The overarching goal for this major content development effort is to provide scientifically accurate information that is written for an eighth grade reading level and easily understandable and to provide substantial visual content to help users diagnose the problem, determine possible management strategies, and take informed action.
OSU content team: Determine specific topics to be covered per content area for a total of at least 660 content pages, roughly allocated as follows:
Content areas | Number pages |
Pesticide information and pollinator pages | 40 |
Household pests | 35 |
Animal pests | 15 |
Weeds | 140 |
How-to horticulture guides | 40 |
Plant problems | 390 |
Lawns and turf | 35 |
Berries, fruits, and nuts | 125 |
Vegetables and melons | 90 |
Ornamental plants | 120 |
Houseplants | 10 |
Indoor gardening | 10 |
Total | 660 |
See the Content outline from the 2016 project plan, which fulfilled the original contract for this project.
At this time, there are 620 content pages for which we need to assign roles based on the projected cost of $3,214 per content page in both English- and Spanish-languages.
Roles and Responsibilities
Here are the roles associated with content development for SolvePestProblems.org:
Role | Content development responsibilities | Staff role |
Manage project | Develop funding streams through grants, contracts and gifts and administer project. Supervise staff. | Project manager |
Coordinate project | Assign content, review content, oversee revision or additional research, enforce deadlines, and answer questions from writers. Coordinate review process. | Project coordinator |
Content owner | Provide list of existing educational resources to use for researching individual content pages including text, photos, and references. Determine what is most important to convey to retain scientific accuracy. | Content owner |
Write content | Interpret provided source content at an 8th grade reading level. Follow tone, voice, and other writers’ guidelines. Identify representative images from public sources for licensure. Document sources of all content. | Professional writer
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Illustrate visual content | Ensure consistency among all illustrations by creating a plan for the desired look. Create simple and complex illustrations from provided reference images. Follow instructions about desired emphasis of illustrations. Elicit feedback from project team to ensure problem is accurately portrayed. | Illustrator |
Seek permissions | Track permissions for use of content in a spreadsheet including file name, content owner contact information, and date. Briefly summarize each communication. Document link to online content. Determine and document whether the site is the original posting or a site established by another user. Save written consent document and track its location. | Project coordinator |
Contribute photographs | Provide photographs with title, description and credit attribution to support website content. | OSU faculty, volunteers and partners |
Edit content | Content owner or supervised staff will review for factual accuracy of content for initial site building and annual review. | Content owner |
High-level editor
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Ensure that the content is aligned with overall project communication goals, messages and strategies. Provide higher level content review. | Project coordinator |
Copy edit content | Review materials for typos, grammar, and consistency of tone, voice, tense, writing style and AP style (terminology, acronyms, etc.) | Copy editor |
Post and review content on website | Post content to website. Verify that content titles, chunks of content, taxonomy, tags, metadata, breadcrumbs and other backend tasks are correct. | Website technology manager |
Oversee future content editing | Ensure factual and scientific accuracy of content. Track changes of information with scientific knowledge, emerging pests and changes with pesticide registrations. Suggest changes for yearly updates. | Content owner |
Content review plan
Project development will be guided by a formal plan and mechanisms for content review so that both OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences and Extension scholarship expectations and Experiment Stations Communications protocols for review are met. Content review will proceed based on the roles and responsibilities of project staff:
- Content writers and illustrators will be given appropriate, research-based sources of information to study and understand before creating content.
- Content owners will oversee reviews of drafts and final content for factual accuracy.
- Project coordinator or manager will perform high-level editing to ensure that content meets overall communications goals and messages.
- Copy editor will review materials for typos, grammar, and consistency of tone, voice, tense, writing style and AP style (terminology, acronyms, etc.).
- Website technology manager will post content on the website and verify that content is correct in terms of titles, chunks of content, taxonomy, tags, metadata, breadcrumbs and other backend tasks.
Cost per page
There are two models for individual content development for this comprehensive resource depending on interest of OSU faculty and Staff taking on the task of doing the content writing.
For novel content that OSU faculty and Staff want to write, here are projected costs per page:
Cost calculator per page | Hours | Hourly | Cost / pg. | Notes |
Content owner | ||||
Find content information sources | 1 | 75 | $ 75.00 | Provide references, priorities, text, visual content |
Write text | 5 | 75 | $ 375.00 | 600-800 words in template |
Retainer for future | 2 | 75 | $ 150.00 | Keep tabs on this content and provide changes in future |
Content reviewers | Assigned to OSU faculty and staff | |||
Factual content review | 2 | 75 | $ 150.00 | Needs to meet scholarship criteria per CAS and EESC. |
Coordinator | ||||
Coordination per page | 3 | 75 | $ 225.00 | Coordinate team communications and assemble content |
Permissions | 2 | 75 | $ 150.00 | Find and attribute credit to content contributors |
Post content and review | 3 | 75 | $ 225.00 | Nodes, bread crumbs, tags, etc. |
Contracted services | ||||
Editing to achieve unified voice across site | 2.257 | 60 | $ 135.42 | |
Create visual content | 4 | 60 | $ 240.00 | 2-4 line drawings or diagrams per content page |
Copy editing | 1 | 60 | $ 60.00 | APA style |
Total Cost English languages page | 25.257 | $1,785.42 | ||
Spanish language pages | $1,339.07 | Estimated at 75% cost of English pages | ||
Cost per content page | $3,124.49 | In both English- and Spanish- language |
For more routine pest cases for which there is already well-developed content to draw from to develop 600-800 word pages, we can hire a contracted writer to write the text, leaving the OSU content owner with 5 hours of time per content page.
Content owners details
Income per page for content owners with writing
Cost calculator per page | Hours | Hourly wage | Cost / pg. | Notes |
Find content sources | 1 | $75 | $75 | Provide references, priorities, text, visual content |
Write text | 5 | 75 | $375 | 600-800 words in template |
Retainer for future | 2 | $75 | $150 | Keep tabs on this pest and content and provide suggested changes for specific pages as needed |
Total | 8 | $600 | Per content page |
Income per page for content owners without writing
The fundraising plan for this project includes funds for content owners as specified above. Content owners, if the wish, can waive the income allocated for this service to make an in-kind contribution toward this project.
Timeline for content development
Year 1
During the first year of this project, we will primarily be focused on the initial build-out of the technology platform and making final plans for the content, particularly pesticide risk reduction information. Develop 15 examples representing Drupal content types and areas of focus.
Years 2 and 3
Develop content in earnest.