How To Write Great Content Yourself

You should’ve now decided if you’ll:

• Write content yourself
• Hire a writer

However…

Knowing how to create great content is  a crucial skill for any SEO or website owner.

You should always be able to create a post when it’s needed.

Here I’ll show you exactly how to write great content for yourself.

Create A “Swipe File”

A “swipe file” is a folder of tried and tested content from other people.

It contains 5x to 10x articles you find:

• Well-written
• Enjoyable

When you feel stuck you can refer to these articles to get inspiration.
 Every content creator should have a swipe file.
Have a look at some of your favourite blogs or magazines. Then add the links to a Google Doc.

You can even leave notes about what you liked.

Here’s a sample of mine:

• The Gary Halbert Letter: direct style, great use of emotion.
• How To Get Traffic To Your Blog: lots of images, figures, and practical advice.
• The Crossroad of Should and Must: personal, lots of storytelling.
• 144 Catchy Email Subject Lines: great structure and value proposition.

Follow Your Guidelines And Specifications

My motto for everything is this: keep it simple, stupid.

Earlier, we created a set of:

• Writing guidelines
• Content specifications

The best thing to do is follow these. They’re like an instruction manual!

You can also head to the SERPs and look at the current results. Make a list of what you don’t like. Then, do it differently in your post.

Use Headings And Subheadings

Headings and subheadings add structure to your content.

Headings show the start of a major topic. Subheadings break down that topic:

Treat each section as standalone and self-contained.

This turns writing an article into a paint-by-numbers process.

Use Bullet Points

Bullet points are the best way to present lists in your content.

Here’s the same information presented in 2x ways.

As a paragraph list:

“In just 7x months we were able to increase search traffic from 10,439 per month to 472,591 per month and secure 558 top 3 positions for search terms in Google along with 1,501 top 10 positions”

And, as bullet points:

“In just 7 months we were able to:

• Increase search traffic from 10,439 per month to 472,591 per month
• Secure 558 top 3 positions for search terms in Google
• Along with 1,501 top 10 positions”

The bullet point list is FAR easier to read right?

A good rule of thumb is:

If you’re going to list more than 2x things, use bullet points.

Add Images And Videos

Images and videos can break up the page and provide context.

They can also give you some juicy SEO benefits.

Take a look at my post on What Is SEO?

You can see I’ve used a wide range of images throughout…

There’s a mix of:

• Screenshots
• Infographics
• Graphs
• GIFs

They all add to the written content surrounding them. They provide extra information and visualize tricky concepts. Or, they provide some light-hearted relief.

I’ll show you how to create custom graphics easily later in the course.

Link To Reputable Sources

Whenever you make a claim, back it up with a link to a reputable source.

Look at my post on 6x ways to increase website speed.

For every claim I make, there is a link to a reputable source:

This adds weight to your post and adds authority.

The key here is the word REPUTABLE.

Don’t just link to any old blog; pick a trusted name in your niche!

Use Grammarly

Grammarly is my favourite content creation tool. It keeps your spelling and grammar in check.

Their tool ‘reads’ your posts and highlights: