How do you create and keep your own editorial standards?

1 Define your goals and audience

Before you start writing, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your content and who you want to reach. Your goals and audience will influence your tone, language, format, and structure of your content. For example, if your goal is to educate your audience about a complex topic, you might use a more formal and informative tone, use technical terms and definitions, and follow a logical and sequential structure. If your goal is to entertain your audience with a personal story, you might use a more casual and conversational tone, use anecdotes and humor, and follow a narrative and emotional structure.

2 Create a style guide

Creating a style guide is an important step for content creation, as it helps maintain consistency and quality across your content, as well as avoiding errors and confusion. A style guide should include elements such as your brand voice and personality, preferred spelling, punctuation, grammar, and syntax, formatting and layout preferences, citation and referencing standards, and tone and voice variations for different types of content and platforms. You can create your own style guide from scratch or use existing templates and resources online. Additionally, you can refer to other style guides from reputable sources, such as the AP Stylebook or the Chicago Manual of Style, for general guidance and best practices.

3 Use tools and feedback

Even if you have a style guide, you still need to check your content for errors, inconsistencies, and improvements. You can use tools such as grammar checkers, readability analyzers, plagiarism detectors, and SEO optimizers to help you polish your content and optimize it for your audience and goals. You can also seek feedback from other content creators, editors, or readers to get a fresh perspective and constructive criticism. However, you should always use your own judgment and editorial standards to decide what to keep, change, or discard from your content.

4 Review and update

Your editorial standards are not set in stone. You should review and update them regularly to keep up with the changing needs and expectations of your audience, as well as the evolving trends and best practices in your niche and industry. You should also monitor and measure the performance and impact of your content to see what works and what doesn't, and adjust your editorial standards accordingly. You can use analytics tools, surveys, comments, and social media interactions to gather feedback and insights from your audience and peers.

5 Be flexible and creative

While having editorial standards is important for your online content creation, you should not let them stifle your creativity and flexibility. You should be open to experimenting with new ideas, formats, styles, and platforms, as long as they align with your goals and audience. You should also be willing to break some rules and conventions, if they serve a purpose and enhance your content. Remember, your editorial standards are meant to help you, not hinder you, in your online content creation journey.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?