As an internet entrepreneur you know the value of content. It boosts search engine results and thus drives traffic to your website. It provides a benefit to your visitor and keeps them on your website reading content and diving further into the depths of your site – hopefully to your product page. It also connects you to the reader in a personal way, forging a relationship that will hopefully be long-lasting.

So it stands to reason that you want to not simply create content, but you want to write great articles that inspire and motivate action. One of the keys to writing great content isn’t to take a journalism or creative non-fiction writing course; it’s to plan your content before you write it. A predefined structure can turn a muddled article into an easy to read, benefit-driven masterpiece.

Of course, when people hear the word “outline” shivers run up their spine and they see their school teacher standing over them forcing structure upon them. If the word “outline” makes you cringe, then call it a blueprint or a plan. You like to plan, right? You must; you’re an entrepreneur and they’re master planners.

So what is included in an article plan?

Initially you’ll want to start with the topic of your article. What is it going to be about? You’ll also want to consider the purpose of your article. If you’re writing an article about rock climbing, is the purpose going to be to motivate someone to learn how to rock climb or are you going to actually tell them how to do it?

Keep the purpose simple for an article. You’re only looking for one main idea; you’re not writing a book. Though if you are inspired to write a book, then that’s great too.

So now you have your topic and your article’s purpose, right? Let’s say you’re going to tell someone how to rock climb. This is a “how to” article, then. How to articles usually involve a series of steps. Step one, find a good pair of rock climbing shoes. Step two, find a local crag that’s easy (5.6 or under in the rating scale) and so on.

If you’re writing a tips article, then that will have a different structure and so too will an article that lists things. If you’re writing an article to motivate or inspire, then you’ll want to support your topic with at least three main points. This brings us to the third phase of your article writing plan.

What’s your point? In this step you’ll start creating the skeleton of your article – the bones. You can mind map your article at this point, you can simply list the points you want to cover, the tips, the steps and so forth or you can write out a sentence or two describing each point.

Before you start pulling it all together, you’ll want to go back to the beginning and plan your first paragraph. This paragraph is potentially the most important paragraph of your article because if it doesn’t compel readers to continue reading, well…

Your first paragraph only need be a few sentences and it should essentially tell your readers what you’re going to tell them. Continuing with the how to rock climb example, your first paragraph might read something like this:

“Rock climbing isn’t just for extreme adventure seekers anymore. Today there are more than 10,000 rock climbing gyms nationwide and thousands of people are learning to enjoy this fun new way to get and stay in shape. Whether you’re climbing outdoors or indoors, the steps to learn to climb are the same.“

Okay, at this point you have your article’s topic, its purpose, your points and your first paragraph outlined, oops, planned. Now what?

Well, now you have a few choices. You can set it aside to write later. This is good if you need some time to contemplate some areas of your article. Alternatively, you can write your article, or you can write your headline. Sometimes it’s easier to write a compelling headline after the article is written and sometimes you’ll have your headline right away, once you’ve created your topic and purpose.

When you’re ready to write, simply write your content without editing yourself (save the editing for the end). Don’t put in your keywords. Don’t edit yourself for spelling and grammar; just write using the plan you’ve created.

Finally, edit your content, add your keywords in where they feel natural and you’re done. Congratulations, you’ve just written a great article! And the good news is that with practice, this planning and writing process will get faster and faster.

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