Are Your Using an Editorial Calendar?

A few month’s ago the esteemed Alexis Rodrigo blogged about New Year’s Resolutions for Content Marketer (It’s #8 on the list).  So the question is….are you using an Editorial Calendar?

What is An Editorial Calendar?

Quite simply, it’s a list of the content you’re going to publish with corresponding publication dates. You can find samples of what an editorial calendar can look like here:

Notice that this particular calendar from PC World has a schedule for print and online content.  While your calendar doesn’t need to be presentable to the public, you will likely have numerous categories listed.

For example, online, autoresponder, article marketing, reports and so on.

Why Use an Editorial Calendar?

Planning your content in advance offers a number of benefits:

• It makes it easy to outsource your content.
  
• It makes creating content a breeze because you don’t have to worry about what you’re going to write about.
• It helps you plan your marketing and advertising promotions.
• It reduces stress.
• You’re less likely to miss blog posts if it’s scheduled in advance.
• You’re able to focus your attention on other profitable tasks.

How To Create an Editorial Calendar?

The easiest approach is to grab a notebook and a desktop calendar and to plan your content.  It’s recommended to plan a year in advance, however you’d prefer, you can plan three or six months in advance.

Once you have a plan on notebook paper, then consider taking two steps. The first is to create your plan in an easy to access manner. That may be printed out and tacked to your bulletin board or saved as a document on your computer.

Additionally, consider adding the content to your daily/weekly planner, Outlook for example. That way when you’re busy you’ll be notified automatically when you have content scheduled.

If you’re not using an editorial calendar, consider adopting the tool. It’s tremendously useful and it’ll help you stay on top of your content and ahead of your competition.

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Is it plagiarism if…

In the ever evolving world of Internet marketing, transparency and accountability are beyond catch phrases, they are an essential ingredient in your overall business philosophy.

Why?

Because consumers are holding businesses to a higher standard, because integrity matters for lasting success, and because other Internet marketers aren’t shy about calling people out.

As a writer the piece of this that resonates for me is plagiarism and copyright infringement.   In an effort to help fellow marketers achieve the credibility and success they desire, I’ve posed a few situations where writers and business owners may have questions.

These are based on questions that have come up and scenarios I’ve witnessed.

Is it plagiarism if – “I find a great article online and use some of it in an expanded article?”

It depends. If you use the content verbatim from the article without crediting the author or source of the content, then yes.  However, if you say “Jane Doe blogged about such and such the other day in which she said….”  And then go on to copy what she said and expand in it in your own words then you’re in the clear.

Is it plagiarism if – “I summarize or rephrase content found online or in printed form?”

Generally, no.  However take great care to make sure you’re really writing the ideas in your own words and if you’re able to pull concepts and ideas from several sources then you’re certainly safe.  However, if the content you’re adapting for your own needs isn’t what is considered “General knowledge” tread lightly.

According to documentation on Purdue University’s plagiarism policy, “Generally speaking, you can regard something as common knowledge if you find the same information undocumented in at least five credible sources.

Additionally, it might be common knowledge if you think the information you’re presenting is something your readers will already know, or something that a person could easily find in general reference sources.”

Is it plagiarism if  – “I have a conversation with someone and use what they said in a piece of content?”

If you don’t give them credit for the content, yes.

My general rule of thumb is, “If you can source the content, by all means do so.”  Sourcing your content and giving credit where credit is due is a great way to boost the validity and credibility of your content.  There’s no reason not to!

Final note – If you have a question, Purdue lists the following list of what needs to be credited or documented:

• Words or ideas presented in a magazine, book, newspaper, song, TV program, movie, Web page, computer program, letter, advertisement, or any other medium
• Information you gain through interviewing or conversing with another person, face to face, over the phone, or in writing
• When you copy the exact words or a unique phrase
• When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual materials
• When you reuse or re-post any electronically-available media, including images, audio, video, or other media

When in doubt, give credit!

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Six Basic Types of Article Content To Consider

Sitting down to plan your content strategy is important however almost equally important is understanding what type of content your audience responds to, prefers, and also what fits your writing style and personality.

Here are six types of content to consider:

1. How To – this is perhaps the most common type of article structure and it’s often the first to come to mind when you’re thinking about formats. It’s a good format to use for many audiences because step by step content is easy to digest and generally valuable.  For an example of a How To article simply visit eHow and you’ll see thousands of them.
2. Review – Reviews are great if you’re an affiliate marketer.  The content must provide accurate, seemingly unbiased, information about a product or service.  
3. Lists – Lists are typically easy to write if you’re an authority in your subject matter and are willing to spend some time researching and compiling the necessary information.  For example, if you’re going to write a list about the top ten mistakes people make when shopping online, you’ll need some data to back up your information.
4. Tips – Tip content is a bit like a list however the tips should be designed to help someone accomplish something or solve a problem.
5. Pros & Cons – This type of content is fairly structured, like the above content types, and it is designed to help your reader make a decision. The pros and cons of bottled water for example, will help someone make a decision about whether or not to buy bottled water.  It works well for information sites, affiliate marketers and even retailers or service providers.
6. Fact or About Page – This type of content can have a less rigid structure however, the overall goal is to explain something. For example, an article on diabetes is just going to cover the basics about the disease.  You’d likely have a short introduction and conclusion with this type of content and then several subheadings throughout to break up the content into digestible pieces.  Visit About.com for examples of about and fact pages

Of course, there are many more types of article content you can write and your information doesn’t need to fit into a tight format or structure.  However, often if you can assess what type of content your audience responds to, it will help you optimize your content strategy.

