6 Content Strategies of Ultra-Productive Creators

Use these approaches to supercharge content creation.

As a content creator, I sometimes feel like there is not enough time in the day.

There are always so many things to do. Come up with content ideas, plan the content, make the content, edit the content, publish the content, and promote the content.

I feel overwhelmed just thinking about it.

Over the last decade, I’ve learned a few simple content strategies that help supercharge my content creation. I have personally tested these approaches on my how-to writing website for beginners, on my YouTube Channel, and on my freelance writing contracts.

For me, they work like a charm.

These are the six content strategies of ultra-productive creators.

Octopus Content

Octopus content is creating a bunch of content (eight octopus tentacles) that all connect to the same topic (octopus body). You can produce more content faster when you create a cluster of content pieces around a single category.

This allows you to hyper-focus and brainstorm ideas related to that one subject (as opposed to trying to come up with ten ideas for ten totally different topics).

It’s also great topical relevancy for Search Engine Optimization.

For example, I recently found a low-competition keyword related to the gig marketplace, Fiverr. Instead of creating a one-off blog post for my writing website, I searched for a cluster of related sub-topics associated with Fiverr. I found other keywords super fast because of my targeted focus on a category.

By clustering my content, I can also reuse the same research. This significantly reduces my research and overall creation time.

How to apply this strategy:

• Choose a content category or focus topic.
• Create a series of content pieces around that same topic.
• Research the category and reuse as much of that same research as possible across the different pieces of content.

If you want to follow the approach in my example, you can create a cluster of the same type of content (such as blog posts).

However, you may also want to create a series of blog posts, video tutorials, or podcast episodes on a single topic so that you have an entire group of content in your library all related to that particular idea.

Micro-Content

Once you have a cluster of content, you can split it up into many smaller batches of micro-content.

By doing so, you can quickly multiply your output. Some creators extract a dozen pieces of micro-content (or more!) from a single larger piece of content.

There are plenty of ways to do this: you can create shorter pieces like blog posts or articles, make multiple videos or video clips, create blooper reels, animated gifs, text overlays, and captions, etc.

Microcontent helps by :

• Delivering content to targeted audiences in smaller quantities, at various times, and on varying networks.
• Reusing existing content in fresh ways.
• Giving readers multiple ways of consuming your content: blog posts, videos, images, etc.

YouTuber and marketing agency founder, Gavin Bell, creates 25 pieces of content per week from one long video.

Here’s how he does it:

• Cutting videos into a bunch of different clips for different platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
• Transcribing and adding subtitles to the videos for those who prefer reading over watching content.
• Adding extra audio commentary to make his videos more educational, informative, or entertaining.

How to apply this strategy

• Choose a long piece of content like a video, book, or comprehensive article.
• Divide the long content into a series of articles or social media posts.
• Choose several quotes from the article to turn into Pinterest Pins, Instagram text overlay images, and Facebook posts.
• Record audio of you reading the article or articles. You can then upload it as a podcast episode.
• Make a video or series of videos from the article, blog post, or book.

I recommend microcontent strategies for any longer piece of content you create. Why not double, triple, or quadruple your output? I’ve found that most core content lends itself well to smaller, bite-sized content.

Content Crowdsourcing

One of the most difficult parts of content creation is coming up with a constant stream of fresh ideas. A simple way to never run out of ideas is to crowdsource content.

Crowdsourcing content is getting ideas from a group of people, like your audience. You can crowdsource content by submitting content ideas to your audience or by asking them for feedback on work-in-progress pieces.

You can also crowdsource content during interviews, Q&A sessions with readers and followers, blog comments sections, social media polls, etc.

In an article on Buffer, Alfred Lua said:

If you would like open-ended replies, posting a question will be great. If you have a rough sense of what your audience might be interested in, you could create a poll and list a few options.

Great sources for crowdsourcing content ideas are Quora, Reddit, or any forum related to your industry or topic.

Crowdsourcing content can be beneficial because it taps into one of the best sources for quality content: real people who know the topic (or who are at least interested in the topic). For example, you could crowdsource a blog post title from your readers and then ask them to share how they would summarize the topic in a sentence or two.

This gets your audience involved while helping you create more content faster.

When you first start out as a content creator, you may not have a big or very engaged audience. In that case, you can crowdsource ideas from your competitors.

