Content Marketing Chronicle

Now that we’ve all agreed that “Content is King (Again),” maybe it is time to think about some easy-to-follow tenets. 

#1. Follow a 70/30 Rule – 70% of content curated, 30% branded

#2. All content should be Shareworthy

#3. All content should benefit SEO

#4. All content should be digestible

#5. Content should be channel optimized

#6. Earned Media (MSM or fan-generated) is the best media

#7. Paid Promotion

Original Article - http://bit.ly/Kjs0EX ;

How to remove the WordPress post date stamp from Google serps.

Just about every WordPress blog theme displays the date a post was published which can be useful to your readers, if the date isn’t relevant to your posts however it can be disruptive to the appearance of your content is Google’s SERPS.

By using javascript instead of php code ( as is standard in WordPress themes ), the date/time will be shown in the exact same fashion as your current theme, but Google will ignore that piece of information and not show the date stamp before your meta description in the SERPS.

Here’s how you make the change.

On most WordPress themes the 3 files you will need to update is your index.php to update your homepage, single.php to update your individual posts and archive.php to update your archives if you index them. More files may need updating depending on your theme. As always if your not 100% sure what you’re doing back-up your theme before making any changes.

Head into the appropriate file and find the php code which inserts the date with each post, it will look something like this: http://bit.ly/GGvnrb ;

By Andrew Keir - http://bit.ly/GGvzH7 ;

Hard to believe. But 95% of all marketers are now curating third-party content.

Content curation, the practice of finding and sharing online content, is now being used by almost all marketers, according to a survey by Curata (formerly HiveFire).

Of 400 firms surveyed, 95% had curated content in the last six months. And 100% of the non-curators had, in fact, shared articles or blog posts with prospects in the same period.

Of the active curators, 45% share content daily, 33% weekly and 21% monthly. Agencies are more active than non-agencies.

Why go to the trouble of pushing third-party content?

The main reason is thought leadership—that answer was given by 85%, compared with 79% last year. Next are branding (80%) and SEO (65%).

But it’s not easy. Companies struggle to find the time to do it and create original content. And there was an 8% increase in the percentage having trouble finding high-quality content.

The main content marketing challenges:

** Having the time to do it—75%
** Creating original content—73%
** Finding high-quality content—56%
** Allocating staff to do it—39%
** Difficulty measuring results—36%
** Understanding how it fits into overall marketing strategy—19%
** Securing senior-level buy-in—15%