Content writing For Newbies Day 2

byTheCatherine

13.9K followers

Updated 3 years ago

Part 1 is here https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/thecatherine/blog/eliminate-...

Push Past Marketing Writer’s Block

Internet marketers need content for their blog posts, email autoresponders, info products, lead magnets, social media, and more. When you’re trying to keep up your momentum to stay competitive, you need to know how to quickly draw upon inspiration and convert that time into the content.

As an online niche marketer, you have to churn out so much content that it can get overwhelming at times – especially when you’re sitting there staring at a screen and no worthy ideas are flowing. If you are not used to writing you don't even realize that practice makes the job a whole lot easier

Fear Can Block Ideas from Your Brain

Whenever you’re plagued with self-doubt as a leader in your niche, it will serve as one of the biggest obstacles to your content creation success. Every idea that comes to mind will seem stupid, worthless, or ridiculous. You will convince yourself you have nothing to say.

Or, you might compare yourself to someone else who has already created content on that subject and feel like you have nothing to say. When you’re facing fear as a marketer in regards to your content, you’re going to feel like nothing you create is good enough.

You may get drained trying to continually revise your content or think of some way to make it unique, so it never makes it to publication. Another problem you might have is thinking no one cares what you have to say.

If this niche audience needs help, the truth is, they care! They want to find multiple leaders in the niche who can give them advice and guidance, including yourself. Very rarely does a consumer follow just one expert.

Even if there are already dozens of publications on the exact same topic, it’s guaranteed that no one would teach it or convey the information exactly as you would. Your unique tone, voice, and insights make it, unlike anyone else’s content.

Keep in mind that perfectionism kills your productivity and, in turn, kills your profits. Whenever you’re worried that it won’t be good enough, unique enough, or awe-inspiring enough, you’ll continue sitting on the sidelines as other marketers make money.

Some have a phrase that says done is good enough. While that may not be 100% true (because things need to be done to the best of your ability), it’s close. Without completing your content, you’re never going to be able to help those who need it most.

Your fear will have stalled you and blocked your ability to see that your ideas and slants are worthy of the attention of an interested (and paying) audience. Give yourself a chance to sweep that doubt to the side and promise never to allow it to impede your content production.

If you’re worried about your writing abilities, reach out to someone in the industry who you trust and ask for some honest feedback on how you can improve. You can also listen to your buyers and take their reviews to heart for future projects.

How to Brainstorm Niche Content

Brainstorming is not about sitting down and writing out entire articles in one sitting. It’s a fantastic sloppy, loose method of dumping ideas out and sorting through them to see what will work best for your readers.

When you’re in a brainstorming session, you can rest easy because you know this session is not going to be published. It’s for your eyes only. That takes the pressure off of you.

Start by brainstorming your niche topics. This will be anything happening in your niche that needs to be shared with your followers. You can begin by looking for trending information or niche news.

Then go into forums or groups on social media sites and see which topics are being brought up and which have the most engagement by other members. When a heated or lengthy discussion takes place, that’s something to pay attention to.

Always keep in mind that word of mouth is a powerful tool for your content brainstorming sessions. As a leader, people will mention things in passing to you. Make sure you jot down the idea in your notes for a piece of content at a later date when you need it most.

Look for topics that you can combine. For example, let’s say you have a site in the anti-aging niche. You can think of all of the topics that affect anti-aging. That might be things like sleep, weight, or stress.

Those are broad niches of their own, so you can take those and drill down on a topic to pair with yours. For instance, How Stress Ages Your Mind. Or, How Your Sleep Needs Change As You Age.

Whenever you’re brainstorming topics, make sure you’re also looking at the formats you’re using. For example, if you always deliver your information in PDF format, consider sharing your content in a different format, such as video, audio, or even an infographic.

Sometimes, you’ll find that all of your competitors are doing the same thing – PDFs, and when you turn your content into a video series, it attracts a huge following of people who simply prefer to learn via video over text-based content.

Brainstorm a variety of slants for your content. Don’t just stick to the same old, stale take on your subject. Switch things up and see about taking a different slant to convey your ideas.

Is it the first sentence that causes you the most writer’s block? For many, it is. Once they get that initial sentence out of the way, they fly through their content. One way to save yourself frustration here is to simply write 4-5 different first sentences and then choose which one you like best.

People often get stalled because they’re trying to craft that very first sentence to perfect, where it will capture the attention of their target audience. When you give yourself the ability to try your hand at several different ones, it frees up your mind to expand your options.

