You'd only need one of these a year
Hello,
Thank you to everyone who replied to me last week about the video, the newsletter in general and what you’d like to read about next. I so appreciate it and have replied to everyone.
No video this week as I ran out of time. I wanted to do a little video book review of The Pyjama Myth by Sian Meades-Williams. Like many other people, I pledged support for this book a couple of years ago and so devoured it when it dropped through my letterbox a couple of weeks ago.
This is the book that I needed to read when I was a Journalism student. It’s written for freelance writers but the advice can apply to anyone working for themselves. If you’ve ever fancied getting paid to write, this is a good place to start. Sian shares her own mistakes (and I recognise all of them in myself) so that you can hopefully avoid them.
So I hope this does get instantly put on the reading list for every writing course.
In other news, I’m launching a mentoring programme for business owners who want to make their content work harder to get sales and not them. I have two beta testers working through it at the moment and I’ll be sending out some emails about the specifics next week. But if you want to know more, hit reply and I’ll be in touch.
And finally, it’s been a busy old week but I got my DNA test results back from the awesome VOJO this week. The results have been life-changing. I’m now a huge advocate for knowing your DNA because what it told me was that a few changes in my diet will sort out a whole heap of problems and pain I’ve been in. Stuff I’ve been complaining about for years. All solved in one little test. I’m not really doing it justice but if you’ve ever been told to just take painkillers rather than have the source of the pain sorted, I recommend this test.
How To Build a Longer Read - Part 1 - The Purpose and The Research
In this first part of a mini longer read series I’m going to take you through why you should be writing much longer articles, and the first step of research.
How do you feel about writing a longer article? According to pretty much all of the internet, a blog these days should be around 2500 words for the best possible outcomes. That’s about an 8-minute read and a good couple of days of work putting together.
So if the recommended length is 2500 words, what counts as a long read now?
I’m going to assume that most people reading this right now are not writing 2500 blogs on a regular basis. And that being tasked to create a blog that long on a regular basis will be overwhelming.
And who is to say those 2500 words are all useful words that add something to the debate? Or that these longer blogs are useful to their audience? You can write 2500 words of utter rubbish and hit that mark but it will be a complete waste of your time.
You are running a business not writing a university essay. So the first thing I want to say about writing a long read is don’t fill up the word count with pointless sentences that add nothing to what you’re saying.
In fact, let’s put the word count to one side for a moment.
Purpose
When you create a long read, it’s not to build the word count. A longer and more in-depth article should solely be about your audience. It should be about digging into a subject in greater depth, looking at it from all angles and giving your audience some insights that they cannot get elsewhere.
But why bother going to these lengths?
You’ll be amazed to find out that longer articles are good for SEO but not simply because they are long. It is because they are GOOD articles. When you create something of greater depth and quality, you increase the read-time on that page, which tells search engines that this is a piece of quality writing.
The main reason, however, for a long read is to showcase your knowledge to your audience.
How many of these big-ass articles should you be writing?
The other reason I love a good long read is that you need less of them to get the results you need (if they are done right that is). You can’t churn out an in-depth article on a regular basis. Even monthly, you won’t get the quality you need to make it worth the time and website space.
Instead, start with one a year. If you feel you have more in you then write two or maybe three. But make sure you’re enjoying the whole process because these do take up time.
Okay, I’ve hopefully convinced you that doing a long read is a good idea. I want to share one of my favourite articles with you that I think showcases why these are brilliant pieces of content and so much worth the time.
First of all - there is this three-part article on the mystery of obesity.
Note how this piece has been split into three parts. They are turning the long-read format into a serial format. If I had to wait a week to find out parts two and three, you bet I’m signing up for their newsletter so I don’t forget.
Then there is this whopper of an article from an old client of mine.
In full transparency, I edited this article and know how many iterations and how long it took to produce. Plus, the version you see now is not the same version that was first published.
You’ll notice on this one that you can download a PDF version of the article. This is a nice way to get readers to save it for later or read on the go.
It also takes me on to my next point about how you can approach a long read.
You’ve got two options here:
First, go for it in one fell swoop. Work through the process and publish the finished outcome. Now, you’re not a full-time journalist and even if you are a full-time writer, you also have other client work to do and other pulls on your time.
