categories that you have used in the past. Those are sure to spark some content ideas.
3. Ask TwitterVille! If you are on Twitter just post a question such as “What do you want to see covered on my upcoming newsletter?”. This is my favourite because you will be giving your newsletter readers what they want.
4. Ask your newsletter readers. Add a section in your newsletter called “Ask the Coach” and tell them how they can ask you a question. Answer this question in your next newsletter.
5. Go through your archives. You can always reuse and recycle content. There is no rule against it and it would make your life a little easier.
6. Ask for guest writers. Make a list of 5 people who would love to be a guest writer for your blog or newsletter. Email them now and ask for an article.
7. Take a chapter from your book. If you have written a book, take a chapter or even part of a chapter and create an article from it. Don’t forget to let your readers know where they can buy your book.
8. Review a book. You don’t have to read the whole book to review it. Review it as you read it. What did you just read about that inspired you? How did you enjoy the last chapter you read?
9. Cover hot topics, but don’t over do it. What is a hot topic in the news and in your industry? What article can you write about it? How can you cover it in your podcast? Just don’t over do it. What I mean by this is, writing about what everyone else in your industry has written
10. Interview an Expert. Who in your industry can you interview on your podcast? Rather post it on your blog? Make it easy on yourself and send them interview questions in an email and ask them to reply within the email. This way you can just copy and paste the answers into your blog.

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Add comment December 1st, 2008

Seven Facts About Me

I have just been tagged by Paul Copcutt, who is the successful personal brand coach for professionals, over at Square Peg Solution to share on my blog 7 Facts About Me that maybe viewed as weird or at least unusual and then tag 7 fellow bloggers to do the same. So here goes…

1. I know all the words of practically every song I have ever heard once. I used this skill to annoy classmates in highschool. Because of this I am often found on stage at karaoke events singing “baby got back” by Sir Mix A Lot or “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega.
2. I’ve been kissed by a kangaroo.
3. I’ve been white water rafting 7 times in 4 different countries, and riverboarding once. Riverboarding is definitely more scary and adventurous. You walk away with a number of bruises that I call “rewards”.
4. My Fiancee’s name is Sandro, and so our friends call us “Sandroa” for short. It’s kind of like “Brangelina” only we are more popular!
5. I love doing impersonations and I’ve been told my impersonation of Borat is spot on. I like!
6. As a child I used to play music videos and impersonate the singer over and over again. My favourite video to do this to was Madonna’s “Material Girl”.
7. I would rather work until 4am then get up at 8am and work.

Here are blogs I think you should check out, and their authors who I challenge to share seven things:

Leesa Barnes: Marketing Fit

Judith Morgan: Wealth Coach

Duncan Brodie: Goals and Achievements

Greg Halpen: The Gay Guy’s Love Coach

Amy Miyamoto: Living the Lotus Life

Kristen Beireis: Coaches Marketing Source

Linda Dessau: Idea Generator

for my fellow bloggers:

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.

• Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.

• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.

• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

Now that you know a little more about me perhaps you would like to follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/TechCoach @TechCoach

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3 comments November 25th, 2008

How to Easily Edit your Audio Acrobat Audio Recording

This question came in from a Twitter follower.  Follow me at http://twitter.com/techcoach

Audio Acrobat is a popular audio recording service. You can record audio through your computer, a telephone or by uploading an existing audio.

Once you have recorded an audio you may want to edit it. The step by step process is below.

First we must download the audio file from our Audio Acrobat account.

1. Log into your Audio Acrobat account. If you do not have one you can sign up.
2. Click the blue “Audio” tab.
3. Click the title of the Audio you wish to edit.
4. Click “Download Audio” in the “Description” section.
5. Save the audio to your computer.
6. Stay logged into your Audio Acrobat account and do not move from this page. You will be returning here after you edit your audio to replace the existing audio with your new audio.

Next we must edit the audio in Audacity (works on MACs and PCs).

1. Download and install Audacity. Training documentation is available.
2. Start up Audacity.
3. Go to File -> open. Locate and open the audio file you downloaded above.
4. To remove audio clips from your audio, select/highlight the audio and click the scissor icon on the toolbar.  You can use the zoom functionality in the view menu, to get more precise when editing. (For more instructions see the training documentation on how to edit the audio files.)
5. When your audio is complete go to File -> Export as MP3, and save the new mp3 file on your computer.

