One of the biggest gripes I hear a lot about these days is [TAG-Tec]information overload[/TAG-Tec]. There’s just too much information out there now for our own darned good. And you have to either search far and wide for the really good, really relevant stuff, or else be prepared to fork over huge sums of money for someone else to find and summarize it all for you. I could rant about that for days, but that’s not where I’m going this time.

What I’m thinking today is more about how we as information publishers contribute to that overload.

So just what is information overload?

According to Wikipedia, information overload “is a term that is usually used in conjunction with various forms of Computer-mediated communication such as Electronic mail. It refers to the state of having too much information to make a decision or remain informed about a topic.”

There are definite repercussions in dealing with it too. Stress, frustration, total mental paralysis when it comes to actually retaining and processing what you’re reading… Let’s face it, information overload makes us feel like crap. I don’t know about you, but there are times when I feel like I’m getting more stupid by the minute. In fact, I got a bit overloaded myself when I started to search for information to put in this article and came up with 1.7 million results for an exact search. Where do I start?

One of the things I found in my search was a flyer on the Washington College website that lists these symptoms and side effects of information overload. It says you probably have too much on your brain if you:

• make mistakes
• forget to do something
• let things slip through the cracks
• become sluggish
• lose creativity
• become unproductive
• procrastinate
• become indecisive
• get stressed out
• experience a total mental break down

And this is exactly what got me thinking… If I suffer from being overloaded and overstimulated with information, and it’s my job is to provide at least some of the information I find to my site visitors, customers, and clients in a way that makes sense, how do I do that in a way that I am not contributing to their information overload?

How does this relate to Information Marketing?

Here’s what got me thinking about this whole mess….

I’m writing a report to give away to new subscribers and visitors to Personal-Growth-Articles.com. The site’s not live yet because I really want to make sure I do it right this time. So I’ve been following all the “proper” internet marketing steps to get it ready for visitors. If you’ve been around for any length of time, you know the drill:

• write a report
• fill it full of affiliate links
• trade it for an email address
• make an irresistable one time offer (OTO)
• make your money on the back end by sending your new subscribers other information and offers (and for the cynical among us… feel really good about doing it because you’ve invoked the law of reciprocity by giving away something for free first.)

Now, the main type of OTO that you see these days, especially in the IM niche, is a huge package of ebooks and/or audios and/or videos. So as I was writing my report I was mentally cataloging each topic and thinking, I could add something on that to the OTO package.

And then that annoying little voice that pops up every so often came on loud and clear, and asked me “Do you really think that your customers want some huge pile of ebooks that they’re never going to read? Or worse yet, they’ll get so overwhelmed by the amount of information you’re piling on them all at once, they won’t get any benefit out of any of it!”

I really love my little voice. It’s given me great advice over the years, when I take action on it. I’ve pretty much learned to ignore it at my peril. So the question remains… What kind of offer do I put together that will help someone and NOT contribute to another case of information overload.

Sigh… Back to the drawing board.

I’ll let you know what I decide on. In the meantime, feel free to leave your suggestions and comments below.

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This post is part of the Article Site Makeover series.

Okay, as promised, here’s the highlights of my content creation plan for the new article site blog.

I followed Dr. Mani’s plan here and answered the questions that were applicable to this situation to create my plan. You can find a link to his site in the previous post. (I don’t want to spam him by linking back there twice in one day. )

Section 1: Who creates the content?

Content will be created mostly by me using both original research and private label materials. Once the site is established and can provide benefit to others authors, there will be a manual submission process that invites others to contribute. In time I may also outsource some of the content creation, but other things have priority in my wish list for when the budget for outsourcing becomes available.

Section 2 was about outsourcing, so doesn’t apply at this time.

Section 3: What kind of content will I offer?

Articles, of course, since that’s the main focus of the site. But I also recognize that people have different learning styles and so will include audio versions of articles, interviews with experts, and videos.

Since I’m building an authority site I want the content formats to appeal to as wide an audience in my target market as possible.

Section 4: What are the details of my content?

Mindful of becoming stuck in a posting rut, I have decided that content length and detail will be varied. I don’t want readers to get bored, and they will if all they find when they visit is heavy reading. So based on that here are my content details:

• Feature articles will be longer (500-1000 words) and be very detailed.

• Tips and short articles will be from 250-500 words and provide general information.

• I’ll also be using audios, videos, humorous stories, and interactive elements to provide information in different ways.

Section 5: Frequency of Updates

The initial blog business plan calls for content to be added three times daily. I can see there being postings more often depending on the news stories of the day.

Section 6: Who will add the content to the site?

Again, for the time being I will add the content myself. News items, videos and podcasts will be added daily as they occur. Feature articles and tips will be written in advance and set up using the wordpress post-dated feature.

This was a really useful exercise for me to do. In the past when I’ve started a blog, I’ve never really given a lot of thought to where the content would come from or what it would look like. I’d just pick a topic and go off and write a few articles. I think by having a [tag-tec]content plan[/tag-tec] this time, and knowing exactly what kinds of content I want, I will have a much better chance of creating a successful and long-lasting blog.

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That’s not necessarily true in many cases, but I am finding a definite advantage to doing Dr. Mani’s course after the initial postings. For sure I don’t get the benefits of doing it as part of a group, but that’s okay. One of the nicest things I’m finding is that I have the time to read the comments and follow the links to some really great content left by the original participants.

Just as an example this morning I followed one of the trackbacks and found Pat Doyle’s list of 23 great ideas for blog posts. Not only are the ideas excellent, but she makes a really good point about varying the type of posts that you do. It is really easy to get stuck in a run and to only do one type of post all the time. (Yeah, I’m speaking from experience here.)

That list will come in very handy now that I’m working on the content section of the course. Which is another thing I’d never thought of before — having a content plan. With an extra 23 ideas for posts to complement the full length articles, there will be something on the new site  to appeal to all the different information processing styles.

Side Note: If you’re looking for Day 2, there isn’t one. I spent yesterday running errands and enjoying the sunshine, and last evening watching movies with my son. I’ve learned that when your 20-something child wants to spend time at home with mom, that it’s a no-brainer to turn the computer off and enjoy it.  I think today he’s taking me golfing, so I’ll be back later tonight to show you an example of my content plan.

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