No Short Cut to Quality Content - Despite What the Black-Hat Snake-Oil Salesmen May Say

I have a few posts running in my head, but none have tapped that vein which allows them just to spill right out on the page. So when the Twitters presented me with an opportunity, I thought I'd give it a go.

After all, I've railed on about insincere content in the past (here and here, for example). So when a Tweet directing me to a 60-second blog content plan came across my screen, I figured I'd give it a go. Who knows, maybe I'm just tilting against windmills here. Maybe there's a magic formula out there and I'd be remiss if I didn't give it a shot. (I have withheld the link and the name of the company to protect the not-so-innocent).

I filled out the form, signed my life away, and...

Got a video.

So I watched it. After all, the big red arrow said, "Important"

A 21-step Checklist on Steroids! I kind of faded out during the explanation of what each step was supposed to do. It all sounded kind of click-baity, black-hatty, snake-oily. Though the disembodied voice assured me that he did know how it works.

We kind of went down the ol' Informercial Rabbit Hole. You know, the 'normally each of these will cost you $50 each, but just for you... now I can give it to you for the low, low price of $7.' Apparently the sale won't be around for much longer, so I'm rolling the dice here.

Speaking of Infomercial -- there's even a money-back guarantee. But I skipped taking advantage of this amazing offer, because I really just wanted to get right to the 60-second plan. Sure, it took me 10 minutes to get there, but that's besides the point.

After all, this magic formula is promising to distill everything I've learned over 20+ years of journalism, marketing, and corp comm into a 60-second plug-and-play feature!

I couldn't wait. Obsolescence here I come!

The great revelation? The feature that would revolutionize my blogging life?

Filling in the blanks.

That's it.

The solution to all your content creation challenges is simply filling out the brackets in the following sentence.

On [date], [writer] will publish a [post type] using [vehicle] about [category].

That's it.

Seriously.

I could use this for a lot of things, I suppose. On [Wednesday], [my neighbour] will bring me a [smoked meat sandwich] from [Snowdon Deli] on [rye bread.]

Or...

On [Friday], [I] will win the [Lotto Max] for [$50 million] using [random numbers].

It's all very The Secret, isn't it? Just put it out there and it will come to you.

But it's not realistic.

I can schedule and assign a bunch of vague blog topics. And I may get some content back. But it won't necessarily be good. It won't have any deep meaning -- in fact, it's likely just to be superficial and not have any resonance with your audience. We've discussed the idea of faking it until you make it -- and it just doesn't work.

A magic solution that involves just filling out a bunch of random boxes? Sorry, what? That's akin to saying, "The best way to come up with a bunch of new content is to write a bunch of new content." If it was that easy, everyone would do it. And those who are doing it, likely are only scratching the surface of what their content could be.

And let's talk about the idea of [writer]. It sounds good, in theory, to assign content to people. In reality, it's more like herding cats. Anyone in corp comm/corporate blogging knows it takes a lot of gentle coercion, support, nagging, pleading, and offers of assistance to get non-writers to write. A name on a spreadsheet won't matter much.

In fact, arbitrarily assigning content creation to someone about a topic that you've basically pulled out of a hat is going to have you channelling your inner Douglas Adams, who wrote in The Salmon of Doubt, "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."

Sadly, there is no magic formula or secret solution when it comes to creating content. It takes talent, experience, and effort. That's why though everyone CAN write, not everyone SHOULD write. It's a learned skill and it's one that's fuelled by passion, not by haphazard topic creation.

We just have to apply the tried-and-true to the modern media. How you present your stories and content may change, but how you source and develop it shouldn't. There's no short cut. I'll use another quote from Douglas Adams, who loved new technology, but was able to keep it in perspective:

"Generally, old media don't die. They just have to grow old gracefully. Guess what, we still have stone masons. They haven't been the primary purveyors of the written word for a while now, of course, but they still have a role because you wouldn't want a TV screen on your headstone."

Don't waste your time looking for the quick-fix. Spend that time finding the right stories to share and that resonate with your audience.