Originally presented at the Inklings weekly meeting by Harlan Dechamps.
Okay! You’ve created your sitemap. Now what? Well, now you actually need to decide what information you need for each page in order to make it useful.
That’s where the Content Plan comes in to play. You can continue this out as a text list. Or, if you’re a more visual person, feel free to make what we call “wireframes” and draw out blocks for where the content will go on the page. As long as it’s represented somewhere and you have a plan for moving forward!
The following are examples of content you could list in a content plan.
- Home page
- Featured information
- Blurb about you, leading to your author page
- Three latest books, leading to related book pages
- Latest blog post(s)
- Upcoming event(s)
- Email signup
- Social media information / Contact information
- Books page
- Cover art
- Synopsis
- Excerpt
- Status (if not published)
- Characters
- Reviews and/or quotes
- Bonus content
- Gallery of concept art or fan art
- Where to purchase
- About the Author / Bio
- Your writing background
- Professional background
- Organizations and groups
- Hobbies
- For the media
- Press kit
- Other files for download
- Contact page
- Form & fields
- Other contact options
- Social media (also may want to display feeds on your website)
- I recommend not listing your email address, as spammers can scrape it from your code!
- Call-to-action
- Email signup (Get basic Mailchimp or MailerLite account for free)
- Offer exclusive content or free download of content to entice signups (you can use a service like BookFunnel)
- Blog / Updates / News
- News
- Contests
- Giveaways
- Bonus content
- Events (signings, conferences, book fairs, etc.)
After you’ve created your content plan, then you can figure out what your next steps are.
Make a list of actionable items
What are the things you need to do to make this happen?
- Write content?
- Purchase a domain and hosting space?
- Set up a CMS?
- Sign up for an email marketing system?
- Procure images or other media files?
Homework
Go through the steps above and create a content plan based on the sitemap you created in the last lesson. Then when you’re done, create a list of actionable items in order to make your website happen!