If you’re like me, you’ve probably read article after article offering different tips, tricks, and secrets involved with finding success in the world of marketing.

If you haven’t, allow me to bring you up to speed:

There are a ton of marketing plans, programs, courses, and eBooks for those interested in learning about marketing their business online … most of which are available for a pretty penny.

My point is simple - forget all of that for now. While there are definitely reputable programs and books from authoritative voice in the industry, there’s also a very simply starting point all business owners need to consider when first looking into marketing their brand, product, service, or company online.

Content

Reaching out and marketing to the people online is a little different than marketing to those offline (assuming you’re interested in inexpensive and free marketing); effective online marketing revolves around providing value to consumers while offline marketing is more about repetition and exposure.

The best way to provide value to your targeted consumers is to write or record original content in the form of blog post, pod-cast, or video.

The most common form of valuable content is the blog post - or article, if you’d like.

Once you’ve decided to create a blog and write posts regularly, you’re ready for the next challenge:

Creating content people want to read

With millions of blogs and over a trillion pages indexed in Google (as of 2008), it’s obvious that the challenge bloggers and web publishers now face is more than merely creating content for content’s sake, but rather, creating content people want to read.

So how do bloggers do this?

Compelling topic

The first step to writing your valuable content is to identify what people are after, which usually involves a solution or answer, and create an compelling play on the topic.

You see it all the time on Twitter - “Twitter can lead to health problems …” and “Social media may leave you unemployed…” are just two examples.

In this case, this content would be valuable to people after news, blogging content, and social commentary.

Attractive copy

The next step is creating the content - one thing you need to keep in mind is how attractive your content looks. Chances are the better it looks, the easier it is to read.

To achieve this, consider making use of <H> tags, bold font, and color - just as I’m doing here with this post.

Creating what’s called “scannable” content that delivers value is what it’s all about. People are in more of a hurry to get what they want or need and move on than every before, so its crucial you provide that type of resource when positioning yourself as a dependable, longterm resource provider.

Call to action

The last step involves telling your readers exactly what you want them to do, whether that includes subscribing to your site’s feed, sharing the content across an array of social sites, or commenting.

People want to be told what to do to a certain degree. Enabling them to share the content with their friends or network or comment is empowering.

When calling your readers to buy your product or service, you might want to consider leaving a small banner below the post of all your content as a way of practicing the traditional marketing technique - repetition.

For more on all of this, check out these 3 easy steps to creating valuable content for consumers.

Overall, the key to creating content is creating quality content people want to read.

You might also like these posts:

• Three Ways to Effectively Brand Your MLM Business Online
• Casual Friday Meets Follow Friday
• How Business Owners Can Take Advantage of Social Media
• TARP Extended - But How Will It Be Different This Time Around?
• 5 Easy Ways to Increase Business during the Economic Recession in 2009