Your writing guidelines are HOW you’ll write your post.
Your content specification is WHAT you’ll write in your post.
You can use them to either:
- Guide your writing
- Give exact instructions to a hired writer
I’ve written a lot of blog posts in my time. I’ve also worked with a lot of writers. And, one lesson I’ve learned is:
Content specifications are essential.
The more in-depth your content specification is, the better the results will be.
And if a writer has made a mistake, it’s usually because I didn’t make it clear in my specification.
Why You Need To Create A Content Specification
Content specification is a fancy way of saying “outline”.
It’s a skeleton version of your post. It highlights all of the key points you’ll touch on. And, it allows you to visualize what the post will look like before you start writing.
If you’re writing the content yourself, it will:
- Help you flesh out topics
- Pick a logical structure
- Identify areas where you need to add extra resources
If you’re outsourcing your content, it will:
- Help communicate what you want
- Show the keywords you want including
- Provide an easy-to-follow framework
There’s nothing more helpful than a well-written content specification. Whether it’s a 1,000 word post or 10,000 one, it speeds up the writing process and ensures your post makes sense.
How To Create A Content Specification
VIDEO
Download The Content Specification Template
Content specifications should be simple and they should include:
- Post title
- Short description
- Target word count
- Target keyword
- Specific Questions To Answer
- Competitor Content Pro’s & Con’s
- Rough Structure
- Links to any important resources
To do this, I find it useful to create a sharable Google Doc. Then I use:
- Headings
- Subheadings
- Bullet-points
To create a summary of each section. This allows me to quickly add information or change the structure.
Take a look at the content specifications for the posts I’m going to create:
- Best FPV racing drone
- FPV racing drone with goggles
- Fastest racing drone
- How much does a racing drone cost
- Drone blogs
I am going to show you how each of these posts turned out later in the course.For now…
I want you to understand that anyone could read those documents and know exactly what to write. There’s room for creativity, but the core structure is there. It’s clear and concise!
Download The Content Specification Template Here
Create Your Content Specifications
Go through and create a content specification for each of your posts.
Remember:
Be clear and concise.
Make sure it all makes sense and can easily be referred back to. Include any relevant links or research that will help you.
Because once you have done that…
…It’s REALLY easy to transform that specification into amazing content later-
Of course I will be stepping you through exactly how we do that for all of the content specification examples I created above.
And I’ll be sharing live links to everything as well!
Final Thoughts…
This might feel like a lot of effort. But it’s all necessary!
I’ve spent years optimizing my content production process. After a while, it becomes second nature. I can put a content spec together in 5 to 20 minutes!
Then the final post comes back to me ready to go, totally optimised and formatted in precisely the way I want it.
So next:
I’m going to show you how to manage the entire content creation process end to end.