by Cara Lumen
Like laying any good foundation is important in any business endeavor. You identify your target audience, define your products and services, and make a myriad of decisions about what you are going to offer.
Cornerstone Content serves your blog in the same way. Writing a series of foundational posts will help you clarify what you are going to write about in your blog, what you need the people you serve to understand first. Just as you would do when teaching a course, you orient your readers to the focus of your blog. You set your ideas out in a form you can refer back to in future posts.
What is my Cornerstone Content?
What is the core information you need your clients or customers to know about your product or services? What do they need to know in order to make an informed decision? Write a series – yes, a series – of posts that elaborate on each core point. For instance, my cornerstone series for Passionately On Purpose is about Build an Online Business. It starts with Should Your Start Your Own Internet Business and moves on into how to develop one in Build your Online Business on What You Already Know . I have even added a page titled Business Building Ideas and I have put links to articles in several categories including creative and personal development.
For the Magnetic Blog Builders I’m working on a different set: To Blog or not to Blog, that is the Question, How a Thesis Theme for WordPress can set you free,
Scribe is a Built In SEO Optimizer that Effortlessly Uplevels Your Game!
I learned this concept of Cornerstone Content (sometimes called Pillar Content) from Brian Clark His cornerstone content begins with a Copywriting 101 series. In fact, he has a whole series of cornerstone topics including Content Marketing 101 Start thinking in terms of a series that covers detailed aspects of a larger picture. What ideas are you getting for your cornerstone content?
Glen, very successful a 20-year old who built a $1,000,000 web site in 12 months has a page on his www.viperchill.com blog that is simply called “Base” that lists his cornerstone content
How Do I Use My Cornerstone Content?
You link back to your cornerstone content in future posts. It becomes the way for you to make a point in a post and link back to a another post that goes into greater detail on the topic or puts it in a greater perspective if the reader wants to explore that point further. Internal links help your SEO ranking but better still, they keep your reader reading. From now on, when I mention the concept of Cornerstone Posts I will link back to this article. Internal links add to your SEO. What better way than to link back to the core concepts in your Cornerstone Content.
Cornerstone Content Clarifies
Writing your cornerstone content anchors your blog. It clarifies your purpose, and will give you ideas for many more posts as you explore and expand on each topic. Think beginner’s mind here. What do you want them to know and in what order? Put that in your cornerstone content.
In my cornerstone content I first addressed the question whether the reader even wanted to have an online business./ I can write more posts about the entrepreneurial spirit and our characteristics and refer back to that post. I can write about decision making, and building your business from the inside out and being flexible in your business. But deciding whether you want and are suited for starting your own online business is the first step. Therefore, it is the first post in my cornerstone content. See how this works?
It’s Never Too Late to Write Your Cornerstone Content
I wrote my cornerstone content after my blog was up. I had written all sorts of post and of course they are in categories on my blog. But when I wrote my Cornerstone Content (and I’m still adding to it) I created the separate Business Building Ideas page to hold it and added links to some of my other guidance-giving posts. I may create a series of cornerstone posts off of my original posts. For instance, I will write one major one on how information products add to your income and expert status. And then I will write separate posts on ebooks, radio shows, telecourses and what they do for your business and link back to that cornerstone piece.
Cornerstone copy anchors your reader to your topic. It helps clarify your vision and keep your reader reading. Start blogging with your cornerstone content.
