Ask These 4 Questions Before You Publish New Content
I didn’t actually realise I did this until this morning. I suppose I did it subconsciously, but below are the questions I ask myself every time I hit the publish button and produce fresh new content to this site.
- Why should I post this?
What are you trying to achieve with the new post or content? Am I filling the home page for the sake of it, or am I trying to describe something? If you run a website that focuses on car modifications and you decided to write a post about how to choose new wheels then that is going to be a helpful post, but if you publish a post that your not interested in and write it in 5 minutes it’s going to look like a filler post.
Are you teaching your readers how to do something, dispelling myths or plain and simple motivating? Decide what your trying to achieve and you will have your answer whether to publish it or not.
- Is it relevant?
Relevant content is a bit of an ambiguous term as I could actually talk about religion or cooking on this site quite easy, as long as I related it to what this site is focused towards, making a successful website. That said if you write about a topic that doesn’t fit in with your market or even talk about a piece of software that hasn’t been used in decades without comparing it to current software it’s not going to make sense.
Be relevant to your audience and make sure the point your trying to make gets made.
- Will it develop my readers?
It’s all very well writing even more content for your readers and to boost your traffic, but if it doesn’t enhance your readers and give them fresh ideas, they won’t come back. Give your fan base skills and motivation, don’t just think about yourself. It’s your readers who will make or break you.
- Will it draw a new crowd?
Finally and possibly most importantly has this got the potential to go viral? Will your readers want to pass it onto their friends and their readers? Is the post just aimed at a select group of people or can a much wider audience learn from it?
For example if you like this post, hopefully you’ll re-tweet, digg and stumble it to show your fans. If you only write content that will only actually apply to a handful of people it probably won’t bring in new readers.
What does everyone think?
Please Comment
Please Re-Tweet, Digg and StumbleUpon
Tagged with: Content • publish • questions
Filed under: Articles • Motivation • Starting Out • Useful
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Another good post on content. I guess that once you have a lion’s share of blog followers, you can get off topic and will still be read. I read for writing style. If you string words together in a particularly entertaining method, your message still has value … at least for me.
James
You make some great points about being intentional when posting to a blog. We could all benefit from being more intentional about published content; if someone is going to take the time to share a thought or idea with the whole world why not take the time to consider what they hope to accomplish by doing so, who they want to say it to and how they want to influence the intended audience?
blog on intentional one,
Don F Perkins
Don F Perkins´s last blog ..Enhancing Intercommunication by Practicing Empathy
Twitter: theinfopreneur
says:
Great point Don,
Feel what you write, the rest will take care of it’s self!
theinfopreneur´s last blog ..Small Sacrifice, Huge Gains