Is The Year of the Mashup

You listen to music, right? So you've probably heard a medley before. Or you've heard songs that use "samples" of other songs to create new and interesting music. Or maybe you've even heard Mel Torme sing "Mack the Knife" to the tune of "New York, New York.

" If so, you've got the basic idea of the mashup - a different way of getting your knowledge, passion, and expertise out to the world. According to Wikipedia, a mashup can be: * "a musical genre of songs that consist entirely of parts of other songs" (a famous example featured music from The Beatles' White Album combined with the vocal track from rapper Jay-Z's Black Album) * "a website or web application that combines content from more than one source" (i.e. combining real estate listings with maps from Google Earth) * "a video that is edited from more than one source to appear as one" (like that commercial with Gene Kelly dancing with the vacuum) And it's starting to appear in the marketing content world as well.

Here are three prominent examples of traditional marketing vehicles mashed up to create new and unique methods for sharing your knowledge with your ideal audience. 1. PRESS RELEASES AND ARTICLES.

Press releases are the foundation of generating publicity for your business, product or service. But why write a press release when an article would serve the same purpose? Here's one example. A landscaper we know told us there are things we can do to prepare our lawn for a lush green summer - in January. Really?! During snow season? Apparently so. Now, imagine he writes an article with the top five things you can do to prep your lawn for summer.

And at the end, he writes, "For more lawn prep tips, visit my website at ." Now, the media's way more likely to run that article, compared to a garden-variety press release. 2.

BLOGS AND WEBSITES. Yup, you may not need a traditional website anymore. With WordPress, you can use their "Pages" functionality to create the same types of webpages you'd find on a basic business website - "Products," "Services," "About," "Contact," and more.

For the solo professional with a tight, tight budget, the "blog-as-website" option is especially appealing. But even if you have a traditional website already, adding a blog gives you a leg up over the competition, as Lani recently wrote in an impassioned rant for the "Blog Bits" category at www.A-HaBlog.com. 3.

EZINES AND AUDIO. We're not quite hip to "podcasting" yet, but we do know folks like Kendall SummerHawk, who does her weekly "Marketing Wisdom" article via HTML email and in Audio Acrobat streaming audio. Her audience gets to experience her the way they want to! So what kinds of content delivery vehicles can YOU mash up to "A-Ha Yourself!" in fun and profitable ways?.

(c) 2006 Epiphanies, Inc. As the "Content Lovers" of Epiphanies Inc., Lani & Allen Voivod help budding entrepreneurs and small biz dynamos "A-Ha Themselves" in fun and profitable ways. For FREE articles, tips, and strategies, sign up for their "Inciter" ezine at www.EpiphaniesInc.com !