This last year I’ve been trying to develop a new and different strategy for our content creation. I have created an Excel spreadsheet to help.

The Problem

This last year I’ve been trying to develop a new and different strategy for our content creation. Each has it’s ups and downs but until recently none has had quite as much success as my recent, seemingly obvious, solution. My goal has always been to produce at least three articles a week in different categories. Not all the content is completely original. Some days I simply don’t have the creative process to come up with something original but in that case I have plenty of interesting articles archived to help get my creative juices flowing or simply base an article off another article, tutorial, or free archive of goodness.

The Solution

I have created an Excel spreadsheet to help archive all the articles I run across day-to-day. I have an RSS feed on my phone that I will often open up and get to reading to either educate myself or to simply have something for when I’m sitting in front of a computer screen, with a new post open, and nothing happening. I have a few tabs on this spreadsheet. One of which is a long list of links to articles, the date I found the article, the category of the article, and in a brief title what the article is about. This helps me find what I need when I need it. The other tab is a schedule for the week which details out for me what type of category I will be posting about on that day. It goes something like this.

• Monday: Search Engine Optimization (Google updates, SE tools)
• Tuesday: Development (jQuery plug-ins, JS, PHP, SQL, HTML, CMS plug-ins, mobile)
• Wednesdsay: Design (free vectors/fonts, typography, responsive designs)
• Thursday: Content (creating content, managing content, archiving content)
• Friday: Wrap up weekly articles (fun non-related media, stocks)

When I created the schedule I was pushing it thinking that I’d be able to commit to a new post every day but so far I’ve been able to successfully do so. This makes it not only easy but fun because the headache of finding or thinking of something to write about is completely gone. I’ve branched out into new topics that not only am I looking for to write about but now being educated on things that I normally wouldn’t have opened up too. There are a few more things I’d like to add to this Excel spreadsheet such as a tab dedicated to social media then I’ll be glad to upload it and share it with all of you. What is your strategy when it comes to content delivery and a solid communication plan for your Blog? I’d very much like to know.