Has this ever happened to you?
It's late evening and your weekly newsletter, which would normally be queued for delivery on your autoresponder and blog by this time, is still nothing more than the vast white expanse of a blank Word document. Not only haven't you written a word, you also don't have the first clue what to write about, or which product you should try to sell.
Although you are usually passionate about your topic – organic vegetable gardening – you begin to wonder what the heck you were thinking when you chose to build a site around a seasonal niche.
Throughout the spring and summer, your income spiked nicely every time you sent out your weekly newsletter. As temperatures started to drop however, so did your subscribers' interest, sales revenue and the better part of your motivation.
A vision of the repoman coming to get your new truck convinces you to persevere into the wee hours if necessary – but before long the thought occurs that you simply have nothing to say on the subject and now you're paralyzed with fear.
Well, fear not. Inability to select a topic, last-minute crisis writing and paralysis are all symptoms of writer's block; something most writers experience at some time or another. With some strategic planning you can prevent writer's block, spark your imagination and earn commissions in any niche — at any time of year.
The first step is to build a “swipe” file that is chock-full of ideas for future articles and which you can access whenever you are in need of inspiration.
And contrary to what the name may imply, a swipe file is not for copying other authors' content to publish later, a.k.a ‘plagiarizing'. We just want to collect ideas from their work, such as headlines that grab your attention or unique topic ideas, and then create our own work based on the concept.
You can build a swipe file using an Excel spreadsheet with columns named for primary topic categories, suggested article titles, notes, relevant products and proposed publishing dates. If you have a number of sites on different subjects, create a new worksheet within the file for each topic.
Another method is to draft a post on your blog whenever you get an idea for an article. The post may consist of as little as a title and a few bullet points, but each time you login to your blog's interface, the draft titles will jog your memory about topics you can develop.
One of my swipe files currently holds 672 entries of both ‘swiped' titles and a number of fill-in-the-blank title suggestions such as “5 Quick Ways to ________”, “5 Brilliant Strategies for ________” and “How to Conquer _________”. There's also a long list of emotional trigger words within the workbook. I find both the trigger words and the fill-in-the-blank titles are especially helpful when I already have a topic idea, but need some help crafting a catchy headline.
To start building your own swipe file, consider the suggestions below. Although organic gardening is used as an example, the suggestions apply to any mainstream niche.
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Search Article Directories
Article directories such as EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com and ArticleCity.com are idea goldmines. My search for ‘organic gardening' at EzineArticles.com resulted in 1540 articles targeted to people of different regions, skill levels and interests. From the results, you could quickly build a list of generic titles such as “Organic Gardening Supplies to Help You Get Started”, “Organic Weed Control” and “How to Grow Organic Tomatoes”.
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Visit Amazon
At Earth's Biggest Bookstore, I dug deeper into the topic and found Mike McGrath's book, “You Bet Your Tomatoes: Fun Facts, Tall Tales, and a Handful of Useful Gardening Tips” at the top of the search results. Keyphrases under the main title included ‘compost tea', ‘sunny windowsill', ‘Georgia Streak' and ‘Tomato Head'. If ‘Sunny windowsill' sparks an idea for an article about indoor tomato gardening, put it directly into your swipe file along with a link to the book.
Use the “Search Inside” feature to scan tables of contents. Sometimes an interesting chapter title will present a unique perspective on a topic. In this case, the first chapter is titled “Picking Your Tomatoes: Do all of these things have funny, rude or mysterious names?” which prompts an idea for an article about the best types of tomatoes to grow indoors.
While you're at it, swipe the “Listmania!” title ‘The Dirt Diva's Picks: A List of “Green” Books to Save the Earth!' as a reminder to put your own Top 5 or 10 list of recommended books together.
Items such the AeroGarden® Indoor Gardening Kit and Felknor's Topsy Turvy Upside-Down Tomato Planter can be added to the file as potential products to sell.
Dig up what gardeners are saying right now at forums such as GardenWeb.com and HelpfulGardener.com. The latest posts with the most replies are a good indicator of hot topics.
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Set up Google Alerts
To get the latest scoop on tomato hybrids, Google will send you email updates of their latest relevant search results. You can elect to receive Alerts once a day, as-it-happens or once a week from news sources, the web, blogs, video or groups; or receive a comprehensive Alert with news from all 5 sources. Sign up at Google.com/alerts.
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Read Trade Publications
Now you can finally put those stacks of old magazines to really good use! Subscribe to publications to stay current and don't forget to check whether your favorite magazine publishes an online version.
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Poll Your Readers
Create a weekly survey and ask your readers what topics they would like you to cover. Regularly invite your readers to leave a comment on your blog by asking a question at the end of your post. Answers to such questions as “What's your biggest gardening challenge?” will provide you with plenty of grist for the mill. The free Democracy polling plugin can be downloaded at http://blog.jalenack.com/archives/democracy/ or use the service at SurveyMonkey.com.
