Basics to Finding Great Content

This method will help you create articles from topics within 10-15 minutes.


The first thing to do is to have the right tools.  


You will want to be in a position to make notes on the spur of the moment...  Great ideas and facts may hit you at any moment and give you "Wow" facts to use in your writing.  To capture these some people use 3 x 5 cards for notes, which are great and one of the best ways to absorb information into your brain is to write things down.


However, if you want something quicker and more available and prefer to use your phone or Ipad, simply download these free apps...a program called Simple Note for text notes and  Ever Note for pictures.  And using your phone will allow you to take pictures to save and put into your content as well.


The next thing you will want to do is research your content.  


Many times, we're online trying to write articales for others about subjects we're only just beginning to learn about also, so the best way to do this is by researching what is out there already on our subject and drawing ideas and facts from it.  A couple great tools for researching content are Twitter  and Market Samurai.


To find content using Market Samurai (MS), log into MS and either select a project (keyword you already researched...for tips on how to do this, watch MS's tutorial videos or see my other blog entries on Keyword Research) or create a new one.  Once you have the keyword you want to focus on, click on "Find Content" in the left-hand column.  Then check the areas you'd like to look in for content.  I suggest checking at least "Wikipedia," "Google News," "Google Blog Search," and "YouTube Videos."


Once you've selected the areas, click on the "Find Content" button and across the screen will appear content from all the above sources for your keyword.  Copy what you're interested in to a Word Document or Notepad to keep for ideas for your own content, then revamp these for your own blog.


As an alternative, you can use Twitter in much the same way.  I'm assuming you have a Twitter account, and if not, I strongly advise you to get one as they are free and a great source of traffic for you.  In your Twitter account, click on "Browse Categories" on the left, and then in the search field type your keyword and click search button.


Your account will show people whose names and tweets reflect your keyword choices.  You can then search the content of the tweets for info for your post and save other Twitter accounts reflecting your interests in a list to refer to them later.


There are many other methods you can use to search for content like Google, but keeping it restricted to just a couple will help you stay focused and save you time.


Now it's time to write.  


You've done your research, and have notes and ideas, and now you get to record them.  To do this in a time efficient way, set a timer for 10 minutes (be sure it has an alarm that will go off in 10 minutes so you don't stop to check it).  Now write for 10 minutes solid on your topic.  Do not stop for one second and do not edit your work.  Type as quickly as you can simply to record your thoughts.  You're brainstorming and pouring out everything you can in 10 minutes.


When the timer goes off, you stop.  No matter where you are on it, stop and save your work and set it aside for the next day.  The next day, look up your writing and read it and edit it for publication.