The Supreme Guide To Long-Form

Content Posts

HeadReach
By WooGuru.net

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How To Write Long Articles That
Get Traffic Like Crazy

The web has become a planet of publishers.

Content-centric marketing has helped hundreds of thousands of

startups and small businesses create real customer value and
increase revenues.

Here’s the thing:

86% of B2B marketers said their organization uses content

marketing.

B2B Content Marketing 2015 Benchmarks.

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First, let’s clarify what content marketing mean in 2015th?

A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and

distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content
to attract and retain a clearly defined audience—and,
ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

You see:

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Content marketing is not a mere phase of your business plan or
launch strategy anymore. It’s a whole discipline.

Today all leading marketers has upped their efforts in producing

outstanding content. They’ve put in place systems and processes to
create consistently top-shelf content.

They write more and they write better:

70% of B2B marketers are creating more content than

they did one year ago, even those who say they are least
effective (58%) and those without any type of strategy
(56%).

We swim in a noisy marketing sea.

The content world has become so loud, that nobody will hear you
unless they want to listen to you.

But how can you make your potential customers listen to you and
engage with your brand?

You already know the answer. You have to create quality content.

Ann Handley, the author of “Everybody writes” has an excellent

formula that explains what quality means in the area of content
marketing:

Utility × Inspiration × Empathy = Quality

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 - Utility means your content should be useful. It should
help your customers solve a problem or relieve a pain
they have.

- Inspiration means inspired by data (or creatively

inspired.)

- Empathy means that you should give a crap about

your customers. Empathy is the heart of your content.
Without understanding what your potential
customers or readers think and feel, writing is
pointless.

However, writing good content is just not enough to help you stand
out today. With an ever increasing competition and billions of active
blogs (150 billion by 2013th), entering the field of content marketing
would be awfully hard, even if you write good content, right?

Correct. Good content won’t cut it anymore.

But fear not.

There’s still a way to get traffic, and attract engaged customers to

your business.

I call it the “10x approach” to content marketing.

What is the “10x approach”?

If you want to become 10x better, you must create content that’s 10x
better than your nearest competitor.

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The updated formula of quality content looks like this:

(Utility × Inspiration × Empathy) x 10 = Quality

In my experience with creating content, I figured out the easiest way

to achieve this formula is by writing huuuuuuge posts.

In this epic guide, I’ll share all my tactics on writing long-form

content. I want this to be the last article you’ll need to read about
long-form posts.

It’s big and meaty, so brace yourself for a long read. But let’s face it -
if you want to write big posts, reading big posts has to be a piece of
cake for you.

The chapters in this guide are:

1. Why long-form content?

2. How to choose a post topic that will get you traffic?

3. Writing the post

4. Convert readers to emails

Are you ready to learn how to write long-form blog posts that
attract eyeballs and convert like crazy?



Let’s go.

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Why long-form content?

Before answering this questions, let’s examine what long-form

content actually means.

Jon Morrow, an author at a few of the most popular blogs on the

web like BoostBlogTraffic and Kissmetrics, defines long blog posts
to be articles with 3,000 words or more.

Usually, ultimate guide posts are quite long at 3,000+

words.

Neil Patel, founder of Quicksprout, defines long content as any

article above 4,000 words. His posts at QuickSprout are usually
anything between 1,000 - 5,000 words and on NeilPatel.com they’re
about 5,000 words.

Another successful marketing person that writes long-form content

is Nev from Kopywriting Kourse. His big-ass posts are usually
around 7,000+ words. Like this for example.

So it’s safe to say if you aim to create “long-form content”, be

prepared to write anything between 3,000 and 8,000 words per
post.

long-form content = 3,000 - 8,000 words.

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For this blog, I always aim to write posts that are at least 5,000
words. Because WooGuru is a new business I can’t compromise on
post length nor quality.

Now as we have the definition of long-form content, let’s answer the

question:

Why you should bother spending so much time on writing 8,000+

words posts?

A few of the reasons to write big content are:

- You’ll get more search engine impressions

- You’ll rank better in search engines

- You’ll write more latent semantic keywords in your

content

- You’ll get more social shares

- You’ll connect easier with influencers

- You’ll build an authority

- Your time on site will increase

- You’ll get more targeted customer emails and

conversions

- You’ll get more links

- You’ll figure out your business easier

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Let’s review all of them separately:

More search engine impressions

First of all, what are search engine impressions?

It’s a metric in Google Analytics, and it means:

The number of times any URL from your site appeared

in search results viewed by a user, not including paid
AdWords search impressions.