Next we must upload the file back to Audio Acrobat and publish it.

1. Go back to Audio Acrobat (see step 6 above).
2. Click the “Replace Audio” tab.
3. Scroll down to “By Uploading Audio Files” and click “Upload Audio Files”.
4. Upload your new audio by clicking the “browse” button.
5. Enter the title of your Audio.
6. Enter a description (optional).
7. Select the Streaming Speed. I always choose “Encode for slow broadband users” because not everyone has high speed internet access.
8. Click “Upload File”.
9. Audio Acrobat will now upload and encode your file. This could take a few minutes to 15 minutes depending on the size of your file. You can watch the progress on the “Account” -> “Media jobs” page.
10. When your audio file is ready it will appear in “Audio” -> “Show Audios”.
11. Click the title of the audio.
12. Click “Publish Audio” and choose your publishing preferences.
13. Copy and paste the publishing link or html to your site or email.

That was a long one! If you have questions you can always ask on the Help Desk Forum.

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Add comment November 11th, 2008

Tweet and Send News at the Same Time!

My favourite Newsletter system, Aweber, has introduced a fabulous new feature that will allow you to re-publish your newsletter on to Twitter automatically.

This means each time you publish your newsletter you can publish it onto your Twitter feed as well. Your Twitter followers would be notified and a link is provided for them to view your newsletter (saved on Aweber). This is a fantastic way to get more leverage out of your newsletters and put your newsletters in front of your Twitter followers (in case they aren’t already newsletter subscribers).

So how do you set this up? It’s simple. Each time you set up your newsletter click “syndicate” then enter your Twitter id and password. Once your newsletter is published a message on your Twitter page appears.

Example: Latest Newsletter Issue 32 http://aweber.com/b/f2RG

For more information visit Aweber’s blog post about this new feature: http://www.aweber.com/blog/new-features/twitter-email-newsletters.htm

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Add comment October 24th, 2008

How many tweets should I have?

Last week I wrote a post called “What is Twitter and Why do I want to Tweet?“. This week, I’ve got a little tip for you. I have always suggested that you buy the website of your name ie. www.MarySmith.com. Why? Because you want to get your hands on it before someone with your same name grabs it.  You never know what they will do with it once they have it and it could potentially be damaging to your brand and your company.  Seriously, I’ve heard a few bad stories.

Now with Twitter you get your own page on www.twitter.com, such as www.twitter.com/techcoach, where you can find me on Twitter. So you can imagine how quick companys such as CNN, www.twitter.com/cnn, Yahoo, www.twitter.com/yahoo and WordPress, www.twitter.com/WordPress moved quickly to get their Twitter accounts and pages.  In fact, if you take a look at www.twitter.com/iPod you’ll find that this account is for sale!

So, if you haven’t signed up for your Twitter account yet, get on it…it’s free!

Register the following user accounts on Twitter to cover yourself and your business:

• your full name
• your business name
• your book name
• your other websites addresses (I’ve registered www.twitter.com/wpblogsites where I will be promoting my book)
• any trademark names you have
• your children’s names…why not!?

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1 comment September 23rd, 2008

What is Twitter and Why do I want to Tweet?

Twitter is a micro-blogging and social networking service that allows you to post your updates (known as “tweets”) and read other’s updates.

Say that again? Twitter allows you to post mini blog postings (no more than 140 characters) that describes what you are up to. The limit of 140 characters keeps you from telling a huge story and keeps you focused on writing the details only. So you may say something like “Reading the latest Seth Godin book”, “Adding blog posts to my blogsite www.wordpressblogsites.com” or “Getting ready for my appearance on Oprah.”

Why would you want to tweet? Well there are a number of reasons, here are just a few:

• Attract new fans who are twitterites.
• Allow your fans to see what it is you are up to and keep them posted on your new services (yes you can market your products and services on Twitter).
• Google picks up Twitter posts in a matter of minutes and places them in their list! (Hello! You want to be on Google right?!)
• Connect with other Twitters by “following” them (sounds creepy but it just means that their updates will appear on your Twitter page so you can keep up with them).
• You can reply to other Twitters’ posts or ask your own questions and get other’s responses.

Your homework:

• Register for a Twitter account if you don’t have one already www.Twitter.com
• Start adding people to your “Following” list by searching or going to their profile and clicking “follow”. You can “follow” me at http://www.twitter.com/techcoach
• Stay tuned for more Twitter tips!!

