by Once you’ve started your new blog, it’s time to start creating content. You’ll be creating a lot of content in the coming days, and there is a lot to learn, but there are some basics you can learn quickly to help you start creating content and cranking out blog posts.
The goal?
To create high quality content that keeps readers coming back for more. The more engaging the content, the more your content will be read. What’s that old saying? Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd. (This is the basis of a core piece of SEO, but we’ll discuss that another day.)
Who Are You Talking To?
Let’s pretend for a moment that you are a high-level engineer at JPL who’s been tasked with keeping your department’s blog in shape. Since you know what you’re talking about, they asked you to write the annual technology highlights paper.
It seems simple enough…to you. But who is reading your paper? Other techno-wizards (and myself and a few randos, thanks to the link in this post). For the most part, the people reading it will be other engineers and scientists interested in what the JPL has been up to (read the report; it’s cool stuff). If you’re an average mom in Topeka, Kansas, you probably don’t care or want to care about it.
Because you know this audience, you can write personally to them. You can use technical terms and acronyms (we know space people love those), get a little deep into an explanation of the physics of an object, and you can totally geek out.
Your paper is a smash hit, and you get a big fat raise. Woo-hoo!
In your spare time, you love reading to your kids, and they love the way you get into the characters and have fun with it. So much so that they’ve convinced you to write a children’s book, it’s going to be about space (go with what you know), but are you going to write the technical details of how to launch a rocket in orbit? Probably not.
The kids this book is geared to won’t care about quantum mechanics or how zero gravity affects the trajectory of a rocket as it hits its orbit. (Heck, I don’t even know if what I just said is accurate.)
No, instead, you’ll talk about how fun space is. How cool it is to stare back at the earth from a spaceship. You might even get a little deep and talk about how it changes the astronaut’s perspective on life when they return to earth. The point is you write for your audience.
Define Your Target Audience (and Create Their Avatar)
We could go in depth about creating an avatar and how it helps define your target audience, but we think Lisa Carmichael did such an excellent job in her article, “Understanding Your Niche and Creating Your Avatar,” that we thought we’d recommend you go read that instead.
(No, really, go read it. We can wait.)
Creating content is all about knowing your audience and writing to them without losing yourself. In other words, don’t be something you’re not. Dig deep and consider who they are, what they’re interested in, and their skill level in the topic at hand, and find their pain points so that you can solve them.
Give them a reason to want to come back and read more.
What Day is Today?
One of the things I struggle with when creating content for this or any other site is that I tend to be a bit haphazard. I get an idea, and I react. I write a blog post when it first pops into my head and click publish. There often isn’t enough order in my life.
I blame it on ADHD and my former music career. If you’re not ADHD, the easiest way to acquire it is to join a band touring the world. You get pulled in so many directions you give up any hope of knowing what you’re doing; you just go and do it. Interview? Got it. Get on the bus? Got it. Time to eat? Time to sleep? Got it? Soundcheck? Got it. Party time? Got it. For years, I kept two of everything I traveled with – two separate worlds, one hung up and neat in my closet and put away in my bathroom (toothbrush, deodorant, razors, etc.) and another identical set packed away neatly in my suitcase, ready to go at a moment’s notice.
Planning Your Editorial Calendar
There are a million methods of planning an editorial calendar, from paper lists to an Excel spreadsheet to a calendar app to WordPress plugs.
Since the first rule of creating content is that you need to be consistent, an editorial calendar can help you visualize where the gaps are in your publishing schedule so you can know what you need to work on.
Some editorial calendars are just simple lists of posts and knowing what timeline you post on.
Some are a bit more advanced and consider things such as series, themes, or other posts that tie together or build upon each other in some way. You might not want to post your most advanced how to before you post the how to on getting to that point.
Personally, I like the WordPress plugins, although I haven’t settled on one yet (I’ve been trying different ones out). If you have a recommendation, feel free to leave it in the comments below – but do me a favor and tell me why it’s good. Don’t just throw a link in there and run off.
Extra, Extra, Read All About It!
If you pictured a young boy from the early 1900s wearing a newsboy cap and standing on a dingy city street corner, I have done my job right. Headlines are meant to grab attention and evoke imagery feelings or simply give a clear sign of what you’re about to read. We collectively know about the young newsboys from movies and pop culture, so I was able to lead you right to what I wanted you to think about with just a few simple words.
Captivating Headlines for Your Content
We live in a scanning world. Few people (except me, it seems) read every word on a page. Skimming or scanning – it doesn’t matter which term you prefer – is the most common method of reading on the internet. It’s why time spent on page matters so much to Google because if they’re bouncing right away, they’re not getting the information they need from your site.
A headline serves two purposes – catching the reader’s attention and giving them a hint about what’s to come. This way, they stop for a second to look at the headline and then can decide whether this is the section they want to read or if they just need to keep scrolling. A well crafted headline is like a good road sign; one glance at it, and you know exactly where you’re heading.
“Now Here’s a Little Story, I’ve Got to Tell, About Three Bad Brothers You Know So Well…”
And so starts one of my favorite songs by the Beastie Boys, “Paul Revere.” The first two lines of the song, and I already know exactly what I’m getting. If you know the song, you know that it goes on to do exactly that – tell a wild ride of a story about the three members of the Beastie Boys as they ride across the land.
Introduce Your Content
It pays to give a brief introduction to what comes next. Remember how we talked about scanning? Introductions are the second step in the scanning process. As a reader hits the headline and thinks it may be the section they want to read, the introduction helps them understand what comes next and decide whether they are in or out.
Try to make your introductions interesting and informative without giving up all of the information; you’ll do that in the body of the text. If you’re going to mention a few key concepts in the next section, lay them out in your introduction so the reader knows what’s coming.
It’s kind of like the menu at the restaurant; I know I want the ribeye steak and au gratin potatoes from their mentions on the menu…but when they come to the table, I dig in and am blown away by how good they are.
Don’t Be Afraid to Buck Convention
I know we all tell you to do Step A, then Step B, and don’t forget to tie Step C back to Step A…blah blah blah.
Here’s the real secret. You.
Sure, you need to follow some guidelines and make your posts make sense, but you also want readers to want to read your stuff. I can read the same formulaic ideas on everyone else’s website. Give me something uniquely you, and I will likely stick around. Don’t be afraid to get creative and try something new.
If it works, run with it. You may be on a path of discovery that no one else has found. All these rules about how to build a website and write content didn’t exist since the dinosaurs…someone had to make it up as they went.
Use a mix of common sense and sheer madness to test the waters and find what works for you. You may just surprise us all.
