5 Tips to Help You Get Article Ideas

[TiffanyDow]

Hi Warriors!

A good friend of mine and I were chatting and he said he wished he could do what I do – write lots of content. But his problem wasn’t writing talent – he’s good. Instead, he has trouble figuring out what to write. He gets stuck on the title and topic when trying to promote affiliate products.

So I thought I’d showcase some ways in the forum of how I have gotten article ideas in the past in case anyone else is having this problem because I know would-be book authors are always asking successful authors where they get their ideas, too.

1.) Spy on the product owner’s meta keywords. If you go to guygetsgirls.com, which is a ClickBank product, and right click to view source code, you’ll see at the top that one of his meta keywords is pick up lines.

Now you can either run with it two ways – “10 Pick Up Lines That Attract Beautiful Women” or “7 Pick Up Lines You Should NEVER Use on a Woman.”

OR….

You can type pick up lines into the Google keyword tool here: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and see what comes up to give you article ideas. Here’s a sampling of what I find, turned into article titles:

Dirty Pick Up Lines That Attract Bad Girls
Funny Pick Up Lines to Showcase Your Sense of Humor
Steer Clear of These 6 Lame Pick Up Lines

2.) Use the product owner’s sales page. What I mean by this is go to the page and scan it over for the bullet points and headlines. What I see on guygetsgirl.com (I’m using this as an example because it’s rated at the top of CB in its category – it’s not my site) is this:

The site says: “Are you scared of the dating scene and unsure how to approach and talk to women?” So your article can be, “How to Talk to Women When You’re Nervous.”

The site says: “You Will NEVER Be Hurt By Rejection Again!” so your article can be, “Dealing With Your Fear of Dating Rejection.”

The site says, “Discover 5 Places where you'll find the hottest dates who are receptive to your advances - sites that almost every other guy hasn't yet considered!” so your article can be, “5 Dating Sites With a Male to Female Ratio in Your Favor!”

3.) Click on the Affiliate resource page for the product and see what articles he has in the hopper for you. One of the articles this particular product has listed is, “Making A Great First Impression On Women,” but you don’t want to cut and paste that article because every other affiliate will be using it. Instead, turn it into something unique based on the same principle, such as, “8 First Impression Rules You Should Never Break!”

4.) Make a swipe file of article starters. Head over to EzineArticles.com and look at the phrases being used a lot. Here’s what I find:

The Dos and Don’ts of…
7 Ways to….(or any number)
Improve Your….with….
….Tips to Help You….
5 Crucial Factors in…..
How to…
What to Expect from….
Features of…
3 Reasons Why….
Becoming a….

Now just fill in your niche ideas before and after those phrases. Using our example, you could have:

The Dos and Don’ts of Picking Up Women Online
7 Ways to Prove You’re the Alpha Male Around Women
How to Win Over Women Maintaining Your Nice Guy Image

5.) Type the keyword into Google and see what other top sites are discussing. For example, I type in the phrase dating tips and visit the top site. Here are some ideas I get from them and how I turn it into my own:

They have: Do Bad Guys Always Get the Girl?
I turn it into: Why Women Don’t Always Choose a Bad Boy

They have: How to Ask Someone Out: Get the Timing Right
I turn it into: When You Hit on a Woman, Time It Right!

They have: Bald Men and Dating – The No-Hair Dilemma
I turn it into: Your Sex Appeal Isn’t Defined By Your Scalp

Now what do I do with all of this brainstorming?

Write from scratch. Don’t go copy the bald men and dating article and rewrite what they have. The reason? Most people have no idea how to avoid plagiarism and you walk too close to that line.

ONLY use the titles as a jumping point for you. Don’t even READ the article – it’ll be too tempting to profit off the work of others and these aren’t PLR articles you’re looking at.

Sometimes all it takes is the ability to get a title or concept going and then you soar with your own ideas and original content. Over time, you won’t need to do this. You’ll have it coming to you naturally.

