How I create Everlasting Gobstopper content
In this blog:
In the last year, I’ve developed a new type of content that has skyrocketed traffic to my websites, increased display ad revenue, and boosted my affiliate earnings.
Just this month, I’m thrilled to share with you that I made my first $1,000 month from my niche websites. New referrals appear on my analytics dashboard every day.
One of my new websites (just over three months old) is growing steadily and on track to double my monthly website income in the next eight months:
I credit the vast majority of my growth to niche selection, keyword selection, and content writing. What’s this new type of content I’m creating?
I call it Everlasting Gobstopper content.
You could also say it’s ‘evergreen content on steroids’.
What is evergreen content?
Evergreen content is any piece of online content that does not ever lose its value.
Evergreen content usually has no expiration date and can provide information that will always be relevant to your readers, even years after you share it publicly.
As Tom Fishburne once said:
“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.”
Evergreen content targets the real needs and interests of your ideal audience, so it has the best chance of ranking in search engines and is most likely to convert visitors into subscribers or buyers.
Why evergreen content is so important for content creators
Since evergreen content is so relevant, it’s more likely to be shared organically among your audience, thus generating even more exposure for your brand.
Evergreen content brings you massive traffic year after year, increasing your revenue through display advertising, affiliate marketing, and product (or service) sales.
Essentially, evergreen content is a passive money-making funnel for your business.
One of my favourite quotes that inspire my content marketing is, ironically, an analogy about dating:
“Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does.”
Evergreen content is a form of advertising. It’s content marketing.
Additionally, evergreen hashtags are very popular since they extend your reach. Using evergreen hashtags on social media is an excellent way to get popular on social media and help you get discovered by more people.
You can find evergreen hashtags on most platforms by searching for hashtags related to your niche, then checking for popularity and longevity.
What is Everlasting Gobstopper content? (And why it’s so much better than evergreen)
I borrowed the term ‘Everlasting Gobstopper’ from the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. In the movie, five children find golden tickets to tour the factory.
During the tour, Willy Wonka shows the children candy called ‘Everlasting Gobstoppers’ — a candy that never loses its flavour.
The evergreen content concept is similar.
Once evergreen content starts to generate traffic, it keeps bringing traffic for years. Everlasting Gobstopper content is evergreen content that keeps giving value over and over again.
What separates it from evergreen content is that Everlasting Gobstopper content brings your audience (readers, viewers, consumers) back to consume your same content over and over again.
Essentially, Everlasting Gobstopper content creates repeat consumers.
This type of content can come in various formats: podcast episodes, video series, blog posts, or books.
Examples of Everlasting Gobstopper content
Some of the most popular articles on my websites bring the same users back two, three, four, or more times to consume the same content.
Some of these articles are in-depth tutorials with lots of specific step-by-step advice.
For example, one of my most popular articles teaches readers how to prepare for a roleplaying game. I never thought it would bring me so much traffic each month!
On other platforms, readers regularly tell me that they bookmarked or saved my content so that they can come back to it, again and again.
One concrete example of Everlasting Gobstopper Content is an extensive query letter database created by Carissa Taylor. I have returned to this database more than 50 times over the years.
Why?
Because the database offers so much value to someone as obsessed as I am about writing query letters (cover letters for books aspiring authors want published by big publishing houses).
Lots of other websites offer samples of successful query letters that landed book deals. What sets Carissa’s database apart is that it consolidates hundreds of successful query letters across genres.
It’s a gold mine of valuable information.
How to create Everlasting Gobstopper content (step-by-step)
I create Everlasting Gobstopper content by following a three-step system:
Doing original research
Providing massive value
Creating a highly detailed resource
This system allows me to create Everlasting Gobstopper content throughout the year and focus on quality instead of quantity.
I can use this system for my YouTube videos, blog posts, and even my books.
Do original research
My first step is to conduct original research, which usually means getting personal experience with the topic (if I don’t have it already).
Then, I dive deep into information about the subject. I read scientific journals, watch videos, read blog posts, study books, and talk to experts. I want to fill my brain with so much good information that it overflows onto the page (or screen).
My goal is always to go beyond the normal information that anyone could find in a five-minute Google search.
The best Everlasting Gobstopper content usually takes hours and hours of focused, deep research.
Provide massive value
My second step is to provide massive value. After my research, I know more about this topic than most people do.
Now, I give away all of the best information for free. I don’t hold back. My Everlasting Gobstopper content has to be more valuable than anything else out there related to this subject.
It needs to give immediate value, continuously provide value over time, and then replicate that value into additional Everlasting Gobstopper content.
Create a highly detailed resource
My Everlasting Gobstopper content does not stop giving once it’s published. I want this content to become the best free resource related to this topic.
That’s why I develop a highly detailed resource — what some content creators call a “hub” of information. A piece of content that is so incredibly informative that people naturally come back to it every time they have a related question.
Examples of “hubs”:
A free online tool like Google Analytics, Google Trends, or Title Case Converter
A comprehensive database of information (like this in-process firearms database by Income School)
This massive list of free tools on the web.
My recommended tools list on my writing website
Final thoughts
When you create Everlasting Gobstopper content, you boost your traffic, expand your audience, attract backlinks, demonstrate authority, and make more money.
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