Skip to the Golden Spiral Strategy Theorem.

This rather lengthy article is the result of philosophical considerations of content posting strategy. It is a full theoretical paper. The PDF is not yet available because it’s incomplete and needs your help.

The Golden Spiral Strategy theory was written in a burst of insight in late 2013. It has been tested in a limited manner. It has been put through its paces by one independent researcher who took existing content and retrofitted it against the theory, and proved that one highly successful online publisher uses the Golden Spiral Strategy subconsciously. It’s detailed, intense, and exciting.

More importantly, it fills the gap of metrics, measurement, and precise mathematics that no content strategist, digital strategist, marketer, or social specialist, has done thus far. It gives you a method of assessing content on the basis of precise metrics even if you don’t have any content yet. The mathematical application does not require you to assess historical data to ‘see what works’. Instead, it gives you a model with which to predict and grow website traffic in a flexible way, maintaining relevance to your audience, never leaving the track of your deepest goals.

Some early readers with a creative bent commented that the mathematics was too difficult. Those schooled in mathematics commented that they couldn’t understand completely how you can use a mathematical model for a creative output. Others have merely commented that it is genius.

Whatever it is, it is here in full. For free. For you to use. For your commentary, feedback, and consideration. As a writer and a philosopher, it is important for me to unburden myself of it. Where better than to do it here.

But there is another reason. I am publishing it in full here, because it’s not yet at the stage where I can publish it in print as the theoretical monograph that it is intended to be. The reason is because I don’t have the time (or ability) to collect enough hard data. It would take six months of full-time work to do that and I just don’t have the capacity. Thus, at present it is mere theory, and not much more.

To prove this theory, and publish the monograph, I need your help. I am calling for submissions of hard data that will help me to publish this theoretical perspective.

Help me publish this work

Should you read this paper, and completely understand the mathematics and the philosophical/theoretical perspective, you are invited to apply the principles on as many sites, for as many purposes as you desire. Please note that there is no support provided for explanations of the mathematics or theoretical perspective. It is, in many ways, the ultimate test of the theory and the philosophy behind it.

What you receive: Acknowledgement of your work, inclusion of your data, special mention, and a free copy of the resulting ebook.

[contact-form subject=’Registration – Golden Spiral Theory’][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]

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And so, to the work itself. Enjoy.

~ Leticia

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The Golden Spiral Content Strategy

Current theory in the field of Content Marketing tells us that we should all be thinking in circles. The idea is that we don’t miss anything: that by turning 360 degrees, you cover all of your channels.

A 360-degree view of Marketing used to be called “Helicoptering” around an issue. A full circle model has eight panels. These are:

1. website business plan (research and planning)
2. search engine optimisation (research and planning)
3. social media (research and planning)
4. converstion rate optimisation (campaign and conversion goals and metrics research and planning)
5. database marketing (such as email campaigns)
6. content generation and management (strategy and review)
7. analytics (measurement and monitoring)
8. mobile strategy (device-specific optimisation).

Ultimately, marketers are turning you in circles. They do this not once, but twice: once in research mode; once in planning mode.

But there is no measurement, and no metrics, in this model. It pre-supposes that you discover your metrics through the process.

The other issue is that when you turn in a circle, you are back where you started. A circle has a defined boundary, and is a defined space.

It’s unrealistic to assume that people step into your circles, or that you draw circular boundaries around what you do. It is also unrealistic to think that your business is staying in one place. If you are doing things right, then your business is growing. It might not be growing at any enormous rate, but the growth needs to be factored in.

Even using the 360-degree model, you move on. The first time you turn around, you know nothing. The second time, you are armed with data. The third time, with more data, and so on.

Your 360-degree marketing model is nothing of the sort. It looks like this:

You move, every time you turn through each segment, because you are gathering data along the way. A circular model gives you no path forwards, and no path backwards. You can’t down-scale if you need to? Who knows – all you have is the same circle, the same boundary, the same segments.

It is a total failure in a model of marketing that is supposed to grow your business. There just is no growth.

Let’s put the 360-degree model into the recycling bin and look at something more useful.

Enter, Leonardo Fibonacci.

We will let Leonardo watch us from the corner while we explain why he’s in the room with us.

Existing strategy is flawed

Existing content & communications strategy is functional and effective, but it is flawed. It is flawed because nearly everything on the internet is measurable. It’s not like the old days when you had no idea how many people were reading what you wrote. Now, you know exactly how many people see what you post, wherever you post it. How long they spend looking at it gives you a pretty good indication as to whether or not they are reading it.

