Community Discussion - How do you create and distribute content?

[MattRoney]

Hi there, Moz Community!

It's Thanksgiving here in the US, and this year I'm thankful for the release of Moz Content. With that in mind, I'd like to revisit Kelsey Libert's November 5 Moz Blog post on creating and distributing content to kick of a community discussion to hold us over during this long weekend. Kelsey said:

"Some content is designed to “go viral,” while other times a piece of content intended to stay among friends takes the Internet by storm. But whether planned or unplanned, rapidly-shared content has several commonalities. One of the key factors is that the content creates a strong emotional response in viewers."

What do you think? How much effort do you put into getting your content distributed? Do you have particular strategies for creating your content? What are they?

[ronell-smith]

Matt,

For me, it's a three-pronged approach: The content ideation, creation and amplification process are all very important parts of the content marketing process. Without one, the other two are not very effective.

• For Ideation, I like to focus on what it is I'm trying to accomplish (e.g,., the goal), then marry that with the needs of the audience.
• For content creation, the goal is to discern the best medium by which to share and create the content, based on the goal of the content and the ideas being expressed. For example, a post that's designed to build a conversation around an idea I hope to test might include light text and heavy graphics and be shared on Google Plus and Instagram, in addition to my blog.
• The amplification part of the process is the most important, and for good reason: Content that isn't amplified is unlikely to get engagement, shares or links. That's why I like to say, "If it's not important enough to drive engagement, don't create it." Links are anything but a given, but shares and engagement are a clear signal that your work is finding and touching the right audience.

Where I veer off course a bit - and recommend that others do the same - is in thinking about amplification first, which is an idea Rand has shared for years.

Instead of thinking (ideation) about what content I should create (creation), I focus on who'll promote the content first. That way, I'm creating content that's more likely to be shared and engaged with. I'm convinced others could/would find success by doing the same thing.

RS

[KDKini]

Greeting EGOL

Thank you all for sharing your views of creating and sharing you content. I stumble upon this question being pinned on top, Curious to know from the experts.

Thank you EGOL, your Content Marketing process is well guided, inspiration notes for the beginners, very valuable for all the content marketers. Thank you again for sharing

I want to read your blogs. Glad if you could share me your blog website url or your website.

[wanatop]

Very useful compilation. Congrats.

Im a little afraid of open the branded blog to guests...

I read it more and more everyday, but some times de need to think and concentrare.

Own content, ok. Distributed content, dificult but good. Guests...

[MattRoney]

Thank you EGOL! Yes, this is going to become a regular thing.

I LOVE your process here, especially your very controlled research phase and your guidelines for offering guest content. I think it could be very valuable to our other community members.

[MattRoney]

That's super interesting! Just to clarify, did you do anything to share those older articles in their new locations?

[EGOL]

Hi Matt.  I really like this question, but even more, I like that it is pinned to the top of Q&A and hope it will stay here for a week or more.  I would like to learn what others are doing on this and other topics.   I hope that "pinned questions for discussion" become a regular thing in Q&A.

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CONTENT CREATION:

1. My site is an info site and I currently have a "future content map" that contains enough articles to keep me writing long after my death :-)Most of the articles that I write are on that map, some are not.  The thing that determines what I write today is a "motivation to write" that is triggered by an opportunity to acquire a few really nice photos or graphics to illustrate a new article perfectly.  I believe that a great photo or graphic at the top of the page can be more important to an article's success than what I write. The visitor needs inspiration to start reading and more photos to help "pull them down the page".

2. Once I have the motivation to write, I don't write.  Instead I spend one or two days reading the best information that I can find on the topic.  This might be on the web or in the collection of books at my office, which grows because I often buy a new one as I prepare for writing an article.   While reading I have a couple sheets of paper that I fill with notes.  These are ideas, topics that I want to cover in the article, sketches, calculations, etc. that can be used in the article.  Once that is finished I write a title, then the subheadings, and then arrange subheadings in order, with an effort to have a photo or graphic to illustrate each subheading - but that is not essential.

I have been active in the industry served by my website for the past 45 years, I could just jump into writing the articles, but a day or two of preparing before I write makes a big difference in the quality of what I produce.   My goal is to write a general article that contains… 1) the basics of the topic, 2) the questions that people are asking, 3) what they should know that they are not asking, 4) misconceptions that are out there, 5) a few surprises that most people don’t know about.

3. The actual "writing" is done in the HemingwayApp, which helps me keep sentences simple and spelling/grammar correct.  Writing might take one to three days, and when I get close to finishing I leave the article to work on another motivation.  Then, days, weeks, months later, I return to the article to improve it, add new ideas, new photos, etc. and bring it to completion. The interruption allows me to consider the article with a fresh mind.  At this point the article often goes to a professional editor who helps with clarity and solves any language and punctuation problems.

4. Then the article is placed on a webpage.  Lay-out is important to be sure that the photos are placed in relevant locations and ads are placed where they will be seen and engaged.  After that I read the article one final time and make adjustments to the text and image captions, so that they work well with one another.\

CONTENT DISTRIBUTION INTEGRATION and ONSITE PROMOTION

I don't distribute my content to other websites.  It is too hard to produce to give away.  So, I make sure that it is carefully integrated into my own website where it will be seen by lots of visitors.   This starts by placing an attractive image and link to the article on the homepage.  Then on its relevant category pages in an obvious position.  It will be moved in the future and placed on the page according to its click-earning ability.   It is also added (according to relevance) to "related content" boxes, "suggested reading" lists that appear on every page of the website.

When an article is highly related to another on the site I will place small ads for it within the body of the related article.  I also have lots of hypertext links on my site - similar to Wikipedia, and most new articles have dozens of those links built to them.  I am lucky that my visitors like my content and promote it for me.  That allows me to get right back to work on the next article.

RECEIVING DISTRIBUTED CONTENT

I receive lots of solicitations from people who want to contribute an article to my website.  Guest authors have contributed about 15% of them.  Most people who contact me write… “Hey Egol, I really like your website and could write a few articles for you.  Are you interested?  I can write about any topic.”

They don’t identify their expertise, they don’t say what qualifies them to write for my industry, they don’t show me relevant samples of their work.  After following up on them for a few years I learned they were a  waste of time.  If I listen to them for a minute on the phone or read the first paragraph of an article proposal, I can tell that they don’t have the language of the industry.  Now, I delete these offers.

I am not a noob in the industry, but there are a lot of topics that I refuse to write about because I don’t know enough about them.  The people who have contributed guest articles usually contact me saying…. “I don’t see anything on your site about Brass Widgets.  I have been researching/teaching/building/writing about them for the past X years and would be glad to write an article or two that explains this/that/etc.  Here’s a couple photos of my recent work”.

This person has photos, I can find info about him online, if we talk by phone or exchange a couple emails before I agree to consider an article I can tell that he isn’t a noob.  I then send a message that explains what I would like to see in their article and ask if they are still interested.

All of the articles that I have received this way have been great.  They are written by experienced people who have a “message to get out” and not by people who are trying to make a quick score.  I usually pay them and send a gift when the article is published.

[iGotOffer]

Everyone knows that they have to post and distribute a Very Original Content, but in fact nobody knows what content will work. On our site, a very short text about old computers (actually, copied from an old book on paper, published in 1954 and presented as a punk) gets a very high ranking for keywords such as "sell old computer online" and so on. I can see nothing special in that text that would place it on the first page, but this is the fact. Another example: I copied on a newly created site my text written and published on our Website about 8 years ago. Well, this copy on a new site jumps to the first page in search results, and the original text shows up on the 4th page when I search it for a specific keyword (but many other articles from that site appear on the first pages). (both examples come from our sites in French, actually). So how can we know what particular strategy could work?