Once the cornerstone content is ironed out and published and other pieces are in the works it’s such a habit to get into to link back to those and have that internal structure easy to follow.

This is a great list, thanks very much for sharing it.

I’m particularly grateful for your comments in point one. I see many influencers promoting the benefits of spending time developing a significant amount of content for platforms like LinkedIn and Medium. While these can be great from an audience building perspective, especially when these posts do well, the negatives outweigh the positives in my opinion.

I can’t help but feel that the real long-term winners would be LinkedIn and Medium in this scenario. Yes, I could receive one high-authority backlink per piece of content posted, but this will likely be a fraction of the many backlinks that these platforms will receive from material that proves popular (or that I could receive had I posted the content on my website), leading to ranking benefits for them, not me.

Also, there’s no telling what changes could occur with their platforms that could ultimately suppress visibility of the content in future, meaning I’d potentially only enjoy very short-term benefits from such a significant time investment.

It’s just too risky a strategy, and I think you’re 100% correct advising readers to post the majority of their content on a platform they own and control.

Thanks again,

Jonathan

I’ve heard you say in the past the cornerstone content is part of the foundation but it’s so easy to get distracted while you’re still building the foundation of a really resourceful site.

Thank you!

I agree with that — particularly with not prioritizing social media over building your own thing.

It’s very helpful to start building those distribution channels early, but if one hasn’t, then the best time to start is now. 🙂

Writing guest posts can be very, very valuable — just make sure there’s a good way for your new audience members to come find your site and learn more about you.

You’re always going to do some work on sites you don’t control — the key is not to build your entire business there.

This blog was a great read! I have been trying to define Content Marketing for a while now, but you have done that and then some with this blog. Your checklist is one that I believe I will be following religiously for the next few months, until I have it memorized. You bring up some fantastic points, especially with how you stated you will need to post your ideas/content on YOUR own site, not on someone else’s. I have created my own website and will share my blogs after I post them there, but I cannot tell you how true your statement is. It does wonders posting from my site then sharing to my other social media afterwards. It also helps drive traffic to my site. Thanks again for the great tips and information that is already helping me succeed.

Similar to the advice given on building your email list early, I am of the opinion that it is also important to build your distribution channels early, especially social media. Of course, we do not need to keep promoting our earlier articles incessantly through social media, but I think you can start early by curating articles, and engaging in conversations with your targeted audiences. Similar to an email list, it takes time to build an engaged community on social media as well.

A caveat though: I don’t recommend anyone to prioritise social media on top of any other steps you mentioned in the checklist.

Please correct me if I’m mistaken about it, thank you!