In your Google Analytics go to Acquisition > Search Engine

Optimization > Queries

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Because search engine stats were not initially available in GA, to see
these stats you must connect your Search Console (the new name
for the Web Masters Tool) account with your Google Analytics.
Here’s a good tutorial by the SERPs how to do that

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On the Queries page of GA you will see:

- Queries for which your website appears in the search

engine results page.

- Average position - the average ranking position of

your URL for the query.

- Number of clicks - The number of people who clicked

on your URL from the SERP.

- CTR - click through rate.

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 For WooGuru, I currently have more than 2,000 search impressions
for the last 2 weeks (the time since I published my first post on this
blog).

I know that’s not a lot at all, but the thing is I got all these from a
single article - my eCommerce Link Building guide.

If I scale my content writing process and create at least one long-

form article, SERP impressions will dramatically increase, too.

Then all I have to do is improve my rankings (average position), so I

can rank better for all the impressions. And, yes, I appreciate this is
not an easy task, but with the exact queries at hand I can optimize
my long posts better to rank for these exact queries.

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If you currently only have short articles on your blog, make this
simple test:

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 1. Take a note of your SERP impressions in GA as of
now.

2. Start creating long-form posts (4,000+ words) for a

period of 1 month. Put at least 1 huge post each week
on your blog.

3. Now take a look at your SERP impressions again.

Compare the numbers. I bet, you’ll be amazed.

Better search rankings

It’s not enough to get more impressions on the SERPs, you have to
rank better, too.

Long content means more words and more long-tail keywords.

long-tail keywords are generally less popular, but represent much

bigger search volume. They are also less competitive and more
profitable, representing good opportunities for niche markets.

long-tail keywords represent a bigger portion of the search queries

on the web:

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Image by Yoast. Great representation of competition in less and

more specific keywords.

The interesting thing about search's long-tail and the

way that search queries work, is that the "tail" pictured
above goes on indefinitely, and the sum of the frequencies
of the lesser searched terms is actually greater than the
sum of the frequencies of the more popular terms.

This means that a majority of keyword traffic lies in

search's "long-tail."

- WordStream, “The long-tail Of Search”

In other words, the more words you have on your blog posts, the
better your chances of ranking for long-tail keywords gets.

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 Also, you’ve might seen this study by SERPIQ about the correlation
between a content length and SERP position:

Bigger content > smaller content when it comes to ranking.

It’s pretty certain to say, the content length is one of the 200
ranking factors of Google.

More latent semantic keywords in content

Latent semantic keywords help search engines identify the correct

meaning of keywords with more than one meaning.

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Let’s say you write a post about Windows. Google wouldn’t be able
to identify whether you talk about windows, Windows the operating
system or Windows phone.

You can use more latent semantic keywords, by having more words
on the page, which will help latent semantic indexing to return
useful results even when exact keyword match doesn’t exist.

In other words, the more word variations you use on your post, the
better chances you have to rank for the right thing.

With a smaller document of 300 words or below, it will be harder

achieving the same word diversity.

You can read more about latent semantic keywords in this article by
SEOBook.

More social shares

I’ll tell you a dirty little secret I have. I suck at creating viral
content.

I remember the days when we spend hundreds of hours designing

and coding a new project, just to find out that very few people
actually want to share our work.



Considering that people care only about themselves, that was
normal.

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Thanks to my first ever long-form post, I managed to get over 200
shares in less than a week. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot, but
remember: that’s my very first post ever, and I’m pretty much no
one in the startup/marketing world.

But don’t take my newbie stats for granted.

The guys at BuzzSumo wrote a pretty solid data-backed study that

proves long-form content gets more social shares than short form
content.

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If you look at the chart above, the longer the content, the
more shares it gets, with 3000-10000-word pieces getting
the most average shares (8859 total average shares)

Also, there are 16 times more posts with less content.

A more recent study of BuzzFeed and the Guardian, again made by

Buzzsumo, shows that long-form content performs well
consistently:

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Whilst the majority of the content published on BuzzFeed

is less than 3,000 words, the long-form content
performs significantly better with an average of
38,000 shares.



Let’s face it - nobody wants to spend 10-15 hours writing an 8,000+
words posts.

It’s a process that’s extremely hard to scale. And the harder it is to

scale, the bigger your opportunities to shine gets. And you’ll also get
some shares along the way!

You’ll connect easier with influencers

Writing an 8,000 words post gives you a lot of space to include loads
of quotes and proven data.

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Just notice how many studies and article’s I’ve mentioned so far in
this guide.

Most of these studies come from trustworthy sources written by

influencers in particular niches.

Now you have the best excuse to get in touch with these influencers.

We are going to show how to build rapport and connect with the
influencers in chapter 4 of this guide.

You’ll build an authority

Authority is not an instant benefit.

