Read the full post: http://www.jimmydaly.com/big-wins/ Content marketing is a lot like investing. To be successful, you need to focus on long-term goals and get the fundamentals right. Here are three "big wins" you should nail from day one if you want to maximize the growth of your site.

1. Big Wins for
Content Marketing
Or, Unsexy Strategies for Long-Term
Growth
Presented by:
@jimmy_daly

2. Want to retire young?
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3. Want to retire young?
(Of course you do.)
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4. There are
two important rules
you must follow:
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5. Wait.
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6. Wait.
Do you prefer to read this
as a blog post instead?
Yes! I like blog posts.

7. “The biggest mistake is not learning
the habits of saving properly early.
It's pretty easy to get well-to-do
slowly.”
Warren Buffett
Billionaire investor
2nd richest man in the world
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8. Let’s go through the
two rules individually.
Don’t worry — This really is about
content marketing.
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9. Rule 1:
Start investing early.
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10. Let’s look at a
hypothetical example.
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11. Source: Business Insider

12. By starting 10 years earlier,
Emily ends up with 2x more
than Dave.
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13. By starting 10 years earlier,
Emily ends up with 2x more
than Dave.
That’s a big deal.
Start investing early.
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14. Rule 2:
Focus on big wins.
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15. Don’t waste time with small
tasks that generate
little results.
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16. “If you had to choose between using
your limited willpower to cut back on
something you love that costs $2 a
day and learning to negotiate a
$10,000 salary increase, which
would you rather do?”
Ramit Sethi
Entrepreneur
Author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich
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17. Together, these rules make
up …
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The Big Win Principle

18. So let’s apply this to
content marketing.
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19. Want to read
the rest of this
SlideShare as a
full blog post?
Yes! Let’s do that instead.

20. There are three big wins
you can use to maximize
the growth of your site …
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21. These are not shortcuts
or growth hacks. They’re
fundamentals that could
bring in thousands or
millions more readers
over the lifetime of your
site.
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22. Big Win #1:
Define a Target Audience
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23. Skip this and you risk years
of writing for
no one.
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24. “The target market is not the total market.
The target market is the tip of the spear.
That is what you use at the front lines to
win the battle that allows you to win the
war. And you win the war when your
target demographic expands to include a
lot of other people.”
Tim Ferris
Entrepreneur
Author of 4-Hour Work Week
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25. In other words,
going deep first makes it
easier to go wide later.
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26. Peers
Co-workers
Clients
Bosses
Employers
Yourself
You must not write for:
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27. You must write for
your readers.
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28. Write for your
1,000 True Fans.
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29. “This small circle of diehard fans, which can
provide you with a living, is surrounded by
concentric circles of Lesser Fans. These folks
will not purchase everything you do, and may
not seek out direct contact, but they will buy
much of what you produce. The processes you
develop to feed your True Fans will also nurture
Lesser Fans.”
Kevin Kelly
Entrepreneur
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30. Start here
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31. Go deep first.
Identify a narrow demographic.
Write for them exclusively.
Earn trust, and deliver consistently.
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32. Go wide later.
Let your fans spread the word.
Branch out only when you’ve proven
yourself to your target audience.
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33. Big Win #2:
Create a Real
Keyword Strategy
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34. “More often than not, a website is a
disjointed array of unrelated
information with no clear central
theme.”
Bruce Clay
Super smart SEO dude
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35. 300 target keywords
=
zero target keywords
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36. Targeting more than two or
three keywords is useless
unless you have a team of
writers.
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37. Choose a handful of
keywords and focus on
them intensely.
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38. Case Study:
Brian Dean of Backlinko
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39. Brian Dean …
• Ranks alongside Wikipedia and
Google for SEO-related content
• Gets more than 100K visitors/month,
but has written only 21 posts for
Backlinko.
• Is intensely focused on just a few
keywords (but ranks for hundreds of
long-tail variations).
@Jimmy_Daly

40. He does this by himself.
@Jimmy_Daly

41. His secret?
Silos.
@Jimmy_Daly

42. Not this kind.

43. This kind.

44. Read more about silos
Bruce Clay has a great blog
post explaining the concept
of silos in SEO.

45. Big Win #3:
Commit to a Realistic
Publishing Schedule
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46. Sticking to a publishing
schedule will be a force
multiplier.
It’s a constraint that will
push you to become a
better writer.
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47. “The basic principle of force multiplication is
to find and use factors that increase the
effective power that you have (or reduce that
of your opponents). Using force multipliers
has an even greater effect, such that a well-
multiplied small force can successfully take
on a
much larger force.”
David Straker
Persuasion and Influence Expert
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48. “The schedule is my constraint. I have to get
something out every Monday and Thursday.
This forces me to be creative and to do the
one thing that good writers do: write. I don’t
always hit the mark, but I have stuck with
this schedule for two years and I’ve
written over 200,000 words.”
James Clear
Entrepreneur
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49. Source: James Clear

50. Choose a frequency that is
sustainable, even if it
means starting slowly.
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51. Grand takeaway:
Don’t wait until you can do a huge
website redesign, SEO turnover, or
content audit.
Start early. Take small steps now,
and reap the rewards sooner.
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52. Summary
1.Define a target audience. Go
deep, then wide.
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53. Summary
1.Define a target audience. Go
deep, then wide.
2.Create a real keyword strategy.
Focus on a handful of great
keywords.
www.jimmydaly.com

54. Summary
1.Define a target audience. Go
deep, then wide.
2.Create a real keyword strategy.
Focus on a handful of great
keywords.
3.Commit to a realistic publishing
schedule.
www.jimmydaly.com

55. Get the
full blog post