I hope this helps!
Tiff

[Chris Hunter]

Folks, you just got a mini lesson in REPURPOSING content here.

If you're wise, you'll hear and obey.

GREAT one Tiffany!

[Frank Bruno]

Tiffany this is an excellent post with some great tips on coming up with article writing ideas in a clear format that can be easily modeled for warriors in their own business.

Frank Bruno

[SuzanneH]

Great post, Tiff!

Suzanne

[Frank Donovan]

Tiffany, what an excellent post!

This advice, for instance....

Originally Posted by TiffanyDow

5.) Type the keyword into Google and see what other top sites are discussing. For example, I type in the phrase dating tips and visit the top site. Here are some ideas I get from them and how I turn it into my own:

They have: Do Bad Guys Always Get the Girl?
I turn it into: Why Women Don’t Always Choose a Bad Boy

They have: How to Ask Someone Out: Get the Timing Right
I turn it into: When You Hit on a Woman, Time It Right!

They have: Bald Men and Dating – The No-Hair Dilemma
I turn it into: Your Sex Appeal Isn’t Defined By Your Scalp
Tiff

...is just so elegantly simple and yet if used in a tightly defined niche, could easily provide the framework for a highly-targeted short report or even an ebook itself.

Bravo!

Frank

[WritingMadwoman]

Tiffany, one of the most useful posts ever. Great creative ideas there! :-)

Wendy

[Zeus66]

What a horrible post, Tiffany Dow! Good lord, this is total nonsense!

LOL Just thought the comments needed something decidedly unsycophantish (is that a word, wordsmiths?).

I guess it's actually pretty good. It's ok, I mean. DANGIT I LOVED IT, OK???

Hope you're happy.

John

[IMChick]

Tiffany,

EXCELLENT post. Thank you, thank you!

[TiffanyDow]

Originally Posted by Zeus66

What a horrible post, Tiffany Dow! Good lord, this is total nonsense!

LOL Just thought the comments needed something decidedly unsycophantish (is that a word, wordsmiths?).

I guess it's actually pretty good. It's ok, I mean. DANGIT I LOVED IT, OK???

Hope you're happy.

John

Thank God you liked it - you might have come after me since you're y neighbor
Anyone can add to it if I missed some...
tiff

[Michael Oksa]

Originally Posted by Zeus66

What a horrible post, Tiffany Dow! Good lord, this is total nonsense!

LOL Just thought the comments needed something decidedly unsycophantish (is that a word, wordsmiths?).

I guess it's actually pretty good. It's ok, I mean. DANGIT I LOVED IT, OK???

Hope you're happy.

John

Yep, if we understand it, it's a word. Even though the word is a bit miscontruedish, I'd say it works.

~Michael

[fred67]

Hi tiffany, I recently bought your book 'Building an e-book Empire' which I thoroughly enjoyed and value. Since then I've been amazed at just how often your name crops up, and usually always for being so helpful and knowledgeable.
(This post just compounds that finding).

How on earth you find the time to do all the things you do I'll not even try to understand, but I appreciate the regular follow-up E-mails that led me to this post.

Thankyou, pete.

[lakeview]

Tiffany,

Those tips were just fantastic. Now my brain is working overtime thinking of new stuff to write.

Thanks so much!

Angela

[Ricter]

Is this really "repurposing"? I thought that was selling the same product to a different market for a different use...

These are great ideas, thanks!

I particularly like the advice about not even reading the original article. Very wise.

[Sid Kaplan]

Hi tiffany, great post. I don't print many off but this one hit the printer right away. Thank you for the quick education. I will be watching for the next course...LOL

[gchai]

Excellent advice!

[pmore]

Great advice Tiffany. I myself don't write many articles, but when I do need to get one done I tend to struggle with the article topic a little. Your strategies will help, I'm sure!

[Munch Mama]

Magnificent as ever, Tiff! Solid gold info and a major "hint" not only on how to choose article titles but chapters for info products!! Grab a few ideas, maybe 7 - 10 on a topic, rewrite them as titles and then go on to write a killer report that can be used as a freebie incentive to sign up on your list!

