How to Launch an Article Series from One Lonely Article

Image Canaveral-Launch

We've been talking about the perks of doing an article series and how to do one correctly (don't put Part 1, Part 2, ect in your titles!), but today I'd like to share with you a little trick I stumbled upon when I was trying to figure out how to get more marketing mileage out of my blog posts. 

As I told you previously, here is one of the ways I morph one piece of content into multiple articles:

"What I do lots of times is I take one aspect of a post and elaborate on it in an article. For example, let's say my post is about how to do a successful article marketing campaign, and I have listed several brief steps.

I can take each one of those steps and turn them into a stand-alone article by elaborating on them. I can have one article about how to craft a strong resource box, another about how to craft a great article title, and another about how to locate a great article submission service (you know that there's one that I highly recommend! ) 

You get the idea–you can elaborate on ideas that you first broach in a blog post, fleshing them out so that they are article-worthy. Depending on the post, you may get several articles out of one post." 

Well, in the same way you can turn one blog post into multiple articles, you can also use one article as a launching pad for an article series.

Here's how:

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The 3 Reasons Why Writing An Article Series Can Simplify Your Life

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I know, I've been beating you over the head recently about not putting Part 1, Part 2, etc in your titles and how your titles shouldn't scream "article series!!!!", but the obvious question is… 

If I can't tell readers outright that an article is part of a series, and if it's not a given that all the articles in my series will be read by any one viewer, then what's the point of doing an article series?

That's a great question, and by now you've probably grasped that doing an article series is more for your benefit than for a reader who finds your articles. After all, it is not a given that someone who reads one of the articles in your series will read or come into contact with all the other parts. 

I LOVE to work in series but not because I think I can lure readers into reading 7 articles rather than just one. The main reason I like to do article series is that it just plain makes the writing easier on me and gives me compounded results for my initial efforts.  

Here are the big 3 reasons why writing in a series simplifies my life: 

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Run Out Of Stuff To Say: How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing #9

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Originally uploaded by wasil_uderscore

This is Part 9 in the 10 part series How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing…And What To Do About It!

You may have been running strong with your first few articles, coming up with ideas for your articles pretty easily, but I think pretty much everyone at some point runs into a writing inspiration brick wall that has us saying:

"Um, I think I've written about everything I can possibly write about in my niche."

And this is when an author does one of the following:

a) Gives up

b) Starts writing off topic articles (and we know that that is a no-no!)

c) Finds a way to tap into a limitless supply of article ideas

Let's choose option "c", shall we?

Yes, our imaginations run thin every now and then, and no, it isn't easy to come up with article ideas sometimes, but I promise you–no matter what the topic of your website, you can always generate new and interesting ideas for articles IF you follow these guidelines…

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Give Up Just As You’re Getting Started: How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing #5

This is Part 5 in the 10 part series How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing…And What To Do About It!

We all LOVE immediate gratification, don't we?

This is why we start workout programs, hit the gym hard for a few days in a row, and then look in the mirror expecting to suddenly look like:

a) Arnold Schwarzenegger back in his "Terminator" days OR

b) Linda Hamilton back in her "Terminator 2" days (remember her arms?)

And then when we see that we still look very much the same way we did at the beginning of the week, we get frustrated, think "Ugh, this is taking too long!", and then promptly eat 3 slices of pizza and a hot fudge sundae.  

Yes, most of us (myself included!) do have a tendency to want to see immediate results with anything we do, and this includes article marketing.  

One of the most common reasons why folks don't see the results they were hoping for with article marketing is giving up too soon after expecting results immediately.

I just want to be up front with you about what you can expect with Article Marketing as far as the time frame goes:
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Lack of Submissions: How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing #1

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Originally uploaded by whisperawish

This is Part 1 in the 10 part series How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing…And What To Do About It! 

This has happened more than a few times:

Someone writes in to say, "I've been doing article marketing for the last 6 months, and I don't see any difference! What gives?"

Then I look at their submissions to try to help them figure out what the deal may be. Indeed, I see that they did start submitting articles 6 months prior, but guess what?

Over the past 6 months they submitted only 3 articles.

Hmmm, I wonder why their results are less than they hoped ?

The Solution 

There is a delicate balance with article marketing–submit too many articles and publishers won't appreciate it, but submit too few and you won't make enough of an impact on Google to see much of a difference.

The solution is to submit between 1-8 articles every 30 days (this is what we recommend at SubmitYOURArticle.com). 

That is a moderate article submission schedule, and if you stick within that healthy range you'll have the best chance of seeing optimum results.

I often tell folks that article marketing is a "less is more" situation, but don't take that too far and stop submitting entirely! You must submit a steady amount of articles (1-8 a month) to see lasting results.