Existing marketing strategy, and existing content and communications strategy gives you promises of more engagement, promises of page views, promises of traffic. But you ask a strategist what their model of growth is, and they can’t give you one.

Or rather, they can. But only after they’ve asked you for a target, audited your content, profiled your audience, and had a really good guess. The majority of this work is guess work. Why do you think they tell you to test, test, test, it? You have to test it to get it right, of course. But they won’t give you actual metrics until you have a ton of data already.

Much of the advice you see will give you a ratio of content split. They’ll say: spend 70% of your time posting what people engage with most. Then 20% of your time posting sometimes on this other topic. And 10% of your time on the last topic.

Where did they get that ratio from? I can tell you. It works on Most – sometimes – least. Then, because writers don’t do mathematics, they split it roughly into sections until they had a whole. Rough numbers and approximations abound in content and communication strategy. They are everywhere. I have even seen people write about 5-1-1 social network content splits, and then freely admit that they made the numbers up. Give them a go, they’ll prove that it works.

Well, that’s not good enough for me. I want structure. And so does Leo over there. Right, Leonardo?

Enter Golden Spiral Strategy

Golden Spiral Strategy does not require a content audit, making it applicable to people who have no content yet. It enables people without websites to set and aim for realistic targets immediately. To make it work, audience profiling and business profiling is vital.

However, what Golden Spiral Strategy does is give us actual ratios of content. It gives us a tree of growth. And it gives us a direction of movement. It is important to note that Golden Spiral is strategic, and that growth depends entirely on the environment having conditions that enable growth to occur. Like all life, without the right conditions, something will go wrong.

Golden Spiral Strategy requires relevance, direction, planning, and consistency, as its four essential elements. Consistency comes from planning; plans are put in when you know where you want to go; and you get your direction from what you want to achieve (your relevance). Every part is related.

Having a good writer who knows what she is doing helps, too.

When everything is working cohesively, the growth metrics in Golden Spiral Strategy ought to vary by no more than 3%. If you have growth spikes because of other activity your business is involved in – such as conference presentations – then they are not natural growth spikes. Golden Spiral Strategy is a model of natural growth.

We can predict natural growth from this strategy, because that’s what Golden Spirals do.

What is a Golden Spiral? A Golden Spiral is a sequence of numbers and growth on which all life is based. Golden Spirals are present in galaxies, in flowers, in snail shells, and even in the DNA Helix. The Golden Spiral – and the Fibonacci Sequence – are laws of the universe.

By implementing this strategy, therefore, you are simply formalising a universal law. It also requires creative thought. I hope you’re not afraid of hard work.

This is what a Golden Spiral looks like:

via GIPHY

If you are not familiar with mathematics, allow me to explain where the numbers come from. They are the numbers in Leonardo Fibonacci’s sequence.

The sequence tells us that you start at zero (0). At the first step, you have 1. To get to step three, add the previous numbers together. So, we end up with 1 again. To get to step four, add the two previous numbers together. So, we end up with 2. Doing this again, we end up with 3. And so on.

In mathematical terms, Number 1 (a) + Number 2 (b) = Number 3 (c). In sequence, it looks like this:

A + B = C.

B + C = D.

C + D = E.

The Fibonacci sequence refers to itself constantly. We could call it self-referential. Remember this. It will be important.

Thankfully, the very basic mathematics gives us in all (except for the earliest numbers) a consistent and standard ratio. All of the numbers, when divided, give us the same growth ratio.

I’m not mathematically minded, so I’m naturally a skeptic and want it proved. Let’s look at this with a simple sequence, and test it.

Let’s take about 12 numbers in a sequence: 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89…

55/89 = 0.62 (0.61797)

34/55 = 0.62 (0.61818)

21/34 = 0.62 (0.61764)

Convinced yet?

13/21 = 0.62 (0.61904)

8/13 = 0.62 (0.61538)

To test this back the other way, we would multiply each number by 1.62:

8 x 1.62 = 13 (12.96)

13 x 1.62 = 21 (21.06)

21 x 1.62 = 34 (34.02)

34 x 1.62 = 55 (55.08)

… and so on.

The higher the number, the more consistent – and persistent – the ratio.

