Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Published in New Zealand (Where else?). Any person flouting the above rules, will be
liable for copyright infringement, plus will be sent (at your own cost of course) to pick
elephant dung at the Auckland Zoo.
Contents
The Simple Secret of Amazing Articles ..................................................................1
The Huh Factor In Your Articles.............................................................................3
Article Bloating: Part 1 .................................................................................................5
Article Bloating: Part 2 .................................................................................................8
How To Generate Article Topics ............................................................................ 10
Build A Business By Writing Articles......................................................................12
Why Articles Create Expertise .................................................................................15
1 | Article Writing
So if you were talking about a topic like pricing, its almost too vast a topic. But what if you
stripped it down to one angle?
Like how to increase prices by 10%.
Or how to increase prices by 10% on your website.
Or how to increase prices by 10% with a live presentation.
Or how to increase prices by 10% with specific terminology.
You see what Im saying?
Most writers dont follow this level of drill-down.
They write about massive topics.
They dont have specific ideas.
And then the article feels soggy. And non-crunchy.
You see any idiot can write articles.
And most articles are dopey anyway.
Because they dont follow a structure. Or a grid.
They dont understand drama. They dont understand sandwiching.
They dont understand the intensity or the difference between mystery.
And suspense. And when to use what.
So the article falls apart before it even gets off the ground.
And thats not all.
There are also the myths.
The stupid myths of talent. That some people are better writers than others.
That some people can think better than others.
But what if that were indeed a myth?
Because it is a myth. Writing good articles is within your control if you understand the
structure and flow. If you know how to connect lines so that the words dance off the page, its
2 | Article Writing
easy to keep the reader reading. Those lines need to then connect, or disconnect. Disconnects
create drama. Connections create flow. But if you want to really see an article go off the rails,
look out for the absence of one word.
Its one word thats the glue of a powerful article.
Once you get that one idea to the reader, its easier to write and yes, the reader gets it.
Writing articlesanyone can do that. Writing great stuff needs an acquisition of skill. And that
skill starts with the one word.
Whats your one word?
Article Writing | 3
Line 1: Do you know this causality dilemma question about the chicken and the egg?
Line 2: Do you know about the eternal puzzle of the chicken and egg?
Now read it back aloud
Say to yourself aloud: Do you remember this causality dilemma question?
Then say it to your kids: Do you remember this causality dilemma question?
Then say it to your partner: Do you remember this causality dilemma question?
Youll get the same response: Huh?
Now change the questions to something simpler
Do you know about the eternal puzzle of the chicken and egg?
Then say it to yourself: Do you know about the eternal puzzle of the chicken and egg?
Then say it to your kids: Do you know about the eternal puzzle of the chicken and egg?
Then to your partner: Do you know about the eternal puzzle of the chicken and egg?
And all of them will respond without the huh?
Thats the difference.
The difference is that people get confused when you use difficult words. Difficult words start a
downhill slide. And then everything else that follows the difficult words becomes a blur.
If the barrage of difficult words continues, then the blur becomes unbearable. Now
understand one thing: Having difficult words is a problem in itself. But when you consider that
your audience also has to deal with a difficult concept, then youre making the situation more
complex than ever.
But how does the situation become complex?
You have to remember why the reader is reading your article. Theyre reading it because they
want to fill the gaps in their knowledge. So if your reader reads about a topic like headlines,
for instance, its because the reader needs to fill that gap. And when were learning something,
theres always what we call a learning curve.
4 | Article Writing
And learning curves are slightly difficult, because we not only have to grasp whats being said,
but also think of how we would implement the idea in the article. And so learning always has
some factor of intimidation (sometimes a lot of intimidation and sometimes not so much).
If your words are complex, youve suddenly ramped up the intimidation.
If your concept/article is complex, youre sending the reader spinning.
So the best way is to ramp down the intimidation
And how do you do that?
1) Use simple words.
2) Read your words back.
3) If you get a huh? in your brain, rewrite the words.
4) If youre not sure about the huh, then read it to a friend, child or partner.
5) Just focus on the words and youll dramatically improve your article and
reduce intimidation.
6) To make an article un-intimidating, you need to make sure you have one thought.
You may not believe youre causing people to go huh, but you are. So test it out. Ask others. If
they say huh, you know youve got some re-writing to be done.
Article Writing | 5
It needs action.
It needs flow.
It needs storyline.
It needs a beginning and an end.
And it sure as heck doesnt need to meander and bloat. And outlining enables you to
immediately see where the script is going out of control. An article careens out of control as
well if not managed well.
In a matter of minutes your article can bloat out of control
If you start to write, youll find you get ideas. Those ideas lead to more ideas. And those ideas
lead to um, even more ideas. Of course you try and put all the ideas together. Or decide that all
the ideas arent a good idea and then you start to edit. You go back and forth, adding or editing.
