Writing Advanced Content Using “This Old House” Method
Since 2017 or so, I’ve been calling this the “This Old House Method”.
All Old Houses Are Different But All Old Houses Are Old
🏠 “This Old House is a show about houses that are so old, every situation is completely unique and intricately strategized to get the best outcome for the home, while preserving as much of the original architecture as possible.
And even if your old house doesn’t have the same situation, you will absolutely learn something from this show about old houses in general. Plus the Boston accents are just so comforting for someone who grew up there 😌
Writing About Complex Topics Adds Resilience To Your Content
We see this advice in content a lot especially pre-ai: “Write things that are too complicated for Google to steal.” That is, anything that can’t easily be extracted and stuck into an PO or a calculator with fewer clicks coming through.
Consider how different these sound:
“What is a good credit score?”
“You might already have a good credit score. What is considered ‘good credit worthiness’ is shifting, and we have the data from the 3 bureaus to back that up. There are also more ways to boost your credit than even just 10 years ago and here’s how”
Now we’re establishing changes from a baseline – which involves much more reasoning than just spitting back a definition answer.
Turn basic content into advanced content with uniqueness
How do I layer on to this to make the content more unique and helpful?
How can I add more perspectives and context with additional logic and reasoning to make it “advanced content”?
Where are there opportunities to take a more nuanced angle? EG sentiment, mythbusting, transparency, warnings, caveating assumptions, conceptual models, timelines.
You don’t have to be Norm Abram to find a topic where you have a deeper angle than what’s out there. Just make sure you always measure seven or eight times and cut twice.
Here's an old house I found on Plum Island a few months ago:
