Build Up Your Article Bank

We hear about saving for a rainy day, and the value of putting money in the bank,

(okay, maybe the stock market would be better).  Makes sense.  Well, writers need to develop an article bank – or a 401K of writings.

When do you need to go to your article bank?

·         Whenever you are under deadline and don’t have time to create something immediately

·         Whenever you have writer's block

By writing in moments where inspiration strikes or the convenience of your schedule permits, you stave off the times when you feel brain dead or lack the schedule to crank something out.

Articles come in all sizes and shapes these days.  You may need an article for a magazine, or a web site, or a guest-blog post.  Articles are good for branding yourself, helping to increase traffic to your blog, gaining more social media connections, or helping you to sell a book, product or service.  Sometimes you may even get paid to write an article.  By putting out more content out there you have a greater chance of getting discovered.

So how do you build this bank of articles?

·         If you get a great idea don’t pour it in to one article – create a series.  Or use one article to highlight some ideas and then subsequent articles to detail certain aspects related to specific ideas.

·         See something in the news and write about it.  In order for it to be relevant in the future weeks or months that you post it, write it as if it’s already a past event.  Instead of saying “in the stunning news this week” you can say “in recently published news reports.”

·         Take an idea or event and write about it from different perspectives and vantage points.  For instance, write about why you love something.  Then do a piece about what you don’t love about it.  Then do something about what you wished was different about the thing you love.  Every story has two sides.  Find them – and write about each one.

·         Look at what others write and feed off of that.  If they have 6 ways to do x, put out your own 9 ways to do x.  You can also directly comment on what others say, do or write and give your own take on things.

·         You can recycle your articles.  I don’t mean republish something – just dress up an old piece and change some parts of it.  Or update it and throw in some relevant data.

Other articles can be:

·         Interviews with prominent people

·         Reviews of books

·         Lists and top 10 type stuff

·         Analysis of news or an event

·         Spinning off existing content so it applies to a specific niche genre or group

·         Filled with images and few words

·         Excerpts of content from others, including quotes

One way to have more articles stored up is to pen shorter ones.  If 500 words will do, then go with that.  Sometimes you need a longer article to get your message out but for the most part, shorter pieces will allow you to produce more frequently.

There are free article sites that you can contribute to, where others seeking content can go to get free articles.  Check out www.ezinearticles.com, www.goarticles.com, www.articlesbase.com and www.articledashboard.com.  Build up your article bank now -- and cash in later!

2016 Book Marketing & Book Publicity Toolkit

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2015/12/2016-book-marketing-book-publicity.html

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2016