Content creation can feel daunting and even overwhelming to new bloggers. That’s why at Affiliate Resource Centre, we’re here to show you some content creation best practices in the form of a checklist that shows what you should do when creating content and another list of what you shouldn’t do.
In this post, we’ll give you a quick breakdown of our do and don’ts checklist and will then talk about each of them separately.
Here’s what we’re going to cover:
Content Creation Does Checklist:
Here are some of the important things to keep in mind when creating blog content (some of these can also apply to video content):
- Have a clear objective with each piece of content
- Value comes first; always focus on your reader
- Develop your unique, personal voice
- Write informational posts
- Write review posts
- Break up your text a lot
- Use engaging images
- Link to other sources, especially your own content
- Do a final sweep before publishing
Content Creation Don’ts:
Here are some things you really want to avoid when creating your content:
- Being vague, especially at the beginning of your article
- Being salesy
- Coming across as boring or robotic
- Using AI to create your content (I know this is contraversial)
- Copying content from other places on the internet
- Being in a hurry to get it done
- Spamming your content with too many affiliate links
- Imitating others and having no real opinion about what you review
- Not doing enough research on what you write about
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Have a Clear Objective
Before you start writing anything you need to be clear in your mind about what you want to achieve.
For example, maybe you want to:
- Show your reader how to do something (a tutorial/’how to’ post)
- Express your views on a topic or service (maybe a pros and cons post)
- Provide information on something (an informative post)
- Review a product or service (a selling post)
- Create a call to action (get your reader to buy something, sign up for something or give their email)
But besides knowing what your objective is, for the sake of your readers, you’ll also want to state clearly in the introductory part of your post what you’re going to cover.
Make it about them as much as possible: what they are going to get out of your piece of content, which of their questions you are going to answer, which problem they have that you are going to solve for them, etc.
Make sense?
Getting somewhere at all in internet marketing is all about being a provider of what other people want, not about what you want. That’s one of the biggest lessons you’ll ever need to learn.
Sure, you want to get money as a result of all your work, obviously. But that only happens when you are really giving people what they want. Don’t do that, and you’ll always be failing.
Value, Value, Value!!
Value is at the heart of your future success as a blogger, an affiliate marketer, a YouTuber, or whatever it is you do in online business (well, any business for that matter).
Recommend things you really believe in, provide what people are searching the internet for, deliver what you say you’re going to deliver.
It’s about simply putting yourself in the shoes of your readers. What would you do in their position?
Would you probably take some action, come back for more content?
Or would you be more likely to click out and pass on to another website? Is the content just not giving you what the title gave you the impression it would. In fact, did the title itself seem unenticing and boring?
So pretend you’re writing for someone like you. Provide the kind of content that you would be happy to consume and return to for more.
Develop your own Voice
Let your personality flow out into whatever it is you are writing. This is really important.
A frequent mistake that new bloggers make is that they think their articles need to sound like an English Essay.
But a blog post doesn’t need to be a big, formal thing. And it shouldn’t have an academic style or tone like a college assignment or essay. That’s definitely a mistake.
Engagement is key and your voice is the best tool in the box. Put your unique tone, vibes, energy, passion, conviction, etc. into everything you write.
In short, don’t let the real you stay locked up, while your fingers write the content. Don’t do that. Instead, just be you and possibly just write how you talk.
Write Informational Posts
A blog can’t be all about selling stuff to people, although that may be the overall goal, especially if your blog is business focused.
You need a balance between posts that are written with the objective of getting your readers to take some kind of action, such as buying something from an affiliate link, and posts that are purely informative.
Again, this goes back to your site being about providing value to people. This should at least come across as being your top priority.
There are many good reasons to write informational posts:
- Google likes these posts; they are good for SEO
- They can be used to refer people to review posts (selling posts)
- They are good for building trust and positive relationships with your readers
- They help you establish yourself as an authority in your niche
Write Review Posts
Review posts are a great way to get traffic and we’re talking here about traffic that’s ready to buy.
If your site is being monetised by affiliate marketing, then review posts are more or less an essential element of your content creation.
Ideally, we all like to read or watch reviews from people who have actually used or tried the things they are reviewing.
However, if review posts make up a significant part of your online business, then there are a few things you can do if you are reviewing something you don’t own:
- Tell your audience that while you haven’t bought/used the particular product or service you are reviewing, you have plenty of experience with something similar or even better (in your opinion) and so you are competent to review it
- Do extensive research before you write your review
- Let your readers know that you have thoroughly researched it and prove it by a comprehensive and informative review
Break up your Text a Lot
Readability is absolutely a key factor in blogging and content creation. People have a tiny attention span your goal is to keep them on your site for as long as possible.
Readers don’t like big chunks of text. It looks dense and tedious to get through.
With that in mind, always think short paragraphs rather than long ones and just create spaces so that everything looks broken up into manageable pieces.
