Content Planning – Plan ahead of Time
An online business owner sets up a website in order to reach more people. There are millions of people who use the Internet every single day. Even a fraction of those people can already generate a lot of traffic on a person’s site. If you have great content for your online business site, it is likely that more people will visit you as well. While you may already have some things in mind, remember that the key to become more successful is to plan what you would like to write about. It simply takes out the pressure if you have planned your writing ahead of time. For example, I usually try to order or write articles myself at least a month ahead. Not that I get that always done but I really try hard to sit down at the beginning of a month to plan for the next month – this way I have one month time to plan my content schedule it. Even if I have something happening I like to talk about it is just fine because I can add another article whenever I want 🙂
So once you do, you’ll see that planning ahead will take out the pressure, try it even before you start. Set a date when you launch your website and then go ahead and plan your content before you do so. You’ll see it will make things easier because you don’t feel that you are always behind.
Content Planning
Content planning is the process by which you are making a list of the things that you have to do and making sure that you will do them on the dates that you have set yourself to do it.
Here are some of the things that might influence your content planning:
– When are you planning to publish your content?
– Are you going to publish it on your blog?
– What is your topic going to be?
– What is the main purpose of the article you are going to write about?
– Do you have keywords? How are you going to utilize them? Don’t forget to do a keyword research with e.g. Market Samurai or LongTail Pro first
– How can your content be significant to people?
– How can you monetize that post? Make sure you think about that first, otherwise you have written a lot and no chance to monetize your work.
Tips on Content Planning
Admittedly, not a lot of people find content planning easy. There are instances when people do not even know how they are going to start or what they are going to do next.
There are always things that would have to be done but there are some tips that will make things so much easier:
– Personally, I use Google docs to plan my content or the content I want others to write about. I even give research links where I found helpful ideas and also make sure that I give a direction – for me and others so I don’t forget what I wanted to do with that article. For me it really helps that I have access to my document whenever I want. You might be different though, you’ll need to try out if Google docs, Evernote or simply a notebook (pen and paper) is for you
– Look for an inspiration. Do not write just because you have to. You have to look for something that will surely inspire you. You will be able to make a content better that way.
– Having purpose will obviously make you more compelled to write an effective content plan. At the same time, you will also be able to write a more effective article or story as well.
Remember that when you are doing your content, you will probably take a few days especially if you are planning for a long period of time. Do not rush it because making a plan that is not thought about well will only makes your plans unreachable. In turn, this may frustrate you and make you feel that you do not want to write anymore.
Questions about content planning? Please let me know in the comments below!
Filed in: Article Writing • Blog
About the Author (Author Profile)
I'm Monja, the owner of several websites, amongst others Digidesignresort.com and CMDacademy.de. I make my money online since 2011 and as a teacher I love to teach others how to do the same - personally. You can connect with me here and on Google +Subscribe
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Hi Monja – fellow passive income gal here
Great idea using google docs – the advantage being able to share.
On our (still ongoing) whole site rebuild, I had *hoped* to write everything myself but the reality was we had to start outsourcing as the scale of the writing project was too large.
Outsourcing = major eye opener! Time planning was the first thing to go out the window – what a mess I got in! I was amazed at how different each writers idea of delivery timescales were and the amount of rewriting everything would require.
How do you cope with outsourced writers or do you write everything yourself? If you outsource do you stick to one or two reliable authors?
Hi Emma,
Thanks so much for your comment! You make some very valid points. You are right, the reality is that if you want to become “big” or at least “quiet” big in a short period of time you need help to get the content you and work done you want. If you don’t you maybe lose interest in your project because the results and therefore profit takes longer than expected. And yes, I had the same lesson: When you outsource, tell people very well what you expect and make it 100% clear – they cannot know. Also, give deadlines 😉 (these are my most important lessons, hehe). I have one great author for my digital scrapbooking site – she creates awesome tutorials. But I usually try to find others along the way so if she cannot write I have someone to get back to. One person also might be better for one article and site while another one is great for another site. So I usually try not to rely on one person. How do you handle it after the lessons you’ve learned?
Good advice thank you! My biggest lesson was realizing I’m a complete control freak and learning not to stress the micro-details so much. Micromanaging can’t scale.
Lesson two was that more expensive writers aren’t necessarily better, but then lesson three was that in general you get what you pay for – as cheaper or second-language authors need so much article rewriting as to negate the initial savings.
I’m nowhere near sorted yet but we’re getting there and have a shortlist of 4 writers that seem consistently good.