How to write winning blog articles on autopilot like a machine, even if you are not a writer

Sep 18, 2023

How can I craft a winning blog article every time?

What deliberate steps can I take so that my result is a winning one?

Is there a simple 1-2-3 process that takes me there? - Even if I'm not a born writer?

I have found an approach that does all this.

But before we dive in, let me share some

fundamental basics to start off

First: It's all about the process.

Second: You need to build a DAILY WRITING HABIT

Third: The magic formula is PRODUCE AND IMPROVE

So let's take a look at these fundamentals one by one:

It's all about the process

A winning blog article writing process leads us to winning blog articles.

Too many authors skip this part and only focus on the single article.

But it's MORE important to focus on the process.

Why?

Because a great article writing process enables us to REPEATEDLY produce great articles!

In other words, things get easier over time AND our results get better.

This is the dream combination we all look for, to get better results with less effort.

How come, a process enables us to get this?

Because if we bring any improvement into the process, we can use this improvement for ALL future articles.

Once put in, ever used. That's the reason.

Let me give you a short example:

Seeing the extraordinary success of MrBeast on YouTube, I learned one lesson from him:

"You need to make a title that your readers literally cannot forget."

THEN you need to start off your video (or blog article) doubling down on this promising title.

And THEN you better deliver on your initial bold promise with the rest of your video (or blog article).

It's a straightforward, hugely important key insight:

Promise boldly, double down, deliver and surpass expectations.

If I put adhering to this formula into my blog-writing process, I will use it with each new post.

(Which is precisely what I do, since I've learned about this beast of a gem.)

Let's move on to fundamental principle number two:

We must build a DAILY WRITING HABIT

Show me your daily schedule and I will tell you your results.

It's what we do on a DAILY routine that matters.

Three times a week, every other day, sometimes-sometimes not ... all these approaches have NEVER worked for me AND have made things much more difficult.

Why hasn't it worked?

Because my life is full of distractions. - Inner and outer ones.

Anything that I don't do on a daily level, I just abandon sooner or later.

You might be different, and it might work for you to not follow your most important activities daily. - I'm not, so I can only share what makes the difference for me.

And this is: DO IT DAILY.

James Clear has given me a wonderful mantra that eases up this daily thing a lot:

"Keep up the schedule, but be flexible with the scope!"

That means, it's way more important, that I keep up my (in this case) daily schedule then how much I do each time.

This gives me the freedom to go light on myself if I have a measly day... Great relief!

AND it helps me to keep up my daily schedule. Which is the ultimate source of power.

Let me give you a short example:

At the beginning of this year, I had the idea to write down one principle or life lesson for my 3 boys each day.

The idea was (and is) to ensure that I can pass on my learnings, whatever happens to me today or tomorrow.

So I just started writing a "Letter to my boys" each day.

And I kept on doing this day after day.

Very importantly, I used the principle toe keeping up the schedule but being flexible with the scope.

So on some days I delivered a very meager letter (surprisingly, on many occasions I just had to warm up and things went greatly).

What happened step by step astonished me!

I kept writing and writing and writing.

UNTIL I had written the equivalent of a FRIGGING BOOK!

I came out with over 500 pages of writing.

Just because I wrote every day for xxx days.

That's the power of doing something daily!

And it didn't even fell like a major effort.

Now with this firework of an insight, let's get to the third point.

The magic formula is to PRODUCE AND IMPROVE

If we have a writing process and write daily, we've already come a long way.

Chances are that we've put 75% of writers already behind us with this.

(I admit, I don't have the numbers. So that's just a bold guess.)

We PRODUCE daily, like a machine. Great!

But now we add a little Kryptonite to our formula.

Besides producing, we look where we can improve things.

Once we find an improvement, we build it into our process.

Again, if we put it there, we can use it for all future blog articles automatically.

That's what makes us unstoppable IF we adhere to it.

Imagine writing every day AND improving ever more.

What on earth should stop you from being hugely successful?

On a side note:

This is EXACTLY what MrBeast did, and it's one of the key reasons for his success:

He kept going AND built in improvements step by step.

So....

We've come quite a long way in this post, just nailing down the fundamentals.

For a brief recap:

Have a writing process,

build a daily writing habit,

find improvements and build them in.

That's the formula.

If you are with me so far, you might ask yourself:

Sounds great... but HOW EXACTLY DO I DO THIS?

Well good you are here and even better that I have just warmed up.

Of course, I will tell you EXACTLY HOW to do this.

Allow me to keep things simple...

Here's how you set up your process

Sign up with workflowy.com (I don't get a commission here, I just LOVE the tool. So just do it, now)

Once signed up in Workflowy, start a node called "Write blog article"

This is your process. You will write down the steps you take to write a single blog article.

AND you will put in any improvements here, that you come up with along the way.

I am happy to share my "Write blog article" process with you.

  • Find topic
  • Write first article draft
  • Edit 1
  • Edit 2
  • Edit 3
  • Make image for article
  • Edit 4
  • Edit 5
  • Publish

But bear in mind:

YOU will need to have YOURS, and mine as well as yours, change over time... as we improve.

So the important part is to HAVE it and USE it, not how it currently looks.

So far for the process part.

Let's tackle the daily writing part.

Today: Take a piece of paper

Write on it "Write for blog article"

Then write something for a blog article

Cross out the "Write for blog article" on your paper.

You are free to throw the paper away.

Tomorrow, DO THE SAME.

The day after tomorrow, DO THE SAME.

Each day, have a sheet of paper, put writing for your blog article on it as a task, and cross it out, once done.

That's it.

If you DO this, you will write for your blog article EVERY DAY.

If you don't, you might write daily or not. - I can't tell.

