Here are five more ways to generate ideas and content:

1. Add a page to your web site where visitors can submit questions. You could title it "What is your most pressing question about [insert your topic of expertise here]. Make sure page is visible and accessible from all of your web pages. Consider promoting this service throughout your web site to drive people to that page to submit a question.

2. Purchase domain name "askYOURNAME.com" (where "YOURNAME" is your first and last name) and publicize it as a service and great place for consumers to get their most pressing questions, in your subject area, answered. Registering domains is cheap, and you can always point it to a page in your existing web site if you don't want to pay additional web hosting fees.

3. Include an email address, or web page address, in your e-newsletter or any other form of regular communication, inviting your prospects and clients to submit their questions. Odds are if one prospect or client has a question, there are many others who also have same question.

4. If you do presentations or seminars already, hand out a survey at end to find out what attendees liked best about your presentation (it's always a good idea to get feedback anyway), and to find out if there are other relevant areas they would like to see you speak on, or if they have questions they'd like answered.

5. Keep your eyes open and your customers in mind when you read trade publications, magazines or newspapers. If you come across something you think would be of interest to your prospects and customers, share it. Is something going on in news that is relevant to your product or service? Write about it.

In addition to using this information to drive newsletter or presentation content, you can also use it to develop articles and content for your website, or to write Special Reports, Tips Sheets, or How-To Guides you can sell or use for marketing to your prospects and customers.

(C) Copyright 2005 Debbie LaChusa, 10stepmarketing

(2) By turning your competitors into “co-opitors.”

What heck is a “co-opitor?” It is a competitor that you turn into a partner or a cooperator. Are there businesses or individuals with whom you could partner, with idea of referring business to each other?

For example, a wellness coach could partner with a weight watchers clinic or a health club or a massage therapist. All of these practitioners are selling improved health and well being, but they can also be positioned as complementary services.

Or, let’s say you are a web site designer and you decide to focus primarily on working with small businesses (a market niche). You could create a partnership with another web site designer who has decided to focus on large corporations.

If you both agree to only take on business that fits your identified niche, and to refer business outside your niche to partner, you both win.

You can partner with other businesses in your exact business in this manner, by identifying niches, by geographic area served, or by size or type of clients served.

And you can partner with businesses in different categories that fill a similar customer need by agreeing to work together to help each other get customers.

There is not a business out there that cannot effectively use one of these two strategies to significantly reduce their competition. So figure out which strategy fits your business best, and make it a priority to eliminate your competition this year.

(c) Copyright 2005 Debbie LaChusa, 10stepmarketing