List Building - You Can Laugh At Writing Focused Articles Worries -- If You Follow This Simple Plan

Writing articles is one way to get people to come to your list building page. You may think, "I'm no writer," but you might fool yourself. Articles are an incredible list building tool, and if you aren't doing it or at least paying someone to do it for you, you're missing out on a whole lot of traffic.

To start, what niche are you list building around? That should be your topic. Yet, if you're list building around golf, for instance, how broad a topic is that? Pretty wide open, there, I'd say. So, you need to focus. Come up with one aspect of "golf," and write about that.

So, let's narrow that down. I want you to do an exercise, and don't think it's silly. Before you go on, pull out a piece of paper right now.

At the top of the paper, I want to write your list building target, which will be your niche. Let's stick to the golf example. So, you'll write "GOLF" in the middle of your page.

Now, how many things can you think about that pertain to golf? Golf clubs, shoes, tees, and carts. Then, you may have country clubs, courses, and ideal days to golf. You may also want to add golfing books, golf videos, and golf shows on TV. You see those are all smaller, more narrow focuses.

But you aren't finished, though think about it: You've really been list building around all those things.

Let's just take one of those categories, like golf clubs. How many different kinds are there... drivers, wedges, putters, etc. Right? So, from your "clubs" entry, make ray lines and put those at the ends.

But you aren't finished...

Now, you can start to narrow even further. How about putter manufacturers, materials, sizes or whatever. I bet you can think of even more.

Probably, you're at the article writing stage. Write the best article that you can, based on titanium golf putters. Bam! You have a narrow enough focus, and you're no longer overwhelmed.

Regardless of your list building focus, you can take this idea and use it. You can download mind map software and use it. Or, you can keep working your ideas out on paper. Whatever you use, I'll bet you come away with not just one idea, but at least 10 good ideas for writing articles about.

Next time, we'll start with how articles are written, and how you can apply them to your list building focus.

Tellman Knudson is CEO of OvercomeEverything, Inc. Learn how to build a powerful and responsive list quickly through his premiere list-building course, MyFirstList.com.