Content Architecture: Why The Secret To Great Content Is Not Limited To Your Ideas

A must read for every thinker, writer, and content creator

If you want to create impactful content, I have bad news for you.

You may have the best and brightest ideas… but if you don’t know how to express and structure them the right way, you can sign your ideas' death warrant on the spot.

This is because great content is not just about great ideas. It’s also about great structure.

If you want to stand out and monetize your expertise, you need to carefully consider both sides of the coin.

A great idea deserves to be seen. And you do that by building your idea around a great structure.

Today’s letter will show you how to create this great structure so that you can convey your best ideas in a meaningful way.

Any great speech starts with a great structure.
– Craig Valentine (1999 World Champion of Public Speaking)

Great structure starts with great understanding

I still remember my history teacher in high school.

He was always asking questions.

And sometimes, the students he asked couldn’t clearly express their ideas. (Yes, me included.) He would then stare at them for a few seconds, smile, and say in a narcissistic way, something along those lines:

" If you can’t explain it, you don’t understand it. "

At that time, my teen-inflated ego thought that this was BS. After all, this stupid old guy was just beating everyone down all the time.

But he was right.

A clear mind can express ideas clearly. The opposite is also true: when you don’t clearly explain something, you don’t completely understand it.

“If you can’t say it clearly, you don’t understand it yourself.”
– John Searle

If you want to judge any type of content, look at the structure. If you see a messy structure, it means that the author wasn’t 100% clear about it.

That’s a strong indicator that the content is mediocre and worth skipping.

And you certainly don’t want to be that person.

The rule of one

Most creators are blinded by the “adding value” platitude.

They think that adding value means stuffing more. You see it all the time. Most newsletters are a compilation of several ideas… After reading them, you don’t know what you just read.

But that’s not adding value. That’s adding to the overwhelm. That’s adding more noise to an already too-noisy world.

In fact, a good creator and coach knows to give away the right information at the right time.

Timing is everything.

And this brings me to John Forde. You probably never heard about him. But John has been a winning control copywriter for over 25 years.

While he was reading the classic 1941 book “How To Write A Good Advertisement” by Victor Schwab, he analyzed the top 100 headlines of that time.

And here’s what he found out: 91 headlines were driven by one single idea.

He then added:

“Finding the core idea, of course, is the hard part. It has to be precise, not scattershot. You have to know your audience and know them well. Or, you risk missing your target completely.”

If this was true in 1941, what about today?

Picking only one idea forces you to be concise. It also forces you to go deeper than anyone else and create more in-depth content.

Good news: this helps you stand out and communicate your message more effectively.

Find your micro-ideas

But how to talk about one idea in long-form content like an article or a blog?

Great question.

One of the most important takeaways from the Zettelkasten methodology is the “1 note = 1 idea” concept.

It profoundly changed the way I learn and create content.

Just look at this letter: It’s about one single idea.

The idea is that great content starts with great structure.

But every section of this letter talks about one specific aspect of creating a great structure.

This is what I call a set of micro-ideas.

Think of every piece of content as a dish.

You need core ingredients: those are your micro-ideas.

The final dish is one but composed of many micro-ingredients.

Great creators are great thinkers

Creating content is not just about jotting down words.

It’s about the thoughts you put behind those words.

Anyone can write. Even a headless AI bot.

The creators who’ll win the game are the ones who think better.

One of the ways to think better (and thus produce better content) is by setting up a note-taking system.

If you want to learn how, sign up for my free 7-day note-taking course right here.

Matt Giaro