How to write articles - a systematic approach

How to write articles - a systematic approach

To fill your niche site with valuable content in the form of good quality articles you need a system. Such system must support you and help you to invest your time as effective as possible.

A good example of such a systematic process for creating articles will be provide on this page. Try to stick the fundamental rules especially regarding separation of research, actual writing, and proofreading. However always feel free to slightly tweak them to your own personal needs where necessary, while working with the system.

Detailed description of the process

process overview

Maintain a “list of ideas”

Whenever you come up with something that might be interesting for your site make a quick note. Have this „ideas list“ with you all the time. You might just come across something when you least expect it. So be prepared.

Each entry on your list of ideas should ideally be short and only contain a few keywords or a maximum of 1 to 2 sentences in a headline type of style.

Practical tips: Use a notes app on your phone. Or, if you are a bit more old fashioned, a pencil with a peace of paper or a little notebook will also do just fine. Just have it with you all the time!

Research topic quickly from ideas list (First research)

The overall goal for this step is to quickly get hold of some pieces of information and not to loose to much time into details.

So, pick a topic from your ideas list and actually do some quick first research. Save all material you find during this research in a topic or article specific file.

The information does not yet have to be in any specific order or good style. Just dump the raw information in there. Maybe even start with just a couple of links.

This file should go into a “first drafts“ folder. Once you have saved the file, remove or tick the topic on the ideas list. It has now officially moved to the next stage.

Rework your „first drafts“ (Second or in depth research)

Now we are coming to the details phase.

The outcome of this step should be a bursting package full of information. Maybe even redundant and partly too detailed. Don’t focus on nicely sounding sentences. Focus on information.

To get started pick one of your files in “first drafts“ and begin with some fine tuning. Order the topic details in a way that makes sense. Start with more in depth research for each separate detail you have listed. Write extensive keywords and bullet point type lists for every little aspect you can find out during your research.

Once you have sufficiently looked into each aspect of the topic move the file to your “second drafts“ folder.

Streamline your „second drafts“

This phase is now the first time that we are actually interested in good readability.

Pick on of your files from your “second drafts“ folder and start the streamline work. To be able to successfully perform this step you should already have all the information contained in the file itself. You should actually avoid doing any additional research in this phase. Just work with the file an the information contained within. Anything else will distract you from your overall goal (of finishing an article). If you should come across something where you have the feeling that some aspects are not clear make a bold “TODO“ note. Mention briefly what needs to be clarified or found out. But explicitly do not perform this action now.

What you can and should also care about during this step is graphics or photographs.

So think about what might help to get over the message. Make some quick sketches and include them at the right places just to see how it looks like. More extensive work on improving the drawings I would really recommend to postpone for later at the next stage.

If you want to take some pictures or include photos from some online image providers it’s the right time to search, select and include those now.

Once you have made your way through the file and there are no more “TODO“ notes left move your file to the “final drafts“ folder. If you should have some “TODO“ notes left, keep the file in your “second drafts“ folder and safe those “TODOs” for later.

Cleaning up “TODOs” from “second drafts“ (secondary micro research)

This step is only necessary sometimes. When you pick a file from your “second drafts“ folder that has still some “TODO“ markers spread across take out the relevant questions and find out the topics noted there. Once the file is clean of “TODOs“ ultimately move the file to the “final drafts“ folder.

Final review

Now you are about provide the finishing touches to your text.

Pick on of your files from the “final drafts“ folder. Read the text slowly and carefully. Highlight anything that sounds strange or unclear. Do some careful corrections as appropriate. Then read the text again.

Everything sounds good? Perfect - if not keep the file in the folder and do another review later on. Take your time, do not rush through this step. Rather do more frequent but short sessions on each file instead of trying to push it through.

You should also give your drawings, graphics or photos the finish touch now.

Once everything feels fine you can ultimately move your file to the “ready to publish“ folder.

Generic Aspects to consider

To finish of, here are some generic aspects that apply to all of the above mentioned steps.

Always keep the balance between effort and results! Don’t loose yourself too much into any formalised system.

If a system helps you it’s good. If you feel restricted it needs to be changed.

Nevertheless some benefits of a strictly formalised approach as outlined above are:

And always keep in mind: You have to plan regular timeslots where you work on articles in all of the various stages.

However try not to do multiple steps in one go. At least not on the same article. The idea is to have multiple fresh starts on each article. This will significantly improve the quality. And will help you to spot errors you would otherwise overlook.

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