Apr 5, 2012

Divide and Conquer

If you're a blogger or article writer, you're at the mercy of search engines to crawl your material to be indexed so that it will be seen.  If you're in it for the money and page views, a niche blog is best, but even with that, writing about general topics within that category won't get you far.

The trick is to make each post or article be as tightly focused as you can make it, else you'll be competing with tens or hundreds of thousands of others writing to that same title.  A good plan is to think of your basic topic, write an outline or bullets, then take each main point of your article and divide it into topics to cover separately.

Example:  If you write about parenting and want to share how to travel with kids, come up with basic tips, then break them down and tackle each age group separately.  Someone traveling with teens isn't going to benefit much from an article that recommends keeping Dora DVDs and cheerios on board, and your two-year-old probably isn't up to working a Sudoku puzzle just yet.  Make each article or blog post cater to a specific demographic.

Beyond age groups, think of tips to make traveling easier with a two-door, SUV, pickup truck, etc.  The more specific your topic is, the less competition you'll be facing, and you'll also be giving the reader who is searching for that information exactly what they want, without having to wade through what they don't.

I've provided a very basic example, but it can be applied to any topic area.  Don't write about 30-minute meals.  Write about 30-minute meals for the diabetic, the vegan, gluten-free, low-carb, for picky eaters.

Divide.  And conquer.





5 comments:

  1. Great writing tips, as always! I have trouble sometimes tackling too broad of topics too! But then I try to think of narrow, tight-focused off-shoots and run from there! Great reminders for all writers. :) ~ Angela, Whole Foods Living, http://www.wholefoodsliving.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know, Marie Anne. I'm 31 and I am not 100% sure you couldn't appease me with Cheerios on a long car ride! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for sharing these tips! As a blogging newbie with plans for additional blogs in the near future, I need all the helpful advice I can get. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great advice, I know I can sometimes ramble and need to stay focused.

    ReplyDelete