When all is said and done, the key to your blog’s success or failure is its content. You can drive traffic to your site, but if your content is not engaging with your audience and converting them from traffic into leads, then there is no point in going to all that effort to get the traffic in the first place.
Copywriting and content marketing are two huge areas of expertise that I am only just starting to scratch the surface of myself. But I have set up a system that I’ve been using recently to write my own articles – a ‘cheat sheet’ if you will. It has, in my opinion, served me well so far.
Headline First
Before I reveal my cheat sheet, the first thing I would recommend you do is compile a list of template headlines. The headline is the most important part of any article. The fact is, if you don’t have an engaging headline, the vast majority of people will not read your content. I will be going into this subject in detail at a later date.
So when you are ready to write an article, the bare minimum you should have is:
- A list of template headlines from which you can draw inspiration, and
- Your article writing cheat sheet.
The cheat sheet should serve to remind you of exactly why you are writing the article, and what goal you are looking to achieve in writing it.
My Cheat Sheet
Fortunately, it is not as complicated as the one in the photo! I will probably add to and refine it in the future, but it serves me well for the time being.
First of all, when I have come up with an idea, I answer three questions before I start work on the article’s content:
- What is the core message of the article?
- What problem am I addressing?
- Is it relevant to my audience?
The next thing I do is come up with a title. I will likely conjure up 3-5 different titles from my template list, then pick the one I like most. I then go back to the three questions I answered and check that my title is still relevant to the article.
Following that, I draft a rough version of the article. I will usually leave it for a few hours, or overnight, and come back to it cold. I find this extremely helpful in producing more focused and coherent content, as often when I come back to an article, I will want to make some pretty large alterations and/or additions.
Once I am finished with the article and have read it aloud to myself to make sure that there are no glaring spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors, I then ask myself the following questions:
- Is my writing entertaining?
- Is it engaging?
- Does it tackle the problem addressed?
- Does it fulfill its promise (that is usually laid out in the headline)?
And that is it! Once I am happy that the answers to the above four questions are all ‘yes’, I am ready to publish!
What Works For You?
As I have already said, this is the method I am using at the moment, and it has in my opinion been working pretty well (you may think otherwise ;)).
But how about you? How do you write your content? Are your methods similar to mine, or do they differ?
Photo courtesy of Jan Kaláb
Kalyan: The Million Dollar Blog Project says
No doubt your articles are uniquely presented. In my case I draft it and edit it in different time. I guess headline always tricky when it come to choosing the right one.
Great post TOM
Tom Ewer says
Hey Kalyan,
Drafting an article then coming back to it later is a great technique. Headlines…you’ll never produce a perfect headline! We all just have to work at our craft.
I had a brief exchange with Sonia and Brian over at Copyblogger yesterday (http://www.copyblogger.com/make-writing-real/#comment-1037634) and I loved Sonia’s quote: “If anything is worth doing, it is worth doing it badly.” Practice makes perfect!
Thanks for contributing!
Tom
Craig Morton|Personal Change Life Coach says
Nice process. Do you keep a log of topics (other than assorted headlines). I’ve started to keep a file of ideas for posts and then work from there to the title. Or is it purely like you said with the tittle idea and then grow from there? Thanks
Tom Ewer says
Hey Craig,
Yes – I have a big list of potential post ideas – 63 at the moment in fact! Whenever I get an idea I just put it in Evernote so that I can come back to it when the time is right.
Cheers,
Tom
Richard says
You’re way more organised than me Tom – I don’t really have much of a structure as it depends how I’m feeling and how much I need or feel I can write on the subject. I will give your method a bash though and see how the results go.
If I get an idea, I write the title and then save it as a draft on my wordpress blog. I don’t have that many and rely more on inspiration. Can’t believe you have 63 potential post ideas…(amazing :))
Thanks!
Tom Ewer says
That was back in August 2011 – I only have 24 now 😉
You’re writing good posts by the way, so don’t sweat it.
Sarah Li Cain says
I love the idea of creating headlines. I learned this lesson the hard way a few times. I also find that I either just hammer out an entire post in one sitting, then look at it later or I write a brief outline but cannot write the post for two days. It’s really weird.
sajid says
this very informative artical for me.thanks