My latest content experiment

Posted on 14. Jul, 2011 by Melanie in content strategy

A few months ago, I read an interesting Contentini post about the benefits of maintaining an auxiliary, low-PageRank site.

I kept thinking about the implications of this article: how you could use a low-PageRank site to basically sniff out search terms that are in higher demand than their keyword competition would indicate.

That inspired me.

Not to set up an auxiliary site, necessarily. Just to execute some of my content ideas that had been simmering. The most exciting of which was a guide to family activities in Houston called The Lark.

I had the idea for the Lark when I realized that my area’s most popular local events publication for parents was… in print. At the same time, my local moms’ Yahoo! group served as a repository for our cobbled-together lists of all the relevant seasonal events.

I thought, why is there no blog listing these things?

I looked for one but didn’t find it. So I did what any good web writer and content strategy enthusiast would do. I hired a designer (my friend, the amazing Shanna Cote) and got to work creating content I would want to read.

The site is by no means “auxiliary”, and I hope it gains PageRank (and traffic). But it is mine… all mine. I’m having great fun figuring out things like:

• Setting my own editorial calendar — Although I’ve worked in journalism as a stringer, I don’t have a formal journalism background. And my tech writing job has me scheduling documentation according to our product development cycle. Setting and executing my own editorial calendar is different. It requires me to generate ideas regularly, time them appropriately, and—most importantly—post them. All while keeping the content relevant and engaging to a specific audience.
• Analytics — I’ve used Google Analytics for a while, but it’s time to delve into the nitty gritty. Entrance and exit paths, goals, optimizing on-site search, taking advantage of the surprising keywords that I end up ranking for… I can get as tweaky as I want.
• UX — It’s not a complicated site, but if I don’t take care of the details, like creating a decent 404 page, no one will. (And yes, the 404 page is on the to-do list!)
• Editorial and privacy policies — I’ve never had to create and publish any type of “policy” before. But if I expect to build trust, I have to include these messages on the site.
• Social sharing — Anyone who knows me knows I’m a little too into social media. But can I successfully drive traffic to this site using my existing social tactics? I’m already learning quite a bit about how my readers use (or don’t use) social media, and what works for them.
• Content marketing tactics — I cannot wait to try A/B testing. Offering free downloads in exchange for email newsletter subscriptions is another content marketing tactic I haven’t had a chance to try yet.

I’ve found some great resources to help in my blogging efforts, not the least of which is John Saddington’s Tentblogger site. John’s a web developer, but he has the mind of a content strategist. Anyone who blogs can benefit from his wisdom.

In short, this project is forcing me to look at a lot of aspects of content strategy that I haven’t necessarily had to before.

It’s the same old content strategy story, really — making content findable, readable, engaging, shareable, and usable.

But The Lark is my own personal content strategy laboratory. And that’s what excites me.

What content experiments are you working on?