How to keep track of articles?

[Henri J]

Hey!

I have a website and not a blog but I know you guys can help me anyway

How do you usually organize your articles so you don't come back and write "duplicate" content. Or write about something that you've already written about?

I'm very curious about how Steve does it with his 2000+ articles already written!

How do you keep coming up with ideas and know that you haven't written about it before?

Thanks!

[Joel Chue]

Keep an excel sheet of your articles?

[Henri J]

Yeah that makes sense, hehe.

Getting into more detail, do you keep a record of the articles sub-headings too?

Anything else?

Thanks

[Steve Pavlina]

I don't worry about it. I've done about 650 articles so far, and I often revisit the same topics.

When I select an article topic, I largely ignore what I've already written unless I need to reference it or build upon it for the current article.

I try to communicate what is true for me right now rather than trying to put together a multi-year body of work that forces me into a particular style or mold for all eternity. To me writing is an ongoing exploration, not the dictation of pre-conceived answers.

[geekchic9]

I use a really neat WordPress plugin that creates a web page that organizes articles by category. The site where it came from seems to be down right now, though. I highly recommend the plugin if you use WordPress.

[Henri J]

Thanks a lot all of you.

That's very interesting Steve. And it sort of gives me relief. I tend to force myself a lot into places I don't want to be. Like not writing articles about what I've already done because I think visitors will get sick of reading the same stuff (not entirely true).

Now that you put it that way I feel a lot better about writing articles.

Thanks again Steve

[quoteguy]

Hi Steve,

Like Henri I was struggling with the same thing. This really puts me at ease. Let me know if I can use the quote, "writing is an ongoing exploration, not the dictation of pre-conceived answers some day on my blog. I love it. I'll be sure to give you full credit.

Thanks again

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I don't worry about it. I've done about 650 articles so far, and I often revisit the same topics.

When I select an article topic, I largely ignore what I've already written unless I need to reference it or build upon it for the current article.

I try to communicate what is true for me right now rather than trying to put together a multi-year body of work that forces me into a particular style or mold for all eternity. To me writing is an ongoing exploration, not the dictation of pre-conceived answers.

[Steve Pavlina]

Originally Posted by quoteguy

Hi Steve,

Like Henri I was struggling with the same thing. This really puts me at ease. Let me know if I can use the quote, "writing is an ongoing exploration, not the dictation of pre-conceived answers some day on my blog. I love it. I'll be sure to give you full credit.

Thanks again

Sure, feel free. I just made it up off the top of my head anyway.

[JeffS]

I agree with Steve -- even if you try to write about "different" things, you usually end up revisiting the same themes anyway.

I find it handy to use categories, as most blogging platforms do. For instance, if I'm going to write something about mental math for my GMAT blog, I can look at a mini-directory of the mental math articles I've written:

GMAT Hacks: Mental Math Hacks

Granted, I'm nowhere near the article totals that some of you are, so it's not as much of a big deal for me. But even if I someday do have several hundred articles, the same tools will be useful. And perhaps best of all, it gives readers a way to explore the site without having to muddle their way through tons of posts that aren't interesting to them.