Writing Long Form Content - The Best Kind of Content

byMorris1705

105 followers

Updated 3 years ago

Studies have shown that long form articles (unlike what this one will necessarily be) perform better, both in Search Engines and in the psyche of the reader, rather than shorter, 1000ish word articles. A long form post would be over 1500 words, more in the range of 2000-4000 words, and even beyond. It's almost like a mini book, if you were put it in print form, rather than on a blog.

Some benefits include:

A: It provides a TON of value (as long as it's actual value and not just fluff to fill the space) and helps position you as an authority

B: It keeps the reader engaged by taking them on a deep dive that is hard to pull away from

C: Because it's so long, there are ample opportunities to get your keywords in there without being shady about it, thus why it performs better in search engines

However, the idea of writing that many words and that much content can be intimidating. I don't have that much to say! I don't know what to say! These are common blocks but it doesn't have to be that way. Anyone can write long form content and you don't have to be an expert, athough you should be well researched.

Try these tips to help youself pump out longer articles:

1: Research, Read, Research! Watch interviews on your niche topic. Read articles and studies about it. Read people opinions, questions, perspectives about it in places like Reddit or Social Media. The more you research --> the more you will know --> the more you will have to talk about --> the more you will have to write about.

2: Practice "stream of consciousness" journaling. Stream of consciousness journaling, or writing, is when you just write and write and write, whatever comes to mind, no judgments, saying everything there is to say about a topic, writing whatever thoughts, comments, perspectives, questions, analysis comes to mind. Steam of consciousness is our mind's connections from one thought to another, which may be disjointed, and that's ok. Writing in this way will help you think of more ideas and exhaust a topic. (You will edit later, of course)

3: Come from a place of "service to others". The point of you having a presence on the web and writing on a specific topic is to provide value, to help others, and to connect with like minded people. Taking the perspective of truly wanting to help and give away as much knowledge, advice, and help as you can, will have you naturally writing more and more.

4: Think about all angles and perspectives of your topic, as well as the who/what/where/when/why/how. Thinking about your topic in different ways means you will have more to talk about, more to address.

5: Lastly, I would say that if you are really having trouble coming up with enough to write about, maybe you need to broaden your article title. Like I said above, long form content is almost like a mini book. You will have your larger section headers (similar to chapters), then you might have sections within each "chapter", and then you will most certainly have multiple paragraphs within each of those sections. When you make your outline:

Start with the big thoughts - make those headers,

then think of a couple of thoughts that go under each one - make smaller headers,

then write down more specific thoughts under each of those - your paragraphs.

So that's all I have for you right now. Hope it was helpful. Now go write those long, valuable articles to make your site even better!

EDIT: One thing I would like to add (that eminentcopy reminded me of in the comments) is that long form posts will not be appropriate for EVERY SINGLE POST. There should be a variety of types of content on your site. Some will be 500 words, some will be 1000, and some will be 2500. Some will be articles, some will be reviews with tables/charts, and some will be lists or infographics. I think the long form posts work well as evergreen content and everything else can be shorter.

Edit 2: Although I do think that long posts perform well and are cathartic to write, I struggle with the amount of time it takes to write them. It can take me several days to research, write, edit, then find photos. It's hard to pump out 3 articles a week with this method. If anyone has any advice on how to write shorter posts, and not obsess/labor over the long ones so much, let me know in the comments!

- Molly