Question:

For SEO purpose, do you suggest we write one article per keyword, or are we able to write multiple articles per keyword with the same effectiveness?

Answer:

When you you want to write articles targeting specific keywords, I would use this model:

1) Do your keyword research before you start writing articles.

2) Then just cycle through your keyword list, focusing an article on one keyword phrase at a time until you go through your list.

3) Then start again at the beginning, and go through the list again (and again, and again…)

4) Be sure to update your keyword list every so often, because that information changes.

This approach is a good way to dominate your niche on the search engines, and ultimately, the more content you have out there for specific keywords, the more likely it is that at least one of your content pieces are going to show up for those searches.

I hope that helps!

Photo by ul Marga

That saves bunches of time–your previous piece of content serves as an outline and source of research for your article, so you don’t have to spend time thinking up a new topic and points to cover.

But how do you re-work a blog post or some other piece of content you have to create a unique article?

I bounce my articles off of my blog posts every month, so I’m happy to give you some pointers:

1) Don’t try to go line by line rephrasing things–that makes it too easy to duplicate the original content of yours.

2) Instead, read back over your blog post and jot down the main points. Don’t copy whole sentences or anything, just a quickly jot down the main points of the article.

3) Then, using the notes you’ve jotted, start fleshing out the article. Do not look back at the original piece–if you do it is too tempting to start copying parts.

4) Remember that you can take a different approach in your article –your blog post may be in essay form, but your article could be a Top 5 List or a Top 15 List.

5) Do not try to re-work a previously submitted article–this re-working process is for content of yours that is in different forms, like blog posts and content on your website. It is perfectly fine to get ideas from previously submitted articles and to write new articles that go deeper or take different approaches to the same topic, but you should not take an article that you’ve submitted and try to create a different variation of the same article. Each article you submit should be unique and fresh and should not re-use content from previously submitted articles.

Here are some examples from my own writing:

Example 1

Original blog post:

How To Get Out Of A Writing Slump

Article that was bounced off of the blog post:

5 Tips for Getting Out Of A Writing Slump

Example 2

Original blog post:

Do I Really Have To Think About Keywords?

Article that was bounced off of the blog post:

I’m A Newbie To Article Marketing: Do I Need To Do Keyword Research?

The idea is to get the most benefit from your previously created blog post without copying it–you want the content on your own site to be unique, but you can still use your blog posts as a starting point in creating new articles.

If you learn how to do this you can get a content creating system going that can save you bunches of time and help you submit articles consistently.

Photo by Kristina B

That’s a pretty common question that I receive from folks who are new to Article Marketing and marketing sites in general.

There is a definite learning curve when you start website marketing, and if you don’t learn what expectations are realistic you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment.

I wanted to go over some of the most common concerns/questions related to the topic of trying to drive traffic to a new site or newly marketing an existing site.

Hopefully seeing these questions and explanations will ease your mind enough that you can focus on the long term goal and stick with it long enough to see the fruits of your labors.

Can I get immediate results with Article Marketing or any other online marketing tool?

I wouldn’t count on it. Don’t get me wrong–results certainly can be dramatic. For example, publication in a major ezine can bring a surge of traffic over a few days. In a case like that you would see a sudden boost in traffic, but spikes like that are not lasting–they will die down after a few days or weeks.

When marketing your website, you are trying to build enduring traffic that continues to build over time.

You accomplish this by increasing your search engine ranking. Changing your search engine ranking is not something that happens overnight.

No matter how well you market your site, you cannot change how the search engines do things. When you’re trying to change your search engine ranking you just have to cooperate with Google and gauge your expectations accordingly.

How does Article Marketing help a site get a higher search engine ranking?

Through Article Marketing you will be building links. Search engines look at your links (among other things) to establish the authority of your site and how your site should rank in searches for certain keyword terms.

You want a higher search engine ranking?

Then you will need to build more links to your site…legitimately. I’m not talking about buying links–you need to put for the effort to create content that is valuable to other website owners so that they will link to you. Those are the types of links that Google values.

