Wouldn’t it be great if you could actually write less, and get more out of the content you already have? It’s not impossible. In fact, it’s pretty easy.

You can use what you already have to gain more exposure and tap into some of the biggest platforms online as a traffic source…without much extra work.

The world is full of terrible advice. I’d love to say the marketing world is different. But in reality, it’s probably one of the worst offenders.

When I talk to people who want to use content as a part of their marketing mix, one particular piece of advice seems to always pop up: write more.

That sounds like sound advice at first. But in a vacuum, it’s actually pretty terrible.

Just writing, without a plan, without an end goal in mind, is unlikely to lead to anything good.

Content creation does not equal content marketing.  <– Tweet This

One particular case really stands out in my mind.

I spoke to someone who wanted to start a blog-based business. She received advice from someone who told her she should write more, and Tweet out her posts.

The worst part is that this advice came from someone who is in social media for a profession – someone who you would think might be a good person to take advice from.

But simply writing more won’t make readers magically appear. It just leads to more work without more results.

I, on the other hand, would prefer the less work with more results .

Note: I’m not saying that you shouldn’t write more. I’m saying that just writing more won’t necessarily lead to any better results. In fact, it might just leave you frustrated. You need more than content…

The Missing Piece 

One of the key things that a lot of people miss in content marketing is the “marketing” part.

A key piece in content marketing is marketing your content! <– Tweet This

Content can drive sales. But in order for that to happen you need people to find it. You need people to see it. You need people to act on it.

That’s why I created my first course; Strategic Content Launch Pad. It’s packed with different methods to promote your content (and the nuances to do it right).

And that’s why I do other marketing experiments and share them with you. Like my SlideShare marketing experiment, for example.

Stretch Your Content Further 

One of the very best ways to stretch your content as far as it can go, and squeeze the most out of it, is to simply repurpose it.

You don’t create anything “new” per se, but it allows you to gain more exposure by tapping into platforms that already have a large user base.

That is why my SlideShare experiment worked so well. A couple minutes, some copy-and-paste, and I was off to the races.

It worked like gangbusters because I was able to tap into two major traffic sources.

Google loves big platforms, so it indexed the document and ranked it fairly highly. And on top of that, I was also able to tap into the traffic within the platform itself.

This simple little copy-and-paste document is receiving over 1,000 views per month. Not bad for a few minutes of work.

What I didn’t mention in my experiment post was that the document had an embedded affiliate link which has been bringing in passive sales.

Of course, this could have just as easily been a link to my own product or service page.

Less effort, more results. Just the way I like it.

But there’s a reason it worked, and you have to get it right…

Maximize Your Exposure

I was able to get this kind of exposure I did for that document because I did one thing right: optimization.

Optimization, in this case, refers to optimizing the content itself and optimizing the actual upload of the document. There are little nuances to the steps you take when you share documents on different platforms that can make a huge difference.

It takes a bit of tinkering and experimenting to figure out how to get these right. It took me a while, but when I did, the results were quite exciting (to say the least).

So I decided to share my knowledge and created a content optimization guide for those of you who don’t want to spend your time experimenting, so that you can get the most out of your content as well.

Click here to get it now.

It covers on-page optimization for your written content (blog posts, articles, etc.), optimization for document sites (such as SlideShare), and optimization for video sharing (read: YouTube).

Whether you decide to invest in the guide or not, remember this…

Content can be an incredible asset if you use it right, and incorporate the marketing bit. Most people aren’t getting as much out of their content as they can.

Are you one of those people? You don’t have to be. Because now you know. And knowing is half the battle .