The cursor blinks, the time ticks slowly by, the page stays empty and most likely you end up in procrastination hell, the people of Walmart photo montage just as entertaining today as it was the first 5 times you watched it. You are not alone. Today I migrated downstairs to the kitchen at least four times besot by a hunger I could not feed. Sadly content ideas do not live in my refrigerator. But oh, the truffle cheese, pickled eggs, and melon bits.
I digress.
Here are 10 types of content that don’t need much of your writing or creating but will deliver value. They all begin with the word curation. Curating starts with collecting things that fit inside of a context. This article is a collection of ideas I use and have gleaned from others that fit inside the context of content creation. If you are in the health business you might collect 5 popular articles within a context, like weight loss, prescription meds, or aging in good health. You then package your articles with an intro: who this is for and why you chose these authors but remember to point out where you agree and can add something and where you disagree if you do.
Interview someone who has a complimentary service or product that would add value to your tribe members. If you are social media expert you might interview an expert in offline marketing, aka, networking. If you want to be extra nice, write the top ten takeaways from the interview for people who won’t watch or listen.
Speaking of top tens, people love top ten lists, or 20, 50, etc. Say you are a financial planner, you could do the top ten things that rob your nest egg. (Think Starbucks, another pair of shoes, not itemizing tax deductions so you get the keep more of your money at tax time, etc.)
About once per quarter I used to compile a list of 3 – 5 Bestselling books I read on health (my lane at the time) and why I recommended or didn’t recommend them.
What about taking your readers on a behind the scene tour of a day in the life of you or your product. It can be a fun video or a story about how an especially good—or bad- day went. The bad day, the bloopers, owning the epic fail to your fans will always be a crowd pleaser.
Using someone else’s content and giving attribution is okay but not great for SEO. Google doesn’t value duplicate content so less of that and more original stuff.
If you are artistic and creating an infographic is easy peasy for you, try that.
The reason to create content in the first place—and all content need not be written—is to provide value to your readers, listeners, viewers. If you are going to write, take the time to write well. If your brain is a dusty dry patch of nothing on the day your weekly missive is due, ditch your usual way of connecting and have some fun. Curate, hold forth, run a contest, record a video, anything is fair game, but stay in touch.
Writer’s block is real but it doesn’t have to crush the commitment to your loyal readers, (and the new ones who will happen upon your work) to show up with something good. And breaking from routine is one way to break the spell of “everything has already been said, I’m doomed.” It might also keep you out of the kitchen when you shouldn’t be there.
Gregory Anne Cox is a free spirited entrepreneur who offers marketing in a fashion without using tired and boring content but a new fresh approach getting away from “Squishy Language” From becoming a freelance writer in NYC, to opening her own restaurant in San Diego, she is also a world renown author. Her most recent publications are “Everything is Food Journal” &
“Your Genes Do Not Determine The Size of Your Jeans”. Gregory now specializes in Online copy assessment, Done-For-You and Speaker and Engagement Services.