Using Templates To Come Up With Article Ideas

Writing and submitting articles is a great way to get traffic to our affiliate niche sites. They also help you establish yourself as an expert. Needless to say that writing and submitting articles on a regular basis is a good way to grow your business. The only problem is that you’ll eventually start running out of ideas. Often the hardest part is to get over that blank screen staring at you.

I find that the best way to get over that is to start with a simple little template. Below you’ll find five of my favorites. They will work for any type of niche and are a great way to come up with fresh article ideas. They also make writing the article much faster because you already have some structure and at least the beginnings of an outline. Give them a try.

The Tips Template

The tips template is probably the best know and most used article template out there. And there’s a good reason for that. It’s very versatile and easy to use. You simple share a certain number of tips. The actual number really doesn’t matter, but 3, 5, 7 and 10 tips to do xyz seem to be used the most.

Just open your text document or grab a piece of paper and a pen and list several related tips. Then briefly explain each. This article uses the tips template.

The What Is It and How Do You Use It Template

Here’s another quick template that works well for any type of product – be it a physical or a digital product. You start by introducing the product and letting your readers know more about it. From there you move into how to use it, focusing on the features and benefits of the product.

Of course you can also adapt this template to work for concepts and ideas. If you are in the self help industry for example, you could use it to write an article about meditation, explaining what it is and then giving some simple meditation exercises your readers can try.

The Question and Answer Template

I also like to take a question and start my article with that. The basic question can be your title and then you can go into a little more detail in the introduction. The rest of your article is simply your answer to that question.

Where do you find those questions? Start by looking through your emails. Have you gotten some good questions from readers? You can also browse popular message boards or go to sites like Yahoo Answers to get good questions.

The Biggest Mistake Template

Starting out with a big mistake is another great way to start an article and get your readers attention. Explain what the mistake is and if it’s something you’ve done, share your own story. Let your readers know what the results of the mistake were (i.e. did you lose money, waste time etc.).

The main part of your article will then be about avoiding the mistake or how to rectify it. Focus on the positive here and give your readers some helpful tips.

The Step-By-Step Template

One of my favorite articles to read is a step-by-step tutorial. It often starts out with “How do …” and then simply walks you step by step through the process of doing things. For example, I may create an article on “How To Write A Great Article in 5 Easy Steps”. It would cover coming up with an idea, crafting a compelling title, jotting down an outline, writing the article and last but not least writing a great resource box.

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• Quick Article Ideas – Use Templates
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