How to post online (2 of 3)

So, what should you be writing?

Well, I’ll tell you, random posts that aren’t cohesive don’t work at all.

I tried that.

Didn’t really pan out.

If found that you need a cohesive strategy based on content pillars that talk about topics you care about centered around a core set of messages that you believe in.

This week, I wrote about about why you should even write online in the first place, the different content types to use when writing online, and the BIG content strategy I use.

Today, I’m going to give you the guide on exactly what content to put in those formats.

Topics + Messages

Let’s start with topics.

There are 3 distinct topic pillars that never go out of style:

• Health

• Wealth

• Relationships

Since the start of time, to the end of time, people have been writing about this stuff, people have been reading this stuff, and will never stop.

Everyone wants to be healthy, wealthy, and be around people that love them.

Will never not be true.

So, you want all of your content online to relate back to these pillars.

Action item #1: Under each of these pillars, identify 3 areas that you are interested in.

Spend 5 minutes to think about 9 general interests (3 areas per pillar) you have. Think in terms of broad strokes. It’s helpful to think in terms of industries. These are typically services that people sell, book topics that people write about, or YouTube channel specializations.

a pillar I struggled with for a while. You can certainly talk about relationships if you want to, but that never felt authentic for my interests. So, I talk about self-improvement, which is directly related to relationships. If you want to be in a healthy relationship, you have to work on yourself. This is how I approach it. You do you.

My pillars:

• Weighlifting (health)

• Meditation (health)

• Lifestyle (health)

• Marketing & Sales (business)

• Investing (business)

• Technology applications (business)

• Communication (improvement)

• Fatherhood (improvement)

• Philosophy (improvement)

Action item #2: Identify the topics you care about under each area.

Now that you have the pillars, spend 15 minutes of dedicated focus and go through your podcasts, your YouTube subscriptions, the creators you follow online, your IG explore page, and identify the topics associated with these pillars that you just can’t get enough of.

There aren’t a set amount of topics you need. Ideally, there will be around 10 per pillar, but you don’t need that many.

Here’s my example:

Now let’s talk about your core messages.

There are things you believe deep in your bones.

Stuff that you say all the time to yourself and to others.

Themes that make their way into your writing whether it’s intentional or not.

These are your core messages.

You want to base your online persona around these messages.

Knowing what these are will make creating content child’s play. If you start using these beliefs as a filter, you will start seeing content everywhere. And you’ll see exactly how it fits into the topics you want to talk about.

It’s THE content hack.

Action item #3: Go through your notes, journal, past tweets, etc, and identify the contrarian beliefs and the stuff you would put on a billboard. Write it down. Condense it into a sentence. Gather as many as you can in one central place. Review often.

Tactical tip #2: this step can take a while. Don’t rush it. Start with one thing you believe strongly. Then let your subconscious marinate on it, and be ready to write down more as they come to you.

My example:

Tying it all together

If you have completed each of these action items, you now have:

• Specific topics to talk about

• Messages to sprinkle in throughout the topic-based pieces

And that’s most of the battle.

Tomorrow, I’m sending an email that ties this together with the content pillars and content types.

Stay tuned,

Swanagan

P.S., if you want to practice writing about this stuff, check out my comprehensive guide on writing and growing email lists: https://optimal-email.swanagan.xyz