Advanced

Content Marketing

THE CURATED LIST

MODULE 2 LESSON 3
WORKSHEET
MODULE 2 LESSON 3 WORKSHEET T H E CU R AT E D S O U RC E

WOR KS H E ET

The Curated List

Now it’s time to get started on your Curated List.

As you’ll see as you go through this process, The Curated List Blog Post Format is REALLY
easy compared to most of the others that I cover in this module.

But don’t let this fool you. When done right, a Curated List can be super powerful.

With that, let’s get into the steps.

1 Choose Your Curated List Topic

Coming up with a topic for your Curated List isn’t much different from any other blog
post.

So if you have a list of blog post topic ideas somewhere, you’ll probably notice that
most of them can work as a Curated List.

That said, there are two major caveats to keep in mind when it comes to picking a topic
for your Curated List.

1. You want there to be AT LEAST 30 pieces of awesome content on that topic.

That way, you have plenty of great stuff to link to.

2. Your topic needs to have angles and subtopics.

What do I mean by “angles” and “subtopics”?

As you’ll see in the next step, you’re going to break your topic down into categories.
So you want to choose a topic that you can easily break down into around 10-15
different categories.

2
MODULE 2 LESSON 3 WORKSHEET T H E CU R AT E D S O U RC E

For example, let’s say you were considering the topic “Running Shoes.”

You MIGHT be able to come up with 15 subtopics around running shoes (like shoe
brands, types of running shoes, maintaining your shoes, etc). But it’s kind of a stretch.

On the other hand, a topic like “Marathon Training” could EASILY support 15 subtopics.
You have equipment, routines, case studies, tapering, nutrition… and lots more.

Jot down your potential topic idea here:

2 Break Your Topic Down Into 7-12 Categories

The exact categories you go with will depend on your topic.

For example, when I was working on my learn SEO guide, I realized that categories
related to learning SEO were things like: finding keywords, on-page SEO, link building,
technical SEO, etc.

Each of those was a category.

So go ahead and write down 7-12 categories related to your main topic here.

3
MODULE 2 LESSON 3 WORKSHEET T H E CU R AT E D S O U RC E

3 Find and Curate Content for Each Category

This is definitely the hardest part of the process. But it’s still 10x easier than writing
an entire blog post from scratch.

Google is definitely your friend here. Although you’re welcome to go directly to sites
you know and like too.

Just Google keywords related to each of the categories you came up with in Step #2.

For example, if you’re creating a marathon training guide, you’d search for content
around a category like “marathon nutrition” or “marathon training equipment.”

At this point you’re probably better off using a Google Doc or WordPress post. That
way, you can copy and paste the links to the content that you find under each category.

But if you prefer to work on this step inside the worksheet, that’s cool too.

If you want to execute this step inside of the worksheet, first copy and paste the
categories you found in the last step into this box:

4
MODULE 2 LESSON 3 WORKSHEET T H E CU R AT E D S O U RC E

Then, paste links to content you find under each category.

One thing to keep in mind for this step is to look through the top 30 results.

Like I mentioned in the video, you can find some absolute GEMS on pages 2
and beyond.

And feel free to sprinkle in some resources from your own blog here. There’s nothing
wrong with linking to your own stuff here and there, but don’t go overboard.

At the end of this step you should have at least 30 pieces of content in your collection.
And ideally you’d have 50-70.

If you’re having trouble hitting 30 posts, keep digging a little bit more. If you’re still not
even close to 30, it might be time to try out a different topic.

* Optional Step: Create a Bonus Chapter

People LOVE bonus tips, steps and chapters in our content. And a Resource List
is the PERFECT opportunity for some bonus content.

Your bonus chapter can be a curated

list of the absolute best stuff in your
space. Or content that didn’t fit in
a specific category.

For example, in my learn SEO guide,

I have a bonus chapter called “The
Best SEO Resources Ever.”

5
MODULE 2 LESSON 3 WORKSHEET T H E CU R AT E D S O U RC E

4 Write Your Curated List Title

Remember:

You want to position your Curated List like a complete, curated list of resources…
NOT a lame “top 50 fitness posts of all time” article.

For example, this Curated List from [Link] uses this title.

For my learn SEO post, I decided to go with the “How to” route. In other words,
I positioned my post as the place people could go to learn SEO.

Either approach works.

6
MODULE 2 LESSON 3 WORKSHEET T H E CU R AT E D S O U RC E

5 Write Your Introduction

Your Curated List Introduction has two parts:

1. Make your big promise.

2. Give people details about what they’ll learn.

For example, my learn SEO post makes a big promise right off the bat: that this guide
will help you learn SEO in record time. Then, I give people more details about what’s
to come.

6 Assemble Your Post

Here’s where you take the categories and links you put together earlier, and turn them
into the outline of your blog post.

Specifically, each category will be an H2 or H3 subheader. And then, you just need
to include the links to each resource underneath.

7
MODULE 2 LESSON 3 WORKSHEET T H E CU R AT E D S O U RC E

Most people stop with this step. So their final post it basically a title, intro and list
of links. This is a good start. But in today’s day and age your content needs MORE
to stand out.

So the next step is to finalize your post.

7 Finalize Your Post

First, write a 50-100 word description for each category on your list.

Just introduce the subtopic, outline why it’s important, and preview what they’ll learn.

Here’s an example from my Learn SEO post:

8
MODULE 2 LESSON 3 WORKSHEET T H E CU R AT E D S O U RC E

Rinse and repeat for each category.

8 Add a Table of Contents

Here’s where you include a contents section that links to each section at the top
of your post. This is the same thing you did with your RLL, so if you need a hand
setting this up, I recommend reviewing the worksheet from lesson 3 of Module 1.

9 Include Design Elements

These design elements can be a full-page design, like I have with my Learn SEO guide.

I’d like to give you detailed steps on how to create custom guides... but I can’t. That’s
because every person’s website is set up completely differently: different WordPress
themes, plugins… and lots of sites don’t use WordPress at all. Which means a process
that would work for one site won’t work for another.

9
MODULE 2 LESSON 3 WORKSHEET T H E CU R AT E D S O U RC E

So if you want to go the design route, I recommend hiring a freelance designer and
developer to do this for you. You can show them some of my guides as examples.

That said, your design elements don’t necessarily have to be fancy or expensive.

For example, for my Google Ranking Factors RLL, I have a banner for each category.
These are 10x-20x cheaper and easier to make than a full page design. And they still
look pretty cool.

10 Write Your Conclusion

Just like with your RLL, you want to encourage people to contribute content that
you left out.

After all, you’re positioning your guide as a comprehensive list of the best resources.
So you’re going to get lots of people coming out of the woodwork to submit posts to
include. Which is a good thing, because this means comments and engagement.

That’s it! Nice work.

In the next lesson you’re going to learn all about the How I Did It Blog Post Template.

See you then.

10