What is a spark file? It’s like your own personal and less structured brainstorming session that never ends.
I’ve only recently starting calling my mess of notes by this name, but for as long as I can remember, I’ve used these types of notes in some form or another. I used to just have a notebook, and then I started using emails to record info, sending one to myself every night and continuing to add to it and reply to it.
That was terribly inefficient and awkward, so I started using the Notes on my iPhone. Then I discovered Evernote — and now that’s my go-to tool as it syncs up across devices, and I can read my notes anywhere.
Since I do more than just link development, I love having an overall spark file for clients where I jot down anything interesting in any way. Sure, it gets pretty big, and I routinely have to go through and edit it, but it’s great to have a place where I can jot down ideas as they come to me.
Sometimes, an idea I have for a link campaign might turn into something I can put into practice for a paid ad on Facebook or Google AdWords. I might find something crazy during a site audit that I want to note as “something to check first!” with my next audit. If a webmaster responds to a link request with information that I hadn’t considered when I did the outreach, I usually note this so I won’t make the same mistake again — those points can be useful in other areas, too.
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