This ratio is known in design as the Golden Ratio. The Golden Ratio in design is normally represented by 1.62. For the purposes of the Golden Spiral Strategy, both ratios (0.62 and 1.62) are important.

Still with me? Not much more to go and then we can start to apply it.

To get to a Golden Spiral from this Golden Ratio, you need to have both rotation and growth. In mathematics, the rotation hits 90 degrees (or one quarter of a circle) before it changes. At that point, the tangential line (direction of growth) moves, and is shifted by 17.032%. That 17% shift is called The Pitch.

This is why this odd circle starts to spiral. You can’t turn in a complete circle when you are growing at a rate of 1.62 in direction that has changed by 17%.

Summary of the basics

In essence, we have two parts that, related to each other, create the third. And the third part, with the pitch added in, gives you your result.

The first two parts are almost the same. If they were the same, then dividing one into the other would give you 1. But it doesn’t. It gives you 1.62. So the numbers are not repeated precisely. This is also important.

Foundation Rules

1 – Growth requires perfect environs

2 – The Sequence refers to itself

3 – Each part of the sequence looks different, but is only slightly different

4 – Each part looks different because of its pitch, which changes the placement.

Golden Spirals and Your Content

Now, let’s Fibonaccify your content.

Before we start, we need to do some work to get our base numbers. This is comprised of two parts: The business strategy, and the Essential Topics.

Joe Citizen has a full service digital marketing agency. He’s building a website, because he needs one. His reason for being in business (Joe’s Big Why) is because he wants to help not-for-profit organisations to be marketed well online, and to ensure that they can be brand managed without having to spend a fortune. This is the foundation of Joe’s business strategy.

Joe’s secondary purpose is to educate not-for-profits about the importance of big-picture digital marketing.

Now, he defines his audience. After some thinking and research, Joe works out that he needs to target the executive level staff in not-for-profits and, secondarily, those executives’ team members.

Based on these notions, Joe defines his Essential Topics.

Defining Essential Topics also requires you to stick to some rules. These rules are that the Essential Topics:

1. Must be linked – however tenuously – to every single piece of content you create, thereby supporting them, teaching to them, or learning from them.
2. Must be able to travel on their own, regardless of where it is shared, how it is presented, or how the world changes; it is a complete piece in and of itself.
3. Must be able to be created with any mood: humour, aggravation, rants, loftiness, sarcasm. Whatever mood you want to create, you should be able to do so from your topics.

Joe defines his Essential Topics as:

Category A Help people market effectively in all digital channels

Category B Raise awareness about the importance of digital marketing in the not-for-profit sector

Category C Be seen as an authority on digital marketing in this sector.

Here is how he allocates his content:

MO (content to post Most Often) = Category A. The abbreviation is similar to Modus Operandi for a reason.

PS (content to Post Sometimes) = Category B

PL (content to Post Least) = Category C

So far, we are similar to every other content strategy, which will tell you that A = 70%, B = 20%, and C = 10%.

We aren’t going to be this lazy. The Golden Spiral Strategy gives us exact ratios. Therefore:

MO = Cat A = 1.62

PS = Cat B = 1

PL = Cat C = 0.62

Three categories is ideal for Golden Spiral Strategy, because it gives us a perfect Fibonacci ratio split. But increasing categories is not hard. All we need to do is think about them in a different way

Where there exists Fibonacci Numbers, there also exists Fibonacci Percentages. If you are familiar with the stock market, you will know that stock trends are often predicted on Fibonacci Percentages.

A word of warning, however. Fibonacci Percentages are good up to 6 categories. Beyond that and you are pretty literally splitting hairs. Let’s face it, if you had 6 categories of content type, any content strategist worth his salt would tell you that you are splitting hairs.

Here is a content ratio based on 6 categories, published from most to least:

1 – 100%

2 – 76.4%

3 – 61.8%

4 – 50%

5 – 38.25

6 – 23.6%

Beyond six and we start getting dysfunctional. The dysfunction arises because beyond 6 categories results in categories that are approximately 2% (accurately, 1.61%) apart. This is a truth of Fibonacci Sequences: that numbers start to converge at the constant.

Pause and recap

Let’s recap our theory. Golden Spirals turn at different points (tangential points) because of something called The Pitch. The Pitch is always constant at 17%. And our growth ratio is 1.62. In mathematics, the spirals reach growth of 1.62 at 90% of the rotation.

