Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
A lot of attention is paid to content creation. But without a well-executed content publishing process, it cannot reach an audience.
Content production requires systems and easily repeatable processes to prepare content for the publish button and everything that happens afterward.
To achieve this, your team needs an operations manager to oversee and frequently implement all of these steps in the content publishing process. They typically work with the help of software tools to organize content production, be it project management systems like Trello and Asana or a simple shared spreadsheet.
If you're new to the role and are thinking about how to improve your operations or want to set up a content publishing process, Lisa Dougherty, CMI's Blog Operations and Community Director, can help you.
She explains how she organizes the editorial operations that enable CMI to publish and promote new content on our main website (www.contentmarketinginstitute.com) every weekday.
The content publishing process that Lisa has refined over the decade helps us keep track of content from multiple authors through the many stages of editing and production. It also serves as a connection point for CMI team members who promote the content via email and social media.
This is how Lisa does it:
Get organized to track content progress
The team member responsible for content production must know the status of each asset. At the same time, they must create and maintain the post-production release schedule. These two documents can be closely linked to your editorial planning.
In the case of CMI, the team uses separate sheets (tabs) within a common master table called a tracker. One sheet describes the status of the content assets and one serves as a publishing calendar for days of the week. Lisa manages both sheets in the tracker.
Content development status tracker
The Content Development Tracker shows the status of each editorial article in development. This lists the topic, the person responsible for the creation, the due date, the status (creation, editing, production ready) and any related notes, e.g. E.g. links to include, special calls to action, etc.
When a task is completed, the assignee updates the status column.
Some tools trigger notifications to relevant team members when an asset's status changes. With CMI, checking status on the tracker is built into each person's workflow, so such notifications are rarely required. Other content marketing teams use the notification feature in their project management software when an asset moves to the next step in the dashboard.
Production tracker and content publishing calendar
A second sheet in the primary document serves as a production calendar for publication. It shows the content of each day (CMI publishes five days a week) along with important information required to publish the asset.
Your production tracker may look different depending on publishing frequency, formats, channels, etc. The CMI version contains these columns:
- Release date
- author
- Production status (two options: loaded in WordPress or checked in WordPress)
- Notes (Lisa lists the date she requested the cover image, any incomplete items such as video embeds or graphics, and the date she sent a preview to the author or featured sources.)
- headline
- Category (main topic based on CMI's core categories)
- Preview copy (what appears in the daily email)
- Excerpt copy
- Call to action
- URL
TIP: Don't rely on the default URL that your content management platform creates. Change the default to include appropriate keywords (use hyphens to separate words) and stick to 50 to 80 characters.
Manage content from multiple sources
Content operations managers often coordinate content received from internal and external sources.
Submissions, drafts, revisions, and updates from guest posts, in-house subject matter experts, and content marketing team members add up to a lot of files to manage.
You can make this process more efficient with these tips:
- First, content should be stored in a central location that is accessible to everyone involved in the creation, review, and publishing process. CMI currently uses Microsoft OneDrive. Other teams may use Dropbox, Google Drive, or other cloud-based platforms.
- Second, establish a standardized process for organizing files and naming conventions. This helps with version control. You never want to publish an outdated version of the content and you don't want to have to ask three people to figure out which version to use.
This is how CMI organizes the content on its server:
- The main folder – CMI Editorial Team – contains all the content.
- Below the main folder are individual folders for each asset in the content publishing process. It follows a standard naming convention:
- Author First Name Last Name – Topic
- Example: Jodi Harris – customer loyalty
- Author First Name Last Name – Topic
Each asset folder contains:
- Folder labeled “Drafts” and contains the original version and the edited version
- Folder labeled “Pictures”
- Final version labeled “AUTHOR LAST NAME – Subject – Publisher Initials CLEAN EDIT Content Manager Initials Date FINAL”
- Example: HARRIS – Customer Retention – ag EDITS CLEAN ld 10-12-23 FINAL
Once an article is published, Lisa moves the assets folder to the Published Articles folder.
Some content teams mark the asset folder with the publication date. Lisa would rather not do this because the date may change, but the author and subject may not.
Finalizing content for publication
With systems in place to track content progress, publishing calendar, and content production status, the operations staff moves on to more detailed work – preparing content for publication.
Since this process often only involves one person, you may be tempted to just do it and not take the time to document the process. Not. Standardizing the content publishing process and writing it down is essential so that another team member can step in and execute it when the operations staff is not available.
CMI uses a checklist to ensure the process is followed and no one forgets a step. It contains:
- Perform a post-edit check to ensure basic readability and comprehension.
- Verify all names of people, companies, and tools mentioned in the content.
- Identify internal linking opportunities by adding them to relevant words and phrases and the hand-picked related content listing at the end of the article.
- Find or create images and insert them into the document.
- Add embed code for videos, GIFs, etc.
- Review and update the headline and call-to-action if necessary.
- Run the document through Grammarly Premium.
- Import a Word document and add visual elements in WordPress.
- Add audio, watch for mispronunciations and correct them.
- Release schedule.
TIP: Internal links and hand-picked related content features in CMI articles are the best-performing content on the site. Traditionally, CMI uses older popular posts for internal links attached to keywords and newer popular posts whose titles are listed in hand-picked related content at the end of each article.
After the content is loaded into WordPress, a proofreader checks it one final time, ensuring that all links point to the correct source and open in the correct window (CMI links open in the same window, while external links open in a new one window can be opened).
Final steps before publishing
Once everything is ready to go live, communication is sent to all relevant stakeholders, from creators and sources to the social media and email production team. You can do this automatically through your project management software or manually send an email or direct message to stakeholders. The team should agree on the method of delivery of the notification.
click to enlarge
TIP: Lisa sends a standard email to all authors and sources for whom she has contact information. She attaches the Word document for them to review (no permission is required to publish), adds the URL where they can view the article once it's live, and notes how they'll contribute to promote and share their work on social networks.
Get organized
It takes a lot of work to get your content noticed. By detailing a content publishing process, your content will take less time to create, frustrations will be minimized, and errors and omissions will be less likely to occur. Your audience may not thank you publicly. So be aware that all content consumption statistics reflect your good operational work.
All tools are mentioned by the author. If you would like to suggest a tool, tag Content Marketing Institute on social media.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