And then tiredness sets in. And frustration. At which point you decide that either article
writing is a pain in the butt, or the article youre writing is really not worth the trouble.
And youd be wrong on both fronts
Your article went off the rails at the very start when you failed to outline. An outline gives you
a clear start, middle set of questions (how, why, what, when etc) and ending. If the bloating
starts to occur, you can see it all in the outline itself. And you can move the bloated section
or extraneous ideas aside. And guess what? Youre still outlining. You havent written a word of
the article.
So lets see how an article can get bloated
Example Topic: How to increase prices without losing customers
- Why increase prices.
- How customers respond to increased prices (and how to avoid losing them).
- The problem with reduced prices.
- How the yes-yes factor helps increases prices systematically.
- How to create a yes-yes factor to increase prices.
- The yes-yes factor grid.
- Examples of price increases.
- Summary
Now thats just the outline and you already see its swaying wildly without even writing a
6 | Article Writing
single word of the article. You can spot the yes-yes factor jump in. And then the yes-yes factor
grid pops in without notice and suddenly the articles gone off the rails. If you sat down to
write this article, youd be writing and writing and then writing some more. Then youd spend
endless time editing. And thats not much good.
Instead we do all our primary editing at the outline stage
Example Topic: How to increase prices without losing customers
- Why increase prices.
- How customers respond to increased prices (and how to avoid losing them).
- The problem with reduced prices.
- How the yes-yes factor helps increases prices systematically.
- How to create a yes-yes factor to increase prices.
- The yes-yes factor grid.
- Examples of price increases.
- Summary
And there you have it, youve done your editing and removed the bloat
In removing what you dont need (at least for now), youre left with what you need. And this
process of outlining isnt restricted to just articles or Hollywood movies. In fact its only the
stubborn and incompetent folk who fail to outline. The professionals all engage in outlining.
Look at an architects drawing, a Boeing design, a cartoon sketch, a travel itinerary, a trip to
the supermarket, the lyrics of a songand youll see outlines in all of them.
Theres an added bonus to outlining
It keeps you focused. This article was about bloating. And you read about bloating, bloating,
bloating, and more bloating. If the outline wasnt in place, its easier to head off into a slightly
different direction. But with the outline in place, you stay on target.
But should there be some level of creativity in the writing?
Outlining doesnt stop you from adding flair, drama or even an additional paragraph here or
there. For example when the outline for this article was put together, this paragraph didnt
exist in the outline. But because I had the outline in place, I had the liberty of putting in an
additional paragraph without disrupting the core idea that the article is seeking to portray.
Outlines dont stop you from adding your own touch. In fact, because you have so much less
frustration and editing, youre more than likely to have time to add a factor of creativity.
You also dont have to rigidly stick to an outline format
In the outline format for any article you tend to have the opening, the ending and the middle
section of how, what, why, when etc. If you find that you dont need to add in a when, then
you can omit it from the outline.
But having it all in front of you as part of the outline gives you the freedom to put it in, or
remove it. And to do so without wasting time writing the article, only to find it doesnt fit in,
and has unnecessarily bloated your article.
Bloat can be avoided and should be avoided
Article Writing | 7
And you can do it easily by instilling the discipline of the outlineeven when free writing.
And the greater the cost, the more detailed the outline.
Just like they do in Hollywood. Or Boeing. Or any place where they want to save time, money
and frustration.
P.S. Heres the outline to this specific article
- Drama: What happens before a movie is shot (storyboarding)
- The reason for outlining: Keeping Bloat Away
- How Bloating Pops Up Incessantly
- How To Beat the Incessant Bloat
- Examples of detecting bloat in an article. (Put two examples here)
- Examples of Industries that Outline: Architect, Cartoonists, Plane Designers. And why they
do so.
- Summary.
8 | Article Writing
Article Writing | 9
10 | Article Writing
So since the library is closed at this hour, I go online and look for a Dummies book
And I look at the contents page and voilthere are a ton of topics just waiting for me. Not just
topics, but subtopics. Yipeee-yahooey! Now I have my topics and my sub-topics.
But waitasec, isnt that cheating?
Isnt that plagiarism? Yes it is, if you copy the answers. Not if you copy the questions. The
questions are simply the titles on the contents page. So lets say the titles were the following:
Understanding PHP Data Types
Building SQL Queries
Troubleshooting a PHP Script
Setting Up Your Computer for PHP and MySQL Web Site Development
Considering the Various Uses for the PHP Scripting Language
Keeping Up with PHP and MySQL Changes
Use PHP Statements to Create Programs
Communicate with a Database through PHP MySQL Functions
Access and Adapt a Database with MySQL Queries
Knowing the MySQL WHERE Clause Format
Make MySQL Database Changes with the ALTER Query
Special Characters to Use in PHP Expression Test Patterns
Now fifteen thousand writers can take the very same topics and no two articles may be the
same. Why? Because youre going to approach the same questions from your level, your
experience, your stories, your objections, your style. It simply cannot be the same.
