Writing

“I have read so much crap about writing that I need to say a few words. Most of what I have read is not worth the paper it is written on, but I have come across some good stuff and I have a few thoughts.

About 90% of Internet marketing is about writing, even spam. It is unrealistic to say you don’t want to learn writing but want to make money off the Internet. That would be like saying you want to go swimming, but you can’t stand water. If you loathe writing and refuse to learn it, do something else. All you are going to do is waste your time looking for money on the Internet.

The most important part about writing is to understand why you are doing it.

• Spammed backlink: This is the simplest form of commercial writing in existence. Write the link and nothing else. Move on. If you need a comment, say something noncommittal like “Great job!”, “Nice forum!” etc., and put the link in. Obviously, the more relevant the comment, the less likely it will be to go the way of all spam.
• One-page content blogs or Web 2.0 pages for backlinks to a niche minisite: Use an anchor text with keyword in your link and write something relevant to that keyword and your site. That way the search engines will not penalize it like they do with spam. Rework an article from the minisite and you are done.
• Article for article directory: These articles are used for content on sites, blogs, ezines, etc., by people who can’t or won’t write what they need. The article includes an author’s box that needs to be published with the article as the price the user pays for using it. The authors box includes a link to a site you own, preferably a money-site.

The whole purpose of writing an article for directories is to get the reader to keep moving down the page, into the author’s box and clicking on the link. There is a very good formula I came across for this.

My Writing System

By definition, all articles are niche articles. The most important overall point is to give the reader enough information about his interest to keep him reading, but not enough to satisfy him (or bore him).

You can use this system for reworking scraped content, but I will give the system as if the article were being written from scratch.

Research

Before research: Make a list of 3 keywords or keyword phrases you want to use throughout the article.

During Research: Use one of the keywords on a Google search and open several sites from the first page. (Or use scraped content, PLR, etc.) Read them quickly, partially or superficially to get a general idea of a point. Write that point down. Get one point for your article from each source and make a list of 3-5 points. Do not copy the other content, but keep the page open for checking facts while you are writing the article.

Writing

Generally, articles are all the same, and more-or-less obey to the following structure

Title

With the title, aim to appeal to:

1. Curiosity (“secret”; “hidden”; etc.),
2. Shock value,
3. Benefit (“how to”; “discover”; “7 Ways to”; etc.) or
4. Ask a question.

Any one of these is good. You don’t need to use more than one. Include your main keyword.

Paragraphs

 In the outline below, each number should be one or two sentences, three maximum.

First Paragraph:

1. General idea of the subject.
2. List an abbreviated form of your points.
3. Statement of article’s purpose (“explore”; “compare”; “discuss”; etc.)

Point paragraphs (3 to 5):

1. Give point (in different words).
2. Two or three informative sentences about that point.
3. Conclusion and transition to next point. Note: in the last paragraph, mention that the points are over.

Last paragraph:

1. General statement about what was presented.
2. Sum up the points covered (abbreviated), but mention some things you didn?t cover. Focus on things the reader really wants to know.
3. Sum up the article, based on the purpose given in the first paragraph.

Author’s Box:

1. Give something, but minimum information on author. The less the better. This bores folks. Picture is OK.
2. Use anchor texts in links to your site or sites.
3. Give an idea of what to expect on your site or sites.
4. Give a good reason (benefits) for going to your site. Hint that the missing info in the article is there. Say you have ironclad systems or secret solutions and other bullshit (but have something like that up when they get there). Offer freebies.

Notice how this drives the reader down the page in a logical manner and pushes him to click on the link.

The article should be about 500-1000 words. If you do shorter, the reader feels cheated or the information was too superficial for him to click on your link, and if you do longer, he might put the article down before getting to your link. Make your keyword density about 3%.

Review articles 

This more or less follows the principles given for directory marketing articles, but there are some differences. There are three kinds of reviews and all of them aim at getting the reader to click on a link to the sales page of a product. Always use anchor text in links. Period. No exceptions. A banner or two on the side of the review is OK (or above or below it). A picture of the product is good to include in the review.

Review articles are used more on review mini-sites than anywhere else. These minisites are actually niche presales sites in drag. If you do present a review as a guest on someone else?s blog or publication, link to your niche presales site and not directly to the sales letter for fewer headaches with site/publication owners.

1. Normal review: Give product and some basic specs. Mention problems it solves. Bullshit some personal story (or stories) about how you or someone you knew had a problem, the more personal the better, and the product helped solve it or made the person rich or whatever. Give a minor issue or two that the product doesn?t solve so you sound objective. Hint that there are other great benefits (minor ones) you have heard about but still need to look into. Then strongly endorse the product as a problem solver. Click here. You are done.
2. Comparative review: This is actually 3 or more reviews of similar products with some kind of rating system. Do no more than five products at a time. Use the normal review system, but elaborate more on the product you want to sell. Make sure second place is really close and there is at least one with a rather poor rating in third or fourth or fifth place.
3. Scam review: Two of the most searched-for words on search engines are “review” and “scam”, so use this traffic. (Bonus is also high up.) Sounds like a hard-hitting journalist at the start. You want the bloody facts and nothing more. You’re nobody’s fool. Say you heard a lot of gossip about the product being a scam and you are going to get to the bottom of it. Then really bullshit a personal story about you or someone you know using the theme of “I was lost but now I’m found.” Life was hell before the product. Someone mentioned it to help you. You were suspicious as all get-out. You tried the product with misgiving. Voila. Problem solved. Life ain’t all roses now, but you are no longer a sufferer and you’ll be damned if you’ll ever talk bad about that product again. Yada yada yada? click here?

Normal content articles and books

Go to school to learn how to do this or use other people’s stuff. Blog posts and forum posts for content are about the same. You do this stuff because you love it, not to sell stuff. So this is outside of my discussion.

Style

1. Use a conversational tone for Internet marketing. If a reader needs to look up a word, he ain’t buying and he can’t read fast.
2. Talk “the talk of your audience”. If the demographics of your market profiles young girls, don?t talk macho. If it is religious folks, don?t talk jive. You get the idea.
3. If you get stuck, ask a question and answer it. (“Why do you want to do that? Well…”)
4. Spin a “most people” bullshit story. (“Most people say this” or “Most gurus say that”; followed by “But the truth is”).
   • There is no way on earth you could know what most people say, but it makes for great bullshit. 
   • Since you are giving The Hidden Truth, you are the Hero of the Day and the reader is pleased to know you.
5. Get other style stuff from the literature or on Google searches. There’s a ton of it out there.

White Hatters will learn this stuff down cold. Gray Hatters will do it, but will often use pre-prepared content and content re-writing programs to help. Black Hatters will use scraped content and content re-writing programs almost exclusively. But even they can use these techniques to improve their content while checking for gibberish.