9 Tips for Developing a Healthy Article Submission Habit  

Of course there are events in life that make it so we don't write as often as we had planned, but if you're finding that you are consistently not submitting articles even though you'd like to, here are 9 tips to help you get back on track: 

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The Fastest, Easiest Way To Write Your First Article…Starting From Square One

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Originally uploaded by Jon_Marshall

I can totally understand that when folks first get the idea to do article marketing that initially there is a "deer in the headlights" sort of feeling of:

"Oh no–now I'm supposed to write articles. Where do I even start?"

A lot of folks just aren't used to writing–after all, when is the last time you were required to write a professional sounding article?

Depending on what type of work you do, you may not have had any reason to write anything of any length since leaving school.

I even have a degree in English and knew I would love writing articles once I got the hang of it, but when I first started article marketing I did have an adjustment period where I was trying to get into the article writing groove. 

So, if you're considering starting article marketing or if you've already started and are still trying to get your sea legs, please know that what you're experiencing is normal–any time we start doing something we're not used to doing it's a bit awkward at first!  

You can rest easy that writing an article is not brain surgery–it is very simple when you break it down into steps, which is what I'm going to do for you. If you follow these basic steps, you will be well on your way to writing a very respectable first article!

A little warning though–this is by no means the "definitive" way to write an article–I just think this is a very easy way to get started writing your first article. (I also follow this method even though I've written tons of articles). 

Here we go… 

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How to Write an Article in 700-800 Words

How well I could write if I were not here!
Originally uploaded by Esther_G

I decided to write this post only because I know from personal experience that it's easier said than done to write a great article that ends up in the sweet spot word count of 700-800 words. 

Some of us who have trouble reigning things in at less than 1500 words, and others are on the opposite end of the spectrum straining to make their articles long enough.

Knowing that a 700-800 word article marketing article has a greater chance of getting picked up for publication, I have been consistently trying to get all of my articles to conform to that range.

Here are some of my tricks for getting my articles to stay in the word count sweet spot : 

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How To Turn A Blog Post Into A Free Reprint Article

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Originally uploaded by liquidskyarts

"What should I write my articles about?"

I get all excited when someone with a blog asks me this question, because the answer is easy!

If you have well-tended blog you probably already have a storehouse of article topic inspiration.

Now, notice that I said article inspiration, as we don't advise using content that is already on your site verbatim in an article submission. There is some tweaking and consideration that needs to take place before converting a blog post into an article, but it's really not that hard, and from my viewpoint it is a very efficient way to get the most bang for my writing time and effort. 

I don't submit blog posts as articles verbatim, but sometimes I'll write a blog post that I think would be article-worthy with some re-working. If you have a blog, here are some things to keep in mind as you transform a post into an article suitable for submission.

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Learning to Write First Thing In the Morning

  Studius 
  Originally uploaded by Peter Gene

I remember when I was in college about to graduate with a degree in English, I dreamed of being a writer for a living.

The funny thing is, although being able to write helped me in all sorts of ways in traditional work situations, it wasn't until I started working online that I actually started to write on a regular daily basis, day in and day out and developed a need to maximize my writing productivity. 

We talked a few weeks ago about what we can schedule our writing time like professional writers, but there is one secret trick that I see so many professional writers talking about that I think deserves elaboration–early morning writing.

I have tried writing in the afternoon, after I've finished most of my other work, or in the evening, or in the mid-morning, but I must say that when I started writing in the very early morning I saw my writing output, focus, and quality of work take off like a gazelle through an open field! It was just amazing the difference writing at a particular time of day has made.

Why does writing early in the morning work?

• Our minds are not tangled up in the details of the day yet.
• It's quiet (most other people are sleeping )
• There is some evidence that sleep stimulates creativity. To write soon after waking up allows us to capitalize on this.

Sounds good–Sign me up, you say! But how?

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HowTo Create a Storehouse of Articles for the Winter

  Standing Squirrel 
  Originally uploaded by Darragh Sherwin

I was talking to a friend the other day, and she totally impressed me by telling me that she had set the goal for herself to write 5 articles a week for 5 weeks.

Now, let me clarify: she wasn't submitting 5 articles a week–she was writing 5 articles a week for 5 weeks to compile a storehouse of articles that she would trickle out over the course of the next several months.

She was very specific on all the elements of her goal:

• All her articles were to be on a targeted topic in her niche (personal  branding).
• All of her articles were to be a certain length–remember, our articles must be more than 400 words long, up to a maximum of 1500 words. The ideal length for an article is 700-800 words.
• She had designated what days she would write the articles, and determined that writing an article is just a built in requirement for that day.
• She gave herself a time limit each day for writing her article.

When she told me this I thought, 'Wow–that's really smart! I should be doing that!'

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