And the last two steps ...

10. Polishing your masterpiece (writing a second draft)

A second draft? I can hear you laughing … Still, I strongly recommend you to include this – fifth – step in your content creation process.

Why? Because, this is the moment when that cooling off period really becomes “remunerative”. This is the moment when you already can try to improve your first draft – and your content creation skills as well.

So yes, it may seem an extra burden, but is really important. And is really not a big deal ...

First of all: read it out LOUD.

This is the stage where you’ll have to:

• get an objective “feel” for how good or bad your first draft is
• re-read everything from start to finish in order to (re)evaluate the flow and logic of your ideas, while you are wearing the shoes of your ideal reader
• mark any structural inconsistency or any content block that is unclear or doesn’t make sense
• re-evaluate your title; your title should be engaging and descriptive; it should forecast the information people will find in your content; and more importantly, you need a title which is perfectly aligned with the latest “version” of your content!
• revisit your intro paragraph; remove any waste, and make it as interesting and intriguing as possible
• begin tweaking the language and the tone
• remove unnecessary words or phrases
• simplify complicated sentences and paragraphs
• rearrange your thoughts and sentences to create a more logical flow of ideas
• find the strongest and most expressive verbs and action-words

Finally, ask yourself the following questions:

• is your approach unique enough?
• does it make the point you’ve set out to make?
• does it make only that point?
• are there any important questions left unanswered?
• are there any logical contradictions in your train of thought?
• is your content SEO-friendly?
  

As you can see, the cooling off period and the second draft are really important if you want to get the most out of your content creation skills.

11. Creating the final version

In this – final – step you have three tasks:

• Refine, refine and refine. Step into your favorite bootees and read it again. Then, take a short coffee-brake, step into the reader’s shoes, read it again, and change every single phrase, sentence, word and syllable that doesn’t reflects your goal, your style and your unique approach!
• A final, detailed grammar check. Now, when you are not focusing on content-related issues and the content-creation process itself, you need to perform a final and detailed grammar check.
  
• A final check including your visual appearance, your style and most importantly your logic and conclusion!

And that's it! In eleven simple, logical steps you've created a new masterpiece! Congrats!

And that's it my friends!

If you have any comments, further questions or update requests please don't hesitate to react!