The Content Guide

Some five years ago, we compiled a document for one of our clients, covering the essentials of producing and monetising content in the online environment. Not only was the advice we gave as valid now as it was then, but we've compressed it down into one page for a comfortable five-minute read.

Pre-Production:

If it is a large project, have you written a plan?
If content is to be shared or sourced externally, have all licensing agreements been arranged?
Are all stakeholders involved in the project fully appraised of the content?
If you are considering paying for content, have you exhausted free sources of material?

Getting Brand Value:

Could other members of your organization in other departments contribute to your project to increase brand value?
Are there other cross-promotional opportunities, for example tie-ins with other websites or printed material?
Does the product focus on key drivers of user activity and readership?
Have you considered how you will measure its success and value to users in order to decide what to do next?

Maximising reader activity:

Writing good content is only the start of keeping customers happy and monetising your content. Here are a range of other tools which may or may not be appropriate to bolt on to your online product to encourage users to participate:

Message boards and forums
Polls, votes and Questionnaires
Member newsletters
Photo galleries and catalog presentations
Search functionality
Quizzes and competitions
Links to other sites

Testing and Checking:

Do links to external sites have a means to return to your website if you want them (e.g. frames)
If you are carrying advertising or promotions, are all opportunities to promote them effectively used?
Have all links been checked, ideally from a test server
Have you checked spelling, syntax, grammar and punctuation?
Do your pages conform to a house style if tyou have one, or at least a corporate style and look-and-feel?
Have you run your site past someone who has never seen it before: a fresh pair of eyes? Ideally this should be a typical consumer of your services.
If material has come from the print domain, has it been moulded for online use? For example, have long pages been split into shorter segments?

Peripheral Requirements:

Is additional pre-launch activity required, for example entry of terms into search engines?
If your product is database driven, have multiple tests been carried out to ensure the mechanism functions correctly?
Does anyone in your organisation need to be briefed pre-launch? For example, marketing departments, PR?