Content Writing:
Your Ideas Database Backlog



By Wendy C Allen

WARNING!

This article was written in 2005, for Squidoo, a website that went out of business in 2013.


I'm going to leave I up, for historical purposes, so you can see how content writing was done in 2005 on the Squidoo website.


HOWEVER: Be warned that what worked on Squidoo in 2005, may or may not work elsewhere or even at all by today's standards!

Keep in mind too, that I have not done ANY content writing since Squidoo went out of business, so NONE of the articles on content writing or copywriting, that you find here on my site, NONE of them are up to date on current standards and trends in content writing and/or copywriting.

November 14, 2013, my 8 month old son was murdered and I was left with a broken spine. I was paralyzed for 5 months, spent 18 months relearning to walk, and I retired from content writing to focus on the FBI's investigation of my son's murder.

Because of this ALL articles about content writing and copywriting and content marketing, are all older than 2013, and are likely EXTREMELY outdated.

I have not done copy writing or content marketing in over a decade now, so I have not kept up to date on current trends, and I will NOT be updating these articles with current info.

Do you use content backlogs?

The content backlog from content_marketing

Okay... so I went and read your article.

I find it interesting your unusual use of the word "backlog". It's not the dictionary definition. And I've never heard it used in this way.

In magazine and book publishing the term backlog refers to content already published and archived, to be used as the author's portfolio to show to future publishers, thus generating leads/offers for new writing jobs. The reason for the term backlog, comes from "back issues" and "published logs" combined together.

The term backlog has been around since the 1800s, so not a recently invented word, though I must say you recently invented use of it is an example of someone taking a word and applying it to other things, while still using it to come out with the same meaning.

You say in your article:

>What is a content backlog? Your content backlog is a list of content you could eventually write for your audience.

I'm wondering how you came to this conclusion, actually. Did you invent it yourself r did you read someone else say it?

But yeah, backlog is always used to describe content already published. For example, on YouTube, videos you published last year, are your backlog. I've never seen the term backlog used to describe ideas you had but did not yet write/create, so put aside for later. That's actually a rather interesting concept. I like it, because though it is an incorrect use of the word, give the same overall meaning, just to your unpublished works.

>My question for you all is, do you use content backlogs?

Yes. In both the traditional definition of the word, and the newer meaning you've described in your article.

For the traditional use of the term: My site was started in 1997 and I've been adding to it on a near daily basis. As of today it has 9,772 posts on it. Most of them evergreen and continuing to bring in traffic. This massive backlog drives steady traffic, increases subscribers, and consistently keeps people returning for the new posts as well.

For your newer meaning of it: I have an external hardive (3TB) that I keep all my article ideas in. It's divided up in folders based on topic/subject.

I write a wide range of topics (novel writing, world building, character creation, raising fish/ plecos/ catfish/ bettas/ ranchus, art car building, web site building, seo, offline marketing, embroidery, beadwork, rose growing, vlogging, gaming, rving, local history, watercolour, etc.)

Then within each folder, are subfolders, with titles such as: title, idea, started, first draft, needs editing, etc. indicating the level of work already done on the particular ideas. That way I can find at a glance the topic, then the level of work down, allows me to know at a glance how much more time it needs, so I can search quickly for an idea that I have time to work on.

>If so, what elements make up your content backlog in your process?

I like your content calendar!

I do a similar thing, not quite as in depth as yours.

On my phone, I have the Google Calendar app.

Every day I publish a new article/post/page.The topic varies by season. But each page has a youtube video embedded in it. I have over 2,000 videos, each video has it's own page on my site.

I do 3 types of videos...

  • daily vlogs
  • let's reads (me sitting in a big read armchair and reading books - 1 chapter per episode)
  • let's plays (me playing video games)

The vlogs often border into "self help" topics, while the let's reads often feature reading how-to books. These often tie into my article topics...

Back to the Google Calendar app on my phone....

Okay...

So what I do is, I spend one day a week, to sit down and read and entire book. I try to keep the episodes at 15 to 20 minutes long, and most books I can read a chapter per episode. If chapters are long, I do a section per episode. I'll end up with a set of 10 yo 20 episodes/videos per book.

Next I upload them all at once to youtube, scheduling them to publish at a rate of one video per day.

Next I go to Google Calendar app and make note of which days each episode is scheduled to go live.

Now... I have to write an article to match each episode.

I use the list of scheduled videos, in my Google Calendar app, to tell me which topic I need to write, what day I need to publish it (so that I can embed the video in the article, as soon as the video goes live) and in the end, the calendar acts as my "deadline schedule" so that I know how much time I have to write each article, and when each one is due to be published.

>a content backlog gives you more creative flexibility. You don’t have to feel pressure to come up with great ideas on tight deadlines or feel rushed to post content that isn’t fully developed. Not to mention, you’ll have more free time to focus on your other projects as well.

Yep, yep, yep. Completely agree with you on this.

Also, in addition to just having ideas...if I'm in a rush, or have a medical emergency or something to work around, having a backlog of drafts already written and just needing editing, allows me to still get a post published each day, even on days when I've no time to write. So I highly recommend keeping a set of drafts in your backlog in addition to a set of ideas.

>It’s likely you’ve thought of dozens of ideas for posts over time.

Dozens! LOL! You ain't been writing long. I can tell.

Actually...

That database I just told you about? It has 55,000 files in it.

That's 55,000 articles in various stages of waiting for me to finish writing them.

A bit more then a few dozen.

I also find it interesting that you recommend people write articles of 500 to 750 words each. What scam artist fake MLM guru gave you that outdated 1990s number?