Article Marketing can also help you rank higher for keywords, by strategic and natural sounding usage of your keywords in your article, resource box and title.

I’ve been submitting articles for 2 months–why am I not seeing a big change in my traffic?

It will likely take 3-4 months at least before seeing results, longer if your site is brand new.

Why does it take that long?

As I mentioned earlier, the main way that article marketing increases traffic to a website is through an increase in search engine ranking–so when people search in Google or the other search engines (SEs) using your keywords terms, they will see your website listed higher in the search results. A higher listing leads to more traffic.

It is the increase in links that will cause Google (and the other SEs) to change your search engine ranking.

But when you build links to your site, they are not automatically calculated by Google. The links you build this week will not “show up” in Google for several months. The links are there, but they just haven’t been calculated to impact your search engine ranking.

The reason for that is that Google does not recalculate your backlinks every day, every week or even every month–usually it’s every 3-4 months that Google will revisit a site,  recalculate the backlinks, and then adjust the search engine ranking.

My site is brand new –when can I see results?

If your site is new, then the site needs to be indexed by the search engines first, before they know to go to your site and see what’s going on with your backlinks. So, it can take longer to see initial results when your starting with a brand new site.

I’ve got a story for you below about marketing a brand new website and how long it took…

I need some encouragement to stick with it–can you give me an example?

Certainly–when we were starting our blog Creative Article Marketing last year, it took about 5 months before the backlinks showed up in Google.

Yep, 5 months.

I know from personal experience that it is very hard to wait–when we were starting this blog we were checking expectantly every month to see when the links would show up, and it was a long wait (seemingly to us!) before we got to see the fruits of our labors.

Now our blog is getting great traffic that steadily increases, and it has a PR4 (and climbing!). This is after many consistent months of faithfully marketing this site with articles. Our blog is still a relatively new site (only about a year old), but it’s made a strong start thanks to Article Marketing.

In the first 4 months, though, it was like a flat line on a graph–we could not see much of any effect from our marketing efforts.

It took a while for the site to be indexed (it was brand spankin’ new), and then even though we were link building, the links were not showing up in Google yet.

Then, suddenly in the 5th month the links showed up and we received PageRank and the traffic started to increase.

This is the way that Google (and the other SEs) work. That is something that we wish we had some control over and could speed up, but unfortunately we can’t.

If you are wanting to market your site online, it is going to take time and consistent effort, whether you use article marketing or some other marketing tool.

It is not the sort of thing that has an immediate payoff. This is what is happening with your site, and it is what all of us go through when we’re starting to market a site.

It is unreasonable to think that at some magical date I will get a flood of traffic and backlinks–why do people tell me that?

It is actually not that unreasonable knowing how Google works. The date isn’t magical–it is the date that Google re-evaluates your site and adjusts your search engine ranking that you will see that flat line on your graph start to spike up. If you give up before that time then you will not see the spike.

Can you give me some more in depth information on what I can expect when I’m just starting to market my website?

We have some resources on our blog that you will find helpful:

The #1 Reason Why Article Marketing Fails

5 Things To Do Before You Start Article Marketing…

Alright, I understand now, and I want to give this a go. What do I do next?

*If you are seriously interested in driving traffic to your website, then please read those resources above.

*Come up with a plan for how you will realistically track your progress (the 2nd resource I listed gives you some ideas for creating that tracking plan).

*Check your stats once a month–not every day or every week, but once a month.

*Consistently submit articles every month.

*Know that it will take 3, 4 and sometimes even 5 months before seeing the initial results.

Trust that you can market your site. Others are doing it, and so can you.

Photo by splorp

I’m creating this resource with the intention of helping you newcomers maximize your time and focus on goals.

Here are the elements we’ll be focusing on:

• What can you expect (this is a big deal as you’re getting started)

• Setting priorities (what should you focus on)

• Organizational and writing tips

If you’re a newbie to article marketing (and you’re in good company if you are), then you can read this resource and get direction on what is absolutely necessary to focus on and what can wait until you’ve got more experience.