This way, you’ll be able to pick the one that feels better. So you might try one opener that asks a question. Another one may be a shocking statement. See which one feels better and go from there.

Draw a Mind Map to Power Through Writer’s Block

Some people aren’t as able to see ideas visually in their heads. They need to visualize it in front of them and see it with their eyes. Visual writers can see idea possibilities easier when it’s drawn instead of simply listed or thought about.

A mind map shows how ideas connect and relate to one another, which is important when you’re writing niche marketing content. There are many tools you can use, in addition to simple pen and paper.

MindMeister is one tool that allows you to create a visual image of your ideas and how they connect to one another. They have both free and paid levels of usage for this tool, but there are others you can find, too.

You can also use something like PowerPoint if you want to create something more tailored to your preferences. So if you’re in the weight loss niche, you might have weight loss in the middle circle and then offshoots of topics like nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, water intake, tracking, and supplements.

Those are all topics related to losing weight. Then you take each one and draw offshoots of those. So, for instance, for nutrition, you might have different weight loss plans, such as 1,200 calorie diets, keto diets, vegetarian, and more.

Then you do offshoots of those, and so on. This can yield hundreds or thousands of ideas just by creating a mind map that shows you where to go next. It’s like a trail of possibilities you can follow as long as you want to keep going.

Mind maps like these can help you with many different types of content – in finding combination niches, in developing products, in creating bonuses, in writing blog posts, making social posts, writing email campaigns, and more!

Learn How to Research and Take Notes for Inspiration

Many people have never been formally taught how to research and take notes, or they were taught, they forgot how it all works. This is an important skill that can assist you in beating writer’s block.

Build a reference library for yourself. Somewhere in your home or even on your computer, have resources that you go to in order to educate yourself in a way that allows you to gain the knowledge you require to can share with others.

So you might purchase a small bookshelf for your home that houses books in your niche. If your niche is weight loss, then you might have books on that topic, but also those offshoot topics mentioned previously, like stress, sleep, exercise, and so on.

Having a book you can use to look up information and find out more about a topic helps you become a better leader. The key is not to copy the author but to use it just as they educated themselves before they shared that insight with others.

If you use a virtual reference library, you can download eBooks to your Kindle or other eReader. As long as you can turn to it whenever you’re in content creation mode, it will be beneficial to you.

Also, have a notepad with you wherever you go. You never know when inspiration might strike. You could be getting your car inspected and overhear a conversation between two friends about your niche topic.

They might have a twist on the topic that you hadn’t thought about. You might see an advertisement that spurs something to mind, so being able to jot it down helps you later. Never rely on yourself to remember it later, because many times, it will slip your mind, and that good content idea will be lost.

Create Your “Go To” Ideas

Go to ideas are things your target audience always enjoys or wants to read up on. For example, everyone likes it when something tells them how to do something easier. Lose weight easier, organize your home easier, train your pet easier, and so on.

They also love step-by-step topics. Share a step-by-step method for meal prepping, a step-by-step lesson for working out your back muscles, or a step-by-step tutorial for building up your survival supplies.

Sometimes timing is a great go to idea starter. So if you’re in men’s health, you might go to a search engine and type in men’s health. You see some magazine covers, and you might see something like 17-Day Abs.

That’s a content idea based around time. People always want to have more available free time, so if you teach them to do something in one hour, 7-days, 90-days or something like that, it captures their attention.

Another thing that works for content ideas is numbered ideas. For example, you might create a piece of content that shares 147 Calorie Saving Secrets. Or 12 Ways to Make Sure Your Garden Produces a Big Harvest.

You also want to create a list of buzz words for your niche audience. What do they look for? Look for words like faster, smarter, instant, powerful, easy, etc. Create a swipe file of buzz words you can turn to for content ideas.

Don’t Use Writer’s Block as a Procrastination Excuse.

Many people like to pretend the well of ideas for content is just empty. That’s simply not true. It’s an excuse not to write – to stay paralyzed and not to have to put yourself out there.

The more you practice researching, building swipe files, brainstorming, and mind mapping, the easier it will become for you to sit in your chair, select a type of content to write, and easily whip up an idea to go on.

You may want to write as if it won’t ever be seen by anyone. Think about it like no one will land on your blog, sign up to your list, or buy your product. It’s for your eyes only. Don’t focus on the expansive audience that might be viewing your content.

Part 3 is here https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/thecatherine/blog/content-wr...