Content Strategy: SG History

2014 – 2018

Content Strategy at SG History (using my pen name, Jess C Scott)

Summary: A socio-historical blog focused on presenting facts about Singapore in an accurate and visually impactful manner.

My Role: Content Strategy / Research / Blogging

Blog Stats:

Grew from zero to 1 million+ page views in 2.5 years.
Grew email subscribers to 550+ organically.
Readership includes academics and industry professionals.

Tools: WordPress, Adobe Photoshop, Canva

Project Page: www.jesscscott.com

Writing Samples:

Book Review: Once a Jolly Hangman
Book Review: The Ruling Elite of SG
Separating Myths from Reality (featured in Asian online newspaper)

Challenges

The main challenge was turning complex and dry information into material that was engaging and easily understandable.

Another challenge was to consistently produce original and helpful content. There are several blogs in the same niche, and I wanted to offer readers something they could not easily find somewhere else.

Solutions

In order to keep the content digestible without being dumbed down, my main strategy was to use bullet points and precise formatting to highlight key words in excerpts or paragraphs.

Sample of academic excerpts with selected text in bold font.

Quality images and graphic design were paramount to add visual interest to the content, as well as ensure eye-catching posts whenever a link was shared on social media.

Blog header images were created for most posts (no generic template was used for any blog headers).

Several graphics were constructed on Photoshop to consolidate plenty of information onto a singular high-impact image.

Sample from bigger image showing powerful connections. Each image was accompanied by a detailed list of references to make up the text content of this series of blog posts.

Stats

Some of the most popular posts on this blog were posted in 2015 — they continue to receive regular traffic even if I don’t make updates all the time.

Conclusion

Blogging at SG History helped me to understand the importance of the following.

Writing for a specific target audience
Focusing on content quality over quantity
Quality images and visual design

Most of all, it taught me how to focus on the target audience in order to give them what they were seeking. This guides me throughout the content creation and strategy process so that people are able to find answers they are looking for in this blogging niche.