This will save you bunches of time and mental energy!

Okay, let’s get started…

What can you expect?

This is mandatory reading for everyone who is doing article marketing:

The # 1 Reason Why Article Marketing Fails

What are the major things I should focus on?

As a beginner, there are just a few things to focus on:

1. Submit articles consistently, somewhere between 2 and 8 articles a month per site is sufficient.
2. Take the time to craft a strong resource box–this will impact how many people will click the link in your resource box, so it’s important. Here is a very simple guide for writing a resource box.
3. Write educational articles. Do not write articles that are sales oriented. Write as if you are an expert in your field and you are teaching your target customers valuable information. All sales information should be saved for your resource box.
4. Pay special attention to your titles. Your title should clearly indicate what your article is about. Try to make your titles interesting. Imagine that you are a reader looking through hundreds of article titles–what sort of title would catch your attention?

As a beginner, if you just focus on these 4 things, you will make an extremely strong start.

Tips For Writing Quality Articles Faster

1) Brainstorm a list of article topics. Do this before trying to write–get an article topic list going and keep it by your desk.

2) Create a writing schedule. Pre-decide how many articles you will submit each month, then schedule writing days for yourself. Mark these days on your calendar.

I’m telling you–this writing schedule saves my life and helps keep me on track. If you’re anything like me, when you’re left to your own devices to decide when is a good time to write, you will put it off indefinitely.

On your writing days, select a topic from your pre-made list of topics, and write about it.

3) I find it infinitely helpful to create an informal outline before getting started writing. I get my main points down on paper, then I flesh things out.

4) Use an article template if you’re short on writing ideas.

5) Give yourself a word count goal. You might aim for a 500-800 word article. Putting boundaries on your articles helps you write faster.

6) If you have a blog, you can rework blog posts and submit them as articles.

Keep It Simple

That is it–that is all you need to know to make an excellent start.

Do not feel the need to learn every last thing about article marketing right at the get go–that’s a sure fire way to burn yourself out.

You do not need to get tricky, you do not need to try to understand SEO, you do not need to employ any advanced techniques to get more dramatic results.

Save yourself some time and brainpower. You can explore the more advanced elements of article marketing  after you’ve got these basics down pat.

But as you’re beginning–Just do these simple things and you will make a strong start.

Additional Resources:

Article Marketing Tips For Beginners

Photo by wwarby

You have more article ideas than you realize.

The most common question any Article Marketer asks is this:

“What should I write about?”

I think folks sometimes get stumped for topics because the expansive sea of possibilities is just mind boggling.

I have a theory though:

You have more article topics at your fingertips than you realize.

You may even have ready-made content just waiting to be tweaked and submitted as articles.

Look at your own website.

Now, if your website is a blog, then you already have a storeroom of article topics at your disposal, but in this post I’m specifically talking to people who have traditional websites.

If your website is like most people’s websites you have on your very own site ideas for several articles just waiting to be written.

Example:

Let’s say you’re a Virtual Assistant– it’s likely that you have a page on your site that answers the question “What is a Virtual Assistant?” or “How A Virtual Assistant Can Save You Time”, or some other content that you’ve written to help persuade an interested party into being interested in working with a Virtual Assistant.

That info is a prime candidate for an article or two or more.

Audio Content From Your Website

Have you done any podcasts or audio interviews on your topic?

These can be great sources for article ideas.

Example:

Recently Mark Bowden, an internet marketing specialist from the UK,  interviewed me on various aspects of article marketing for his own clients. It was about a 45 minute interview with lots of good questions asked by Mark, and I had linked to the interview from my site and encouraged readers to listen to it.

But then I thought–”Hey, that’s good content. I can use this!”.

I just re-listened to the interview and took notes on major topics, then broke those topics into articles.

More Article Topic Sources On Your Site and In Your Business

E-Books

Have you written an e-book on your topic?

Pull chapters from your e-book and adapt them to be articles. You might have to do some slight rephrasing on the intro and concluding paragraphs, and also whittle the chapters down to article length (no more than 1500 words), but depending on the length of your book, you probably already have the makings of several dozen articles.

