“So, stick a fork in it. Guest blogging is done, it’s gotten too spammy.”

Every marketer with an internet collection gasped when Matt Cutts, Google’s head webspam fighter, published these words on his personal blog a little over a week ago. For decades, guest blogging’s been the backbone of many brilliant brands’ outreach strategies, and often with remarkable results. Case studies have reported remarkable results, including 400% jumps in subscribers from landing a single post on a high-authority site:

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There are few shortcuts to great SEO in the post-Panda update era. While quality content, and a powerful social media strategy are key to earning higher organic search rankings, your website can’t gain authority overnight. Or can it?

Guest blogging is a remarkable tool for earning backlinks to your company’s website, a component that Google and other major search engines use heavily to determine the rank of your content. Not fully convinced that a high search ranking matters?

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A lot of us try to succeed in online and content marketing. Yet not all of us do.

Meet Marcus Sheridan. He succeeded.

I interviewed Marcus and asked him to share his advice and expertise with us. Over a period of 4 years he managed to increase his online marketing efficiency 15 times over for his company, River Pools & Spas.

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Building a small business content strategy is hard work, but it’s probably about to get much harder.

Many subject matter experts believe that our current state of content overload is just the calm before the storm. As Doug Kessler of Velocity Partners spectates, “the rush to content marketing in every industry will make it harder and harder for your brand to rise above the noise.” If your entire strategy to date has relied on doing what you competitors already did, a few weeks later, it’s definitely time to pause and reset.

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You know that inbound marketing is the hot new trend and that attracting customers with compelling content really works.

The problem is creating and distributing all that content.

Knowing what works and actually making it work for you are separated by a vast chasm, and the bridge that connects the two is a plan. Creating a content marketing strategy that incorporates customer research, quality content, and methodical distribution is key to successful inbound marketing.

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Experienced content marketers have been hailing the expert interview as one of the best sources of content since the Internet was born, and with good reason. Interviews with experts help you get better information than you might have been able to get otherwise, vary the content you produce for more engagement, and lift the burden of creating tons of content on your own.

If you’re using content to attract and engage your prospects and customers, expert interviews can take your content marketing to the next level.

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So you’ve finally generated some great interview ideas for your company’s content marketing strategy. Now what?

First you need to find an expert or two to interview. Then you’ll nail down the details, the technical stuff, and the interview itself. Use these interviewing tips to help you prepare and record interviews your customers will love to hear and share.

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Outsourcing content is a bit of a secret among marketers. In an age where many of the industry thought leaders have risen to prominence through their blogs, no one wants to admit they’ve utilized a ghostwriter. However, recent studies from Content Marketing Institute indicate that all the cool enterprising kids are doing it.

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Case studies can be powerful promotion tools, thanks to the many ways they can help your business. But figuring out how to write a case study, interview questions to ask, and the best ways to use your case history can be tricky. Like other aspects of your content marketing, case histories seem overwhelming.

With a little guidance and inspiration, they’re a piece of cake.

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For entrepreneurs and small business owners, content marketing can seem out of reach. Although proven to be an effective way to attract prospects, generate leads, and retain customers, content marketing appears to require more time and money than you have to invest in it.

Enter micro-content and the following content marketing tips for small businesses.

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