I used to agonize over the articles that I wrote for Revenue Magazine. Always foremost in my mind was the fact that it was glossy magazine read by the Who's Who in the affiliate marketing industry, so it would therefore literally take me DAYS to write one article. I'd fret over each noun, verb and adjective in every sentence, and by result the going was painfully slow.
It got to the point where I resented spending so much time writing those articles, despite the accolades and attention they generated. Accolades don't pay the bills, and I was much more interested in generating revenue from my writing — and the ability to write those articles quickly so I could get out and do what affiliate marketers do best — play.
So, I had to take just a little more time to create a plan that would help me generate the same high-quality articles, but in much less time.
Here's the solution that I came up with that cut my writing time by more than half.
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Choose a product to promote. As affiliate marketers, most of our writing should eventually point to selling a product that solves our readers' problems. Start with that product and then pick a topic that fits — remembering that there are dozens of different angles that you can take with each and every product. For example, in this case I might choose to promote The Magic of Making Up on my dating review site.
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Research the topic. There's no point writing about a topic that no one is interested in, so I do a little research online and particularly at Wordtracker to see how many folks are actually interested in the topic. If it turns out that there are only 8 searches per day for men trying to get their ‘ex girlfriend back', it would be worthwhile to rethink your take and come up with an article for women about ‘how to get your ex boyfriend back' which shows 47 searches per day or just ‘ex boyfriend' which has 82 searches per day. OR, go for a totally comedic take with ‘revenge ideas on ex boyfriend' which has 484 searches… and then change the product to a dating service that convinces her that it's better to get a new boyfriend.
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Write your draft in point form. Jot a few short notes in point form to get the ideas going, i.e. ‘dish best served cold', ‘life well-lived', ‘glue on the mousepad', etc. and then let it lie…
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Let the topic gel. After picking the product, a topic and writing a point form draft, I let the article ‘gel' in my mind for a day or longer. I'll word in the garden, sit by the pool or go for a run and just casually think about the topic. By relaxing, and not forcing the issue, more salient points come to the forefront and I'll jot those down quickly.
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Write like you speak. When you get down to writing your article, forget about using those high-fallutin' phrases. Just type what you would say to a friend if you were telling them about a fabulous product or sharing some important information. Your writing will flow and it will sound much more natural and honest. And honesty is the best policy when it comes to sharing information, as your conversions will increase relative to the number of readers who find your information and recommendations reliable.
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Attention-grabbing headline. Last but not least, you need an article title that makes people sit, take notice and click to read your story. Work on creating a title that promises to solve the reader's problem in x-number of steps or X-amount of time and you'll get those clicks faster than if you simply title your article “How to Solve X Problem”. So, for example, “5 Easy and Fun Ways to Get Back at Your Ex Boyfriend” will be more targeted and clickable than “Get Revenge on Your Ex Now”.
Using the forumla above, in most cases now it takes me no more than 15 – 20 minutes to write a full-blown blog post or article and with practice the time I spend article writing is becoming less and less.
Better still, I can now spend as little as an hour or two per week to generate as much income in a month as most folks do in a year — and get to spend the rest of my time playing.
So, my basic advice to you is focus on time and money, rather than making every word perfect. Perfection, or something close to it will come with practice. 🙂
Thanks for sharing =)
Ros, some good tips. I also think its important to find your zone as a writer. I know that when I’m in my “zone,” I can churn out articles quite rapidly in little time. Generally when I agonize over article writing, the articles don’t even come out as good despite the additional time.
One other thing I’d point out is that wordtracker is not as reliable as google adwords from what I’ve found. Something to consider!
Point #5 is the most critical – write like you speak! I read another article online recently about that and it made perfect sense. People try to get so “proper” with their articles and forget what their core objective is. Just let it flow as if you’re speaking to a friend!
This is great..! I work as a writer and I believe this will help me in making my articles be more precise and complete..
thanks!
Writing an article for SEO purpose is not an easy task .For this you should have skills.But your 6 points are really very important and have matters to write a good article.
Article writing isn’t so easy I think. But when start writing I write like I speak. And am seeing its one of your writing technique. I feel much better in this.
Ros,
Thanks for the great tips. They will help me a lot when writing. I like to write, but I take way too much time writing and re-writing, especially with PLR products. I like the point form tip, as I think this will help to simplify things. I do write as I speak, but seem to continually rewrite in order to make sense to others, cut down in length and not sound like a total idiot. LOL.
Hi,
I totally understand how one can spend “too much time writing and re-writing”.
Fretting over every single word (as I did with those Revenue articles) was not only time-consuming but way too stressful.
The tips really do make the article writing process easier.
Cheers,
Ros
Ros,
I have been following your posts for quite a while now and I find them to be helpful and informative.
My question is when you select keywords for your articles, do you go for the highly competitive ones or do you prefer long tail keywords with less competition? which approach is better and why?
Hi Samson,
Honestly, I don’t really think ‘highly competitive’ or ‘long tail’ at the time I’m writing the article.
That part is already handled by the time I’ve picked my topic — which can either be ‘highly competitive’ or ‘long tail’.
Then I just try to write to the topic at hand, and the right keywords naturally evolve.
I hope that helps!
Cheers,
Ros
Great article. I specially like the part about write like you’re speaking to a friend as it just takes too long using the big phrases. I love your style of writing and that is something that I want to use – be more natural.
