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Content Connect

Ashley R. Cummings

Subscribe now to grow your content marketing and writing muscles! Each week, you'll get an expert interview from a leading content marketer (free consulting—yay!), quick & actionable writing tips, and content marketing trends you may have missed delivered straight to your inbox. It's an easy decision—join 7000 other content marketers now!

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Featured Post

If you like money, listen up!

Hello Reader! If you like money, listen up! Today, I hand the mic over to my friend and freelance + marketing expert, Austin L. Church. He's here to tell you about his new book for freelancers. This is a book that every freelancer needs to read, IMO. Take it away, Austin... Freelance pricing can be A LOT! Do you quote what you think you can get or take the advice of 831 self-proclaimed freelance experts on LinkedIn/Twitter/Myspace and charge more? Okay, how much more? I published a book...

4 days ago • 3 min read

Hello Reader! Today's newsletter is brought to you by Magical. This FREE Chrome extension has been saving me 10+ HOURS every week on: Client management Intro emails Outreach (email & social) Cold pitching I talk about 3 ways I use Magical in the short video below. Get Magical (It's FREE) Google DRAMA Did you read this yet? 👀 😲 Expert Interview | Rachael Ede 1/ Introduce yourself and tell me how you got started with content marketing. My name's Rachael Ede. I've always loved reading and...

11 days ago • 2 min read

Hello Reader! Content evangelists are preaching right now. The message? Thou shalt bring new info, original data, personal narrative, and subject matter expertise into your content or get left behind. John Bonini says content with "no OG thinking, no OG research, and no community" is failing (more here). Bernard Huang brilliantly urges content marketers to turn from traditional SEO and embrace "ranch-style SEO" (more here). Brooklin Nash dives deep into how to create good interview-lead...

18 days ago • 5 min read

Hello Reader! Everyone loves a good underdog story. David slayed Goliath. Rudy proved his haters wrong. Rulon Gardner shocked the Olympic Wrestling world by defeating Aleksandr Karelin and winning a Gold Medal for the USA. What if I told you you could be part of another underdog story? The Webby Awards recognize some of the internet's best ads. My husband's new agency, Group Project, has been nominated for two People's Choice Awards! (Yay! I'm so proud!) They make killer ads that move the...

20 days ago • 1 min read

Hello Reader! Hot take? 2019-early 2023 were the organic content glory days. The content of "The Great Resignation" was 🔥! Before 2019, organic content was...fine. Did the job. Post-2023, organic content has been...all over the place. So, why were "the content glory days so rad?" A couple of reasons: 1️⃣ A shift in style: Organic content got a glow-up. It maintained the traditional formatting internet-content needs and we still saw stories focused on data-driven insights, but writers also...

26 days ago • 6 min read

Hello Reader! Quick PSA: As you can see in the section above, I’m testing out ads in my emails. With some light advertising, I can cover some of the costs associated with running this newsletter. Yay! Thank you! Ashley R. Cummings MP3 | Marketing Over Wine Podcast I had a great interview on the Marketing Over Wine podcast. We chatted about: How to be in the top 5% of content writers in the face of AI Why I moved into SaaS marketing How to balance work and parenting Seltzer water (what I was...

about 1 month ago • 4 min read

Hello Reader! What's #1 thing that will skyrocket your content strategy to the top? (Especially in light of Google's update). Personal narrative + subject matter expertise. Here are 5 ways to level up. #1. First-person experience in your blog posts. Audiences are eating your personal stories up for breakfast. Consequently, so is Google. Tell your personal story. Review a product. Talk about wins, losses, gains, OG data. I came across an article from Elna Cain that does this well. What to...

about 2 months ago • 5 min read

Hello Reader! Did you know Google will tell you exactly how to write content that will rank? Like exactly. You can use their guidelines to create your strategy, craft your briefs, and inform your content. Here's the formula for success + tips from Google itself. 1. Focus on people-first content. Step one is to 100% know your audience. Who are you writing to? What do they care about? What are their pain points? What/Who influences them? THIS IS STEP 1 OF ANY CONTENT STRATEGY or WRITING...

about 2 months ago • 4 min read

Hello! I have one quick question for this newsletter: If you had more free time how would you spend it? Hit "reply" and let me know. Thank you, Ashley R. Cummings Sponsor | Stacked Marketer Stacked Marketer is BY and LARGE my favorite marketing newsletter. If you're not subscribed, get on their list now. Subscribe here with 1-click. Subscribe to Stacked Marketer Expert Interview | Sharon Wu 1/ Tell me more about yourself and how you got started with your career. Hi! I’m Sharon Wu, a...

2 months ago • 3 min read

Hello, Content Connectors (do we like this? Is this corny?)! I've been more frustrated this past year than ever in my 14-year content career. Why? Misuse of AI at one particular stage of the content creation process: the content brief. I received a handful of briefs in 2023 (and one already this year) with AI-generated directions that haven't been written or reviewed by the client. Now, I'm all about using AI to supplement this process. It's a fantastic idea! AI is a great way to ideate and...

3 months ago • 4 min read
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