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Use Merchant Resources
Review your merchants' sites and recent newsletters to find out on which topics and products they are currently focusing. And although I usually advise against using merchant copy – because it is so overused by affiliates that your subscribers will question your credibility as an expert when they see it for the 10th time in your newsletter – in a real pinch you could check a merchant's affiliate interface for a well-written advertorial to publish on your blog. Better yet, use it as a basis to write your own product review.
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Repurpose Your Content
If you wrote “Organic Garden To-Do List: March” in 2007, re-publish the piece this year and incorporate any new tips you've picked up.
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Share Your Experience
What's happening in your garden right now? Get out there, take some pictures, share your news and don't forget to throw in some emotion! People are far more likely to respond to ‘Yikes! Giant green horned caterpillars are eating my tomato plants!” than to yet another “Tomato Pest Management” article.
Those are but a few suggestions to get your swipe file started. Try to add to it frequently so that you always have fresh article ideas at hand.
Ideally, it's best to create a publishing plan and work at least 2 to 3 months in advance. For example, you should be planning for Christmas in September and writing your spring articles in the dead of winter.
Not only does having a swipe file with a plan completely remove the stress of ‘crisis writing', but it frees you up to react swiftly when there is breaking news within your industry. Best of all, advance planning and preparation gives you the freedom to get out in the garden without looming deadlines to spoil your fun.
Thank you Rosalind for your very helpful information. I find it rather difficult to come up with material for writing articals so I really apreciate your great tips.
My pleasure, Paul. Glad you found the article helpful!
Cheers,
Ros
Another plan which one can use to overcome the kind of blocks you described is making notes in a pocket notebook which should be handy at all times. or one can make use of their electronic devices like cell phones to save ideas that may occur to them in the middle of an activity but which they may not have had enough time to write it down in a note book.
I use this method often times and it has helped me a lot.
Cheers,
Joseph
Hello Ros,
This post is very wonderful and it has helped me solve quite a huge challenge of generating consistent content. I just set up my blog and I have been trying to put to practice several things I have learnt from affiliate marketing, article marketing to all the possible ways of generating money online using a blog. But of course, i am taking each aspect of online income one at a time. Right now i am working on generating traffic to my blog from article marketing using article directories and it has proved to be quite effective so far.
Thanks so much for all the information.
Have a great day.
My best way is to Google the topic you want to write about, go through all the links on the top 30 pages, and make lots of notes based on the research you find.
It’s more efficient to compile tons of research and then write a batch of 10 unique articles or blog posts from that research.
Thanks for the tips, I seem to always stumble on writers block when I need to put out important content 🙁
This is very helpful. With all the discussions online about the various article re-writers and spinners.Great article………..
Thank you Rosalind!
I read your post because … well, not because I’ve got it together. So I am encouraged!
Perhaps I can add someone’s comment about brainstorming NOT being the place to register objections, caveats, or “but’s.” Negative thinking has its place in topic selection and editing, but tends to stifle the breath out of generating ideas.
Do you not agree?
why do i always get the solutions for my problems from your blog ?i think the reason is that you always send a good quality posts related to the blogger like us!thanks for it!
Hello Rosalind,
my favorite tip is the Google Alert, I’ve played around with that tool a little bit, and now I get the most important news, facts and describtions direct in my mailbox.
Now I use some similar alert services for TV anouncements and so on, and I think the system comes more and more perfect.
Kind regards from Germany and excuse my bad english
Guenni
there is a lot that a person can talk about as long as the goal or the purpose of the writer is clear. as said in this post, it is nice to have files wherein thoughts are scattered or filed into each other because in the end, that thing you consider a “junk” can be the most useful help that you would ever have in times of “blackout”.
this is also true when it comes to business. there will always comes a time when you have nothing else in your mind and you badly needed to have an idea that will be a great hit.
I usually carry a pen and a pencil around with me at all times, so when I have a good idea – I always write it down.
Igor
It is really and great article and i am sure many will learn from it. The points covered by you are exceptional and the most important thing is you have explained it very well.
This is one of the most famous problems related to us (Blogger) but as you have given some good points for solving out these problems so thanks for that it will definitely help me!
All the ways given by you are exceptional, it would be of great help if you follow the tips. Sharing your experience is very much important.
This is very helpful. With all the discussions online about the various article re-writers and spinners, it’s important to remember that the best articles are the ones “you” write. But, it isn’t always that easy.
I’ve spent many a night sitting at my desk just wondering where to start! The research ideas mentioned here can save a huge amount of time. Once you complete some basic research, the ideas really can start to flow, even if you’re just sharing your opinion on something you read. It can start out as just an opinion piece and before you know it, you’ve got enough for several articles.
Thanks!
Jimmy
You should try out Evernote for your “swipe” file. Great tool and is free.
Hi WDF,
Thanks for the Evernote tip – I’ll take a look at it.
Cheers,
Ros
Hi Rosalind,
You’ve shared great tips especially setting up
Google alerts and share your experience.
Keep up the good work.
thanks for giving us the info about it !it is very helpful for the persons like me!& i am so shy to say that i had the same problem which you specified in your post but now i think that i have got the solutions for it!
Hi Jimson,
Glad to hear that I could help you find a solution!
Cheers,
Ros