That is precisely one of the reasons why I always read your blog on a regular basis 🙂
Hi Kunal,
Thanks kindly for your comment and the vote of support. I’ll keep trying to do my best!
Cheers,
Ros
this is an interesting view on male/female psychology. when i looked, 1 search for “ex girlfriend revenge ideas” and 433 for “revenge ideas on ex boyfriend”.
but why no results for “ex boyfriend revenge ideas”?
this is one of the things about keyword research results that i don’t understand.
Hi Stephen,
That’s interesting. Using the Google external keyword tool, I get 390 for “revenge ideas on ex boyfriend” and 480 for “ex boyfriend revenge ideas” – both on Global Monthly Search Volume.
My greater concern would be as an ex-boyfriend, however. Eeeks! 🙂
Cheers,
Ros
“write those articles quickly so I could get out and do what affiliate marketers do best — play.”
I love your priorities and your blog!
Thanks Marc!
Thank you for those great tips on article writing, at the moment it takes me anywhere from 1 – 1.5 hours to write an article, which is time I don’t always have to spare. These tips should help to shorten that time.
Michelle Jayes
Hi Michelle,
I think most bloggers / writers would LOVE to only spend an hour to an hour and a half writing a full blown article — perhaps you should share some of YOUR secrets with us? Or, would you like to write an article about writing for NPT? Just let me know!
Cheers,
Ros
Hi Ros,
Yes! This is exactly how I write! (So I am not mad after all).
I thin the point made above is probably the most important. Be conversational. I have done tests on my sites and those posts that are “chatty” are by far and the way the best.
Cheers
Matt
Hi Matt,
Indeed you do. Excellent blog, by the way! You might want to check out this post, though. http://www.rosalindgardner.com/blog/how-to-fix-those-squishy-headlines/ 🙂
Cheers,
Ros
Hi Ros,
Thanks for this! I was just reading some old posts and realised you had replied.
M
I still struggle with this sometimes, although I am much better than used to be.
I was a journalism major in college, and while that was many (many!) years ago, there are still some left-over hang-ups about writing that I’m working on.
I think this formula is perfect for what we do. We’re writing for readers, not the Nobel prize… lol
Thanks, Roz!
Hi Patty,
It’s true – practice makes perfect, or almost.
I can’t believe how much easier it is to write now as compared to blood, sweat and tears that I endured in the beginning. 🙂
Cheers,
Ros
I meant way “too” scattered… sorry, coffee hasn’t kicked in yet today!
Thanks Roz – always look forward to your posts.
I am a full-time writer and my efforts have been way to scattered – this is a GREAT reminder to get – and stay – on task!
hey Ros, thanks for that. I don’t do too much writing myself these days, but I’ll definitely pass this on to some of my writers (I just noticed one of them already posted a comment here)
Cheers,
Sean
Great….lots of articles are interesting
Your article really helped especially the section “Write like you speak.” Even I blog and at times I spend almost half of my day in writing a single post, so that my post looks perfect. I waste my time searching for good phrases. I shall try to incorporte your suggestions.
Thank you!
Hi Mark,
You’re most welcome. Anything to help affiliates / webmasters spend LESS time at their computers is a GOOD thing! 🙂
Cheers,
Ros
Dear Ros,
Could I please ask you a shy request?
Would it be ok to not publish my last comment?
I only meant to share my enthusiasm and appreciation
with you.
Thank you in advance.
Sincerely,
Kazooli
Not a problem… you won’t see it here… and thank you! 🙂
Dear Ros,
If we get into a contest who is more thankful I might win 🙂
Sincerely,
Kazooli
Hi Kazooli,
Very kind. But I’d be willing to put a wager on that one. Without readers like you, there’d be no point in doing what I do — ergo, I’m ever grateful. 🙂
Cheers,
Ros
Great list to follow! I have found that I get the best results by writing the way i speak. It seems to get the attention of the reader better!
Hmm..your explanation shows that
you are a pro. Mind to share
how many articles can you write
every single day?
Hi Nazree,
That depends… but if I’m trying to get way ahead of the game and queue up a bunch of posts / articles so that I can take quite a bit of time off, I can sometimes do ten or more in a day. Granted, my working day isn’t 8 hours long and I quite often use PLR or merchant copy to give myself a leg up.
You might enjoy this post — Affiliates: Do 2 Days Work – Take 2 Months Off
Cheers,
Ros
I sometime realize that everything I’m writing it has no sense.
It’s worth an extra look to your recommendations,
Best regards,
Julio
Amazing! I keep putting off writing articles because it was just too overwhelming to me. I mean I write blog posts and add content to my site but it’s the full articles that I want to get out into the directories and guest post, etc. and it takes me too much time to write them. Your tips are sure to help me. I already do the writing in point form so there’s one step. Coming up with a good headline makes me sweat ha ha
Hi Angie,
Most of the articles on the directories aren’t really ‘full-blown’ articles, so don’t let the length proposition overwhelm you.
As for headlines, I’ll try to come up with some good tips for making that process easier for everyone. Thanks for the idea.
Cheers,
Ros
Nice Information !!!
Article writing is important part of SEO and writing article is not a easy task.
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Nice article with six helpful steps.Thanks for posting this.