No need to reinvent the wheel here, folks. Just make a better one or one that is "you"!

[SuzanneH]

Another great way to get article ideas is to ask your list what their greatest challenge is or what their #1 burning question is (about that particular niche).

This is great either for articles as content or for an affiliate product. It could give you a different angle to promote a product -- or ideas for other products to promote (or create!)

Suzanne

[summer07]

Originally Posted by TiffanyDow

4.) Make a swipe file of article starters. Head over to EzineArticles.com and look at the phrases being used a lot. Here’s what I find:

The Dos and Don’ts of…
7 Ways to….(or any number)
Improve Your….with….
….Tips to Help You….
5 Crucial Factors in…..
How to…
What to Expect from….
Features of…
3 Reasons Why….
Becoming a….

Now just fill in your niche ideas before and after those phrases. Using our example, you could have:

The Dos and Don’ts of Picking Up Women Online
7 Ways to Prove You’re the Alpha Male Around Women
How to Win Over Women Maintaining Your Nice Guy Image

The swipe file idea really helps when I've been writing all day but still have 2 or 3 articles left to write. Thanks for the mini-tutorial...great tips to print out and keep in my writer's notebook!

Audre

[jhongren]

4.) Make a swipe file of article starters. Head over to EzineArticles.com and look at the phrases being used a lot. Here’s what I find:

The Dos and Don’ts of…
7 Ways to….(or any number)
Improve Your….with….
….Tips to Help You….
5 Crucial Factors in…..
How to…
What to Expect from….
Features of…
3 Reasons Why….
Becoming a….

Now just fill in your niche ideas before and after those phrases. Using our example, you could have:

The Dos and Don’ts of Picking Up Women Online
7 Ways to Prove You’re the Alpha Male Around Women
How to Win Over Women Maintaining Your Nice Guy Image

Hi Tiffany,

Great tip on this one. This is what we call modelling. You can model and duplicate success even in article-writings.

Cheers,
John

[rocker123]

this is great!

[aceriker]

My favourite method is to go to a forum related to the niche and read the titles of the threads. Within minutes you can generate a huge amount of ideas for an article or ebook.

Try it on this forum or digitalpoint forum. Just read the titles and watch how fast you generate a list of ideas. Rinse and repeat for the niche of your choice.

Peter

[omozu]

this is a great post people like you are few GOD BLESS YOU you have really help i was like your friend before now thank you for helping me

[Mark McWilliams]

Hmm, GREAT post Tiff! (Thanks for that!)

Time to turn the printer on and print this post out me thinks!

Thanks
Mark

[naruq]

Tiffany thank you for the 5 Tips to Help You Get Article Ideas. I especially like your strategy about brainstorming Article Ideas.

[lewister]

Excellent advice! Course, now I just have to find the time and get myself going to apply it ... :-)

[cfloyd]

Thanks Tiffany, these are great ideas and timely for me. I try to write an article a day and there are some days that's really hard. This helps...

Thanks Cindy

[Sheryl Polomka]

Great tips Tiffany, I particularly like the first one, that is one tip that I think will be extremely useful

[Vyliss]

Great info! I needed it, sometimes I get stuck coming up with interesting new articles to write too.

[Hesaidblissfully]

Originally Posted by aceriker

My favourite method is to go to a forum related to the niche and read the titles of the threads. Within minutes you can generate a huge amount of ideas for an article or ebook.

Try it on this forum or digitalpoint forum. Just read the titles and watch how fast you generate a list of ideas. Rinse and repeat for the niche of your choice.

Peter

Yup, I do the same. And the great thing is, you know they're topics that people actually are looking for information on.

[oregongal]

This is great stuff, Tiff! Seems like I'm always struggling for ideas for articles and this is just the ticket! Thanks for sharing.

