Your 'Basic Skills' Are Actually Your Hidden Goldmine 💰️

Welcome Indie Brand Builders!

This week, we'll help you boost your social media and leverage your own skills to get seen and get sales.

Scroll to the bottom of this email for the top tools to get you noticed.

If you've joined this list from DanChadney.com - the website is now IndieBrandBuilder.com.

QUICK HITS

In today’s newsletter:

• Your 'basic skills' are actually your hidden goldmine 💰️ 

• Avoid social media overwhelm with content pillars 😅 

• Top tools to get you noticed in 2024 🔥 

Read time: 5 minutes

Your 'Basic Skills' Are Actually Your Hidden Goldmine 💰️

Turns out, what seems second nature to you could actually be your ticket to business growth. 

In the realm of knowledge and skills, common isn't so common. 

You are one-of-a-kind, and that sells.

Your everyday experiences, skills, and knowledge - often dismissed as unremarkable - can be invaluable and sought-after by others. 

Learning to leverage and monetize this so-called 'common knowledge' could be your game-changer.

While your knowledge may seem trivial to you, it can be mind-blowing to others. This phenomenon is known as "Knowledge Blindness". 👓

Monetizing your 'common knowledge' involves a few steps:

1. Make a "Brain Dump" of all the skills and knowledge you take for granted. List out every single skill that you have.

2. Research through social media platforms or online forums to see if anyone needs help with what you've listed.

3. Test the waters by producing content showcasing your expertise. Use the social media insights (how many comments, shares, saves etc.) to gauge interest.

4. Kick it up a notch by creating more detailed material such as a blog post, value-packed document or download, or mini video course. This could be your lead magnet for potential customers.

5. Point of Interest: your skill or insight doesn't have to be groundbreaking. People follow you because they like your vibe. 😎 

Your 'common knowledge' could be the foundation for a sustainable, profitable business venture.

Your skills and experiences are not too ordinary. The business world thrives on diverse knowledge - and that includes your 'common knowledge'. 

Test the waters, splash around with some content, and who knows? Your 'basic skills' could open the door to your next big idea!

P.S. Your potential goldmine is inside your head, it’s just about recognizing and digging it out. Let's break free from "Knowledge Blindness" and cultivate a prosperous mindset!

You're not just unique – you're invaluable.

Avoid Content Creator Overwhelm 😅 

Doom scrolling? Consume more than you create?

Content pillars will help you break the confusion and turn your brand's themes into well-organized, top-notch content for your audience.

What are content pillars?

Think of content pillars as your brand's superstars 😎— they represent the subjects your brand excels in. Holding your content strategy together, they're your go-to when you're facing that dreaded blank screen.

Consistently posting about specific topics can lead to massive growth and they make content planning so much easier.

Instead of rushing to create last-minute posts, you can use your content pillars to strategically structure your content calendar for the upcoming week (or month).

Each brand typically has 3–5 pillars. By refining these, you position yourself as a recognized authority in your field.

For best results, you should stick to three main categories:

1. Educate - Share valuable information that interests your audience.

2. Entertain - Share entertaining content to connect with your followers.

3. Relate - Show empathy for your audience's struggles. Be relatable and real.

Here are six content pillar examples for inspiration:

• Independent bookstore: indie book reviews, small business insights, and local coffee shops.

• Fashion content creator: minimalist style, body positivity, self-love, budgeting hacks.

• Marketing strategist: entrepreneurship, social media updates, work-life balance.

• Food brand: product round-ups, recipes, cooking tips, nutrition facts.

• Fitness creator: morning routines, at-home workouts, motivation.

• Luxury luggage brand: luxury hotels, travel tips, packing tricks, and product guides.

Content pillars revolve around not just your main product/service, but also relevant subjects where you've planted your flag of expertise.

How to Build a Content Pillar Strategy:

1. Know your audience: Identify their preferred platforms, interests, and valuable educational content.

2. Research competitors: Gain insights into industry dynamics and exploitable gaps.

3. Stay current with industry trends: Keep content relevant by following leaders, webinars, and social media tools.

4. Audit social media: Regularly review posts to gauge their impact, refining your content strategy accordingly.

Golden nugget: Your content pillars shouldn't morph into sales pitches. Doing that would wear out your audience. Soft pitch every 3 emails, hard pitch quarterly.

TOP VISIBILITY TOOLS 🔥 

This week we're looking at the best tools for visibility.

Beehiiv
Hands down the best tool for email marketing in 2023 and beyond. It's completely free up to 2,500 subscribers (which is completely unheard of in other platforms) and it's got a ton of promotional tools to massively grow your newsletter. Try it for free.

Tweet hunter
Get more results for your business and personal brand on X (Twitter) than ever before. Tweet Hunter is an all-in-one X growth tool that can help you write thought leadership tweets and grow your following. Powered by AI and automation. Try it for free.

Kajabi 
The best all-in-one marketing and digital product platform out there. If you're a soloprenuer, Kajabi is an absolute life-saver, with everything you need to run your business in one place. Try it for free.

Surfer SEO
Surfer is my go-to tool for SEO optimization. It provides data-driven insights that help me improve my website's ranking and increase traffic. It now has an exceptional AI writing tool that will write a complete keyword-optimized blog post for you from a single prompt!

Canva
Whenever I need to design stunning graphics or video, Canva is my tool of choice. (Even as an experience graphic designer!) With its user-friendly interface and a vast library of templates, I can create professional-looking designs in no time.

TRENDING TOOLS ⚙️ 

And in case you missed it last week, here are some free tools you don't want to miss:

FREE AI TOOLS:

• Perplexity.ai - AI that browses the web and provides facts (link)

• Harpa.ai - Brilliant for summarizing and rewriting what you find on the web (link)

• Claude.ai - Perfect for analyzing data, code, or writing long-form content (link)

• FounderPal.ai - Generate user personas for your target market in seconds using AI! (link)

FREE SEO TOOLS:

• Ahrefs Keywords Generator - Great for quick keyword research (link)

• RankMath - The best WordPress SEO plugin (link)

• Ahrefs backlink checker and website authority checker (link)

FREE MARKETING TOOLS:

• Hunter.io - The best tool for finding contacts (link)

• Seamless.ai - An amazing tool for outreach and lead generation (link)

• HARO - Help a reporter out is perfect for getting free mentions on major publications (link)