Here’s How I Structure an Article in 45 Mins (Well 18m 43secs)

There’s no two ways about it - I’m lazy, I lack self-discipline, and my-oh-my, I am the most easily-led person you’ll ever meet.

So, for me to actually get any work done I need a plan.

My plan is simple - do every work-related task with a timer.

We all know that when it comes to blogging and SEO the most important task you have to complete is blogging.

• Creating content.
• Writing articles.
• Producing posts for your website.

No matter what you wish to call it, this is what you need to do.

I’ve previously spoken about “Just Finish the Article Already” and stop worrying about producing the perfect piece of content.

You don’t decide what your most noteworthy and highly ranked blog post is going to be, Google does.

So, stop worrying so much and get it done.

However, when it comes to writing an article, I’m sure I’m not the only one who is often defeated by procrastination.

Therefore, I have a plan to structure my articles beforehand, and I use a timer to do it.

I initially started out by setting a timer for 45 minutes.

My latest article structure was achieved in 18 minutes and 43 seconds.

As they say, the more you do something, the better you get at it.

Here’s How it Works

I set a timer for 45 minutes and then I’m off.

I already have my keyword phrase that my article is targeted for.

So, I open a Google Doc and I type in my keyword phrase at the top.

Let’s say my keyword is “Free Traffic to Affiliate Links”

(I’ve already looked this up on Jaaxy by the way and it has fairly decent “stats”, the first page of Google doesn’t really have any authority sites, so you should be able to rank for this - and planty of "related" keyword phrases - go for it, my present to YOU).

I would then decide on the article title, as this then helps me to decide exactly what the article should be about.

I’m going to have an article title,

Get Free Traffic to Affiliate Links (7 Awesome NON-SEO Methods)

My title incorporates a number of “factors” that are deemed attractive for both SEO and click-thru rates.

Firstly, from an SEO perspective my keyword phrase is at the beginning of the title - check.

(Now, this doesn't overly bother me, neither does sticking "other" words in the middle of the phrase, plus title length doesn't bother me either. Google is VERY clever, she knows what you're trying to say. BUT, for ease I am showing you things the "way we are taught").

Next, from a click-thru perspective, apparently people are attracted to numbers, and it is claimed that odd numbers seem to work better than even numbers.

Who knew?

Check.

Next, I have inserted brackets around part of my title. Once again items such as brackets or parentheses are deemed to attract higher click-thru rates.

Check.

Next, I have capitalised the most important part of the title.

Everyone knows about SEO already, i.e. ranking in the search engines and getting traffic.

But, most people don’t want to hear about this again. They know it takes months, they want to hear something different, and something that can potentially work quicker.

Check.

Onto to Next Phase

Remember the clock is ticking, so don’t spend forever worrying about the title and how it looks.

Just get it done asap.

I am not adverse to changing the title later, but only if I came up with additional points.

The structure of the article will always remain the same - basically provide the solution to the query in your title.

In order to satisfy “meta description”, i.e. having your keyword phrase in the first 160 characters, I will use my very first line to achieve this.

So, my introduction will start with:

“Today I'd like to discuss how to get free traffic to affiliate links”.

That’s it, DONE.

The next stage is to have an H2 tag with just my keyword phrase:

Get Free Traffic to Affiliate Links <====H2Tag

I then will start my research.

However, I know my research needs to provide me with exactly SEVEN ways.

I know there are literally 100s of ways to get free traffic, but because my article title states “7” ways, I only need to find SEVEN.

I will then conduct my research.

As soon as I spot a method that I like, I note it down.

I don’t need to know everything about this method, I simply want to note down what I’m going to write about.

If I find that one particular article in my research has a great deal of information about that method, I will also note down the url.

I will then make my 7 subheadings using H3 tags.

Now, I don’t want to “keyword stuff” here, so I will typically use parts of the keyword phrase in my subheadings (Google is clever, she will “get it”).

So, here’s my Seven H3 Subheadings

“ 1. Get Free Traffic With Facebook Groups”

http://websiteforresearch(dot)com <==== note down research url

“2. Will Quora Allow Free Traffic to Your Affiliate Links?”

“3. Forum Posting Can Be a Great Source of Traffic”
http://websiteforresearch(dot)com <==== note down research url

“4. Have You Considered Uploading PDFs to SlideShare”

“5. Easy Free Traffic to Your Affiliate Links Via Your Email Signature”

“6. Will Sharing Affiliate Links on Reddit Get You BANNED?”
http://websiteforresearch(dot)com <==== note down research url

“7. To Guest Post or Not to Guest Post, That is the Question”

DONE.

What Next?

Now that I have my 7 subheadings I already know the “answer” to the article query.

Remember that I mentioned that I had an H2 tag immediately after my introduction which contained just the keyword.

I’m going to use this to basically just “answer the query”.

So, this could be a quick reference guide for anyone visiting my article.

However, I want to keep my answer to just 45-60 words, and then I am going to BOLD the text.

Additionally, when I publish to WordPress, I use block editor, I will highlight this “answer” block in a bright colour - usually blue, green, pink or light purple.

What I’m doing here is alerting Google to the fact that THIS is the answer to the query that my article title poses.

This gives you a better chance of getting the coveted “Featured Snippet” on Google aka Position 0 on Google.

So, my H2 tag answer would probably look something like this:

DONE.

This “answer” should always be written in a formal manner, almost Wikipedia-like.

Don’t worry you can bring personality into your actual article.

Bbbbbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The timer’s gone off, your 45 minutes are over.

In Conclusion

That’s it.

That is all I do.

By the end of 45 minutes, you will have your article title, you will have created a bolded answer for Featured snippets purposes.

You will have included your keyword as much as you need to in the article, so now you can just write naturally.

You will know EXACTLY what you have to write the article about.

Plus, you will have saved links to other blogs and articles that provide further research materials.

As I say, I’ve managed to get this down to about 18 minutes and 43 seconds now.

If you like, you could just spend a day doing this, rather than actually writing an article.

If you have 3-4 hours to spend on work, you could get 3-4 of these done, and that includes a spot of lunch and a break for a nice cup of coffee.

If you have 10-15 keywords already, why not spend a day or two creating a structure for ALL of these keywords?

You see, once you have the structure completed, and you know exactly what factors you are writing the article around, you actually end up writing the article far quicker.

Okay, don’t use me as an example, I type and think quickly.

But, I usually set a timer for 60-90 minutes afterwards (remember I need timers for everything), and I have usually completed an 1,800-2,000- word article in that time.

However, I can guarantee that anyone using this method can cut down their article writing time considerably.

Right, why are you still here?

Stop Procrastinating.

Go set a timer for 45 minutes and get on with it.

Thank You For Reading

Partha