But see:

If you focus on a particular niche and consistently deliver quality

content (check the intro of this post to see what I mean by
“quality”), you’ll inevitably become an expert in the field.

The more value you deliver to your audience, the greater your
chances of building an authority with this audience become.

For example:

Check out ViperChill. Glen writes a blog about niche ideas, affiliate
marketing and making money online. His posts are huge and full of
information bombs.

Now see the results of years of writing long, useful content.

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 His emails have mind-blowing open rates like 91%.

And his posts generate hundreds of comments.

Now tell me that’s not impressive?

The reason he can pull off such an excellent engagement is because

his readers trust that he is going to send something that’s worth the
read. He puts a lot of time in creating massive resources that deliver
on their promises. This is the way to build an authority today.

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Your time on site will increase

The aim of the headline is to make your viewers read the first line of
your post. The aim of your first line is to make readers read the
second line of your post… And so on.

If you write content that’s genuinely useful people are inclined to

read more of it.

This study by Nielson Norman Group shows that:

Users tend to spend more time on pages with more

information. However, the best-fit formula tells us that
they spend only 4.4 seconds more for each additional 100
words.

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Now, don’t expect 100% of your readers to spend 30 minutes on

your long articles to read all the way through. But you could expect
them to spend at least a few minutes on your long content pages.

Looking at my site’s data, WooGuru’s reader spend at least 5

minutes on my blog posts compared to other pages where they
spend less than a minute:

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(Go to GA Behaviour > Site Content > All pages to see this stat)

I’d also recommend installing SumoMe Content Analytics.

It’s a little tool that works great with Wordpress (and any other
CMS). It splits your whole post content from 0 to 100% and shows
the % of people reading your blog posts.

For example, 8% of the readers of the eCommerce Link Building

Guide read the post all the way to the end.

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You’ll get more targeted customer emails

and conversions

A classic approach to selling online products looks like this:

1. Start a blog.

2. Get targeted customer emails.

3. Sell to them.

Now, I found out long-form copy posts convert at much higher rates
than short articles.

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Generally I was able to collect much more emails from my longer
articles.

An example:

My eCommerce Link Building Guide (8,000 words long) had about

8% conversion rate from email capture forms, while my last post
about designer-founders (5,000 words) had only about 3% email
conversion rate.

I’m confident that if I keep up writing bigger posts, I’d be able to

convert reader emails at that rate.

Read chapter 5 “Convert readers to emails” to find out what tactics I

use to capture readers emails.

More links

You already know that backlinks are critical for SEO and traffic.

Back in 2011, Moz made a case study of the possible correlation

between content length and backlinks.

Word count of 500 posts:

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Backlinks coming to them:

You see:

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The bigger your content, the more links it gets.

Another interesting example is ViperChill’s blog. He shared his 3

posts that get the most links.

- WordPress SEO: The Only Guide You Need – 433 links

- Guest Blogging: The Ultimate Guide – 297 links

- The Highest Converting Facebook Page I’ve Ever Seen

– 307 links

The interesting fact here is that 2 of these articles are guides, and
both of them are 3,000 words long. A coincidence? I don’t think so.

You’ll figure out your business easier

Your current readers and customers are your best source of

information.

Because long-form copy creates more engagement in the form of

comments, shares, user insight, emails, etc. it’s much easier to
collect data from such posts.

Use that data to figure out:

1. What feature/iteration you should do next.

2. Who really are your customers/readers.

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 3. What needs to change in your current product or
service.

4. What topics deliver most conversions. What your

readers are interested in.

Hopefully by know I’ve already won you with long content posts.

Now it’s time to figure out what topic you’re going to write on.

How to choose a post topic that will get you

traffic

Before I start thinking about a topic for my next long blog post I like
to ask myself 3 questions.

- Am I going to be able to create massive value on that

particular topic?

- Is the topic going to be interesting for my readers

(e.g. get traffic and emails conversions)?

- Is the topic evergreen enough to write an 8,000+

words post on it?

Choosing a good topic for your long-form copy might certainly

prove harder than writing the post itself.

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The time and efforts you have to invest in writing a huge post
require that you choose carefully what you are going to write about.

I came up with a few tips to help you choose a topic for your long-
form copy that will get you more traffic and conversions.

Create a lot of value

Don’t write a long blog post for the sake of writing a long post. Make
sure it creates a lasting value. The purpose of the long-form copy is
to create relevant and useful information, while also further
developing your relationships with your readers.

If you write on a topic you’re not an expert, you’ll find it extremely

difficult to write a long-form copy without rambling.

You should be able to get to the point of the topic and create
content that’s naturally lengthy and useful.

