Techniques for Content Creation - Inspiration & Creativity?

[d3t0x]

Hey all,

As part of my new personal goal to become more social and give back to communities that have helped me learn my way around the internet marketing world - I wanted to ask you guys - Where do you get your inspiration and ideas to formulate a piece of 10x content?

Inside my head I have tons of different ideas bouncing around. It feels a little bit chaotic. I'm not sure where to begin. I already have some feelings of self-doubt (as I usually do with something new I try).

I know I can share information that would benefit some people, but my issue is getting that down on paper. I've never been one to write my own content and I know it will be a skill to build up over time but I feel a little overwhelmed on where to begin.

There is always the option of a ghost writer, but surely most of you write content yourselves, yes?

Also, I am sure after I bang out a few of these I will be exhausted of new ideas. So to keep a consistent and quality content stream flowing, where do you personally find new sources for quality content?

 

[Future State]

I feel the same way in my mind. I can almost see the entire post in its entirety but its impossible to just plop it on paper that way. When I have that much organized chaos in my head, I start with an outline.

The outline starts as a quick splash of all of the main aspects of the topic I want to touch on. The idea is to get it out of my head first. Then I go back and organize it into the order it'll appear in the article.

Then I see if any section deserves sub-headings and add those. Eventually I have a rough draft outline to full depth in order. I'll glance at other ranking pages and see if there's ideas I need to add that I didn't think of.

Finally, I'll do keyword research and use all of the related terms is the headings where I can. That reminds me to use them in the article here and there too.

I get all of the text done and will leave notes along the way in brackets and all caps so I see them, telling me what kind of image I want to add, or if a section needs more info about a specific detail, or if I should come back and use a list or a table.

But what you're seeing here is the incremental process of getting ideas out of my mind and onto a safe medium so I'm not stuck trying to remember it and handle 1000 variables in my head at once. Then you organize them. Then you flesh out the skeleton.

As far as trying to find ideas, I keep my "marketer shades" on at all times so I see the world through those filters. BuzzSumo, Reddit, RSS Feeds, Forums... everything you need is being sorted and thrown at you constantly. Other people will tell you whats good too, you just have to repurpose it. You can even take something from a completely different vertical and change the angle to yours.

 

[Steve Brownlie]

Try just making some videos. I did a 10 day video challenge on LinkedIn this past month, and that's way out of my comfort zone (I'm not really a video person - find the camera a little offputting). But it was easy sometimes to just get something out that was useful without having to structure it properly/write a post/make it deep or long enough to deserve a post etc.

I'm thinking if I record another 30-40 videos over the next 3-4 months there's a piece of 10x content right there if I put a page together with some notes and pick the best ones.

 

[BrainOrBrawn]

Everyone that creates content should think of the process as being similar to being a museum curator. Every half decent museum has a natural trajectory that people need to follow to get the most out of their experience. The same goes for content.

Whenever I am thinking about writing content for someone's site, especially if it's part of a series, it comes down to understanding the context first and foremost. The answer to your question and to most questions when it comes to content creation is to ironically ask questions:

1. What are problems that my audience has in this niche?
2. What are reasons that their problems are how they are?
3. How are my competitors attempting to provide a solution or info on the subject?
4. What is their product and content lacking that I can go into more detail or offer a spin on?
etc. etc.

These questions come from understanding your niche thoroughly. Your research can lead to an overload, but when it comes to organizing it, all you really need to do is segment it based on what would be the most relevant to your goals.

For instance, if you're looking for quick traffic via a traffic leak, you can tackle a problem that would be interesting or an issue that would get some chatter. If for instance it was a political site, you wouldn't make your post be "how to vote in the upcoming election" your priority, even though if spun right you could add flavor that would make it shareable.

You would prioritize an article like: "What (recent event) means and why you need to buy a gun".

I like to think of a piece of content should do one of three things:
1. Improve the authority of the site and bridge a connection to the audience
2. Evoke an emotion and act as traffic bait
3. Make people buy or do something

Organize your ideas via a document and put them into these categories. The first should be the basis of the site, the third should be the power layer and the second is basically the tentacles of the beast.

As for the writing itself, write first and edit later. If you get stuck, keep asking questions. The more questions you ask and you find out how to answer them, the more naturally your content will flow and the details will be more fleshed out.

I'm writing content and doing outreach right now and I'm in the zone so hope this helps.