I am starting a new blog project. This is not a surprise because, well that is what I do or at least, what I am supposed to be doing. This latest project is a tutorial site about some of my favorite WordPress tools. The first set of tutorials will be centered around Thrive Theme Products.
One of the issues with creating content is the time that it takes to create good solid content. Sometimes, there is just nothing that can be done and you just gotta sit down and put in the days and days of work. There is nothing wrong with that and that is usually how the best content gets done.
Then there are times when you have to find methods and develop a process. This is one of those times. The primary content on this site will be a set of video tutorials. The intention is that eventually, the site will be done. This means that new content will only be added when I discover a new product or the videos need to be updated. In essence, this is really more of a website than a blog.
However, I want the site to be valuable and contain more than just a video but it is crucial that it doesn't take up too much time.
This meant that a plan was needed.
Here is blog post structure that I came up with.
- Featured Image
- Intro
- Video
- Recipe
- Curated Tips
So let's break this down a bit.
About the featured image:
On this blog, I tend to spend a good bit of time finding the perfect image. I admit that I spend too much time on this but it is a fun moment for me, so I do it anyways.
With this new site, I didn't want to do that. So I decided right away on a textured background, with banner going across the middle and the blog title. Now I have a template in Photoshop and I can just quickly and easily duplicate the look.
The funny thing is, that I am in love with the look. It is super sharp. (check out the featured image for this post)
About the intro:
The intro is by far the most difficult part of blogging for me and that has not changed. I don't have a good solution for this yet. If you have any tips or techniques, please pass them along. I could use the help here.
About the video:
The video tutorial is the heart of this project. When I first started making the tutorials, I thought that I should script them out first. I quickly came to realize that was not going to work well. So I came up with a formula:
Intro: What you will learn in this video (fill in the blank)
What you need: This is a bullet list of what is required
Considering the fact that these are screen capture videos, I then just jump on the mic and start recording. I find it easier to do the steps live and the video feels a bit more natural.
The video takes the most amount of time. Most of the videos are only 5 minutes long but it can take up to an hour to record and edit it.
About the recipe:
After I am done recording and editing the video, I re-watch it and document the steps. This is the part of the blog post where it will list out what is required and the written step-bp-step instructions. Sometimes these instructions will include screenshots.
About the curated tips:
Even though this site is about tutorial videos, I wanted to add that extra flair of value. However, I was stuck because I also couldn't spend a ton of time writing original content. Then it dawned on me that there was already amazing content out there about mailing lists, design etc. So I decided to curate a couple of tips to share at the end of each tutorial. These tips are on topic and link back to the original author.
I am a huge fan of curated content and hopefully people will get a lot of value from them.
So this is how I am getting a tutorial post done. How are you getting a blog post done?