Your List Messages

If you have a list of email subscribers, what are you sending out to your readers?

Do you offer an e-course (you know, lessons sent out automatically to people who sign up)?

Or perhaps a newsletter?

If you have a list, you must be sending information to them.

Look through your email messages and see if there is anything that you can morph into an educational article. Remember, you’re looking for educational, teaching content to turn into articles.

For messages going out via email, you do not have to rework them like you would if the content was on your own site. It is fine to use verbatim content that is going out to your email list in an article.

Your Customer Support Replies

Many times I’ve used my customer support replies as the basis for articles. You can sort of tell when you have an ‘article worthy’ customer support reply:

• You find yourself explaining a very important concept that is essential to the person’s success.
• You notice yourself teaching –you’re providing background info, explaining things in depth, and giving examples.
• You’ve noticed this same question coming up before, and you know that if a handful of people are asking it then likely many others are wondering the same thing.

My attitude is this: As long as I’ve taken the time to write a really thorough reply to a great question from a customer, why not use that content in an article?

Much of the work is already done, and my mind is on the topic anyway. Makes the most use of the time and brainpower I’ve invested.

How To Re-Work Website Content

Here are some pointers for transforming content on your website into articles:

1) Rework your appropriate website content and submit it as an article. Do not submit the same content verbatim–it is in your own best interest to keep the content on your own site unique.

*Exceptions to this would be if you were using audio content, email message content, or content you’ve sent as a customer support reply. For those, you do not need to change the content to be sure the original is unique.

Only content you’re using from your own website needs to be re-worked.

2) Be sure that your article is not promotional–you cannot talk about yourself or your business or services in the article body. Save that for the resource box. The info you provide in your article needs to be objective and educational, so content on your website that is all about you and more of a sales pitch for your business would not be appropriate material.

3) Set a word count goal–Your article should be at least 400 words long, but it can be  longer than that. A good goal to aim for is 400-800 words.

4) Use the website content as an outline for writing your article. That will help you write the article faster. I use outlines for all my articles, and they help me stay on track.

5) Write for different sections of your target market. For example, you may write an article on one topic 2 different ways–One for newbies and the other for experts.

Have You Found Hidden Article Ideas?

When you find a source of article ideas on your own site or in your own business, it’s like discovering a hidden treasure.

I found one of these recently–I looked at an e-book I’d written and noticed that I could use the table of contents as an “article idea list”. That is a 70 page e-book, so I will be set for article ideas for a while!

I hope this post has helped– have you found any hidden article ideas?

Photo by Cayusa

You have two options:

1) Your real name.

You would use your real name if you have no other reason for changing it, or if you would like to become known as an expert in your niche.

Using your real name adds a level of authenticity that a pen name sometimes misses.

If you do use a pen name, it’s a good idea to try to make it sound real.

2) A pen name

A pen name (aka alias), is a fictional name adopted by an author.

Here are some reasons why authors use pen names:

*To be more memorable. Maybe your real name is very common and you’d like to have a name that stands out more.

*To come across as being a person of the opposite sex.

*To differentiate other writings you may have done on other topics.

*To avoid overexposure.

*Your name may happen to be the same as that of a well known writer (Stephen King, Mark Twain, etc), and you may change your name so as not to confuse readers.

*For some reason you want to conceal your identity.

In article marketing, there is nothing wrong with using a pen name if you feel so inclined.

If you decide to use a pen name, keep these guidelines in mind:

*As I said before, it helps to make your pen name sound like a real name, rather than an obviously fake one.

*Use a first name and a last name.

*Avoid silly names. If your name sounds like a cartoon character or some kind of alter ego or computer avatar (Mr. Zebra, Party Animal, Website Guru, Cupcake Girl, etc), it can make it hard for a reader to take you seriously. Remember, you are writing educational articles, and your goal is to provide helpful information to your target market.

*Don’t try to play a name off of your topic–like if you’re writing about “Lord of the Rings”, using a name like Frodo Hobbit is a bit too obvious.