Content that creates value for the customers gets likes, tweets, and
email conversions

Write evergreen content

At WordStream they have a pretty good definition what evergreen

content is:

Evergreen content is SEO content that is continually

relevant and stays “fresh” for readers.

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 The term “evergreen” sounds familiar even to the non-
marketing ear because evergreen trees (usually the pine
or fir variety) are often used to decorate homes at
Christmas. The evergreen tree is a symbol of perpetual
life because they retain their leaves throughout the
seasons, rather than shedding. Like the trees, evergreen
content is considered sustainable and lasting.

A long post copy should get traffic and engagement on your site long
after its publication.

A typical example of content that is NOT evergreen is news items

and trending topics.

One of the simplest ways to determine if a content is lasting is to

use Google Trends.

Click on “Explore now” and type your topic.

For example, if you want to write about “iPhone 4S” you can easily
see that the interest towards “iPhone 4s” is drastically declining at
the time.

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On the other hand, if you look for “iPhone repair” you’ll notice the
increasing interest in this topic throughout the years.



If I had to choose to write a long content post about iPhone 4s or
iPhone repair, I’d go with iPhone repair. “iPhone repair” has much
bigger longevity and will bring traffic to my site long after I first
launch the post.

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 Ask your readers

Laura Roeder, of LKR Social Media, says the easiest way to identify
what your readers want to know is by asking them.



In other words:

You blog about the questions your customers ask you.

Most people don’t do that because it’s too simple. And if you look at
some of Laura’s popular content, you’ll see it is indeed simple.

But maybe I’ll change your mind if I tell you that Laura’s business
was turning over a million dollars back in 2011.

How to make your audience ask you questions?

I shamelessly stole this tactic from Backlinko:

Once you subscribe to my newsletter, the first follow-up email you’ll

get from me contains a question:

I'd like you to hit reply to this email right now and tell
me 1 thing your business is struggling with at the
moment.

About 3% of my newsletter subscribers reply to this questions and

let me know what their problems are. Not only I’m able to connect

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 with my audience that way, but I get a steady influx of blog post
ideas.

Here’s the whole email. Feel free to copy the template and use it:



Thanks for subscribing.

2 quick things.

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First I have to ask you something

I know it may sound strange, but...

I'd like you to hit reply to this email right now and tell
me 1 thing your business is struggling with at the
moment.

It can be everything: a business problem, a marketing

problem, e-commerce related problem or something else.

I'll do my best to give you few actionable tips you can

apply right now. Also, I reply to every single email I
receive in less than 12 hours!

Second thing

In the following weeks, I'm going to be sending you tons

of useful and actionable info on entrepreneurship, e-
commerce, business growth and breaking the hourly rate.
For example like this massive guide on e-commerce link
building.

I look forward to your reply!

P.s. Who am I?

I'm Kalo; a web designer turned entrepreneur. I founded

WooGuru.net. I also ran a digital design studio and an
online store. You could say I like trying different things.
And I love sharing my business journeys.

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 Feel free to hit reply to every email I send you. I'm here to
help.

Figure out the search volume

Your long-form content must be SEO-friendly. There’s little point in

spending 20-30 hours writing content that nobody on the internet
cares about.

Use the Adwords Keyword Planner tool to identify the search

volume of a particular topic:

The point here is not to rank for this word, but to figure out if
people are interested in a certain topic.

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 Use Buzzsumo or Topsy to analyze what
content performs best on the web

Buzzsumo and Topsy are both great content marketing tools. They’ll
help you see what topics related to your blog or business get the
most attention from social media.

Buzzsumo also tracks backlinks to any particular content item.

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Use lean methods to validate your article

All right, this might take a bit more time initially but is probably the
safest way to know if your long post will get attention.

It would be really disappointing if you write 8,000 words on a topic

nobody cares about, right? There’s an easier way.

How to validate your long-form content using lean methods?

1. Write a much shorter summary of your article. Not

more than 1,000 words.

2. Post the summary on Reddit and other message

boards.

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 3. See the response.

Before I wrote my first long article about eCommerce Link Building,

I created this little thread on Reddit called “7 Actionable Link-
Building SEO Tips for eCommerce. From my personal experience
with my first online store (not a blog post!)”

It generated almost 100 upvotes and dozens of comments across

different subreddits. Then I was certain it’s worth writing a
comprehensive piece on the topic.

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Prepare yourself to write

Did you decide on a topic for your next article? Great!

Now it’s time to get down to business - writing your post.

Most of the people I know recognize the value and return of long-
form content, but they still don’t get into it. I hear time and time
again the same excuse:

I know long content is great, but I can’t find the time to

write so much.

To become good at writing long copy you must adapt the right
mindset:

Writing a long article is not a one-day task, it’s a process.

