Welcome to: How to Make Money as a Content Creator, the course that covers everything you need to start earning money online doing what you love. I’m James Caran, content creator at WayAway and Travelpayouts.
Have you ever wondered how people come up with interesting ideas and engaging topics for their online content? If you have, you’re in luck! We have 4 awesome lessons in this Module. We’ll be sharing our insider tips about: tools to use, terms to know, and much more to help guide you through your content creation journey. So, if you have some time – join me for our “How to Create Engaging Content” module.
Welcome! I see you’re ready to learn all about how to get started in the world of great online content! In this lesson, we’ll cover 3 tips on how to come up with content ideas that really engage your target audience.
With all of the content floating around the internet nowadays, it can be kind of overwhelming for creators who want to dive right in but don’t know where to start! But don’t worry – we’ll walk you through it step-by-step! Let’s jump in with our 1st tip for generating great content ideas for your online business!
Do some keyword research. Let’s be honest, creating content that no one will see is a big waste of time. That’s where keyword research comes in handy! It allows you to understand which words and phrases people use when searching for answers to their problems or questions! Keyword research gives you an idea about what content to create based on the terms your audience is using. The web offers a lot of tools to discover these terms like Moz, SEMrush, AnswerThePublic and more! Some of these tools have free options that will become your best friend during this phase in your content creation journey.
Tools like Google Trends, can go far to help you understand when certain keywords are trending and how to use that to your advantage! It provides statistics that can help you gauge the best time to create content on a certain topic. For example: if you want to create something about backpacking tours, you can easily see when people are most interested in the topic – publish and share your content then! We’ll link to Google Trends and other tools for keyword research in the resources section.
Keyword research also helps you understand the reason behind a user’s search: we call this “user search intent”. Studying the words someone uses when they search for something will tell you a lot about their wants and needs. Which usually helps you come up with ideas to help solve pain points!
There are 4 types of search intent you should note:
For example, when someone searches for: What are the affordable travel destinations in 2022? Chances are, they’re expecting information – they won’t be ready to pull out their credit card and make any purchases right away. That user would probably click on a post titled: The Top 10 most affordable travel destinations in 2022.
Navigational intent is when someone types a direct brand name into search, for example: Booking.com or, say, Travelpayouts. This user is looking to be directed to a specific brand’s website, and this will be the first option listed under the search term.
Next, if your audience is using words in their search, like “Best hotels,” along with a specific destination in mind. This signals they are weighing some options, but aren’t ready to buy yet. This is called Commercial intent. Create something like: Best hotels in Portland – Rated and Reviewed.
Now, if someone searches using such words as: book or deals, this signals that they’re in the final stage of their booking journey. They are searching with transactional Intent: ready to make a purchase! Create something to satisfy their need, like: Best Tours New York City: Don’t Sleep on These Deals!
A quick note here. Targeting transactional keywords is a great way to drive affiliate conversions. We’ll tell you more about how to do affiliate marketing in Module 4 of the course. To learn more about search intent and keyword research, check out our resources listed in the description below.
Now, onto our second tip – Keep an eye on your competitors! There’s a good chance that your competitors are doing something right! A quick way to find the type of content your competitors are making is to type a keyword you want to target into Google and see what shows up on the first page! Look through those articles and see where your ideas fit into place. What could you do better? How could you get yourself to show up in the search results before them?
We created a list of the top content creators in the travel niche to help you get started. It’s in the resources section, along with an article on how to do competitor research. We want to make it as easy as possible for you, so be sure to check it out after the lesson!
Finally, build relationships with your audience! Connecting with your customers is a great way to get content ideas and gain attention! The beauty of the internet is that there are plenty of places for you to join conversations, start discussions, and share insights while learning about customers’ needs.
Some great places for this are social media, Quora, Reddit, or other niche-related forums.
There you have it! Our 3 tips for getting ideas on the type of content that will engage your audience! To recap, those tips are:
In the next lesson, we’ll explain how to keep the customer travel journey in mind when creating content … don’t miss it! Have 5 more minutes? Learn about creating content in the travel niche!
