Content creation and has entered the era of the expert. I now think that those who are passionate and knowledgeable about a particular subject matter can, and should, have a go online to try generate some additional income. Using that knowledge base and passion it's possible to create a ton of good stuff for content marketing which can help provide a nice supplemental income, or who knows, maybe a whole lot more. This post is about content marketing 101 and if you'd like to get yourself going online, or even if you're already active online, I hope the following will help you think tangentially about content marketing.

Content Marketing 101 - The Era of the Expert

What I'm going to give you now is an outline on how to brain storm for ideas for content creation, a way to try get you to think tangentially about your content marketing. For each of the points below I'm going to pick a random profession/hobby/passion off the top off my head and give you an idea of how to implement each of the below ideas. You ready? Buckle up.

1) Content Marketing - Think Like a Teacher

How would you teach somebody something? Dissect your niche and see what problems people might have within in. For example, if you're running an online fishing business, how could you teach people to add the lure perfectly to the line? or, what is the best way to maximise the distance of the cast on a new rod?

Create content around things that you can show people how to do. When you drill down into your niche you'll find lots of different things that you can teach to people - create bite size "lessons" and you'll be creating useful content in jig time. Not only that but "lessons" and "how to" type content lend themselves very nicely to multiple content formats like slide presentations, video and blog posts - and you know that's the good stuff.

any avid philatelist could even make stamps sexy!

2) Content Marketing - Be an Aggregator

Collate and aggregate facts, stats, data, info about your niche or what's happening in your market. Say for example you're passionate about stamps, a real philatelist. You could collate the most recent releases of stamps and categorise by country, year, price etc. Each blog post could talk about a specific genre of stamps. You could also look at historical facts about say the evolution of the stamp, or why a certain set of stamps has the print and details that it has. With some nifty infographic work any avid philatelist could even make stamps sexy!

Think about what you're passionate about, or what you're an expert in - what dates, numbers, stats, local history or events come to your head when you first think about your area of expertise? Then, from each starting date or stat try pull in other stats related to that main stat. This content creation idea can yield a rich supply of expert status enforcing content - show the world what you got!

3) Content Marketing - Get Topical

Where possible try ride on the coat tails of a hot topic in your industry or area of expertise. This can supply you with a steady steam of related content creation ideas as there is always a new hot topic. Say for example you're a hardcore horticulturist - big changes in weather that affects plant growth could be something you could talk about to try attract local readers. Also, if there are outbreaks of blight or some large scale pest problem you can talk about how to try solve any of those problems. Perhaps you've been able to grow something that is particularly unusual to grow in your region (like the watermelons my father grew in the photo). Whenever there are gala gardening shows in your area get there to take photos to report about it - again a great way to target local readers, heck, you could even bring a blog business card with you. Whatever your niche is there are always topcial events or trends you can use as a source to create content.

4) Content Marketing - Slice Up Your Services

This is a great way to create content and also promote what you do. Analyse all of the products or services you offer and see how you can talk about the minute details of each one. Each slice of your service or product range could form the basis for a blog post or some content.

Say for example you're an interior decorator. So, one way to slice up this service to create content might be to do special blog posts like "The Last 7 Lamps I Had To Get" which would contain pictures and a bit of info about each of the last 7 lamps you bought whilst doing interior decorating for some previous clients. Services which lend themselves to lots of photo opportunities can create content around the photos, again using the interior decorator idea, an infographic of a completed room could contain pop out images of the individual items purchased with info about why it was chosen so that people might learn a thing or two about interior decorating. Then, you can add a cherry on top to this content creation idea by getting in touch with the producers of the products you've highlighted in your infographic - they could be happy to share it on.

5) Content Marketing - Brand Yourself

In this era of the expert you are your brand and so you have to create content about brand you! What are your past experiences that make you an expert in your given area? Why are you so passionate about it? How do you see the future of your niche progressing or changing? Any tales from the past of an interesting scenario or thing that relates to your niche. Break down the things you've done in the past so you can craft short story style posts about your heroics.

Say for example you were a WordPress web designer (cough) you could talk about past achievements or successes (cough, again) and provide info about how you did them. In the era of the expert it's all about brand you so make sure your content marketing strategy includes some posts about you.

Content Marketing 101 - The Era of the Expert

And there you have it, content marketing 101 for the era of the expert - five tips that will hopefully help you look at what you do and how you can use your knowledge or expertise to create content. Mix up some of the ideas from the previous five points to get creative with your content marketing and think tangentially.

If you have some other tips please leave a comment below with them as I want to hear them. Sharing this post is free today, so if you're read as far as here you might as well press one of those buttons on the left and/or join the mailing list below!

Also, if you'd like me to come up with some content marketing ideas for you just comment below, let me know your area of expertise or passion and I'll see what I can do!

This post is by Robert Ryan from http://robertryan.ie.