Here’s how my timeline breakdown for a typical long-form content

piece looks like:

1. Choosing a topic - 2-3 hours

2. Creating the headline of the post - 2-3 hours

3. Writing the post - 10-20 hours (spread usually

throughout 1-2 weeks)

4. Proofreading and editing the post - 5-10 hours

5. Designing and formatting the post - 10 hours

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 6. Marketing the post - 10-15 hours (spread throughout 1
week)

As you can see, I spend between 40 and 60 hours on a single long-

form post. And I don’t even include the time spent on research, as
this is something I do on a daily basis.

I’ll certainly get faster at this with the time, but I don’t think I’d be
able to achieve the same results in less than 30 hours (unless I
outsource this process).

Here’s the thing:

Even very successful content marketers spend lots of time on their

content.

The guys at Groove spend anywhere between 6 and 20 hours on a

post:



The breakdown looks something like this:

- 25% Research/Outlining

- 15% Writing

- 25% Editing

- 15% Design/Coding

- 20% Promotion

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 The battle for content marketing success
is won at the margins. Those extra few
hours you spend to make your posts
truly great, versus simply good. That’s
what makes them interesting, unique
and useful, and it’s what will appeal
most to the people you’re trying to
reach.

Writing, editing, formatting and marketing a long-form content

takes hours and weeks.

Once you get used to this process and employ patience in your
writing, long-form content becomes much easier to handle.

The working title

Your blogging starts with a topic selection.

However, a topic is not enough:

“You shouldn't start writing a blog post until you've solidified a

“working title.”, says HubSpot.

A topic is something vague. There are dozens points of view to look

at the same topic. Dozens of articles you can write on the same
subject.

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A working title is something solid, specific and niche. It guides the
creation of 1 single article.

I never start writing any of my long-form posts without having a

working title.

The live title might change before I publish my post, but I still use it
as a main guiding point.

It’s crucial that you have a working title before you start writing
your content.

Writing a post headline that attracts

eyeballs

Coming up with a good headline is tricky but vitally important.



No matter how many words you write in a content piece, the
headline is still the most important element of your copy.

44
 

The Father of Advertising, David Ogilvy, knew the importance of

headlines:

On the average, five times as many people read the

headline as read the body copy. When you have written
your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your
dollar.

The key is this:

You should respect the headline as much as you respect your 8,000
words content piece.

It is so important because it tells your audience what you are going

to deliver in that massive post.

Here are a few quick prescriptions that will help you write better
headlines:

45
Talk to one person

“10 Design Mistakes” is a boring headline because it’s vague, and

doesn’t offer anything specific. “3 Mistakes You Make As A Designer-
Founder” speaks directly to the reader, and it’s much more concrete.

Remember to use “you” and “yours” in your headline.

Outline the benefit

Remember the formula of quality content? The same formula

applies to your headlines, too.

Utility × Inspiration × Empathy = Quality

Your headline should be centered on the utility. It should outline

the exact benefits for your reader.

Being value-centric means that the central message of the

headline is about the benefit/value your reader will get by
reading more. Be straightforward and upfront about
what the viewer will get by reading more or performing
an action.

- DevEdge Internet Marketing

Examples of value-centric headlines:

- "5 Tips for Solopreneurs to Make Money on Etsy”

46
 - “The Last Guide you Need to Read on Making Money
on Pinterest”

- “The 10-Minute Guide to Growing Giant Pumpkins

on a City Balcony.” - Handley, Ann. “Everybody
Writes.”

- “How to Quit Your Job, Move to Paradise and Get

Paid to Change the World” - Jon Morrow on
ProBlogger

Evoke emotion

Use lively words in your headlines to evoke emotions. They paint a

vivid picture in the reader’s mind.

Use different adjectives depending on the type of emotional state

you’d like to trigger.



For example for curiosity you can use words like:

- Secret

- Hidden

- Blacklisted

- Dark

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 - Confessions of a…

For urgency you can use:

- Quick

- “X-Minute”

- Limited

- Deadline

- Last

- Instant

For trustworthiness and safety use words like:

- Expert

- Effective

- Accurate

- Trustworthy

- Guaranteed

And so on. The Persuasion Revolution has a comprehensive list of

380 emotion words you can use in your headlines.

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 Be careful with click baits



“A clickbait title is a title that’s designed to get you to click.” - Nev,
Kopywriting Kourse.

You’ve seen these on Buzzfeed and Upworthy:

- “10 Life-Changing Things To Try In July”

- “15 Things That Didn't Last As Long As Australia's

Political TV Scandal”

- “One of the wealthiest people on earth just

announced he's giving all his money to charity.”