*Do not try to morph your business name into a pen name. I’ve seen folks try to do this, and it is not very subtle and it doesn’t sound like a real name at all. It can also get your article declined for being promotional.

*A website addy is not a pen name, so you can’t say that your pen name is ExtremeCars.com or anything like that.

What is a good pen name?

A name that sounds real. Use a first and last name.

If you have no real reason to use a pen name, then use your real name. The choice is up to you!

Photo by pareeerica

Yes, we want to provide educational helpful info to our readers with every article, but have you ever craved a different perspective, a jolt of creativity, a way to combine a love of history (or TV!) with your article writing?

I’d like to push you a little bit out of the box with this article template.

Use a historical figure, TV character, or any sort of popular icon as an example of the principles you’d like to teach.

A great example of this is The Mark Twain Guide To Better Blogging from Copyblogger.

Now, this example is a blog post, but as we know blogs and articles are complimentary.

Here are some guidelines for you:

Pick a historical figure that has made some great quotes.

If you’re stumped, browse around BrainyQuote.com

Here are some ideas for you:

• Shakespeare
• Mister Rogers (you know, Fred Rogers from Mister Rogers Neighborhood–he had some great quotes!)
• Bill Cosby
• Katharine Hepburn
• Helen Keller
• Abraham Lincoln
• Winston Churchill

You get the idea. You do not have to pick a person that has anything to do with your niche–that is what makes things interesting.

How do Mark Twain and blogging go together?

It’s that odd combination that intrigues you to want to read the article. The quotes you choose will tie the historical figure to your topic.

Select several quotes that you can work off of. The idea is to choose quotes that you can in some way connect to principles/ideas having to do with your niche. Quotes that are ideals, beliefs, or observations are good inspiration.

Write a commentary on how each quote connects to a principle having to do with your niche.

Write an introductory paragraph that gives a little info about the historical figure, and why you think he/she would have been a great blogger, virtual assistant, website designer, entrepreneur, affiliate marketer, caterer, dentist, florist, real estate agent–whatever your niche is.

Write a conclusion–could just be one sentence.

Write a title that mentions the historical figure in combination with your topic. For example:

The [historical figure's name] Guide To [Your Topic]

Some Tips:

Now, depending on your personality, this will either be the easiest article you’ve ever written or the hardest.

I encourage you to use this template as inspiration to think about your topic in a different way and adapt it to suit your personality.

Suppose you’re not all into the quotes–here’s an alternative example:

Carrie Bradshaw’s Guide To A Stylish Book Launch

In that post, the author used a TV personality as an example of the principles she was teaching. There were no quotes involved, but the article played off of a situation the TV character was in, and then morphed into a How-To piece.

Why do this?

It is intellectually and creatively stimulating for both you and your readers.

It can be intriguing and attention grabbing.

It’s just plain fun.

Will you try this?

If you’re brave and use this template to write your next article, please share a link to your article in the comments so we can be inspired!

100 articles is your marathon.

I got some great feedback from you guys on the post about aiming for 100 articles, and I’d like to offer a plan for making this grand achievement more doable.

I know that when a huge goal looms ahead of you it can be daunting (especially when you’re just starting out!), but anything is doable when you break it into steps.

Why Aim For 100 Articles?

Do you know where most people go wrong with article marketing?

A lack of CONSISTENCY.

That’s right–the most common reason why an article marketing campaign “fails” is not because of a lack of technical knowledge but rather for something as simple as not submitting enough articles on a regular basis.

I keep this quote from Benjamin Disraeli beside my desk:

“The secret to success is constancy of purpose.”

Doing anything consistently month after month after month will make an impact.

What does “consistency” look like?

Submit articles each month. Do it for the lifetime of your website.

Having a goal like 100 articles is a great motivator for building consistency into your article marketing routine.

It’s like when you decide to take up jogging, you might set yourself a goal of running in a marathon.

At the time you decide to do the race, you can’t run that far, but the goal is what motivates you to keep on progressing to that distance in a certain time frame.