But again, I can tell that if you make your daily sheet, put that writing on it, do it and cross it off, that you WILL write daily.

That's how I wrote my 237 letters to my boys...

And that's how I ingrain the few vital things in my life into my daily schedule.

Let's try a very short excursion on why this is SO IMPORTANT and EFFECTIVE:

You and me, we have so many, so strong distractions - from the inside and the outside.

For anything we want to do daily, we need the strongest means possible, to fight these distractions.

Our daily sheet of paper IS THAT MEANS.

It's only a paper, but it has the power to fight off all the distractions.

Why?

Because it makes you FOCUS on the few things that are written on it.

Having them on paper, besides your desk, keeps them on top of all things.

And that's where it NEEDS TO BE, if we don't want to stop doing it.

I've promised a short excursion, so let me stop it, here.

On to our next step...

Here's how to find and implement improvements

My main sources for improvements are:

Reader feedback (pure gold)

Tips from proven experts (also gold)

How do you get Reader feedback?

Ask readers for their feedback.

Look at the end of this posting to see how I do it.

There's really not much more to say about this.

(Or is it? If so, please let me know!)

You see... that's another way to get feedback: Put it inline of your post.

How do you get feedback from proven experts?

Simple:

Find experts.

Ensure their expert status is proven. This shows by the number of readers they have.

Listen closely to what they say.

Just to give you one example:

Stephen King has written the book "On Writing".

His expert status is verified. He has sold millions of books.

So as long as you haven't read his book and pulled out all his tips on writing, you still have potential for improvement.

And this goes for 20-50 additional great writers sharing their knowledge...

So, to sum things up at this part:

Get feedback from your readers, look for tips from proven experts, and then build the improvements into your process.

Here's how I do that.

I can't help but to do it on a simple example:

One of Stephen King's tips was "never write lightheartedly".

That's pure gold! - Because if I write, being dull and lame - my writing will be the same... and then it will bore the hell out of you.

But, if I am full of emotions when writing, my writing will show... and you can't help to sense these emotions.

So not writing lightheartedly is one CRUCIAL element for good writing.

So I put it into my writing process:

"I am not writing lightheartedly, but I am energized and full of emotions on the topic I am writing about."

By the way...

This is the same advice Dale Carnegie gave on successful public speaking:

You need to be emotional about your topic and come from a desire to share it with your audience.

So that's the whole process.

I found this gem from Stephen King,

I've put it into my blog writing process (checklist)

I make sure to adhere it with each next blog post.

Now let's come back to this process thing.

Can you see what would happen if I collect five more valuable tips on writing a better blog post, but try to keep them all in my head?

Well... chances are, that I would forget some of them and not use them anymore.

But that would be a BIG Mistake because my blog article wouldn't be as good as it could be, anymore.

THAT'S why it's so helpful to write them into my process (checklist).

I will ensure to adhere to them, without any additional mental effort.

Luckily, by repetition, I do not actively have to go through the whole list all the time.

Following the tips will become more and more automatic.... and so my writing gets better and better automatically

Still... it's crucial to have all the parts that make up a great blog post in a written list. So that we don't start missing any of them.

Once you have your initial process, you walk through it.

And you do the same the next day, and the next, and the one after that. You get the idea...

All of this is much more technical and habitual than one would have thought.

THAT'S why I have written in the article title that you will write GREAT articles ON AUTOPILOT.

You literally only have to walk through your own process. That's it.

The more often you do this, the more routine you get and the easier it is.

And THEN you add the improvements. - Don't skip this part. Otherwise, you miss out on the factor that truly sets you apart and makes your blog posts successful.

I know, I know it's a simple formula

All that I have told you sounds like common sense. That's because it is.

The difficulty is to ADHERE TO COMMON sense.

That's the real problem we need to solve.

And by following the blog article writing process, we do EXACTLY this.

We start producing like a wildfire.

We build up huge momentum by setting up a daily writing routine

We get better and better by looking for improvements AND implementing them

Step by step we craft a winning blog writing process that never lets us down.

Follow all of this, and you cannot help to publish winning blog articles over time.

There's no way around it.

IF you truly keep producing and implementing improvements, that is.

Warren Buffett once said about successful investing:

"It's simple, but not easy."

The same goes for successful blog article writing.

Let me know if this post has made it a little easier for you, or if you miss something.

Write daily, have a process, improve and become a machine - I believe in you!

Have a great day!

P.S. I nearly forgot the most important part to improve: Check your article metrics. Namely: Scroll depth, time on article, average number of articles per user. They will show you where you stand and if you improve over time.

FAQ

Do you mean I should write one blog article per day?

Yes and no.

You can if you'd like to. Seth Godin does that on his wildly successful blog.

I had started to do so on this blog.

But you can also publish an article once per week or once every two weeks.

The important part is that you WRITE DAILY or WORK ON IT DAILY.

If you publish once a week, just do one step of your article process each day.

First day the initial draft, second day the first rough edit, and so on.

But what about the weekends?

As everything in life, that's up to you.

If you feel like making this a 5-day routine on workdays or a 7-day routine every day, it doesn't matter.

The crucial part is that you make it a daily routine.

Bi-daily, sometimes-sometimes-not, weekly... all of this never worked for me.

So I can only share the advice do to it daily - BECAUSE IT'S THE ONLY THING THAT WORKED.

If you find another way to make things work consistently, go for it!

I've never published anything before, what should I do?

First, if you write, you are an author.

Start writing today and keep doing it, and you can call yourself an author.

If you want to become a great author, just do the same and add the improvement part.

Of course, your first blog posts will suck (same as the first videos from MrBeast).

But here comes the great revelation:

It doesn't matter!

It's part of the process.

Just keep going and don't forget the improvement part.

That's the only thing that matters.