Sites like BuzzFeed and Upworthy have become among

the fastest-growing sites in the history of the Internet in
part by mastering the writing of irresistible, weird,

49
 curiously grabby headlines that we are collectively too
weak to resist”

Handley, Ann. “Everybody Writes.

You see:

These headlines worked pretty well for Buzzfeed and Upworthy.

But would they work as well for your grass mowing business or
marketing agency?

Mowing grass, or talking about Facebook marketing is not

considered jaw-dropping nor life changing… unless you do it naked.

If you use clickbait titles for your regular business, you are risking
your reputation and trustworthiness.

Clickbait titles work by tricking the user to click. Don’t write

headlines that don’t live up to your content.

Nev made an excellent video that shows how you can copy these
headline techniques without being scammy:

Video

Create a curiosity gap, but be careful not to go overboard.

For example, you can use a headline like: “10 Secret Ways You Can
Mow Your Lawn” but only if the 10 ways are indeed secret to your
readers.

50
Use numbers

Glen at ViperChill says that “You can’t write a post on attractive

headlines that doesn’t include the list post.”

You can find viral list articles almost everywhere. They work
because they make a specific promise to the reader and are
extremely easy to read.

51
 

Here are few examples:

10 Virtually Instant Ways to Improve Your Life

An easy way to outline a specific benefit for the reader. If you

manage to deliver well on your promise, people will recognize you
as an expert in the field.

The Not-To-Do List: 9 Habits to Stop Now

52
This one works on the premise that people are much more inclined
to know what they should not do or are doing wrong, than what the
should do.

3 Mistakes You Make As a Designer-Founder

Similar to the previous one, people love to get a “heads up” on

potential mistakes they make.

6 Types of Co-founders — Which One are You?

This one works by helping your reader self-identify himself or

herself by providing types into which they’ll fall into.

10 Tactics to Writing Better Long Copy - FREE eBook

This powerful headline combines the specific promise of numbers

and list with the value of a free eBook.

“The Ultimate” headline

Chances are if you are writing 4,000+ words posts you will write an
“ultimate guide” to something.



Here’s the thing:



When people use an otherwise strong word so often, the word
becomes exhausted and cliched. Think of “great” and “awesome”.

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When was the last time you used one of these? I bet it wasn’t long
ago.

Same thing happened to the “ultimate” word in content marketing.

After had written my first “Ultimate Guide” I found this brilliant

nugget:

The nice thing about the English language is that there

are so many different ways to say the same thing. You
can say “ultimate” without being the 5,000th ultimate
guide on the web

Joel came up with 10 great alternatives to the “ultimate guide”:

1. “Supreme” Guide - guess where I stole the headline

for this guide, hehe.

2. “Essential” Guide

3. “Really Quite Good”

4. “Unrivaled Guide”

5. “A Champion’s Guide”

See the rest of Joel’s article to see the other 5.

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Structuring your post

Reading on the web is hard. Reading long posts is much much

harder.

I spend a lot of time on formatting, designing and structuring my

posts for readability and legibility, and yet less than 10% of my
readers read my whole 8,000 posts.

See:

long-form copy takes preparation.

Good content has logic and structure. But the structure itself can
help you draw your readers in.

The way I organize my posts is by first listing some key point ideas
that support the main idea outlined in the headline.

For example for this post the barebones post structure looked
something like this:

- Why long content copy?

- Writing the post?

- Headlines

- Introduction

- Middle (meaty part)

- Marketing the post

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 - Converting readers with content

- Some tips on using editors/distraction free writing

Tip: You can use Evernote to collect content ideas and links to case
studies and data that you’re going to use:

If you avoid structuring your post before you start writing it, you
risk getting lost in the process and making your content hard to
read.

Make your content scannable

People still don’t read on the web, and scanning is still a common
behavior.

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 On the average Web page, users have time to read at
most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is
more likely.

Study by NN/g

When you write your long-form content, you must remember:

People don’t want to read your big ass article. They have better
things to do. Like watching videos on YouTube, and liking photos of
kittens on FB.

The bigger your post, the fewer people will get to the end of it.



It’s your obligation to make your content scannable.

Here are some quick suggestions to make your long content more
scannable:

Make it blunt

Remember what you learned about good writing in school? Good.

Now forget everything.

At school, they teach you how to write to sound smart. They make
you “hack” your way to a minimum word-count so you can pass the
test. Too often your words in your school essays are like your
thoughts - countless and disorganized.

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That inevitably leads to a lot of fluff in your writings.

On the web, you don’t write to sound smart. You don’t ramble -
even when you write huge posts!

Here’s what you do instead:

You write your content like you write it for an 8-year-old.