How? You read the comments posted on their blog posts or videos. Often their audience will bring up interesting points and ask questions that you can turn into great content.

On my YouTube channel, I do my best to respond to every comment. When I notice a group of related comments or questions, I consider turning them into a video or article.

Sometimes I do both.

How to apply this strategy

• Ask your audience for their biggest questions and challenges.
• Run a poll for what kinds of topics or content your audience wants you to cover next.
• Make articles or videos based on ideas and questions you find in the comment section of your content.
• Make content based on the questions, struggles, and complaints posted in the comment section of your competitor’s articles or videos.

Content Bundling

Another strategy that has worked wonders for me is content bundling. You bundle a collection of your existing content into new, larger content — such as a long-form article, guide, tutorial, or book.

By bunding content, you can quickly create content that people love.

This strategy is great for entrepreneurs, marketers, and freelancers who want to produce more content but don’t want to create it from scratch. You can take a series of shorter articles and bundle them into a new, larger piece of content.

This is also helpful for authors who want to bundle their shorter articles or stories together to produce the first chapter of a book, a short story collection, or create an online course.

For example: If you have three blog posts about social media marketing that are each 2,000 words long, then you could easily turn them into an eBook, chapter of a printed book, or a low-cost (or free) email course.

If you have a big enough mix of text and video content, you could create an entire paid online course or membership site.

How to apply this strategy

• Group your existing content by topic or category (if you use Octopus or cluster content, this part can be super easy).
• Create a guide or tutorial for the topic.
• Create an eBook on a related bigger topic.
• Create an email campaign or email course out of the content.
• Bundle the content into a paid online course or membership site.

Content Automation

Automating my content has been a gamechanger for my freelance writing. Using this approach has cut my contract article writing time down by half.

That means I essentially doubled my writing contract income.

You can outsource your content by hiring a content writer, editor, or virtual assistant.

You can also use web automation tools like Zapier and IFTTT to set up flows for the tasks you want to complete automatically, like scheduling social media posts or emailing blog subscribers from WordPress when you publish new articles on your website.

AI (artificial intelligence) software can help you produce email campaigns, newsletters, and other short copywriting content.

“It’s not the best content that wins. It’s the best-promoted content that wins.” — Andy Crestodina

Automating some of your content saves your mental energy because you don’t have to go into full content creation mode. It can also save you time because it’s easy for AI writers to produce content faster than humans.

Of course, you will need to review, edit, and clean up the automated copywriting content, but you still save time and mental energy.

You can use automated processes for up to 80% of your marketing and promotional content while reserving your focus for the critical 20% that matters most — such as writing or filming the actual core content.

How to apply this strategy

• Use free or cheap services to automate as much of the content creation process as possible.
• Hire writers, editors, and other outsourced virtual assistants to do tasks you hate or that suck away your time from creating core content.
• Use online software and artificial intelligence to automatically write and post promotional content.

Batching Content

When I first started out on my content journey (which was back when I had a full-time “normal” job), it seemed impossible to meet my content creation goals.

But then one strategy clicked with me: batching content. Otherwise known as “content days.”

This strategy helped me produce more content faster because it allowed me to use my limited time on nights and weekends to create multiple pieces of content at once.

Now that I work as a full-time freelance writer, the same process allows me to generate more content faster. I don’t always batch my content, but when I do, I can produce enough content to last for days or even weeks.

At certain times of the year, I take time off for personal projects or vacations. Yet, I still want to publish content. When I batch produce content, I can then slowly drip finished pieces out over several days and weeks.

This means I can create content, schedule content, and then enjoy my time off with family and friends.

How to apply this strategy

• Set aside a block of time every week only for content creation. Set your timer and write, record, edit — whatever you need to do during the time period.
• Next, take some time away from that project (I recommend at least 24 hours) before going back to it again with fresh eyes. You’ll be surprised how much more productive this will make you.
• Finally, schedule the content to publish over several days or weeks. Use some of the “free time” to create even more content.

Parting Thoughts

Creating content can feel like a daunting task.

If you’re looking to create more content faster, these six strategies can help get your creative juices flowing and save you loads of time in the process. Test them out, track your production, and analyze the results.

Ultimately, what matters is finding a content strategy that works for you.

Thanks for reading!

More from me: Christopher Kokoski