So let’s say you work on an article of this depth for a day a week. It might take you about 3 months to get it into a finished state.
Or there is the second option - do it in stages.
I teach this way in my SEO masterclass - or a version of this at least. This means you do enough work to get a blog published. And by enough work, I mean make it a solid read with a great angle and clear argument. Then you go off and find all the extra elements you need to add to it. Like interviews, research papers, latest findings and updates.
And you set yourself a date to go back and edit, review and improve it. This way your long read starts off as more of an average read. Then you keep polishing it up until you feel you’ve covered every single possible angle.
Of course, while you’re updating this on a regular basis, you’re also resharing it around your audience.
There are up and downsides to each approach. Whatever way you go about it is up to you. And there is nothing to tell you that you must pick one over the other.
I have long articles that are mid-research in my writing app. And I have some on my site that has a reminder in Click Up to go back and add something new.
Okay, so let’s crack on with how you decide on what idea should become a longer read.
Ideas and Development
Have you ever read an article in a broadsheet or magazine and thought “well, duh! That’s been about for ages”? This happened last week when I saw an article about the propensity of manifestation online and how it’s becoming a movement. I kicked myself for not creating the story earlier because while manifestation is nothing new in online coaching, for most people outside of that bubble - it is new and interesting.
Part of the upside of building these longer articles is that you have something valuable to pitch to other publications. You can already show there is a story there that people want to read.
But when you’re going about your daily life, look for the things within your industry that keep being talked about.
For example, you might be a vegan pet food brand. You know that one of the questions you’ll get asked is “well aren’t dogs carnivores?”. So you can create a long read from this about the gaps in veterinary training when it comes to nutrition for household pets.
Or if you’re a service-based business, you might want to look at common issues you see in this area. For example, if you are a VA, you may want to look at how the rise of remote working has impacted the industry.
Whatever your subject, don’t start writing straight away. You want to let your idea percolate in your brain for some time. The important part here is to get the angle right.
You need to understand how this idea will relate to your audience. What will they get out of reading about it? And how will it help improve their knowledge and understanding?
For most subjects, this comes down to getting the angle right. Let’s take the vet article as an example. This could be written for the vets, to help them find new ways to fill the knowledge gaps themselves. Or it could be written for the end consumer, to give them a set of questions to ask about nutrition for their pets. You would need to approach these two angles in very different ways. Each of them has its own complexities in research.
This is why I don’t think you should jump into research before you nail that angle.
Remember, this is something you write occasionally and so you can take time over it to get the angle right. If you’re not sure, test the idea on a couple of people.
Research
Then you can start the research. Again, don’t be tempted to jump in and start writing. Research first will always help you and will definitely help you refine your idea more.
I always start by looking at what else is out there. What are other people saying about the idea I want to write about? Then I’ll look at what is my unique take on this. What can I add to the discussion that others can’t? And where are there research gaps in what is already published?
There will also be opportunities to say something more or something different on a subject.
SEO research
Next, you’ll want to do some SEO research. How many people are searching for this already? What key terms are they using? How competitive are these?
This is more to keep in mind that to focus solely on these terms. It may well be that no one is searching for what you’re about to write but if you know that people are talking about it this could be an opportunity to leverage that search spot before it does become a more popular search. Don’t necessarily rule out a low search volume search term but do be aware that it may never be searched.
Background research
Next, take a look at some of the research papers on your subject. Depending on what you’re writing about, you might need to get creative to find the data.
Market research is expensive, so use Google Scholar, find those white papers, get as much information as you can online. And if you’re still stuck, you can put out your own survey. This might take time to gather enough responses to make a valid argument.
You’ll also want a hit list of people to approach for an interview. It’s best to think of longer reads like a piece of journalism so the rule here is to have at least two sources. The more voices you can add, the better your work will be.
And I advise trying to find someone on the other side of the argument. It is about balance rather than debate. Much of what we read in the media now is about creating arguments and divide. Instead, look at the different viewpoints (and there will be more than two of these).
There is a brilliant Guilty Feminist podcast episode that looks at this subject.
When you have all your research in place, then it’s time to write. And I’ll cover that next week.
If you’ve made it this far, well done. That was a long email.
As always, reply if you want a chat or to talk about how I can help you with your content.
Otherwise, I’ll see you next Thursday!
Fiona