Try this:

Imagine you just used a time machine and today is your first day at
school. You are a kid again.

Now start reading your post slowly. Do you understand it?

Your text has to be simple and easy to grasp even by the “simplest”
of readers. In fact, they should be your primary benchmark.

If you find the time machine method complicated, there’s an easier

way. Go to Hemingwayapp and paste in your text:

58
 

Hemingway is a little app that makes your writing bold and clear. It
highlights long complex sentences and generally helps you write like
you write for an 8-year-old. Nice, eh?

Never use more than 3 sentences per paragraph

This little trick is so easy, and yet it does wonders for your content
readability.

Take a look at this scary block of text:

59
 

And then compare it to this one:

60
 

The first screen is almost as scary as Jack Nicholson’s performance

in The Shinning…

Use this tip to drastically improve the readability of your long

content posts.

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 Never make your body content area wider than
800px

If you know a little bit of CSS, you can easily change the width of
your blog’s body copy area.

Use a tool like Firebug or the built-in developer tool in Chrome

(CTR + ALT + i for Win; CMD + ALT + i for Mac to access it) to track
the width of your content area. Then you can identify the class that
contains the width parameter of this area, and change it to
something smaller if your content is too wide.

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 Use “Bucket Brigades”

This is another great tip from Backlinko that I’ve been

implementing in my content.

Bucket Brigades are words and phrases that keep people

on your page.

These are words like:

Now:

See:

This is crazy:

Here’s the thing:

Take a look at:

Try this:

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Bucket brigades are one of the easiest ways to increase reading time
on your posts.

Use heavy formatting

If your post doesn’t look sexy, and easy-to-read it’s less likely that it
will earn social shares, comments, and links.

Spend at least 10% of your content marketing time on formatting

your post.

Use Subheadlines

Use subheadlines to separate different chapters and sections of your

post.

64
  

Use high-quality photo that have meaning

When it comes to online imagery, it’s not so much about

having images, as it is about making sure those images to
give the visitor a sense of texture, size, scale, detail,
context & brand.

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 There are dozens of studies on stock images vs. real photos.

Studies show that an image can affect a person’s mood, even when
they’re unaware it’s happening.

I’d suggest you make your own photos. I’d rather go with a lower
quality picture that is bespoke, than with a boring stock image.

You can use services like Canva to create your image manipulations:

Use diagrams and infographics with a solid meaning related to your

article.

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 If you still insist on using stock images, go with a high-quality
premium service like Death To The Stock Photo. I use them for my
cover photos.

Use lists, bold, italic, and quotes

Ok, this one is fairly simple and I still see hundreds of blogs that
manage to bore me to dead with unformatted long text blocks.

Remember we said that people still scan content on the web? It’s
impossible to make everyone read an 8,000 word post, but you can
make a bigger bunch of your audience at least scan your content.

Writing the introduction of your post

If your headline is bad, people won’t read your introduction. If your

introduction is bad, people won’t read your whole post.

You don’t want your huge article to go to waste by screwing up your

post’s introduction.

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Here are 3 prescriptions that will make your intros fascinating
enough even for the most bored of readers.

Use “readbaits”

This is a word that I just came up with. You remember we talked

about “clickbaits” a little earlier, right? Well, “readbaits” aim to
achieve the same thing but instead of making people click, they
make them read forward.

They are basically teasers that open a story loop and make your
readers draw in with the desire to close the loop.

An example:

If you watch “True Detective” season 2, I bet you were like “What
the actual F just happened?” when Collin Farrell was murdered…
That cliff hanger was so explosive that I bet everyone watched the
next episode.

You can use the same tactic to attract your readers in.

A great example is this intro by Marsha Stopa, co-author at

SeriousBloggersOnly:

Want to know my blogging secret, my magic weapon?

The thing that makes my posts go viral, touches people’s

hearts, and makes them want to change their lives?

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 Well, I’ll tell you. Right here, right now.

…and she actually doesn’t tell us until we get to the meaty part of
the post. But because this “readbait” is so good, you’re just curious
to read all the way to the core of the post.

Use empathy

Empathy is the ability to get into another person’s shoes. Design

thinking process uses empathy as a main starting point to encourage
students to ask good questions and learn about the audience for
whom they’re designing.

Empathy is when someone is stuck in a dark place, and you go in

that place and say:



“I know what it’s like in here. You’re not alone.”

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Check this great video on empathy:

Video

Here’s how to use empathy in your intro:

Start by connecting with the customer. Readers will instantly

resonate with the comparison:

I’m sure you will agree with me if I say that upbringing 3

kids isn’t easy.

This sentence creates an instant connection with the reader and

turns your audience into friends.

