Issue 09
Nathan Gibson · about five minutes
Evergreen content is an article that stays useful after the week it was published. It does not expire with the news. The date on the page can be old. The steps can still be the ones a person should follow.
A method outlasts a headline
A news post is about something that happened. Next week the event is over, and the post is a record of that week. An evergreen article is about a method that is still true next month. How a referral is paid. How a list is kept. How a person qualifies for an offer.
Someone should be able to open it in six months and still use it. If the article only makes sense on the day you published it, it was news. News is fine. It is a different piece of writing, and it should not be asked to keep sending readers after the week ends.
Put the changing numbers where you can edit them
Bonus amounts change. Deadlines change. The shape of the work changes less often. A company pays after a new person finishes a listed set of steps. That sentence belongs in the article. The amount on the offer this week does not, because next month the amount may be different and the sentence would be wrong.
Put today’s terms on the offers page, where a correction is a small edit. When you send someone the article later, the method is still right, and the offers page shows the current steps. The article stays shareable. The offer stays accurate.
Fix it when a step changes
Evergreen does not mean frozen. If a step you wrote is no longer how the company works, change the sentence. An old article that teaches a dead step wastes the reader’s time. It can also cost them the payout, because they followed instructions the company no longer accepts.
Reread the article when you know a rule moved. Change the line that went stale. Leave the rest. A full rewrite every time a dollar amount moves is how evergreen articles turn back into news.
One subject, in order
An article that tries to cover all of marketing becomes a list of headings nobody finishes. One subject, in the order a person would do the work, stays useful. It can be forwarded to someone who has that exact question.
That forward is how an old article gets a new reader without a new ad. Write it so a person can follow it months later without asking you what you meant.