Write Articles: Use This Strategy Now To Achieve Your Goals

Do you write articles? If you’re a content creator, you’re accustomed to writing articles for websites and publications.

As a content marketing strategy, article content works for your clients, who pay you to write. However, you may not have considered that if it works for your clients, it can work for you. Search Engine Journal has useful statistics about content marketing.

Over the past three months, I’ve recommended to a group of gig-hunting writers that they try writing an article a day. Why not? It’s a recognized strategy.

Their situations:

• Several freelancers had clients who canceled longterm contracts, because business was slow.
• A self-publishing author: she wasn’t selling her books.
• Two full-time content writers, who were made redundant by the economic downturn, needed help to kickstart a freelance business.

Recently, two writers got back to me with great results.

More on that in a moment.

Firstly, let’s look at article length, and some venues you might consider for your articles.

Write articles: length, and where to post

Your articles’ word count is up to you. Marketing guru Seth Godin primarily writes short pieces, but he posts daily. Consistently. My suggestion: try for 300 to 600 words per piece, but be consistent, just like Seth.

Tip: consistency is more important than length.

Now, where should you post?

You can write articles and post them anywhere you choose of course, it’s up to you.

For example:

• Write on LinkedIn to make connections and contacts.
• Try Medium, if you want to reach a new audience.
• Post to your blog, if you have one: to build your audience and start ranking your website online (for your name, at least.)

When the business downturn hit, one of my writing students lost her contract with her main client. Unfazed, she wrote pieces for their blog; two or three a month. Her sole payment: links back to her website.

The benefits for her? When the client landed new business, guess who was top of mind, and got hired? She also got enquiries from the search engines; more prospects were finding her website online. To date, she’s picked up two regular clients from her freebies. (These new clients told her how they found her: via the search engines.)

Another tip: mix it up. Don’t put all your eggs (so to speak) in the same basket.

Write on LinkedIn on Monday, your blog on Tuesday, Medium on Wednesday, and so on. Writing in several places helps you to spread yourself around, even in small ways. People need to know you exist, if you want them to hire you, or buy your books.

I seem to be harping on LinkedIn, but why? Simply because LinkedIn is stuffed with clients who can hire you, or who can help you to meet your goals in other ways.

Make LinkedIn part of your “write articles” strategy

Consider these LinkedIn statistics in early 2023:

LinkedIn now has more than 875 million members with over 58 million registered companies.

If you’re a freelance writer, many of your clients are on LinkedIn. If you’re an author, you can network with publishing companies, other authors, editors, designers…

LinkedIn is a happy hunting ground for many different kinds of connections. Of course, you can build a following as well—you can set up a newsletter on LinkedIn, as you can on Twitter.

Speaking of Twitter…

Did you know you can write articles on Twitter?

If LinkedIn doesn’t appeal, consider Twitter—true, you have just 280 characters (roughly 50 words), BUT you can extend a post via Twitter threads:

A thread on Twitter is a series of connected Tweets from one person… (to) provide additional context, an update, or an extended point by connecting multiple Tweets together.

If you use Twitter threads, you can summarize an article in a thread. I’ve long meant to experiment with Twitter threads; several of my colleagues find it useful.

Ready? YOU can write articles to achieve your goals

What about the writers who shared their results with me? Both landed new clients, one within a week of starting her article journey; the other within two weeks. Please be aware that they were established freelance writers: they both have a portfolio, as well as a social media presence.

If you’re just starting out—kudos. The strategy will work for you, as long as you’re consistent and persistent.

Tips:

• Choose more than one venue on which to post.
• Experiment: why not check how many of your past and current clients are on LinkedIn? Or Twitter?

Keep writing. 🙂

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