Different types of content
As an online editor or writer, it’s important that you understand about different types of content.
The three you’ll need to know about at MyFrenchLife™ are content marketing, cornerstone content and contributor content.
What is content marketing?
To gain an understanding of what content marketing is, and why it’s important, we’d like you to read/watch the following…
1. Article: an intro to the concept of content marketing on the Content Marketing Institute.
2. Video: content marketing as the intersection between copywriting and marketing, by Copyblogger.
3. Article: content marketing as the intersection between journalism and marketing, on Mashable.
4. List article: some examples of succesful content marketing, on Mashable.
5. Article: the success of sponsored content at the New York Times, and how it works for publications, on Contently.
Content marketing on MyFrenchLife.org
Then, we’d like you to read through our partnerships & advertising page, to get a feel for how this fits in with MyFrenchLife™.
Next, read a case study of how we worked with one of our partners, Nomador. (The password is: enchante.)
Lastly, please take a look at some examples of partner content on our website:
1. An article on an event hosted by the Alliance Française Paris Île-de-France.
2. An article containing an eBook on French travel and the sharing economy, for our partner Nomador.
What is cornerstone content?
Many of the content projects or series we allocate to inhouse/intern writers are what we call ‘cornerstone content’.
Cornerstone content…
- Is a series or project that acts as a ‘cornerstone’ of our content strategy.
- Defines us as a magazine, and is a popular topic amongst our readers.
- Generally consists of 3-4+ articles in a series on a particular topic. (Examples include series on French language, champagne, and French kids.)
- Can be classified as a ‘guide project‘ (click for more information).
- Is written in our in-house style and voice.
Generally, we ask interns or those undergoing digital writer training to assist us with this type of content.
It’s important for us to note that this content is published as ‘in-house’ content. Usually, a publication would publish it under the masthead’s name (ie MyFrenchLife™). In our case, that’s Judy’s author profile.
We encourage interns and in-house writers to still include this content in their own writing portfolios – we’re always happy to vouch for the fact that they wrote it.
Cornerstone content on MyFrenchLife.org
Some examples of cornerstone content include our series on champagne, cheese, French kids, French language, Paris Mosaic and French travel. Read the following articles and consider how they differ to contributor submissions and content marketing:
1. How to read a champagne label
2. Our favourite French idioms
What is contributor content?
We have a team of regular contributors who submit articles on a range of topics. These contributors pitch and plan content in advance, and we help them settle on an angle and focus. However, we like to see their own voice and opinions shine through: we believe this adds great personality and variety to the magazine!
Contributor content on MyFrenchLife.org
Click below to discover the portfolios of some of our longest-serving contributors – each of whom have very different styles.
1. Alison Eastaway writes mostly on cultural differences, and more recently, life in Paris.
2. Paul Prescott writes a hilarious column called ‘A guy’s guide to culture’.
3. Elisabeth Donato is a French expat living in the US.
4. Jennifer Bourne is also a French expat living in the US: she writes guides on how to find France in New York.
5. Gemma King writes on Paris museums off the beaten track.
6. Kate Wilkins writes a column on new French fiction.
