Last time we started the process of creating an awesome resource by planning the result, the message, the audience, the medium and the content. Did we get the planning right first time?

Time to ask the tough questions

Handcuff your planned awesome resource to a chair, shine a bright light in its eyes and ask the following questions:

Is your awesome resource brief?

Since you could be using any number of formats this is hard to define, but you want it be as brief as it possible while still being effective.

I screwed this up with the awesome vs perfect video, which at 8 minutes is far too long to make one point. My planned remake will be 3 minutes max.

Does your planned resource stick to one message?

Remember the post I did last week about sticking to one idea per article? Get really tough about this: you can say one thing, or you can say nothing. You want to take one single, easily articulated concept and focus every decision on how to communicate that message. If you start making extra points you muddy the message; your readers won’t remember the core concept, and they won’t act.

Is your awesome resource shareable?

You want this idea to spread. Make sure it’s easy for people to tell their friends about it! If it’s a resource you want people to email it needs to be under 10MB, and if you really want the word to get out don’t require an email address before they can access it.

Can the message of your awesome resource be summed up in 80 characters?

If you want the idea to spread through social media, it needs to be brief enough to be easily communicated. We’re not talking about dumbing it down or making a bad sound bite. It’s about having a compact core message, an ideavirus that’s strong enough to be explainable in a few words.

Will your awesome resource righteously piss someone off?

It should. If you’re doing anything that really matters it will always make someone furiously angry. If you can’t think of anyone, is this really a valuable message?

Does your awesome resource convince the audience to act?

I mean, put down the earphones right now and get moving. I’ve started defining “truly awesome resource” as “the one I have to pause mid-way through so I can go and do the action they’re talking about”.

Is your resource going to do that, or will it get your audience to say, “Huh. Interesting.” then close the browser window and wander off to eat a banana? This is why you need a clearly defined audience: you have to know what really motivates them, and what will get them moving.

Is your awesome resource remarkable?

Would someone use your resource and then call a friend to say, “You’ll never guess what I read/watched/heard!” To spread and engage your message needs to be presented in a way that’s worth talking about:

new
funny
fresh and interesting
surprising
evocative

Does your awesome resource match your brand?

If you’re quirky, your message and your delivery needs to be quirky. You do have the option to deliberately violate your branding, which has been done effectively by some corporate brands. They dropped their usual super-professional tone and delivered something low-key, informal and remarkable.

Is your awesome resource emotional?

Is it so full of passion that it jumps off the screen? Do you want to write it in all-caps? We don’t need any more Good Ideas, there are plenty around. We need MAGNIFICENT ideas, INSPIRING ideas, messages that change the world and get us to achieve extraordinary things and make meaningful change and rock the world!

This doesn’t mean the idea has to be implicitly sexy. Cleaning out your sink trap isn’t a sexy idea, but if you honestly believe it will improve lives, then you’ll be emotional. And that will resonate with your audience.

Feeling a bit discouraged?

Yep, it’s really difficult to create an awesome resource. But if you do it (or if you create a pretty-damn-cool resource) you will have done something truly rare, truly worthwhile, and epically kick-ass. It’s worth the effort and strain.

If you don’t think your current idea has the chops, go back to the drawing board. Take a look at some of these wonderful resources on the way and see if they inspire you. It’s not a broad list; I’m just choosing stuff out of my browser in the last month. There is much, much, much more out there… whatever you want to say, there’s a compelling way to say it.

Ben from Ben & Jerry demonstrates the United States’ nuclear arsenal using BB pellets.

Charlie Gilkey (He of “Do Epic Shit”) produces free productivity planners each month to help people take action.

The Girl Effect and their simple and moving video about what happens when you invest in girls.

Dave Navarro made some resources on how to play a bigger game.

The Eight Principles of Fun.

A case study on Nine Inch Nails and how they have revolutionised music marketing.

Is your idea awesome enough to get produced? If so, tell me in the comments and tune in tomorrow as we talk logistics!

photo credit: Waldo Jaquith

Content writing does not have to be put off until you have sixteen doctorates and three Nobel prizes. Whatever level of edumacation you’re at with your subject, you can still write about it NOW.

Level Zero: Newbie

Your audience: other complete beginners

How you write it: You’re brand-new to the subject and starting to feel it out; this is where you document your experience of learning the basics. What resources help? What confused you totally? What did you wake up at 2:37am with a sudden brainwave about? You’re not an expert at this stage, you’re three tiny steps ahead of the complete novice.

Include lots of reviews, explanations, and dissections of jargon. Interview more experienced people and ask all the obvious questions, because when you’re starting out the obvious questions often have really non-obvious answers. You can provide lots of value if you’re mature enough to admit how little you know; there are bajillions of people who aren’t brave enough to ask the dumb-ass questions you ask, and those people will read your content and love it.

Level One: Competent

Your audience: complete beginners and other basically proficient readers

How you write it: You know the basics now. Not only can you talk confidently about all the fundamentals, you’re starting to get into the more advanced topics, and forming your own opinions about common wisdom. You have a few options here:

1. Write your content like a higher-level version of the Level Zero (your journey into the more abstract and obscure topics). The tone stops being “Argh, what does that mean?” and becomes, “I know what I’m doing, now it’s time to learn more skills.”
2. Write an authoritative resource for complete beginners, from the view of a more experienced practitioner. You’re helping people learn stuff you didn’t know a year or two ago, and if you’re lucky (or good) you’ll remember the pain and confusion and write something that’s better for newbies than was available for you.

Level Two: Authority

Your audience: advanced beginners, the basically proficient, other authorities and experts

How you write it: You’re getting damn knowledgeable in your subject and people ask your advice. Even the experts talk about your new and groundbreaking thoughts. When you’re this confident and learnéd you have lots of options on how you can write:
1. Be a generalist: You know a bit about everything. You’re provide great content for filling in the gaps in other people’s knowledge.
2. Be a specialist: You know everything about one thing. When people want a definitive answer on a question in your area, they come to you.
3. Be multi-disciplinary: You know a heck of a lot about two (or more) different fields, and the way you bring them together makes you damn near unique.
4. For beginners: Why yes you can still be writing the entry-level stuff, if you want. You can aim for high-level beginners or go right back to the basics, if you are very very careful about not assuming too much knowledge.
5. For the competent: You can write for those who want to be more competent and have already mastered the fundamentals.
6. Authority-to-authority: You’re talking to your peers at a high level; readers with less expertise will be immediately confused and leave. You have whitepapers, interviews with experts and incredibly solid resources and tools. You’re a standard in the industry.

Level Three: Expert

Your audience: advanced beginners, the basically proficient, authorities and other experts

How you write it: Wow, the air’s thin up here. Stuff is named after you. You can write any way you like, really.

Extra tips

Of course, you can combine a bit of all of these. If you’re an authority you can write a complete newbie’s post when you start on a related subject that you’ve never studied.

Be honest about where you are! Whatever level you’re at, you’re not alone; it’s far far better to admit your gaps, even when you’re the expert.

Your five-minute mission, should you choose to accept it…

Name the topics you write about and make a guesstimate of what level you’re at for each. If some are lower than you want, start planning how you’re going to increase your knowledge. Otherwise, get writing at the level you decide!

What level are you at for your subject? (It’s a hard question, I’m not sure how to answer it.) Tell us in the comments!