5 IDEAS TO CREATE PLENTY OF CONTENT
I have a friend named ‘TEMUR’ that helps me create content. He is an imaginary friend, but sometimes when stuck for ideas, I think of ‘TEMUR’. Who is TEMUR? I will formally introduce you to him at the end, and you will be glad you met him.
But before we get to that, let’s look at the different reasons or objectives for creating content.
There are only 5 reasons content is created. All the content we create, whether it’s written, video or audio, only has 3 main objectives, and 2 less common objectives.
The 3 main reasons for creating content
We will look at the 3 most important reasons for creating content first.
The content we create, will normally either Teach others, Entertain them, or Motivate them.
You either create something others can learn from. Or you create something to temporarily distract others from reality. Or you motivate and inspire them to do something.
Some content does all three.
If you are struggling for ideas, just ask yourself can you think of something that does one of those three?
If you already have something that does one of it, maybe you can think of ways to make it fulfil one or the other two objectives.
For instance, you have an idea for a video that can Teach useful information. Ask yourself how can you make this video Entertaining to others? If it’s about a boring topic like geography, maybe you can put in jokes, or have nice music in the background, to make it Entertaining.
Maybe you have written a story that is very Entertaining. But you feel the story could be longer or have more depth. You can then include an arc where the hero does something really brave. This will Motivate readers to try and be brave as well.
Remember:
If it makes the audience happy or captivates them it is Entertaining.
If it makes them more hard-working or changes their quality, it Motivates them.
If it teaches them practical lessons, it Educates them.
A textbook on rocks can Educate someone, but it won’t Motivate them.
Listening to a wrestler give his pre-match speech might Entertain you (it’s fun for some people to watch) and Motivate you (you might be determined to train like him), but it’s not going to Teach you. Not unless he explains his exercise plan. You can get Motivated to exercise by watching him, but not Taught how to exercise.
The great public speakers and educators know how to combine all three to get maximum results from their audience. They Teach them what to do, in an Entertaining manner for them to pay complete attention and absorb it. Then they Motivate them to take action on what they just learnt.
Your content does not need to be equally distributed between these objectives. A video might be 80% Teaching, and 20% Entertaining. Or a fictional book might be written with the primary objective to Entertain, and the secondary objective to Motivate, and so you put in a few scenes or an arc within it to make it Motivational and add more depth to it.
If you are struggling for content, use this to help you think of ideas. Ask yourself what can you make that does one of those three?
When you have that idea, if you want to make it longer or add more depth, ask yourself how can you make it do one or two of the others.
Sometimes your creative work might accomplish one of the three and not more. That is also fine. Some content are more effective when it only achieves one objective, and trying to force it to achieve more will be a betrayal of its true nature.
Teach, Entertain, Motivate. Good written work, videos and other creative endeavors do one or more of them. Use these as your main guidelines or inspiration when creating.
But in addition to that, there are also 2 other types of content that are created. They are not used as frequently, but it is still valuable to understand them as you can create more content by knowing them.
The 2 less common reasons content is created
The other 2 reasons content is created, although this does not happen as often as the first three for most people, is to Update and Review.
Update — Update others about what is happening in your life. So maybe you just learnt a new skill, or have to take a break from your work for whatever reason and you update others about it. Some people who find ways to incorporate a journal or diary into their work do this. On my blog, I have a journal section where I inform my readers about what is happening in my life, as well as the progress of my creative work.
Review — Review something for them. You can either recommend something that has helped you. For instance, you might recommend that people trying to build a website use WordPress, because you have found that to be useful for you. Or you might review a book or movie you just read. This step should not be something that you are paid for or get a form of benefit from doing. It has to be genuine to connect with your fans and give them real value.
If someone pays you to recommend their product, and your loyal followers purchase it but it’s a bad product, they will trust you less. (I personally am against paid recommendations, but if you are going to recommend a product because someone paid you, make sure it is a good product that is worth your followers’ money). This is done effectively when you have found something that has been genuinely useful to you, and you want to tell others about it because you believe it can help them. You improve their life and give them value by telling them about it.
Or maybe you found something that was not useful and you want to save others from wasting their time and money on it. So you review it, but don’t recommend it. Or you have used something that you believe will be beneficial for some people, but not for most people, in which case you can say who are the people that will benefit the most from it.
If you ever made a video about your favorite brand of phone, or you wrote a blog post reviewing a book, or you read a movie critic’s opinion of a movie, then you know what type of content is Reviews. Some people, like movie critics or a blogger who only reviews books, will spend the majority of their time on this type of content. The rest of us, won’t be making this type of content as often. But we can still make content like this every now and again to have variety, and also have more ideas for content to create.
Meet TEMUR
To summarize, there are only 5 objectives for content that is created.
Content will either:
Teach
Entertain
Motivate
Update
Review
An easy way to remember that, is with the acronym ‘TEMUR’.
TEMUR stands for Teach, Entertain, Motivate, Update, Review. Which are the only 5 things content will do.
You have now been formally introduced to my friend TEMUR, and he is your friend as well.
Whenever you are stuck for ideas on content, think of TEMUR. And ask yourself, can you create anything that will Teach, Entertain, Motivate, Update, Review, or do a combination of two or more of them?
You don’t want to go overboard with combining them. Creating content that does all 5 can be messy. And creating content which does just one can be more effective depending on the type of content, platform, and audience. So it is important you consider and take into account those factors as well. A lot of times I will just create content that does one of those five, and it works really well.
But other times, I have found creating content that combines two or three elements from TEMUR to be effective.
For instance, I once wrote a movie Review that was Entertaining, but also had a quote from the movie that could Teach people something. As compared to just writing a review that is boring, and does not have anything from the movie to teach others. I only used a short quote which was two sentences, and it had nothing to do with spoiling the movie. It was a quote by one of the characters about a general topic of how to have peace of mind, but it Taught others. And my readers appreciated this movie Review.
I personally have never found myself in a situation where using all 5 for one piece of content to be useful, so have never used all 5 together. But maybe someone who is making really long-form content for the right audience on the right platform, may find using all 5 beneficial.
The next time you need ideas, remember TEMUR.
And if you already have an idea that only uses one element of TEMUR, ask yourself is this the type of content that is most effective with just one element, in which case you don’t need to use others. Or would it be better if it had one or two other elements? In which case consider which other objectives within TEMUR would fit well with it, and you know enough of to include.
TEMUR is an idea generating tool, that the more time you spend with, the more ideas you will have.
Why not try setting aside one hour later today, where you just sit in silence with a pen, notebook, and TEMUR, and see how many ideas you can come up with for your particular niche?