Remember our key point, that Golden Spirals are self-referential? Well, let me add something to this. By referring to itself, the shape transforms into something else. In ten syllables, we could say that it is self-referentially transformative.

Because The Pitch is constant, you have something that you need to factor in, which is also always constant. That is your Big Why. Your Why drives your ultimate purpose. If you wanted to get specific, you’d include that in 17% of everything you post.

But we are talking about content here. It will necessarily be arbitrary, and we are not going to count words to make sure you have exactly 17% of them relating to you why. That is just silly, and Joe would be drowning his sorrows in the pub by now if we did.

Suffice it to say that your Big Why = The Pitch. You must not deviate at all from the key reason why you are in business. You are working strategically, not playing guesswork.

Work out The Pitch

Ok, so back to Joe. Joe was sensible and restricted himself to just 3 categories. He works out that his pitch is this:

To help not-for-profit organisations to be marketed well online, be brand managed cheaply, and be well educated about the fact that whole-of-picture marketing is vital.

Every post therefore must support, teach to, or learn from Category A, B, or C and include something from The Pitch.

Identify problems early

If you find that one of your Essential Topics is too similar to The Pitch, go back and refine it. Your strategy needs to be unique to you, so find the point at which you could safely say (because you’ve researched it – I hope you’ve done your market research!) that nobody else is doing what you do, and your content will hit a niche.

Work out your content split – and what happens when Fibonacci Numbers fail us

The next step is to work out your strategic and editorial plans. Being a digital marketer, Joe decides that he needs to be very active online. And because Joe is a figment of the Golden Spiral Strategy’s imagination, he decides to publish once every two days, because that’s pretty close to perfect Golden Ratio (1.62 rounds up to 2).

Over three months, this is equivalent to 42 posts. We could split the content based exactly on ratio, but it’s weird and doesn’t work properly, because the number of posts is too far from a Fibonacci number. If you don’t want to use percentages, work out a schedule that results in a number of posts close to a Fibonacci number.

Here’s an example. Using Joe’s category split, his content splits as below, using the ratios:

MO – Cat A (Education) = 26 posts

PS – Cat B (Awareness) = A x 0.61803 = 16 posts

PL – Cat C (Authority) = B x 0.61803 = 9 posts

It gives us 51, which throws us completely. Hmm. How do we solve it? We solve this problem using Fibonacci Percentages, because the ratio is present anyway. (As mentioned earlier, you could start from a Fibonacci number if your timeframe was flexible).

We start with 100% = 42 posts. This is what our whole number looks like over three months.

Let’s call this number, 42, All Posts. From here we work through four steps. As will become apparent, we start with an even number to come back to an odd number.

The four steps work on a starting number (SN) multiplied by the descending Golden Ratio (DGR), taken to five decimals (0.61803). This gives us a resulting number (RN).

To get our next resulting number (NRN), we subtract the first resulting number (RN) from the starting number (SN).

For the next level down, your Starting Number (SN) is the Resulting Number (RN) from the previous step. This is then true for all subsequent levels.

Huh?!

In really plain english, you do one sum. Then your second sum relies on the first one. Then your third sum relies on the second one. Then your fourth relies on your third… We have a sequence that functions just like the Fibonacci Sequence that is evident in this entire strategy.

Confused? It feels like you are going in circles because you nearly are. Nearly. You will get the hang of it, I promise.

Here is how it works.

We have four levels, so we stop (we want three categories, you will recall). In descending order, we therefore have all of these resulting numbers:

42

25.9

16.1

16.1

9.8

9.9

6.2

6.1

3.8

We have more results than we have categories. We do this because in Fibonacci Sequence, one number and the number two above it are related.

So, we need the number of posts in Joe’s lowest post count category, which is Category C (PL). We take the lowest number in the sequence: 3.8.

PL – Category C = 3.8 Take the number two above and add it on, to get Joe’s second category

PS – Category B = 3.8 + 6.2 = 10. Do this again to find Joe’s MO.

MO – Category A = 10 + 16.1 = 26.1

In a discrete list we have:

MO – Cat A = 26.1

PS – Cat B = 10

PL – Cat C = 3.8

Total = 39.9

Awesome! We are only 2.1 posts away from our schedule. If we had worked on whole numbers, we would’ve gotten a result in whole numbers (40). At this stage, we just say that 2.1 is really just 2.

Let’s validate what we’ve worked out, to see if it’s right.

