Article Content: Article Templates

Top 10 List/Tip Articles: Everyone likes content they can read quickly. Why not create top 10 lists/tips (or any number of “top” things) related to your niche area of expertise.

  • Title: Your “Top ” article title should include keywords relating to the type of article you are creating plus the words “Top” and the number of list items.
  • Opening Paragraph: Introduce your reader to the topic and sell the benefits of reading the list/tips.
  • Create Numbered List
  • Sub-Headline each list item or tip: Create (1) paragraph description of each list item/tip.
  • Closing Paragraph/Conclusion
  • Resource Box

Pain Avoidance Articles: Most people will do more to avoid pain than they will to seek pleasure. You can use this psychological trigger as the basis for a series of articles that show how to avoid pain associated with various issues within your niche.

  • Opening Paragraph: Introduce the pain to your reader and sell the “pain-relieving” benefits of reading your article.
  • Relieve the Pain: Give real-world solutions to the pain in 3-10 paragraphs.
  • Supporting Paragraphs: Offer reasons why your offered solutions relieve the pain (1-2 paragraphs max).
  • Closing Paragraph/Conclusion: Reinforce why your reader is in pain, how to relieve the pain and why it’s in their best interest to follow your advice.
  • Resource Box
  • Key Insight: Everyone experiences pain in some form, whether it be physical, psychological, emotional, financial, etc. Articles that help people cope or eliminate pain deliver real value. As the expert author, you are the pain problem solver.

Pros and Cons Articles: Your readers love reading the pros and cons of relevant research you’ve conducted in your niche. Give it to them in your next set of 400 word articles.

  • Opening Paragraph/s: Introduce your argument with 1-2 paragraphs max.
  • Create Pros Sub-heading: Provide a minimum of 3-4 pros and try using bullet points to present your list. It will make your article easier to read.
  • Create Cons Sub-heading: Provide a minimum of 3-4 cons and try using bullet points to present your list. It will make your article easier to read.
  • Closing Paragraph/Conclusion: Wrap up your article by describing your position and why.
  • Resource Box

Key Insight: Too often articles are written that debate the merits of the author’s position (nothing wrong with that), but they fail to provide counter-arguments that can actually improve the authors credibility for being able to see the big picture or at least acknowledge the counter-arguments that exist (even if they don’t agree with them).

Principles of X Articles: There may be no “right” way to do this template as many choose to use identifiers other than “principles” (E.g., secrets, thoughts, ideas, qualities, etc.), but they all usually give a numbered list with sub-headings that make it easy for the eye to see and read the “principles” outlined.

  • Title: Make sure your article title lets your reader know they will be learning the “principles” of something.
  • Opening Paragraph: Explain why your “principles” are important to the reader along with any social proof claims that can support your statements.
  • Create “Principle” Sub-headings: Describe your top “principles” along with why each one is important.
  • Closing Paragraph/Conclusion: Offer suggestions on how to apply the outlined “principles” or a helpful tip to help the reader overcome any objections they might have to understanding or applying one of your “principles” to their life or business.
  • Resource Box

Checklist Articles: Your target reader loves checklists because they distill the essence of what someone else (you, the expert) have painstakingly identified as being important for a particular problem.

  • Title: Your checklist article title should include keywords relating to the type of checklist you are creating plus the word “checklist”.
  • Opening Paragraph: Introduce your reader to the topic and explain why the checklist exists.
  • Create Checklist
  • Closing Paragraph/Conclusion: Encourage the reader to pay close attention to the benefits of the checklist.
  • Resource Box

Tip: Make sure your checklist is actually a checklist. I.e., don’t ramble on without using brackets [], bullet points and/or a numbered list. Your checklist should be fast and easy to read while delivering on the promise of a checklist from your article title.

Survey Results Articles: Your readers love reading the results of relevant surveys you’ve conducted in your niche. Give it to them in your next set of articles.

Why articles that include the results of surveys are valuable:

  • You are delivering the result of multiple hours, days or weeks of research.
  • You are summarizing mountains of data into a less than 1,000 word summary.
  • You are helping your reader to key into which numbers in the results are important and why.
  • You are describing how to evaluate the results, and how they can apply to your reader’s business.

A single survey’s results can help you easily produce a series of 2-15 articles.

Key Insight: It’s better to share survey results from surveys you or your company has done. Never share results of surveys that came from proprietary information you had to pay for. It’s recommended that you never write articles that use the basis of someone else’s survey results as the basis of your article/s.

“Golden Rules of X” Articles: This article template idea is ridiculously simple, yet can be powerfully perceived as valuable by your readership. Here’s how the Golden Rules of X article template works:

  • Create an article title:

Examples:
a. “Golden Rules of _____________”
b. “The 16 Golden Rules of ____________”
c. “____________ Golden Rules To Live by”

  • Using a numbered list, include the rules that sum up the primary lessons you’ve discovered or learned through your experience & expertise.
  • Expand to include “WHY” each golden rule you’ve outlined is important.
  • Summarize at the end the theme behind why your set of golden rules are important and what it will mean to the reader when they implement them in their own life and/or business.

Broad vs. Narrow focus: You can include the golden rules of various aspects of your niche including narrow topics or sub-topics rather than only a broadly-focused set of golden rules.

Example: One might write an article on the: “7 Golden Rules of Article Writing & Marketing”. Follow that up with an article on the “10 Article Title Golden Rules To Profit By,” “4 Golden Rules of Writing Resource Boxes That Sell,” or “19 Golden Rules of How To Pick Article Topic Choices”.

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