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Five 2010 Content Trends

Welcome to the New Year!

It’s an exciting time of the year filled with resolutions, goal setting, planning, predictions and trends.

Speaking of trends, what about content trends for 2010?  How do you think content will change over the next year?

1.  Social Marketing – We’ve certainly seen the rise of several trends over the past couple of years and one that’s sure to continue growing is the trend toward more social interaction online including social marketing.  Tweets, Facebook posts and pages and even profile building are all content tactics to consider when planning your content strategy for the upcoming year.

2.  Mobile Content -  Several notable websites including Mashable and Entrepreneur both reference mobile content as a growing trend though the success you see from mobile content and mobile marketing will depend largely on your niche and your audience.  (A younger audience is more likely to spend time and search on their phones than an older audience.)

3.  Online Video Content – Video is still on the rise and is a worthy investment.  Plan it properly, script your content and test the results to determine what types of videos your audience responds to.

4.  Quality Content – While it may not be a trend but rather a growth spurt, online the demand for quality content continues to rise.  Gone are the days where you can throw up poorly written content, optimize for the search engines, and make money.   Competition and consumer demand has meant a need for quality content in myriad formats, including print, video and audio, to forge a connection with your readers and to provide real value.

5.  Email Marketing – Email marketing has been and may always will be one of the best content and marketing tools available to Internet marketers.

As you create your marketing and content plan for 2010, remember you don’t have to write it all yourself.  Outsource your Tweets, mobile content, articles, reports, ebooks, and autoresponders to qualified professionals.

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How to Whip Out a Blog Post in the Midst of Holiday Chaos

It’s the holiday season, the end of the year is rapidly approaching. Customers and prospects are trying to squeeze in their last minute needs. TurboTax is sending you notifications that indicate you’re way behind in tax preparation and oh, yeah there’s all the personal holiday craziness you need to attend to.

Family is knocking on the door, their presents are unwrapped on the kitchen table and something is burning in the oven.

And, you’ve committed to write a blog post and haven’t even had time to consider what it is about let alone write it.

Sound familiar?

This is when it’s time to pull out the handy dandy list. You know, the top 10 best such and such type of list that readers just love to read?

Lists are great for those last minute posts because other than a few guidelines, they don’t require a whole lot of creativity.

Here are the top 7 things to consider when writing a list for publication.

#1  Make it relevant to your audience’s needs.

#2  Make it timely. A top ten list from last year isn’t going to do anyone any good.

#3 Make it personal. Share a bit of a story in the first paragraph or even throughout the list to give the piece some personality.

#4 Still take the time to write a great, attention grabbing headline.

#5 Stay on point. Sometimes it’s easy to wander with a list and the top 10 best places to stay with your pet, for example, becomes a larger piece on how to travel with your pet.

#6  Keep your audience in mind. Will they benefit from the content or are you just slapping up bullet points to fill a page?

#7  Don’t publish lists too often. Yes, they do well online because they’re easy to read and offer valuable content but unless your niche is lists, and there are some out there, write and publish lists selectively.

So turn off that oven, whatever is burning in there is done. Throw a table cloth over the yet to be wrapped presents and let your family in the door. Your business is fine, the tax man can wait (boy can the tax man wait). Grab a cup of something, coffee, eggnog, champagne or whatever, and take 10 or so minutes to write that blog post you promised you’d write. You can do it!

Happy Holidays!

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How To Improve Your Writing Skills

One of the most common questions I hear from people on the street is, “How do I become a better writer?” It’s most often followed by a book recommendation and while there are definitely some very good books on writing, there’s really only one (okay maybe two) ways to improve your writing skills.

#1  Practice. It doesn’t matter if you were born with a talent for writing or if your struggling, the best way to improve your writing skills is to write.  If you’re a business owner you may be shaking your head and saying, “Well that doesn’t really help me, I need to write well now.”

To that, I say:

* Plan your content before you write it:

- Determine the purpose of your content, keep the purpose simple

- Introduce your purpose in the first paragraph, include supporting material like a list, steps or a few points, and then summarize

* Write your content without editing yourself (save the editing for the end)

* Set it aside for at least ten minutes, several hours is preferable so you can contemplate the content without judging your writing skills

* Edit the piece.

This basic structure works well whether you’ve been writing for years or are just getting started.  And the more you write, the better you’ll get.  However, if you combine #1 with #2 here below, your writing will improve faster.

#2 Study people whose writing you admire. Study it thoughtfully.  What is the structure?  What is the purpose?  Why is the writing good?  What do you like about it?  Emulate the writing style in your practice.

Combining the two steps, analyzing your writing and the writing styles of people you admire and putting that thought process into your writing is called “deep practice.”  It’s the type of practice that involves problem solving rather than rote practice.

For example, if you’re hitting a tennis ball the same way over and over again that’s fine, you’re going to get better at hitting the tennis ball that way.

However, if you want to improve your forehand stroke, you need to first determine where it’s weak and break your stroke down into a series of smaller steps.  This is deep practice and when you apply it to your writing practice, you’ll improve by leaps and bounds almost overnight.

If you’re interested in learning more about deep practice and how to improve any skill, not just writing, check out “The Talent Code,” by Daniel Coyle.

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