MO = 26

PS = 10

PL = 4

Total = 40

Variance = 42 – 40 = 2

Don’t get lazy and put your remaining posts just anywhere!

Joe now has to find out where his additional two posts go. He could just throw them somewhere, but that won’t do him any justice. He’s already gone this far: let’s take it that one step further.

Don’t forget that if Joe just shoved his remaining posts into his split, it’s going to throw his ratios out. And we are working on something that is reasonably precise.

Here’s the quick and dirty way to do it:

MO = 2 x 0.62 = 1.24

PS = 1.24 x 0.62 = 0.77

PL = 0.77 x 0.62 = 0.47

Using rounding rules we therefore get:

MO = 1

PS = 1

PL = 0.

Joe now knows that his strategic editorial split must be:

MO = 27

PS = 11

PL = 4

… which gives us our 42 posts.

Congratulations! You’ve completed the first step. It wasn’t as hard as you thought.

Content Ratios to Posting Ratios

What we need to do now is work out the ratio of posts on a weekly basis.

Here are our base ratios. These are always a given if you want to post according to Golden Ratio, regardless of what your business is.

Hot Tip: Ideally, if you had a lot of different types of content, you could work out what you might consider a ‘partial’ post. If you don’t have anything to start from, you could determine your partial post by the time and resources it takes you. Something like shared content from somewhere else, or a photo or image. A partial post would give you your fractions.

If you don’t want to – which is fair enough! – just go with whole numbers.

Base Ratios by Week:

Full Week 7 days x Golden Ratio = 4.3 posts

Work Week 5 days x Golden Ratio = 3 posts

Base Ratios by Month:

February 28GR = 17.3 posts

30 days 30GR = 18.5 posts

31 days 31GR = 19.1 posts

Joe now creates a calendar of deadlines, so he knows exactly which days are his posting days. This gives him what is known as a Strategic Calendar.

Posting Ratios to Editorial Strategy

Most of Joe Citizen’s content needs to be educational, written for executives in the not-for-profit sector.

Good content strategy must iterate the business strategy. Joe’s big why is “because he wants to help the not-for-profit strategy engage in digital marketing without incurring large costs”.

This Big Why is Joe’s Pitch. Golden Spiral Strategy dictates that it must be a constant in every piece of content that he publishes.

The very first two articles will of necessity have to be random.

Post 1 – Marketing channels available to not-for-profits

Post 2 – How to use email in your marketing mix

Remember, Golden Spiral Strategy is self-referential. Also, Golden Spirals grow by transforming themselves. As seen earlier, it also has embedded within it the Fibonacci Sequence, otherwise known as the Golden Ratio.

This is why our content sequence is based entirely on the relationships between the items that sit next to each other.

The Golden Spiral Strategy uses this logic to build editorial coherence. More than this, the Golden Spiral Strategy builds editorial coherence that is exactly in line with your business strategy.

This is the key factor in what you are doing, and what will make your content unique from everybody else’s. It is also what makes this part of the strategy hard, creative work.

We have the first two parts already decided. The next two posts are therefore as follows:

Post 3 = ([important point of number 1] + [important point of number 2])

Post 4 = ([important point of number 2] + [important point of number 3])

Post 5 = ([important point of number 3] + [important point of number 4])

The second part of the formula ensures that the pitch is constant:

Post 3 = ((RefPost 1 + RefPost2)*Pitch)

Post 4 = ((RefPost 2 + RefPost3)*Pitch)

Post 5 = ((RefPost 3 + RefPost4)*Pitch)

Each subsequent post is the sum of the previous two. The direction of growth is provided by the Pitch.

Hot Tip:  Golden Spiral Strategy allows you to post outside of this structure, if you need to, and if your editorial calendar allows it. We call it the Tangential Post.

Your Tangential Post can occur, but it must still include the pitch, and must be framed closely between the two points of two posts, following the ‘curve’ of the publication strategy. Find where it fits most closely, and schedule it there. In Golden Spiral mathematics,  the tangential line flows extremely closely between two points and follows the curve. Make sure that you follow this logic, too.

Based on our formulae, here are the next three topics in Joe’s Golden Spiral Strategy:

Post 3 = Three ways not-for-profits benefit from email channel

Post 4 = How to build a marketing mix that maximises benefits

Post 5 = Cost benefits of a limited marketing mix (using email as a case study).

