Tips for creating a sustainable content strategy as suggested by successful content creators.
Google’s blog published tips on how to create content that drives success. The article consisted of anecdotes from successful bloggers and YouTube creators.
None of the tips have anything to do with SEO, which makes the article of more interest because online marketing success is more than just SEO.
How to Publish Successful Content
The article highlighted the actual experience of four successful content creators.
Advice from people with actual experience is so much better than opinions offered by people who are repeating what they read from reading blogs.
The advice is categorized into five topics:
- Block time on your calendar
- Play to your strengths
- Create in batches
- Reduce, Rework and Repurpose your content
- Prioritize value over quality
Set Aside Time to Create
Most successful writers will acknowledge that setting aside a specific time to write on a daily basis is a key to success. Waiting around for inspiration to strike is not a viable path to content creation.
A successful content creation strategy is one in which you force yourself to sit down and start creating.
The legendary musical artist Nick Cave recently commented on the value of treating the act of content creation as a job and not as a spiritual communication with inspiration.
In his popular newsletter called The Red Hand Files Nick Cave observed:
“I also have an affinity with artists who treat their craft as a job and are not dependent on the vagaries of inspiration — because I am one of them.
Like most people with a job, we just go to work. It never occurs to us not to work, there is never a moment when we don’t work because ‘we are not feeling it’ or ‘the vibes aren’t right’.
We just do our hours…”
Google cited musician and lifestyle blogger Rigel Gemini who suggested setting aside one day out of the week for producing content, emphasizing how choosing a topic that interests you will help the content write itself.
Google published this observation:
“Rigel Gemini recommends producing content on a weekly basis for at least one channel and keeping it fun.
“If content becomes a chore or becomes too much work, you will start to dread it. So just figure out something that you can write about or photograph or talk about every week and dive in…”
That’s good advice. Focus on content topics you may feel enthusiastic about and set aside time to focus on creating that content.
Play to Your Strengths
The next advice comes from faith and fashion blogger, Mata Leiataua. She encourages content creators to understand what their style is.
Everyone has a style, their own style, even when that style is a persona.
Some creative artists are shy or quiet in person but loud and brash in their writing or performance. That’s their style that they find comfortable working in, that works for them.
Mata Leiataua comments:
“…no one feels inspired to create content 24/7… is your content in the moment or stylized? Do you prioritize your aesthetic or copywriting?”
Create in Batches
This is an interesting bit of advice, which is to sit down and create and keep creating as much as you can. Then take the results and schedule them for publication.
Beauty blogger Tiffany Williams advises:
“Creating in real time can be a lot, so creating a ton of content ahead of time helps.
That way you always have something new to post…”
Reduce, Rework and Repurpose your Content
This next bit of advice is about spreading your content around to multiple channels.
A podcaster can turn their content into a blog post and a YouTube video.
A YouTube creator can repurpose their video content and turn it into an article.
YouTube and podcast creator Kevin Espiritu observes that audiences seek content based on the context of their moment.
Some may prefer a podcast while commuting. Others may prefer to read content while at lunch.
Publishing to multiple channels allows a creator to build a wider audience that is consuming content in different moments.
Kevin commented:
“The same person, on different platforms, is in a different state of mind and requires different presentation of the same content.”
Prioritize Value Over Quality
A common stumbling block for content creation strategies is focusing on quality.
What often happens is that each article becomes a monumental undertaking centered comprehensiveness, equating wordiness with quality.
Writing a Top 500 article as a way to outrank a publisher who is ranking well with a Top 50 article is a naive approach to content creation.
When writing content it is always best to focus providing value.
Lifestyle blogger Rigel Gemini advises:
“Focus on the value you offer your readers. People will read a post that has an eye-catching image, but more importantly, people will return to your knowledge and expertise.”
Success With Content
The common SEO strategy is build a list of keywords with the most traffic then create content based on that.
However there’s more to content creation than SEO Keywords. An alternate approach is to provide content that is meaningful to readers.
People tend to return to sites that offer the pleasure of discovery, of reading content that is meaningful to them.
Content can be related to current events, it can be funny, it can bust myths and it can help readers be a better version of themselves. That is the kind of content that keeps readers coming back for more.
Leonard Cohen observed in an interview that creation is about understanding ones engagement with the world, making something from it and then finding confidence and dignity (i.e. self-respect) in that act of creation.
While there’s a place for keyword-based content, there’s also an important role for content that is meaningful to you and to someone else.
Leonard Cohen said:
“I’m always in a relationship with one thing or another. …you just try to uncover the thing, you just try to make it good.
Once you get into it, it doesn’t have any borders, it doesn’t have any limits. It’s just what you’re doing.
You just keep uncovering your own heart until you can find something in which you can locate your self-respect.
It’s just self-respect that you’re looking for in your work.”
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by Roger Montti
source: SEJ
