Advanced

Content Marketing

THE CONTENT HUB

MODULE 2 LESSON 5
WORKSHEET
MODULE 2 LESSON 5 WORKSHEET THE CONTENT HUB

WORKS H EET
The Content Hub

This lesson was all about The Content Hub, a framework that’s working super well right now.

As I mentioned in the video, a Content Hub isn’t a single blog post. Instead, it’s a collection
of 20-30 pieces of new content. Instead of publishing these posts piecemeal, you publish
them all at once.

You also have a hub “homepage” that links to all of the pages in your hub.

So without further ado, let’s get right into the steps.

1 Choose a Topic For Your Content Hub

The one thing to keep in mind for your Content Hub topic is this:

The topic needs to be able to support at least 20 pieces of original content.

In other words: Can you create at least 20 blog posts about this single topic?

For example, a topic like “Writing a Book” could EASILY support 20 blog posts. In fact,
there are lots of blogs about that one topic.

But a topic like “Writing a Facebook Post” is probably too narrow.

The only way to truly know is to actually sit down and write out a bunch of subtopics
around your potential topic. Then, see if you have 20.

A faster and easier way to do this is to try and come up with 10 subtopics off of the top
of your head. You can even count on your fingers. If you can easily hit 10 this way, you
can probably get to 20 with some research.

2
MODULE 2 LESSON 5 WORKSHEET THE CONTENT HUB

Go ahead and write down your potential topic here:

In a later step I’ll show you exactly how to find subtopics. So if you decide that the topic
you wrote above isn’t a good fit, no worries. You can always change it later on.

2 Come up With 5-7 Categories

These are categories that each page in your hub will fall under.

For example, with my YouTube Hub, I broke the topic of “YouTube Marketing” down into
these 5 categories:

• Creating a Channel
• Creating Videos
• Optimizing Videos
• Growing Your Channel
• Monetizing Your Channel

These categories don’t have to be perfect for them to work. They also don’t need
to cover every single subtopic that exists.

As long as your categories cover a good chunk of your topic, that’s good enough.

Write down 5-7 categories for your Content Hub here:

3
MODULE 2 LESSON 5 WORKSHEET THE CONTENT HUB

3 Identify 20-30 Topics

Each of these topics will be an entry in your hub.

For example, with my YouTube Marketing Hub, one of my categories was: “Optimize
Your YouTube Videos.”

So I went with these 8 topics:

• Video Keyword Research

• Video Title
• Video Description
• Tags
• Audience Engagement Signals
• Audience Retention
• Watch Time
• Channel Keywords

And I wrote an entry for each one.

Here’s how to find topics to cover:

1. Blog Posts

Pop your category into Google and sift through the top 20-30 results.

And pay special attention to posts that have a section on a specific topic. You can
sometimes expand on these sections with an entire entry.

Here’s an example:

4
MODULE 2 LESSON 5 WORKSHEET THE CONTENT HUB

This post only touched on paleo baked goods and other fake “paleo treats.” But this
topic could definitely be an entire entry in your hub.

2. Keyword Research Tools

Enter your category into your favorite keyword research tool and see what comes up.

For example, when I typed “Kettlebell Workouts” into Semrush, I found these
4 suggestions that would make PERFECT entries:

5
MODULE 2 LESSON 5 WORKSHEET THE CONTENT HUB

Now it’s your turn. First copy and paste the categories you found in Step #2 here:

Then, write entry topics underneath each category.

(You can also transfer this into a Google Doc and work from that.)

4 Write Your Entries

There’s no way around it: this step is A LOT of work.

Fortunately, I learned that you can write entries 2-5x faster by using the same exact
template for each one.

Here’s the entry template I use and recommend:

What Is [Subtopic]?

Why Is [Subtopic] Important?

Best Practices

Best Practice #1
Best Practice #2
Best Practice #3

Learn More
[Links]

6
MODULE 2 LESSON 5 WORKSHEET THE CONTENT HUB

As you can see from my YouTube and SEO hubs, I follow this exact template for 95%
of the entries.

You’ll definitely want to write these in WordPress or Google Docs. So go ahead and
transfer the work you’ve done so far in this worksheet and move on to the next step.

5 Name Your Hub

You can call your Content Hub anything that makes sense for your industry and blog.

As long as it lets people know that it’s a huge collection of new content, you’re good.

Here are some suggestions to help you brainstorm ideas:

• Library
• Content Library
• Hub
• Learning Center
• Learning Hub
• Resource Center
• Resource Hub

6 Create Your Hub Homepage

This is a page that links to all of your entries. Or the categories. Or both.

For example, my hub homepage links to each individual entry. And each category.

7
MODULE 2 LESSON 5 WORKSHEET THE CONTENT HUB

8
MODULE 2 LESSON 5 WORKSHEET THE CONTENT HUB

But this page only links to each category.

Or, you can not even have category pages. Instead, just link directly to each entry.

Either way works.

The important thing to keep in mind is that your homepage is THE page that people
go to, to check out all of your entries.

So it should look nice.

It doesn’t have to blow people’s minds or anything. But it should look like some effort
went into your hub (because it did!).

7 Write Your Announcement Post

This post is a post on your blog that lets people know about your new hub.

9
MODULE 2 LESSON 5 WORKSHEET THE CONTENT HUB

Like I mentioned in the video, this post is important for two reasons:

1. It gets more eyeballs on your hub.

2. It gives people a chance to interact with your hub (comments).

Here’s the structure I recommend using for your Announcement Post:

• Introduce your hub

• Describe what it is
• Link to hub #1
• Outline what you cover
• Link to hub #2
• CTA to comment

You might also want to check out the Announcement posts from my YouTube Content
Hub and SEO Content Hub.

Once you have your hub and announcement post ready, you’re ready to go!

It’s just a matter of publishing your hub (including all 20-30 entry pages and the hub
homepage), then, publishing the announcement post to let people know that it exists.

You put A LOT of work into this. It’s a real accomplishment. So when you publish
a Hub on your blog, it’s definitely time to celebrate.

Once you’re done celebrating, check out the last lesson in this module. In this lesson
you’ll learn how to create your first Annual Guide.

See you then!

10