By Corey Vilhauer CHAPTER 10

Chapter ten · by COrey vilhaUer

The Two faCeS of

ConTenT STRaTegY

balanCing The neeDS of uSeRS anD eDiToRS

n 2005, I created my own WordPress blog. It wasn’t easy. It took
what felt like a monumental amount of learning — learning I did on
my own time, relying on a continuous cycle of trying and failing my
way toward each small success. It was barely a success, but it launched,
and I took on the task of creating something interesting on a daily basis.
This was my first brush with self-publishing, in which I wrested the
reins of publication from the essayists and journalists whom I admired,
forcing myself into the public eye. I did it to practice writing, to sharpen it
like one might sharpen an axe, chopping through the thicket toward fame,
fortune and maybe a Pulitzer, if I was lucky. Instead, I ended up reinvent-
ing myself as a Web professional, combining the two loves of my life:
words and technology.
This was my choice. I had moved from audience to editor. I was now
behind the machine.
That was eight years ago. Since then, we have seen websites become
more complicated. We have improved our methods. We have focused on
user-centered information architecture, then user-centered content strate-

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