In one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Capt. Picard finds himself on a planet with an alien species who speaks entirely in metaphor. Each time the alien wants to say something, he references specific stories from his own history and culture. Epic stories. As Capt. Picard begins to understand this foreign method of communication, he shares with the alien a story from his own culture, The Epic Poem of Gilgamesh.
This epic was originally five different Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh, a King of Uruk, who was tormenting his subjects. The Gods sent Enkido, a warrior, to fight and defeat him, but he failed. Gilgamesh and Enkido fought, but Gilgamesh was victorious. But in their fight and struggle, they became friends. Together they fought other foes, but Enkido was eventually killed.
After losing his friend, Gilgamesh goes on a quest to find the secret of eternal life. He eventually finds that “Life, which you look for, you will never find. For when the gods created man, they let death be his share, and life withheld in their own hands”. Yet, despite being doomed to die like all men, Gilgamesh ultimately did achieve a measure of immortality through his fame.
The Epic of Gilgamesh was discovered by Hormuzd Rassam in the library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh in 1853, and the earliest sources date back to circa 2100 B.C.. In this version, the poem begins with, “He who saw the deep” — Gilgamesh was given knowledge of how to worship the gods, why death was ordained for human beings, what makes a good king, and how to live a good life.
Now that is some epic content!
While it’s unlikely that the content we write for our businesses will last two thousand years and be shared and retold as often as Gilgamesh, there’s still a great appeal to writing truly Epic Content.
Epic Content dramatically improves our readers by educating or helping them in a way that is incredibly intense and thorough.
Epic Content has such a profound impact on a reader that he or she may gasp out loud and say, “Wow.”
Epic Content is such a powerful resource, readers cannot help but share it and link to it.
Most importantly for us, Epic Content relentlessly drives traffic and leads and sales for our business.
But there’s more to it than that. There are both tangible and intangible aspects to Epic Content. Topic, length, optimization, imagery, style, and so on, all come together to create a true masterpiece of the written word.
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So where do we begin? How do we get started creating Epic Content, and what does that really look like?
I’ve put it all together for you in my new eBook, “The Ultimate Guide to Writing Epic Content.” It’s a complete resource to help you define epic content, outline it, write it, promote it, update and optimize it. You’ll need to supply the ideas and content, but with this guide in hand, you will be able to create the kind of content that I refer to as pillarposts — content that is of such depth and richness that they become incredible assets to your content marketing strategy.
And the best part is, it’s free. Yes, I’m going to ask you for your email address — but not to begin emailing you sales pitches. I want to know who my budding writers are, the ones who really want to step up their game and begin putting out truly epic work, so that I can find other ways to continue to help you. So don’t be put off by the quick form.
Download the “The Ultimate Guide to Writing Epic Content” today and please let me know what you think! And as know it will take time to digest and actually get that first piece of epic content written and published, but once you do, shoot me an email or leave a comment here with the link. I want to read what you’ve created!
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