Since 2012, Google:

penalizes articles under 2,000 words

boosts articles over 3,000 words

down rank pages under 1,000 words

blacklist/unindex pages under 400 words

They posted their most recent article about it in the Google Help Blog about 7 or 8 months ago and have written about 70 other articles about it since 2012. You might want to read them.

So 500 to 700 words is NEVER going to rank very high in the first place and it's dangerously close to the blacklist level of 400 words. 

You might want to rethink your word counts if you want to rank very high in search engines.

>A content backlog is a nice way for you to keep track of your content ideas,

>A content backlog is one of the first steps that goes into developing an effective content system.

>Developing a content backlog forces you to think about your audience’s interests long-term

>A content backlog acts as a roadmap and gives your content more depth. Instead of simply whipping together ad-hoc, unrelated pieces of content, a content backlog acts as a compass and ensures each piece of content is related and complements the others

I'm just fascinated by your odd use of backlog.

I also see you take advice from the Warrior's Forum. How black hat of you.

*tisk, tisk* And here I was liking you.

So, you write "ad hoc" huh?

I guess that explains the recommendation of 500 to 750 words per article. You don't give a shit about your readers. You don't care that they desire USEFUL content. Why would you? You're just hacking out 500 words per article to have some place to slap those affiliate banners.

Let me tell you something...

While there's nothing wrong with putting ads on your site to pay for your hard work, there's everything wrong with putting filler on your ads to dupe reader.

Shame on you!

Do you really think you can share valuable, useful information in 500 to 750 words?

You know there's a reason Google down ranks pages under 1,000 words and boosts pages over 3,000 words right?

It's called: providing readers with sustenance vs scamming them into clicking your ads.

And then people like you wonder why their web sites are not making any money?

Put yourself in the readers' shoes. Would YOU even give a second glance at a one paragraph nothing hidden between so many ads you can't even find the so-called article?

No!

You wouldn't read 500 word crap like that and you know it. So why do you expect your readers to do the same.

If you cared about your readers, you'd provide them with actual content. Maybe you should try that next time.

Here are some additional articles I thought you might find helpful:





While there are around 20k pages on this website, most of them are blocked from search engines, with only around 800 of them available for appearing in Google/Bing/etc search results. The remainder can only be accessed via the various links found throughout this site. This was done deliberately on my part, and I did it because the bulk of the pages on this website are chapters from 138 novels and 423 novellas, so only the first page of each novel and novella indexed by search engines, and the remainder are linked in order, one page at a time, via clicking "next page" at the end of each. So if you are looking for a specific page from a specific novel, Google can't help you.



Thank you for stopping by and have a nice day! ꧁✨🌸🔮🦄🔮🌸✨꧂

And if it’s your birthday today: ִֶָ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ🐇་༘࿐꧁ᴴᵃᵖᵖʸ☆ᵇⁱʳᵗʰᵈᵃʸ꧂🤍🎀🧸🌷🍭

Wendy Christine Allen 🌸💖🦄 aka EelKat 🧿💛🔮👻
eelkat_red_scarf.jpg






3-BoomFuzzy-2022-QuaraunTheInsane-EelKatWendyCAllen.jpg
TeaWithAThullidQuaraCover3.jpg
2022coverTheNightofTheScreamingUnicorn-QuaraunTheInsane-EelKatWendyCAllen-unicorncover2.jpg
5-thumb-TheVampireLeprechaunofFireMountain-BizarroFantasy-QuaraunTheInsane-EelKatWendyCAllen
8-QuaraunandTheVampireIntoTheSwampofDeath2022.jpg
22GhoulSqawnLichLordLover2022a.jpg
QuaraunAndTheWorldBuilders2.jpg
allthislittlethings
QuaraunBookCoverNoGoldTemplate.png
Quaraun-VorpalKrakenCurseofGold.jpg
50thannSwampofLostSoulsQuaraunBookCover
50thfeedthepigeons50thannivbookcover
goblinking50thannbookcover
pumpkinpatchportal
50thann-quick-quips-with-three-wizards-1minutesreads-BookCover-quaraun-wendycallen
50thanni-frozendawn-2025Edition-QuaraunBookCover
50thannivthreeWizard-perfectpickle-transgemnder-transman-mpreg-yaoi-bookcover
50thannivthreeWizardsCozyApocalypsebookcover
50thanni-moongoddessshrine-2025Edition-QuaraunBookCover
50thAnniversary3wizards-foodtruck
50thAnnEditionSavageWildernessQuaraunBookCover
deadlyshores
50thannPeacefulShoresNoodleBeachBookCover
mothgarden
50thAnniversaryCovers-ThreeWizardsandaLighthouse
QuaraunArrivesAtWhiteRock.jpg
YouAreNotGhoulSpawn.jpg
MothersEverLovingTentacles.jpg
WizardsInTheirTowers-colouringbook-cover2c
Cliffs-pink-silk-tent-colouringbook-cover2j


Get an email whenever Wendy Christine Allen 🌸💖🦄 aka EelKat 🧿💛🔮👻 publishes on Medium.

I also write on these locations: | Amazon | Blogger | GumRoad | Medium | Notd | OnlyFans | Tumblr | Vocal |



Important:

Fraudulent sites are impersonating Wendy Christine Allen.

  • The ONLY official website for Wendy Christine Allen is www.eelkat.com

Fraudulent social media accounts, particularly on Reddit and FaceBook are impersonating Wendy Christine Allen.

Find Me on Social Media:


Any websites and accounts you find online that are NOT on this list are NOT Wendy Christine Allen