Hey all, I’m back for another post that will be focused on content again and how you can write some great content either for your own site or for maketing purposes (article directories and more). Actually, great content doesn’t mean you need to write long articles, but long articles tend to rank better.

From my observations and others experience, after recent Google updates it seems you need more and more to provide the quality AND quantity required to readers. Both need to be there on your site. The purpose of search engines is to provide the users the best source possible of information. Now for your website you write your best content because you want to attract traffic naturally (see my previous article on long tail keyword groups).

Sure as affiliates you may have been told to not tell everything in your content, that you need to tease a little bit so readers want to know more and click. Well that’s still a valid point but it doesn’t mean you can not give your best in your content.

So with that in mind I’m going to give you tips on how to write longer articles and still keep quality instead of filling those with fluff. In fact, you can use the same strategies for shorter articles, it will work too. Okay so here’s the main tip:

Split your topic into sub topics.

So of course, you may already know this tip, some may have tell you to read few articles on the subject, find 3 to 5 main points to talk about and expand on each. Add intro and conclusion. That is the basics.

Even if it’s not that a new concept, you need to see it as a starting point for ALL different article types you want to write. With examples this is going to be more concrete.

There are several ways to structure articles, and also to approach your writing flow. Some will just start to write and ideas will flow and that’s great. Others may just need to take a minute to think about all ideas that could be included in the article, write them down and start expanding on each.

Write Top Lists

What could be the angle of your article. As many affiliate marketers, you may have chosen to promote Amazon products. This is the first to come to my mind because today I just wrote an article very easily. It wasn’t a review though, but a top 10 list.

Top 10, or top 7 or whatever you want are really easy to write. To get to over 1000 words, you jut need to make a top 10 bestselling products of your niche, or subniche, and write about 100 words on each. With intro and conclusion you jus made it. It’s quite easy and you just need to point the main feature and the benefit it provides to get almost your content done. Add something about the price and user feedback you find in each product reviews and you’re done. In other words give the meat in 5 sentences and you’re done.

The same goes for top 10 ClickBank products. You can definitely make a list of the best products in a category and distribute this article to article directories. On your site you will review them more in details.

Each time you think it will become hard to write on a point/feature/product, simply just add one more. You will have more point to discuss, the number of words per features will be lower but in the end you will reach the word count you want.

Product Reviews

So for product reviews, after you started with your intro (which you could very well write after your main content is done, try it), you start with the main features and the benefits it brings. Basically, each product (or product type) should serve a purpose. So people looking for reviews want to know how well the product does the job. It should be this main benefit (or feature that brings the benefit) that you start your review with.

Then, add a second feature that is quite important. Following the same process. From this point if you really want to dig into all the features and benefits of the product, then yes, you can. It depends on what you want to do with your website, and how much details you want to give your readers. But instead you can also quickly list all features and ALWAYS state the benefit it brings. So you will have a list like this:

• feature 1, this is useful because you will go through the process of blah blah quicker so you will save a lot of time
• feature 2, nice it is included, most competitors forget it. It definitely helps you to…
• feature 3, …

As you can see you re-state again the two main features here. Most of the time people will scan your content, and will stop on a list, so you really want to add again what you just developped earlier, but in a shorter version. Do the same for all other items on your list.

You can then talk about negatives. Not too many, one or two, and turn those into positives. Explain why it’s not a deal breaker, if only one person mentioned this negative it’s certainly not worth adding it.

Then you can add what customers have to say. This is something most ebooks about writing Amazon product reviews will tell you. Grab an excerpt of several good reviews. Just quote a paragraph or sentences that are relevant Don’t publish the whole thing, ecept if it’s really short. You may link to each review or to a really good one (see the “permalink” at the bottom of each review on Amazon).

Then conclude. Just another paragraph about the product, the purpose, how well it does the job and your recommendation.

I don’t tell you where to put your links, it’s about writing, I’ll publish an example of product review soon… say tomorrow?

FAQ – Question And Answer Style

Just like lists above, turning your article into a FAQ is another great way to write more. By simply brainstorming about your subject, you normally know what are the main subtopics to develop. For each sub topics you can certainly find a question to ask. Actually, you can write your content as you woul do, then go through it again and find a question for what you’ve said. Often you will see that you haven’t been complete enough and you will want to add more. Do it, but add a question for it too.

By Simply reading this “answer” I already spot several points to develop: what are good affiliate networks, which affiliate programs are best, how to get people find and click on my affiliate link, how much per sale is my commission. That was easy.

You can have a conversational tone when using the Questions and Answers style. So to give you more ideas, try to put yourself into someone who doesn’t have a clue about your topic and guess what questions he or she would ask.

Just Write Everyday

Every day, take a moment to write. Either it s fr your review sites or personal blog, or to submit articles. Just write, and write again. Your brain will get used to this habit. You will develop creativity, you will find your own style, you will want to write more, you will write faster. With all of this you will not only being ble to write great content, but more than you thought possible.

It’s been a while for tis blog to get updated regularly. It’s been approximately a week that I’m posting every day. Except the previous post (about changing your life and the world), all others in the recent days have been well over 1000 words, I’m already over 1350 with this one.

I attribute this to the fact that I simply come to this blog everyday for about a week, and try to write on things I know. Things you know are far more easier to write on since you almost don’t have to think about those. But I also update my other sites. Those that got about 400 to 500 words articles are also now receiving much longer articles, and I really spit out quality (at least I think so ;))

So if you have a website or several websites that need content, just spend some time on those. It may look tedious at first but then it’s a habit. Like everything, practicing is the best way to get good, great or perfect to any activity. For this blog post I only knew that I would include the Top 10 list style. It made me think about reviews because I wrote a top 10 products article today. The other ideas came during the writing.

So start writing, even if it doesn’t make sense it could be your way to practice and see where your brain transports you with your ideas.

and… HAVE FUN!