Think of the 100 articles goal as your marathon.

The Time Frame: Why A Year?

I must say that the idea is not to submit 100 articles in a short period of time–if you submit articles at the rate that I recommend, this will take a year or so to accumulate 100 articles.

Doing things faster is not necessarily a bonus–it’s better SEO wise to gradually build up the links over a year’s time.

Quality and Quantity Count

Remember, we are not just shooting for a particular quantity, but for articles that have quality as well.

Every article you write needs to be a quality article that is useful to your readers, but a HUGE component of article marketing is also consistency.

You can write 100 articles using this plan and this time frame (a year or more) and still write quality articles.

Writing 25 articles or so is a great start, but you will see your best SEO results with an ongoing article marketing campaign that goes on for months and years. Article marketing is all about momentum and compounded results.

Aim for 100 quality articles (and it will take about a year to reach that goal) and you will have a built-in consistency that will payoff.

Simple Strategies

Submit 2 articles a week, or 8 a month

Set a goal for yourself–try 8 articles a month. That’s 2 a week.

Then just plug along consistently and before you know it the year will be over and you will be rapidly closing in on 100 articles.

To accomplish this goal you can take a few approaches:

=> Schedule 2 writing days a week, and write an article on each day.

OR

=> Write several articles at one writing session, and schedule one or two writing sessions a month. You may be able to accomplish all of your writing within a few days if you batch process your article writing.

Write In Bursts

Or here’s another idea–I have a friend who prefers to write in bursts.

She sets the goal for herself to write 5 articles a week for 5 weeks, then she takes a break for a few months.

So, imagine it–if you write 5 articles a week for 5 weeks, you have 25 articles. If you’re submitting 8 articles a month, then that will keep you going for a little over 3 months.

So, you can write 5 articles a week for 5 weeks, and then take 2 months off, then start back up again after your break.

Finding Article Topics

Writing 100 articles in a year does not take a Herculean writing effort–rather, it takes consistency.

Do not imagine that you will need to be spending all of your time writing. You can accomplish this goal by writing 2 articles a week, and that is entirely reasonable.

The hardest thing about submitting articles consistently is coming up with writing topics–I think if we all had someone telling us exactly what to write about for each article, there would be much less procrastination and more enthusiasm for sitting down at the writing desk!

So, let’s talk about finding article topics:

1) Use these article templates to jump start your writing. Each one of these templates can be used over and over again.

2) Multi-task your content creation: Bounce articles off of your blog posts (if you have a blog)

3) Consult this resource I created about how to find great article topics– there you’ll find resources for stimulating new article topics, writing strategies, and organizational methods.

The Impact

I submitted just 8 articles a month last year (submitting through SubmitYOURArticle.com) and saw a dramatic increase in my search engine ranking for some new keyword terms that I was targeting.

One of them jumped from #88 to #1 in the results listings. Now that’s a dramatic difference!

Submitting 100 articles over a year’s time can have a huge impact on the health of your site.

Your Homework

Don’t think you can accomplish this feat? Well, you can, and you can do it without killing yourself. All you need is a plan.

1) Step one is the biggie: Commit to submitting 100 articles in about a year’s time (will likely take a little over a year).

2) Create a plan for yourself:

Are you the sort who wants to get all of your writing completed in one or two days a month?

Or do you like to be slow and steady, writing 2 articles a week on different days?

Are you an all or nothing type of person who would enjoy the challenge of writing 5 articles a week to create a storehouse of articles to submit over a period of 3 months?

Or come up with your own plan!

Will you at least try to run this writing marathon? Let me know in the comments.

Photo by OskarN

Update: SubmitYOURArticle.com allows unlimited article submissions, but we still recommend for an optimum campaign submitting up to 8 articles per month/per site, although there’s no actual restriction.

You can batch process articles (or donuts!)

Without realizing it, I have been ‘batch processing’ for years, a concept that I learned from David Allen (author of the book “Getting Things Done”).

