You've Finished a Content-Creation Challenge...Now What?

Have you recently completed a challenge to create a lot of new content in a short amount of time? Great! Now here's what you should do next to make your work even better.

Have you recently completed a challenge to create a lot of new content in a short time period? (Something like the 50 Article Challenge on Wizzley, or Zujava's 28 Leaves in 28 Days Challenge?)

If so, congratulations! Even if you didn't make it all the way to the finish line, you may have a lot of new Wizzles, Leaves, Articles or Hubs suddenly published. Now you're wondering what to do next.

Well, after taking a much needed break - and perhaps indulging in a few celebratory libations if needed - it's important to realize your work isn't over. Instead of pushing ahead to creating even more new content, or even feeling like your "job is done" and you can sit back and relax, it's time to work on really making those new articles the best they can be.

Here I'll present some steps and suggestions on how to now go back, edit, tweak and promote those articles so that you can really make them shine, get more visitors, and hopefully see better traffic and affiliate sales.

^{Image above courtesy mlphoto at morguefile.com.}

Step 1: Re-Read and Proofread

Revisit your text with fresh eyes and a clear mind

When we're writing quickly, it's easy to make mistakes and not always catch them on a fast proofread. So now's the time to go back to the start. Re-read your new articles, ones you've maybe created and not looked at since in a few weeks or in a month's time. Read slowly and carefully, asking yourself these questions:

Are there any obvious typos you missed before? (Check titles and subtitles especially)
Are there missing words or repeated words, from typing too fast?
Is your wording as clear as it could be, or could you tighten up your writing to make it more succinct and engaging?
Could you instead actually use to expand upon your original ideas in more detailed text?

It can be amazing all the simple, small errors you can catch when looking at your writing with fresh eyes. Improve your text and your readers will be more engaged and likely to keep reading, so this is a very important step!

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Step 2: Re-evaluate Your Images

Are they as engaging as they could be?

We all know good images are vital in keeping readers engaged in our articles. They break up the text, they illustrate important facts, they inspire and motivate. But maybe you were rushing to find images to use for your articles, or even left them out for certain text modules because you didn't have time to find something appropriate.

So now's the time to take a second look at those images (or fill in the missing spaces). Do you have, or could you take, better photos to illustrate your work? Can you find better images to use, be it Amazon products, AllPosters, Creative Commons photos on Flickr, free images on morguefile, clip art collections or elsewhere? Take your time picking the best images you can, or even editing the ones you've chosen to be more colorful, engaging or appropriate.

Step 3: Add More Content

Expand upon your basic ideas

If you were rushing to get a subject covered in a article, you may have left out useful information, links or even products to promote. Now you can take your time, and consider each of these factors within your new work:

Have you added descriptive text to each of your Amazon sales modules and products?
Can you add any supporting links or rss feeds related to your subject?
Are there any YouTube videos related to your subject which would be appropriate to include?
Can you add an eBay module to promote auctions related to your subject?
How about a poll or debate module? Did any of the comments since you published this work stir up any discussion or debate?

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Step 4: Look at Search Traffic and Evaluate Keywords

Make sure search engines are seeing your articles the way you want them to

Look at the "stats" results of your new work, so far. Is there any particular "traffic by keyword" that is jumping out at you (or does it seem entirely unrelated to your article entirely?)

Have you put your article URL into Google's Keyword Tool, to see what Google thinks your Leaf is about, as opposed to what you intended it to be about?

These are steps you want to take, in order to hone your article's text to really capture traffic for topics that are both

a) related to your subject/interest and

b) what people are actively searching for.

Even if you've done keyword research at the start, you want to go back and see if Google - and web readers - are seeing the content of your article the way you intended. The payoff in tweaking can be immense.

Step 5: Promote and Build Links

Share links to your new content elsewhere

In your rush to create a lot of new content, you probably didn't spend a lot of time promoting it. Now's the time to do so. After you've tweaked and edited your page, make sure you've let other people know it's there to be read!

If you write on other content sites like Infobarrel, Hubpages, Spacial Anomaly or Goody Guides, see if you can add links to your new content there.
Do you have a blog - or several of them for different topics? Make sure you talk about your new articles where appropriate.
Have you shared your new articles on social networks and micro-blogging sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, MySpace or Tumblr?
Are there any forums, groups or message boards you belong to where some of your new articles might be of interest?

But wait! Your work is still not over!

Going back over your articles many months later...

At the end of a content-creation challenge, now is a good time to go back over your much older content as well...like perhaps articles you haven't touched in a year or more.

Go through the above outlined steps for those older articles as well, but be sure to also do the following:

Check for broken links. Make sure external articles, websites, YouTube videos and images you've linked to are still there and active. Are Amazon products still in stock, or is there perhaps an updated/new version available to promote?
Add links to your new, related content. Maybe you've now even got enough content on a subject to build a new niche wizzography or index?
Evaluate the article's long-term success - or lack thereof. Has the article not performed as well as you hoped? Not sold many/any products? Try reworking it to perform better, perhaps re-arranging the content, adding different products, removing modules that did not seem to add anything significant.