 

You can see that the topics are very closely related. In order to broaden the distance between the two, include a greater proportion of Pitch. For example:

3 = Three ways not-for-profits benefit from email channel

4 = Low-cost marketing mix that maximises benefits

5 = How to assess the performance of your marketing mix (email case study).

 

You can see that while essentially different, the second set of examples grows into different areas more quickly, simply by including more of one element of Joe’s Pitch.

The other area in which to grow your variation is to work on a tree building from your Essential Topics. Within each topic you have multiple points to the Pitch or Why and in Joe’s case, two audiences (a primary audience and a secondary audience). Then you also have different types of content (blog, artice, case study, video, photographs, diagrams, figures…).

Good Strategy takes Effort

The difficulty lies in being creative. Your brain will hurt; it takes time and effort to build something that is going to work for you. Hard work now means months of knowing exactly where you are going, and what you are doing. It also creates cohesion for your audience.

Also, while you are agonising about not making things too similar, there’s a proportion of your audience that will have never read one of your posts before. The moral to this story is therefore: don’t agonise too much.

Golden Spiral Strategy restrains your website publishing to that which is relevant. This is where its value lies. The relevance factor is provided simply by the relational nature of the content. Because the content builds on itself over time, it will engage its audience on a continuous, growth-based basis – therefore creating advocates more easily, and in a shorter period of time than if you decided to publish simply at random.

Golden Spiral Strategy is Measurable

Now, we have a strategy. But what about measurement? What goals are we aiming for?

Remember, we need perfect environs for this growth to occur. Golden Spiral Strategy requires an environment that will support growth. This means that you have to post according to your strategic calendar always.

You may not recall it, but earlier on we said that the four elements of growth for Golden Spiral Strategy are relevance, direction, planning, and consistency. So far, we have relevance built in, we know what direction we are going in, and we’ve planned for it.

Between the start and your audit point, you need to be consistent.

The metrics we are looking at are the same for any strategy. You want to look at numbers of comments, numbers of shares through various networks, numbers of pageviews, numbers of unique pageviews, traffic pathways and heatmaps… just to name a few.

Hot Tip: Make sure you have someone on board who can help you with your analytics!

From week to week and month to month you are targeting a growth rate of 1.61803%. Or, if you like simplicity, 1.62%.

It is small growth. All legitimate growth is small in the beginning. This is as true for life and learning as it is for audience engagement.

Let’s assume that Joe Citizen’s Golden Spiral Strategy is growing at the target rate. His environment is great, and he’s posting a lot: 2 days per week. Because of his posting schedule, Joe expects to see growth on a weekly basis.

If you are posting on a weekly basis instead, go for a monthly growth factor, or the results will be too small (and therefore discouraging). If you post fortnightly, measure every two months.

Joe is posting 4 times per week, and he measures his results weekly. This is how long it takes for his audience to grow, based on goal metrics:

Week 1 = 5 pageviews

Week 2 = 8 pageviews

Week 3 = 12 pageviews

Week 4 = 19 pageviews

Week 5 = 31 pageviews

Week 6 = 50 pageviews

Week 7 = 82 pageviews

Week 8 = 133 pageviews

In two months, therefore, our metric plans should reflect 133 or more readers.

In the third month, if Joe continues with his plan, he should go from 133 to 563 pageviews.

Each metric of engagement needs to be targeted in the same way.

Data and Testing

After the first quarter, Joe has enough data to complete a good content audit and see if the growth and engagement he had planned is meeting expectations.

By completing a content audit, he will see which posts gain the most attention and engagement, which posts are shared, which posts gain the most commentary.

At the same time, if the posts that include more of the Pitch are not gaining that engagement, then it’s an indication that the Pitch is not right. Joe can instead focus his attention on the posts with higher engagement, re-consider his Pitch, and work for the next quarter on the basis of that adjustment.

The metrics will also tell him whether or not his Golden Ratio growth factor is consistent, how often it varies, and how much that variance actually is.

However – and this is important – every adjustment still needs to maintain the same expectation of growth, based on the Golden Ratio.

SO – What Next? Wanna help with data?

You now need to go and define your Pitch, your Essential Topics, and a posting schedule that works with your time and resources. Then, work out your content split, and your editorial calendar. Then, start posting (be consistent!). Work our your audit dates and test your data.

When you start testing, write up your use-case and send us the data. Help me prove that it works.