Content Cookup28 Jan
One of the things all companies should have is a batch of content (articles, blog posts and the like) that is sat on your hard drive ready to react to anything. This content reminds me of a Sunday cookup, where you make up a whole batch of food and stick it in the freezer only to get it out when you need it.
Now it is a great idea to have a content cookup too. Take out some time (not necessarily Sunday) and write some articles, blog posts, paragraphs, anything you can think of. You can then “freeze” these in a directory on your hard drive. In this way, when opportunity arises or you need some content, you have some you can use straight away. Or you can grab some snippets and turn them into something you can use.
To give you some ideas, the kinds of things you should be looking to create in your cookup are:
- Web Content – around 500 word mark.
- Blog Content – Anything from 100 to 1,000 words. (Although longer posts should be broken down into multiple posts).
- Guest posts – Again anywhere up to 500 words.
- Article syndication – Over 300 words is good.
- Facebook or LinkedIn updates – These could be random thoughts or small tips.
- Guest Newsletter articles – again around 500 words is a good length
Now you can use the same article for more than one of these areas, but you will get a bigger and better response if you can make each piece that leaves your desk a little bit unique. Write a paragraph or add in some different points or change the focus of the content.
In this way not only do you add value to your own efforts, you will be adding value all round.
One way, I find the time for content writing is during long train journeys. I can get a few articles or blogs written and a few outlines for other bits and pieces. Now I just need to get a netbook to key them straight in rather than use the old pen and paper method which then takes me longer to get published.
