Creating content can be a tough thing. But there are some simple ways and knowing a few tricks can save a chunk of time. Here are some simple starting thoughts for you.
What was the last thing you had to explain to a customer?
If you had to explain it to your customer then chances are your potential customers don’t know it either. And perhaps your other existing customers even don’t fully get it. So why not break it down for them?
Start at a logical point and work your way out from there
For example, write down the most common questions that people have. Then you can write a summary article about those.
So now that you have a summary article on each of those you probably see that there are a few things that are not fully explained in there so you can write an article that explains just that sub topic in more detail.
Once those subtopic articles are written you could think of your products or services and how they fit in. So write about the benefits of doing things the way that you do them (or with your product). This could be about a specific benefit or feature. Or it could be a more general article on how your product fits in.
For example, you could be an accountant, here’s an example
- Common question – When is travel tax deductible for individuals?
- Some areas worth expanding on – A log book, Record keeping requirements, travel cost tax for sales reps, when are the cut off dates for submitting a return
- Your service – Personal tax (you could write how your service helps)
- How a good accountant is cheaper than doing it yourself
- Running late at tax time? We can submit it later than you can
- Are you sure you are getting all the deductions that you deserve?
So there are 8 article ideas. Release one per month and thats the first 8 months taken care of. If you do one other product, or have a few other common questions then you have years of content ahead of you without hassle.
Have a plan and stick to it, it saves time and headaches
If you want to write everything about everything it will take forever. So start with the necessary and slowly work your way out to the less important things. That way if you lose momentum at least you will have the information that is most valuable. No point in focusing on things that no one really cares about and neglecting the most common questions.
Write more than one thing at a time
I like to write a few articles at once where I can, I find it faster! And remember that you are not writing a novel, nor are you up for an award for the piece. The writing should be free of noticable errors (so spell check and grammar check and proof read), but it isn’t likely to change the world. So don’t spend all day on each one! I like to spend about 1 hour writing each article. More than that means that I probably will find it hard to find the time regularly.
Release things on a schedule
Write and release on time. So if that means that you have a blog post due on the first of each month write it the week before (or earlier) and schedule it for release. Scheduling it for release helps you know that things will happen on time. In some cases I schedule things months in advance, sure I might do something extra here and there, but I know that the main piece is going to go out on time because it’s written in advance.
It’s ok to have a personality!
We can be nervous at times of being ourselves, especially when writing to people that we don’t know well. But being yourself is the only way to make it work. If you write bland things without any opinion or without personality then who would want to read it? Sure, your personality may not suit everyone, but that’s great because they wouldn’t make great customers anyway! So be yourself and the people that like you (and that you would generally like) tend to stick around.
I hope these ideas help, if you need help working out your publishing schedule feel free to have a chat.