I know because I’ve been in this situation. I have 4 kids

myself!

By eliciting very intimate stories, your readers will feel like they can
trust you because you clearly understand their situation.

I’ll share with you my personal experience and best

advice on becoming a great parent and bringing up your
child into a healthy and well-developed adult.

Writing with empathy is sharing your personal experience in words.

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This introduction will not only set the stage for your audience to
continue reading your post, but it will create an immediate
connection with your readers.

Make your intro controversial

This is a little tip by Akshay:

Blog posts that consist of static long-form text is an old

practice, the modern trends in blogging are dictating that
the blog posts should be conversational so that readers
involve completely

The whole premise of this tactic is to start your post with a

controversial fact.

For example:

Did you know wasps kill more people than sharks

causing 100 deaths every year, versus less than 20
fatalities from shark attacks.

In this post I’m going to show you what to do if you get a

wasp sting.

After you read that amazing fact, the curiosity of knowing how to
save your life if you get stung by a wasp, becomes the primary
driving power that leads in.

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Writing the core of your post

The core (middle) of your post is where you prove your points.



Even though your headline is the most catchy part of your post, you
must match the high standards of the headline in your post’s core.

If you’ve used an open-loop (clickbait headline), you must close the

loop in your content.

Let’s say your post is named “3 Secrets To Success As An

Entrepreneur”. In your post’s middle part, you should be able to
provide 3 things that are indeed a secret to most entrepreneurs.

Use empathy

Don’t forget to use empathy in the middle of your blog, too. One of
the best ways to get your message across is by sharing your personal
stories.

Don’t share your success only. Be honest with your public. Life is
not only rainbows and sunshine, and your readers will connect
better with you if your content is authentic.

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Use data and examples

Your posts should be inspired by data. I’ve noticed that posts that
have data and concrete evidence consistently get more engagement.
You must have enough info to backup your points.

Check ConversionXL for example. These guys get tons of tweets,

likes, and shares. But their materials are all backed up with research,
case studies, information from journals and so on.

Unless you’re Pat Flynn or Seth Godin, you’ll have hard times
getting traffic to your posts by just sharing your opinion and no
facts.

Nobody cares about your opinion, so you must work hard to prove
the stuff you talk about actually works.

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 Use the inverted journalist pyramid

Although the inverted pyramid is mainly used when writing a news

story, I think it works well for long-form posts, too.

List your most important facts first. Leave the more generic points
and details for later.

This will increase the chances of drawing in your readers and

improve your the readers’ time on the page.

Be useful

Again, I would avoid sharing my opinion at all cost.

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You have to provide a great value. Solve your readers’ problems by
sharing how-to-guides, manuals, advice, suggestions, etc.

Actionable advice and tips are the most valuable type of content on
the web.

Writing your summary

Use the summary of your long post to:

- Summarize the most important points (duh…)

- Start a discussion

- Make people do something

- List further reading links

Start a discussion

Conversation is crucial. You want to get comments on your posts.

But how do you expect your readers to do their homework (write a
comment) if you don’t provide instructions?

You can use one of the following templates to provoke engagement:

- I’d like to hear your ideas on

- I have a question for you: “Which tip did like the

most?” (or some other question).

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 - Leave a comment below letting me know how you .

- Let me know what you like to hear in my next post on

the topic.

- Leave a comment letting me know what is your

biggest problem with

Make people do something

Put a fat call to action at the end of your post. Whether you’d like
your readers to subscribe to your newsletter, or try your product -
make it big and distinguishing.

Here are some good examples:

Freddie.pro:

76
 

Shopify:

Coschedule:

77
 

James Clear:

78
 

List further reading links

This one is pretty straight forward. You create a bullet point list of
the best articles on the topic across the web. You can later leverage
this list to get in touch with influencers, but this is a subject for a
whole new post.

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Convert your readers to email

Because this post got really big (on the irony), I decided to leave this
chapter for another article.

Next week I’m going to share with you a step-by-step guide for my
single best tactic that will convert your readers to email leads. And
it works especially well with long posts!

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a notification first when I

publish my magic tactic.

Conclusion

Writing long posts isn’t easy. It takes patience, discipline, and an

organized schedule. But by far is the best marketing approach that
has helped me get traffic, share and engagement to my blog.

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If writing long posts seems way too much for you, try to write just 1.
Give it some time. Week, 2 or even 3. Make it reaaally good. Publish
it. Promote it. Watch the results. I bet it will be worth it, and you’d
want to write a second one after that.

Do you write big posts on your blog? How many words is your
biggest post? Share a link to it in the comments.

If you liked this eBook, please subscribe to our newsletter at

WooGuru.net and share it with other content marketers!

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