[sysgift]

Thanks for sharing this. Just to add that if you laready have PLRs (especially from reliable sources) on your niche, reading through can also give an insight on writing techniques

[Flyingpig7]

Thanks Tiffany

[ecdavis]

Tiffany,

Hi. Great post. I just wanted to chime in and acknowledge your generosity in the time and thought for the content shared. This is certainly a post to keep in my permanent save file.

[stacyfox]

Tiffany,

I've bought your products and followed your advice in the past. This was an excellent article and it's going to help me a lot.

[Kevin Flask]

Tiffany,

Thanks for theses EXCELLENT tips and ideas.

This is certainly getting the creative juices flowing.

I can see my productivity increasing and a heck of a
lot more efficiently.

I saving this one!

All the best,

Kevin

Your last tip is my favorite: write from scratch. Not only is violating copyright law a bad thing, but developing your own voice that people will start to recognize is important as well. That's what helps you build a fan base. Well said!

[zenmn]

Thanks Tiff! Hope some day I can return the favor!
-zenmn

[Kelly Verge]

One real advantage of pulling ideas from the sales page of the affiliate product you're promoting is that your articles become pre-selling tools.

Thanks for the awesome post!

[yaz8888]

Great Post. I've been struggling writing articles. I printed it out and will use it as a cheat sheet.

[Michael Cruz]

You have some good information here, thank you. For me personally, I find looking through a newspaper such as USA Today has dozens of ideas in almost every issue. Nonetheless, an excellent post.

Michael Cruz

[najmiyusoff]

Great post. No more writer block. Thanks!

I will follow your command, my masterrrrrrrrrrrrr..

[origalex]

Great stuff Tiffany. Now I will have to start writing again.

Bill A

[Warrior Markets]

I love the tips - thanks for those, Tiff.

Just one question: you mention, for example, taking bullet points from the sales page; but are these always optimised? By that I mean, are the keywords ones that show people are searching for those words? Or are we banking on the product owner having done the research for us? (That's just me being lazy, isn't it?)

Or are these just article ideas, in the sense that we then need to take, for example, the bullet points and find the keywords (with the most searches) that are closest to them, and then write articles based on those keywords.

Thanks again for the great tips.

-WM

[TiffanyDow]

Originally Posted by Warrior Markets

I love the tips - thanks for those, Tiff.

Just one question: you mention, for example, taking bullet points from the sales page; but are these always optimised? By that I mean, are the keywords ones that show people are searching for those words? Or are we banking on the product owner having done the research for us? (That's just me being lazy, isn't it?)

Or are these just article ideas, in the sense that we then need to take, for example, the bullet points and find the keywords (with the most searches) that are closest to them, and then write articles based on those keywords.

Thanks again for the great tips.

-WM

Hi WM!

They're not always keyword optimized, but you can make them that way. For instance, here's a bullet from guygetsgirl:

"Are you scared of the dating scene and unsure how to approach and talk to women?"

It's keyword optimized at the end, but when I do some more keyword research, I type in "how to women" to see what kind of how tos men are typing in. The closest to that bullet point with the most traffic keyword-wise is: "how to talk women" so I'd make it for that. The next best one is "how to approach women."

Two article ideas out of one bullet point. No, wait - 3! The first part talks about them being scared of the dating scene. So I'd create an article about confidence too.
tiff

[Steven Wagenheim]

Tiff, I'm handing you the crown for this one.

You earned it.

[tiger325]

great post.. this is what makes this forum one of the best

[ecovergeeks]

I just actually looked at a similar site to the one i created and found a great title that i could use for my own, but written in my own words.

so its really a good way to get new articles

Thanks
Andy

[truby]

Great post Tiffany!
This will help me for sure. I am comming up with ideas right now....Thanks

Truby

[TiffanyDow]

Originally Posted by espacecadet

Loved the great post, Tiff. Quality, as usual.

And thanks! I almost have enough confidence now to approach strange women and ask them if they are into article marketing! (Think I'll skip asking them if they are into the Bum method...they might get the wrong idea.)

LOL..

"Hey Baby, What's your keyword?"