My Content Strategy for the First Quarter of 2024

Before we start

A month ago, I decided to give another try to my hobby — writing. I opened medium.com and began posting articles about exciting topics where I could share my thoughts or expertise. And guess what? Now I'm on the road to my first 1k followers (880 followers already) with over 2k views and almost 1k reads. I'm so excited.

For me, it’s an unbelievably great result. Thanks to everyone and each of my followers, readers, and viewers.

I'm the person who likes to deliver. I deliver on tasks and projects as a developer and will now deliver as a writer.

How could I stop with these results?

But where should I start? How can I bring more value to people who read my articles?

I didn't know, so I started looking for answers here, on Medium. I read a ton of articles myself and gathered a lot of different approaches, tips, and tricks on how to become a professional writer.

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.” — Stephen King

Is it true? Do you believe Stephen King, or is this quote outdated?

As some people may say, it should be a journey. You should have fun. And I agree, but it's not the whole truth. I want that and more. I want to become a professional writer and keep growing, becoming a better version of myself daily.

So, after tons of articles, I defined my first step as a content strategy creation. With it, you avoid being inevitably forgotten after a couple of months, and it's easier to create, but it's very important to have it.

BTW: I would help the first 10 people for FREE to create their content strategy, who will subscribe and write me an email with the subject “Medium: Content Strategy” (you can find my email in the profile’s bio)

For those who are willing to create it alone — here's an example of my own, which you can use as a reference:

My Content Strategy

1. Define Your Goals: What do you want to achieve with your Medium account? My answers: - Sharing knowledge and expertise - Building a personal brand - Monetizing Writing
2. Identify Your Audience: Who are you writing for? My answers: - Entrepreneurs and small business owners - Young professionals and career-minded individuals - Tech enthusiasts, digital nomads, developers & software engineers - Personal finance and investing beginners ps: I'm going to narrow it down later, as I want to be more focused
3. Choose Your Niche: What topics will you focus on? My answers: - Business and entrepreneurship - Career development - Technology and innovation - Personal finance and investment - Productivity and work-life balance ps: I'm going to narrow it down later, as I want to be more focused
4. Content Types and Formats: Decide on the types of content you'll create. My answers: - How-to guides and tutorials - Insights and opinions on trends - Personal stories and experiences - Listicles and resource roundups ps: I'm going to analyze and update it once a quarter to stay on trends
5. Content Calendar: Plan a content calendar. This involves scheduling when and how often you will publish new content. My answers: - Mondays: Career and Professional Development - Wednesdays: Personal Finance Tips - Fridays: Entrepreneurship and Business Growth - Sunday: (Optional) Technology and Innovation
6. Writing and Style Guidelines: Establish a consistent voice and style for your writing. My answer: - Voice and tone - Language and clarity - Formatting - Consistency:
7. Engagement Strategy: Plan how you'll engage with your audience. This includes responding to comments, promoting your content on social media, and possibly collaborating with other writers or influencers. My answer: 30–60m engagement per day + ideas for possible collaborations + secret tools
8. Analytics and Adjustments (If Applicable): Use Medium's analytics tools to track the performance of your posts. My answer: I'm still figuring this one out
9. SEO and Visibility (If Applicable): Learn basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to increase the visibility of your articles. This includes using relevant keywords, creating engaging titles, and writing compelling meta descriptions. My answer: Use Google Trends or any other similar tool
10. Monetization (If Applicable): If you want to monetize your content My answer: - Friend of Medium — great choice - Affiliate (maybe) - Sponsored content (maybe) - Newsletter (maybe)

I have some gaps as I want to stay flexible. This preparation plan is just a starting point — feel free to adjust it based on your situation or write me ([email protected])

What's next?

After all this work is done, I will stick to this strategy for the next quarter and each week prepare my content, edit it, polish it, and improve it. And then, I'll schedule it for the right moment to publish — that's where the content calendar will become handy. And in between posts I'll take care of my community and engage with them.

The rest is just pure luck.

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” — Seneca

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