I’ve been doing this with great success on my email–instead of checking it a gazillion times a day (or letting that “incoming mail” chime drag me away from what I’m trying to concentrate on every time a new message hits the inbox), I designated scheduled email checking times.

I check it in the morning and in the afternoon. Each time I check I deal with all the emails in there. I turned off the “incoming mail” notification thingy to eliminate distractions. I started batch processing emails–doing bunches at one sitting instead of one here and one there.

Email used to take over my life–it just took forever and I felt like as soon as I got the box cleared out more came pouring in. I’m sure you can relate!

But I’m telling you, when I started batch processing emails, everything changed.

What Is Batch Processing?

It’s sort of like putting a task on a conveyor belt–like in the photo above, instead of dipping donuts in the glaze one at a time, it’s much more efficient just to line them up and pour the glaze over a bunch of donuts all at once.

You can do it with email, and you can do it with articles too!

A More Productive Way To Write

It didn’t really occur to me to transfer this productivity method to writing articles until I saw Darren Rowse at Problogger talking about how he batch processes blog posts.

The ‘batch processing’ method is simple:

Batch processing articles involves writing several articles in one day.

Instead of eking out one article here and another there, you have designated days of the week that are “writing days”.

I can write 4+ articles a day now (about 2500 words), and I find that writing successive articles helps me get into a writing groove that enables me to write faster.

How To Batch Process Articles

1. Pick your day(s) to write.

Now, if you’re writing 8 articles a month, then you only need to have these writing days a few days a month–imagine getting all of your writing done for the month in a couple days!

2. Set aside a block of time that is just for writing–try 4 or 5 hours.

3. Write offline–the idea is to give your full concentration to your writing. Writing offline will keep you away from email, Twitter, IMs and the like.

4. Pre-determine your article topics.

Just sit down before your writing session (or at the beginning of the month, or whenever), and start brainstorming article topics. Choose topics from that list for your articles. This saves bunches of time, since one of the hardest things is coming up with ideas of what to write about.

5. I always come up with an informal outline before I really start writing–I think that makes things progress faster.

6. Keep snacks handy.

We are all capable of sitting for 4-5 hours and working on a project, but I know that if I start to get hungry, I need to eat. And if I get up to go to the kitchen to get something to eat, then it may be a while before I get myself back to my desk. The solution for me staying focused on the task at hand is to keep snacks within reach–coffee on the desk, pretzels, anything that I can quickly pick up and eat/drink.

7. Have word count limits/goals.

This helps considerably, as if you don’t have a limit on how long your article will be, you can write and write and write and take up all 5 hours just on one article!

Here are some word count goals for you to try:

400-600 word articles

600-800 word articles

If you like, you can try out that short & snappy article method I told you about recently.

You Can Expect These Benefits

*Writing for an extended period of time gives you the chance to get on a roll–one article may spawn another article idea, or you may realize that one idea is too big to cover in just one article and you can neatly transition into your next article continuing the thoughts of the previous one.

Writing “on a roll” can help give your articles a sense of cohesion–one builds on the next, rather than just being a series of one-offs.

*You will be working more efficiently if you “batch process” things.

You aren’t constantly being pulled away to do other things, so that helps you get whatever activity you’re working on done more quickly. When you hop from activity to activity, it is very hard to complete anything. This batching method is really geared toward completion of tasks.

*It is just plain satisfying to crank out several articles in a day. What a feeling of accomplishment!

*You can relax more. When you know you will be writing 4 or so articles on your designated day, it frees you to relax the rest of the month.

Your Homework

• Experiment with batch processing your articles this month.
• Aim to get 4 articles done in one writing session.

Then, let me know how it goes…

Photo: pochacco20

Is this your perfect writing environment?

There are certain settings that are more conducive to focused and inspired writing than others.

Ask any professional writer, and they will be able to tell you quite specifically their favorite location for writing, their favorite time of day for writing, and how they prefer their work space to look/feel/smell/sound.

Do you have a favorite writing routine?

If you don’t, I’d like to help you develop one.