And I found these points in fifteen seconds
You could spend hours trying to dream up the perfect topics and sub-topics, but theyre all
ready and formatted for you on the Internetif you just look. So look. Set a timer, and then go
for the topics. Cut and paste the topics and then its time for outlining.
Article Writing | 11
12 | Article Writing
Article Writing | 13
single article. These arent visitors. Theyre subscribers. People who come to your site or blog.
People who investigate it before parting with their email address.
Were talking about skeptical folk here. And these subscribers, eventually turn to clients if you
get them through a sequencebut you already know that.
What you may not know is the power of a single article
A great article has amazing endurance. An article is not an article is not an article. Its the
starting point to an incredible journey. If you write a series of articles on a topic, its even more
incredible. If done right, you can leverage an article almost infinitely.
But infinite is a big word. So lets look at a finite universe of why articles (and the ability to write
articles) is so darned important. First lets take the leverage tour, shall we?
How far can one article go?
Lets take where I can possibly put a single article that I write.
r*OUIFOFXTMFUUFSBU1TZDIPUBDUJDT
r*OTPNFPOFFMTFTOFXTMFUUFS
r0OUIF1TZDIPUBDUJDTXFCTJUFBOEPSPOZPVSCMPH
r0OTPNFPOFFMTFTXFCTJUFBOEPSCMPH
r*OPVSNFNCFSTIJQTJUFBUCD
r*OTPNFPOFFMTFTNFNCFSTIJQTJUF
r"TNBUFSJBMBUZPVSFWFOU
PSBTQBSUPGUSBJOJOH
r"TNBUFSJBMBUTPNFPOFFMTFTFWFOU FWFOJGZPVSFOPUTIPXJOHVQ
r*VTFJUGPSNZOFXTQBQFSDPMVNO
r*DBONBLFJUBSFQPSU FHF)FBEMJOF3FQPSUJTBTJOHMFBSUJDMF
r*G*BEENPSFBSUJDMFTUPJU
JUDBOCFTPME BTUIJTSFQPSUXJMMCF
r*DBOVTFUIFSFQPSUBTBCPOVTUPTFMMTPNFUIJOHFMTF
r*DBOVTFJUBTBOBXBSEPSQSJ[F XIFOQBDLBHFEDPSSFDUMZ
r*DPVMEUIFONBLFBOBVEJPPVUPGUIFBSUJDMF
r"OEBQSFTFOUBUJPO
r"OEBWJEFP
A single article has enormous potential
When combined with several articles, it becomes a report. But dont underestimate the power
of a single article. Our article on headlines was made into a report. It has been downloaded
several tens of thousand times and that one article has been the root cause of easily well over
tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But there are no shortcuts
You cant just submit to some article or ezine site and hope to get these kind of results. If you
look around you, youll find that those who succeed arent lazy bums. Theyre hard working,
and work smart too. And they dont take shortcuts. They find a medium that works, and they
work it like crazy.
14 | Article Writing
Which brings us full circle to the question: Can you build a business on articlewriting alone?
The answer is yes.
Weve been in business all these years with no affiliates, no joint ventures, no fancy publicity,
no ga ga search engine positioning, no ad wordsnothing. Yes, weve done the odd thing here
and there, and yes we do have a so-so social media presence, but as youve worked out, the
main strategy has been article writing.
All weve ever done is write good stuff and make sure that our customers pass it on
We write good stuff and attract other blogs and websites who value good stuff, to publish our
material. We write good stuff and that good stuff then gets leveraged, making us not just a
very sizeable income, but also allows us to take a three-month vacation every year since the
year 2004.
Can you build a business on article-writing alone? I guess you know the answer, dont you?
Article Writing | 15
Every business has not one, but about five hundred competitors.
And no matter how unique your business is today, you will have competition lurking just
around the corner. This leads us to a dilemma. How you separate yourself from the herd? How
do you get customers to come to you, instead of you always having to pitch to them?
The key is the ability to get a message across to your audience in a manner thats nonthreatening, educational, and entertaining at the same time. And lets face it, youre probably
intimidated that its close to impossible to achieve such a task. Because every time youve sat
down to write, its been one heck of a struggle. You know that article-writing is crucial, but
youve tried it, and its been frustrating and demoralising. And you dont know of a way out.
Well...hint, hint (Go on, take the hint and click).
And judge for yourself.
http://www.psychotactics.com/article-writing-live-course
If you find anything that bugs you, please click on the bug above
to send me an email. Nothing is too small or too big. And if I can,
Ill be sure to fix it. Email me at: sean@psychotactics.com