A Veritable Article

An Effective Web Publishing Workflow

By Marc Carson · Thursday August 14, 2014

[Pictured above: “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” by Hokusai]

The information below applies to ice cream shops, attorneys, dentists, third world non-profits, ranchers, electricians, painters, grocers, architects, police departments…

…and every other person or organization that communicates on the web.

If you are using the web to communicate, you are a publisher. Hi there, publisher!

Exhibit A: Here’s the broken process that many website publishers use.

1. Share comments, links, and photos on social media networks
2. Show links to their social media networks on their website
3. Show general “informational brochure” content on their website

Comments: This is a terrible approach, yet very common. It usually fails to bring good results in the short AND long term, and the publisher gets frustrated fast. Social media networks effectively own this publisher’s content. This person will not have an effective search engine presence and many of their followers will not see their content. I usually hear comments like “blogging is a waste of time. I tried it once” from people who are taking this route.

Exhibit B: Here’s the very minimum that website publishers should be doing.

1. Post news and helpful articles to their website
2. Share that content on social media networks
3. Share it on their email list
4. Re-share it later, or repackage it for reuse

Comments: With this approach, you own a steadily growing base of content that your audience may find helpful. Search engines will also index that content. You own all of your content and can reuse it whenever you want. Anyone who visits your website will see it.

Exhibit C: What effective publishers do.

1. Post helpful, free information to their website
2. Share it on social media networks
3. Share it via email
4. Mention it in-person when talking to other people
5. Show links to their social media networks on their website
6. Check analytics to see what kind of visitor traffic they get; do more of the things that bring in good traffic
7. Repackage or re-use the information later, especially if visitors found it valuable the first time
8. Instead of deleting old content, archive it so it’s still findable

Comments: This seems like a lot at first. Most of the really experienced web publishers eventually settle on a workflow like this. Check any of the big media publishers—from Fast Co. to Buzzfeed, they want you to go to their website. They are measuring their results. They quickly get an idea of what their audience appreciates most, so they don’t waste a lot of time when they publish on the web. They publish, they share, they check results, and they repackage it all later.

Please—for the love of Pete—find your own effective publishing workflow. Your audience will reward you for it.

If you don’t have time for any of this, and have a business presence on the web, and can’t be bothered to find someone to help you do these things: You have been warned. :-)