How to FINALLY write content consistently (in 4 easy steps)
A Stupid Simple Guide
It is valuable to spend your time creating content that helps your audience. Creating content is a powerful and low cost way to build your brand and generate leads.
I think we’ve all “committed” to writing, or producing content regularly at some point or another! But obviously… Not all of us are doing it.
It has been a goal for me personally to publish a specific and valuable piece of content once a week. If you’ve followed me on Medium for a while, you know that I have started and stopped this goal before…
But this time it’s for keeps.
I wanted to tell you a little bit about the simple system I’m using that has been working for me. There are a few distinct phases of this process. Most of them are steps, but I leave at least a day in between Phase 1 and picking a topic to move on — I’ll explain why in a minute.
Without further adieu, let’s get you writing consistently!
Phase 1: Brainstorm
You’ll start your process out by brainstorming 10 possible topics that you want to create content around! The goal is to create headlines AND subheadlines (if possible) for these ideas. Try to get at least 10 down, but if you are on a roll get more down!
For me, I do this on Mondays. I really like to start the week off this way. But what day of the week it is depends 1. On what day your publish and 2. How long you decide to leave between each phase (more on that in a sec)
I personally publish on Fridays, and I do 1 Phase per day (I try to have the 1st draft done by Wednesday, then I don’t publish until Friday but I may do all of the promotional research on Thursday).
Now you’re only to write 10+ headlines and subheadlines. DON’T stress about writing a draft on this day!
Sleep on these ideas for at least one day. Your brain will churn over the topics that you came up with in this phase while you’re doing other tasks — don’t worry about it!
Phase 2: Drafting
Now it’s time for you to pick your idea! You DID wait until tomorrow to sleep on your ideas, right?
Pick one the topic that you noticed interested you the most from your list! I like to do my drafting in 2 parts.
Part 1 — Underneath of the headline, bullet point out an outline of what you want to say! Add links to websites or resources you want to reference as subheaders underneath.
Part 2 — Give it a trial run! Try your best to write AS FAST AS YOU CAN, and write a complete 1st draft until the end!
Try to get your brain fired up and let it go! Like a train hurling down a mountain.
You have to turn the editor inside of you off. No correcting typos, no going back and rephrasing sentences.
What if you get stuck at a bullet? Skip it, keep writing beyond that! Until you get to the end.
I usually go back and clean up the introduction, and the conclusion — and call it a day.
Phase 3: Research
The #1 mistake people struggling for views make is not promoting enough.
Why would you spend 2, 3, 4 hours writing a blog post — only to spend 5 minutes sharing it?
I would do at like 1–3 hours of research and get clear on the channels you’re planning on promoting your post on.
What I do on this day:
I may write a script that I can copy and paste, if I plan on messaging or emailing my friends and asking them to share my article with their networks. I NEVER send mass emails.
I usually write something personal at the top (for example, on Facebook messenger I may respond to the last thing the person said in the first paragraph) and then I copy a boilerplate “pitch” underneath of it.
When you have a REALLY good piece of content, look through your professional contacts. Are there any coworkers, colleagues, or other professional connections you could ask to share it? Be sure it will bring value to their audience — do this with posts that are mega guides (like 2k+ words, well researched, very actionable).
Find Facebook groups (join them if you’re not part of any already) that are related to the topics you create content about and share it there!
Look on Reddit and identify relevant subreddits that you can share your link to.
If you have links to popular content that already exists about your topic, you can copy and paste the URL into Reddit search. That will pull up the subreddits that the link has been shared in — those would be good places to share your own content.
For example, say I am writing a guide about blogging.
Who is a BIG name in blogging? Somebody who’s content probably does pretty well? Let’s use Pat Flynn as an example.
So I would go on SPI and find a post that Pat Flynn has written that is similar to my blog post. Copy the URL, then search it in Reddit! That will pull up any community (called “subreddits”) on Reddit where the post has been shared — and those are what you’re going to be writing down.
Search for keywords from your content on Instagram and Twitter as well.
When you make your content live in the final stage, you should already be prepared to start executing promotional tactics.
(You should also locate any images you plan to use inside of your content, in the event that it’s a blog post. Be prepared to finalize your content in the next phase!)
Phase 4: Publish & Promote!
At this point you should be prepared to fill in any remaining bullet points in your article.
I save this for last, because if we’re honest with ourselves EVERYBODY makes changes at the last minute!
I’ve found that by spreading the workload of creating content out across the week in an organized system like this, I am able to execute much better.
There isn’t any more pressure to spit out a perfect blog post on the first go around. Looking at “the blank page” isn’t stressful — because I know that it will not be perfect at first.
And before organizing the workload like this, to be honest with you many times I would be scrambling to put together an ENTIRE post by Friday sometimes. When you’re trying to be specific and give value, it is just not feasible to accomplish that in just two hours.
You will be amazed at what you can create when you give your brain the space to do it!
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