Creating A Content Plan That Is Rooted In What You Want To Contribute To The World
If you regularly share your creativity with the world in a blog, podcast, newsletter, Youtube channel or another medium, I bet you’ve sometimes felt at a loss for ideas of what to create next. Perhaps you’ve also struggled to define exactly where to draw the line between the topics you touch upon, and those you don’t.
I’ve encountered these struggles many times myself, and over the years I’ve developed a method for filling my content plan with ideas I’m excited about and that feels true to what I want to share with the world. It’s also a way to regularly check in with the focus of my content, to see that I’m on the right track.
In this blog post, I’m sharing that method.
Start with the bigger ideas behind what you create
I like to sit down and come up with ideas for 1-3 months ahead to have a body of work that together add up to the different topics I want to write and talk about.
Instead of diving right into the topics, I start with the bigger ideas behind what I share - my core message (a slower and more creative life is possible) and how I want to contribute to it (helping people bring their creative ideas to life). Doing this helps me come up with content ideas that are rooted in what I truly want my creative work to be about.
If you’re not yet super clear on your message, don’t worry. I’m guessing you have some idea about the broader topic you create content about. Start there. (And here’s a link to a blog post on finding your message if you want to dig into that.)
Spend a moment on thinking about the bigger ideas behind what you create, perhaps journal on it a bit, to get into the right mindset.
Define all your possible topics
For the next step, I suggest you take out a big piece of paper, a pencil and some coloured pens. Write at the top or in the middle of your paper the broader topic you thought about in the first step. Then, it’s time to have some fun.
Write down everything you can think of that relates to your broad topic. Disregard whether you feel confident talking about it or not. Just try to think of all the subtopics that you could potentially share about and still stick within your broad topic.
When you can’t think of anything more, it’s time to circle in on what you want to create about. Take two coloured pens, one for yes and one for no. Circle the topics you want to share about and cross out the ones you don’t want to share about. If some are maybes you can circle those in a third colour. If you end up with loads of yeses, you can circle you favourites twice.
Now you have an idea about what topics you want your content to be about.
Review your past content
I find it helpful to look back on what I’ve created the past six months to a year at this stage. It gives a deeper understanding of what you’re actually creating content about - and not.
Make a list of all you “yes” topics from the last step. Then scroll through your past content and make a mark on each topic you’ve touched upon. If there are some content that doesn’t fit into your “yes” categories, take note of that. Is it something you want to keep creating about?
When you’ve gone through a portion of what you’ve created, you might see that you tend to create a lot about some topics and very little on others. Think about whether you’re happy with your proportions, or if there are some topics you want to create about more or less.
Brainstorm content ideas
Now we’ve finally arrived at what you probably came here for - the content ideas. Take a new big piece of paper and write down the topics you’ve chosen. Then try to come up with as many ideas as you can for each.
In this stage, it can be helpful to ask the people who consume your content if there’s anything they’d like you to create. You can also go into comments and messages you’ve gotten to see if any ideas surface from that. If you help people through what you share, think about the different struggles people may be having.
When you’ve run out of ideas, circle the ones you like the most - the ones you feel excited about. Then bring out whatever you use for planning your content. I use a simple document with a table for each month.
Pick from your circled content ideas and write into your content calendar. Try to come up with potential titles as you do this. I find it’s much easier to get started with a piece of content when I already have an idea about the angle I’m going for.
Consider if there’s anything that might affect your content, like if you’re planning to sell something and want to write about that topic around the launch. Also try to strike a balance you’re happy with between the different topics and over time. If you have different types of content, take into account the different roles you want them to play as well.
When you’ve puzzled your ideas into your content plan you’re done!
A note on diverging from the plan
If you’re anything like me, there’ll come times when you suddenly get an idea you absolutely can’t resist pursuing, messing with your content plan. Or you’ll miss a week and the plan will get pushed. Or you’ll realise you went a bit overboard with one topic and forgot something else.
I believe the key to sticking to your plan is to keep adjusting it as you go. It’s okay that things change. Just try to keep an eye on how they change. Are there topics you always procrastinate on? Why? Was it simply a boring idea, or is there some bigger issue behind making you feel uncomfortable about it? Consider these things as you go through your content plan.
And remember, the best strategy for creating content regularly is to have fun doing it. So never forget to make your joy of creating a priority.
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