Do you remember the day when you were delighted to learn of the advice of the American writer Edgar Allan Poe,How to write a 3,000 word article, thanks to which you could write quality literary works? .
In the same vein, below, I summarize the article " A Step-by-Step Guide to Producing a 3,000-Word Article on Any Topic " subject), written by Neil Patel. You might never write a 3,000 word article, but Neil Patel gives some expert advice that you would be sorry to miss out on.
Why write a 3,000 word article?
To motivate us, Neil Patel praises the superiority of the 3,000 word article as one of the best assets of an online marketing strategy: an article of this length is detailed, but not too long. It brings real help to readers.
In addition, among the entrepreneurs he knows, those who are the most successful use of this format chosen for their content. According to him, all you need is an idea, the time, and the ability to do research on the Internet. Armed with these three elements, you are ready to apply his recipe.
Phase 1: find your topic, write about what you know
If you don't dominate your topic, the article will contain vague statements or too many quotes. An article written by a connoisseur will be interesting, informative and detailed.
Phase 2: your plan, your sources, your first draft
The plan
You will be relieved to learn that a plan is not necessarily what you were taught to build during your studies. It can comprise the list of planned subtitles or the key points that you want to cover. No need to spend too much time there.
The sources
They must be reliable and relevant. Neil Patel advises to use online publications, research-based sites (Marketing sherpa or HubSpot), or industry blogs. He recommends giving priority to primary sources (a study, for example) and looking for them from the start, in order to better integrate them into the article. They can even become the basis of the article.
Go back to your outline and see which main points you want to cover, then find one or two sources related to each of those main points.
The first draft
Here is a series of suggestions that should make your task easier:
- Go into detail. The more detail you give, the more obvious your competence will be.
- Don't assume that all of your readers are familiar with the topic. Better to give them too much information than not enough.
- Write what comes to your mind. Your first goal is to put words on the paper.
- Consider breaking down what you write into small parts, where you will detail each point. Each part should be broken down enough to be easily assimilated.
- Answer questions a person new to the article might have.
- Define terms that your readers might not be aware of.
- Start your article with a beginner's guide or a summary.
- Resume your plan. Review your main points. It should have 5 or 7. These will be your pillars, on which your principal argument will rest. Your main point will be in the title, the pillars in the subtitles.
- Last point, write a first draft that is too long. It will probably be shortened during your proofreading.
Phase 3: revisions
Be ruthless to yourself. Here's how to do it:
- Only start after a day or two, you will do a more aim proofreading.
- Preferably, read the article aloud. Reading aloud takes longer, but it's an effective way to spot mistakes. If you read silently, make sure you understand the meaning of each sentence.
- Use the tools provided by the Internet: a spell checker, of course, then a grammar checker (for example, Grammarly for the English language or reverso for the French language). Finally, an advanced text editor will alert you to excessively long sentences, complex words, or adverbs.
- Read the article again. If it looks good to you, it is ready to be published.
In conclusion…
Neil Patel reassures us: once you have applied his formula several times, your technique will improve and writing a 3,000 word article will seem very easy.
He destroys our dreams by confessing that it takes a long experience to write exceptionally long articles. When his article was published in January 2017, he had been blogging for over 10 years.
Edgar Allan Poe's advice does not result in masterpieces, just as Neil Patel's formulas do not guarantee the quality of the articles generated.