Use Engaging Images
Throughout your text, it’s usually a good idea to spice things up with imagery. Of course, it needs to be relevant and engaging, not distracting or off-putting.
Text takes the lead in blogging. Images spice things up and they ‘illustrate’ what you are trying to get across. There are many, many good uses for images as I’m sure you can imagine.
You can add captions and alt text to images. Alt text allows search engines to read the image and can help your site with ranking.
Interlink and Link to Other Sources
Interlinking, also called internal linking, is simply the practice of linking now and then to other content on your website throughout your content.
This may prolong engagement on your site but it also shows Google that your site is helpful, organised and well put together.
Internal linking is vital for any blog; it helps with ranking and provides endless opportunities for you to retain visitors and get them to take action of one form or another.
Here is an example of a Wikipedia article with a lot of internal links:
Normally, you only need a few in an article but since Wikipedia is so large, it is practically riddled with internal links.
It is also a good practice to link sometimes out to other sources. It helps your site is you are linking to authority sites.
Content Creation Don’ts Checklist:
Here’s what to avoid; what not to do when you create your content:
Don’t be Vague
Every sentence you write should be on track and going somewhere, somewhere relevant to whatever your post is about.
Never leave your readers confused or guessing what you’re getting at.
If your content comes across as a bit all over the place, you will lose readership and search engines will also be confused, resulting in your content not being ranked.
Don’t Have a Salesperson Tone
There’s not much to elaborate on here. Readers want valuable information and engaging content.
No one wants a post that reads like a sales pitch.
Be careful with affiliate links; find a way to slip them into your content naturally rather than blatantly.
The key is to not let your readers think your priority is their money rather than what benefits them.
Don’t be Robotic – Don’t Bore Your Audience
A lot of armature content that doesn’t rank on Google is just boring and soulless and that is why it’s not doing well.
For example, let’s say you’re doing a review of a program called Passive Profits Pages.
You could start out like this:
‘Welcome to my Passive Profits Pages review.’
But that sounds robotic – trust me. You don’t want that kind of opening, even though a lot of people do it.
Here would be a better example:
‘After checking out Passive Profits Pages, I have to say it has one or two things going for it, but I did discover a number of red flags which I’ll be talking about in this review.’
Again, always talk to the person, not at them. Put your personality into it and talk in a one-on-one style. Google rewards this and your readers love it.
Avoid Getting AI to Write Your Content
Some will disagree with me on this and here’s my argument. AI isn’t ever going to be you! Your personality and unique voice is a huge element of successful blogging.
But on a deeper level, it’s just not fulfilling to get a robot to blog for you. Blogging is a long-term business and it’s something you want to be proud of. It’s something you want to love and enjoy.
Personally, I have a deep dislike for any AI-generated content and I’d much rather a human talk to me than a machine. I would at least expect to be notified before reading something that it is in fact AI-generated or 90% robot content and the rest human.
Don’t Copy Content from Other Sources
People will copy and paste content if they can get away with it, unfortunately. They will also use article spinners.
An article spinner is a tool that rewrites content automatically.
Firstly, copy and pasting content doesn’t work. Yes, not only is it outrageously unethical to copy someone else’s hard work and post it as if it’s your own, but it won’t work and here’s why:
Google recognises and refuses to rank Duplicate Content.
As for article spinning Google picks up on this too, (a good bit of the time). But not only that, the spun article never looks natural but often weird and unappealing.
So, play safe and stay away from AI and article spinning. Sure, you can use AI to get some initial ideas about stuff, but at least 70-90% of your content should be your own and ideally it should be 100% your own work.
Don’t be in a Hurry
You might want to get a move on but a rushed article usually looks rushed. Or it looks like there’s some kind of issue with it.
All too easily it loses its flow and flavour.
Don’t take forever, but don’t ever rush your work either. Let it flow at a natural speed.
Don’t Riddle Content with Affiliate Links
You just need to be careful not to let it look like your content is riddled with affiliate links or call-to-action buttons or what have you.
Often, it’s better to link to a separate review or sales page that has the actual affiliate link on it rather than putting the affiliate link directly into your content. But there are also plenty of occasions when it will work to leave an affiliate link.
You’ll need to learn to make the right judgment call as you go.
Don’t Review Something from Someone Else’s Perspective
It’s fine to agree with other people, but when you do a review or express an opinion, make sure it really is your opinion.
Speak with confidence and from real conviction. It’s your blog, your voice and you really need to say whatever you personally think.
People who come to my site for a review or what have you, want to hear what I have to say, not what someone else has to say. So I need to speak my own mind at all times and not hide behind the opinions of others.
Don’t Write on What you Have No Clue About
Okay, that’s a bit harsh. The simple point here is your research on anything you intend to review should be absolutely thorough.
Google and your readers will pick up on any piece of content that simply isn’t well-researched.
Do the research and express yourself freely and genuinely.
I hope you’ve found this content creation checklist to be useful and interesting.
Always feel free to express your thoughts in the comment section below.
We’d love to hear from you!