Let’s look at at an example:

Stephen King

“There are certain things I do if I sit down to write,” he said. “I have a glass of water or a cup of tea. There’s a certain time I sit down, from 8:00 to 8:30, somewhere within that half hour every morning,” he explained. “I have my vitamin pill and my music, sit in the same seat, and the papers are all arranged in the same places. The cumulative purpose of doing these things the same way every day seems to be a way of saying to the mind, you’re going to be dreaming soon.

“It’s not any different than a bedtime routine,” he continued. “Do you go to bed a different way every night? Is there a certain side you sleep on? I mean I brush my teeth, I wash my hands. Why would anybody wash their hands before they go to bed? I don’t know. And the pillows are supposed to be pointed a certain way. The open side of the pillowcase is supposed to be pointed in toward the other side of the bed. I don’t know why.”

Lisa Rogak, Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King

Routines help our minds prepare for a specific activity.

I like Stephen King’s parallel between preparing to write and preparing to sleep.

Most everyone has a “getting ready for bed” pattern, so why not develop a “getting ready to write” routine?

If you don’t have a writing routine yet, here are some guidelines for you:

1) Choose a time of day.

• If possible, try first thing in the morning, when your brain is still fresh. On my writing days I do my writing first before any other work activities because writing takes the most brain power.

• You may choose your time of day based on quietness–some like to work early in the morning for the quiet factor, and others (especially those of us with kids!) can look for the pockets of time when the kids are at school, asleep, or otherwise occupied.

• Are you a night owl or early riser? It seems many professional writers prefer writing first thing in the morning, but there are also some who get their best energy at night.

2) Choose a location.

If you’re like Stephen King, you will want to work from the same location every day (same chair, papers on the desk arranged in the same way, etc), but not everyone thrives under predictable conditions.

Experiment with environments/locations. Here are two of the most popular:

Quiet, Neat, Isolated

A quiet, isolated environment is a favorite of many professional writers. Working in a quiet isolated place makes it easier to concentrate.

Now it’s not often possible for us to get away to a little cabin in the woods, but there may be a room in your house, a basement or attic or even a large closet or secluded patio that will serve the purpose.

As I mentioned earlier, when you’re working at home oftentimes the time of day determines the level of quiet.

Some folks get up very early to enjoy the quiet while everyone else in the household is still asleep. Some folks wait till everyone goes to bed, and then they sit down to write. Sometimes the quietest time to write is when the kids are in school.

And as far as “neatness” goes, I am pretty sure I work better with a clean desk, but that doesn’t always happen!

Note to self: Clean off desk!

At The Cafe

Writing At The Cafe

Try taking your laptop to a cafe or coffee shop and writing from there.

I’ve done this before and was surprised at how productive I was. Yes, it is noisy and there are distractions, but for the most part people will leave you alone, especially if they see you working on a computer.

And I didn’t really find the noise a distraction at all–it was very invigorating and I think the change of pace helped stimulate my creativity.

So, working at the cafe is the flip side of working in an isolated place–you are surrounded by people, and yet you can be in your own little world.

For those of us who work from home, it’s a nice change to get out of the house to work. One of my favorite parts of working from the cafe is the feeling of going home after working. If you work from home you may know what I mean–it is a pleasant feeling to drive to a work location, stay there for a few hours, pack everything up, and then drive home.

It’s one of those routines that is calming to the soul–I like returning home after working, probably because I don’t do it that often. Most of the time I work from my office at home.

Morning ritual

3) Develop a little pre-writing ritual. Here are some suggestions:

• Drinking a cup of coffee before heading to your desk.
• Having breakfast (or lunch or dinner) and then starting the writing day.
• Reading the paper before working.
• Putting on some music as you sit down to write.

Basically anything you do to “get ready” to write on a regular basis will signal to your brain to start to get into “writing mode”.

My routine is not complicated–just breakfast, coffee, then put on some quiet classical music or no music at all. Then write.

What about you? Do you have a preferred writing routine?

Photo credits:

Photo 1 by DDFic

Photo 2 by CarbonNYC

Photo 3 by Brendan Wilkinson