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Add comment September 16th, 2008

What would September 11th 2001 been like with today’s technology?

It’s hard to forget what happened on this day 7 years ago.  We will forever remember what we were doing the moment we found out about the attacks on the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

I had slept in that day and heard on my clock radio that a plane had hit a tower in NYC. I quickly ran to the television to see what had happened.  I thought a small 1-4 person plane had hit the tower and thought “How did the pilot hit the tower? Do you not see it? Were they drunk?”  I wouldn’t have imagined that this was an attack, done on purpose with a big passenger plane.  That was not the way we thought pervious to 9/11.

I made my way to work on public transit and before heading into work I stopped to pick up a bagel and coffee at a shop attached to my subway stop. As I walked into the shop I noticed it was oddly filled with people with their jaw dropped and facing the 2 tiny televisions on the wall. That’s when I heard the reporter say “…and when the second plane hit…”, that’s when I knew this was a planned attack and this was not going to be a normal day.

When I got into work (no one noticed that I was REALLY late), I was bombared with requests for mobile numbers of my co-workers who were in the U.S. on business.  I got on the phone to call them.  When I finally got through they had no clue what was going on as they were in their hotel rooms preparing for their sales meeting.  I told them “You should really call your wives and let them know you are ok”, and they responded “yeah, sure, we will call them later.” They really didn’t get how big this was.

I got off the phone with them and called my older sister who was living in California at the time with her husband and my Mother who was visiting.  I was the first to tell them what was going on and they thought I was joking! “No seriously, turn on CNN!  You will see the video footage of it all”.

I then tried to find more information on the attacks to answer the 1000+ questions in my head.  What was really going on?  Who did this? Have any other cities been attacked? Are they really flying in people into Toronto hospitals? Is there really an average of 50,000 people in the World Trade Centre at a time? Will my Mother be able to fly home next week?

As you probably remember cnn.com was down.  Why? Because their website couldn’t handle the millions of people who were logging on to get onto the site to learn more. I was lucky to get one radio station online but soon enough I couldn’t connect because too many people were also trying to connect to them!  Like many others I tried to find another radio station that would let me connect and would help answer my questions. I had no luck. The next day I brought my old radio into work.  Just in case something like this happened again I could be informed with my low-tech radio.

So how would September 11th 2001, been different if we had today’s technology?

Twitter.com – Updates on the attack could have been posted on Twitter by news stations and by anyone else who had access to a television that day.

FaceBook.com – FaceBook could have been used to let family members and friends know you were ok through your Facebook “status”.  Facebook groups would have been flooded with discussions about the attacks and news updates.

Text Messaging – Although we had the ability to text message back then, North Americans didn’t text message as often as they do today.  Most of us didn’t even know how to send a text message! Text messages could have been used to update your friends and family of your status and make alternate arrangements home from work, if need be.

Blackberries www.rim.com – The Blackberry network (although around back then but not widely used) would have been a quick way to send loved ones texts, emails, instant messages and it would have been used to browse the web for updates.

Mobile TV phones – Yes they exist! You could have used your tv phone to view the news on your favourite station.

Blogs - A smart tech savvy person could have set up a blog within seconds and posted updates on the blog.  They could have also offered a service for loved ones looking for their family members.

YouTube.com - YouTube would have been FILLED with new home videos and news clippings of the events of the day.  YouTube would have also been bombared with visitors curious to see these videos.

The above assumes that all networks do have the capacity for millions of visitors/users today. I for one hope we never have to find out.

What other technology do you think would have changed how we went about our day on September 11th 2001? Feel free to submit your comment.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who were victimized by the attacks.

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Add comment September 11th, 2008

Follow us on Twitter

Curious about what I’m upto and what I’m working on? Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/techcoach or get the latest updates by checking the right hand side of our website www.techcoachforcoaches.com

Twitter is a free service that allows you to send mini-blogs/updates (a.k.a. micro-blogging).  Why is it called “micro-blogging”?  Twitter allows you to use upto 160 characters on each of your “updates”.  These updates are displayed on your dedicated twitter page (http://twitter.com/[your_twitter_username]) and can be displayed on your blogsite (WordPress plugin) and facebook profile.

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Add comment July 29th, 2008