Article Marketing: How to Save Time by Writing an Article Series

When you're doing article marketing you need to be a bit careful if you plan on writing an article series.

For one thing, you should never put "Part 1", "Part 2" etc in your article titles, as it's not a given that a reader will be exposed to all the parts in your series. Also seeing "Part 3" (or any other part) all by itself discourages a reader from reading it since they feel like they're walking into the middle of the movie--they may feel like the won't understand "Part 3" without having first read parts 1 and 2.

But aside from being subtle in your titles and not expecting a reader to find and read all the parts of your series, there is no reason why you can't take advantage of the productivity benefits of writing a related grouping of articles in your article marketing activities.

I love to write articles in series, and I realize that the benefit is mainly for myself rather than the readers.

Where's the benefit for an author?

Writing an article series allows me to do a little bit of work with multiplied results. It gets my writing momentum going and also helps me stay organized around my writing topics so that I don't get the "oh no--now what should I write about" blues.

If you're considering writing an article series or if you would like to learn a way to produce more article marketing content with minimal effort, consider these 3 time saving reasons to write in a series:

1) Writing an article series forces you to be organized.

First off you need to plan out your series. What will you write about? I usually jot down article titles to use as an outline for a series. I decide how many parts my series will have, then I'll pin a list of titles to the bulletin board beside my desk.

When I sit down to write all I need to do is look at my list of titles and choose a topic that suits my mood for the day.

I find that this organizing strategy eliminates the temptation to procrastinate with writing. After all, the reason why we procrastinate is because we dread coming up with a topic on which to write. If you have all your topics predetermined, that "what should I write about?" stress is gone.

2) Writing an article series keeps you motivated and on track.

I think of that article topic outline I create at the beginning of the month as being like a road map that will lead me to the place I want to be at the end of the month.

Each article completed is like a mile marker--as I complete each article I can see myself getting closer and closer to where I want to be. Seeing that progress is very motivating--I did an initial burst of effort at the beginning of the month to organize my article series, but I get to coast through the rest of the month because my topics are already planned out.

Once you get on the downward slope of a journey, it's very easy to just keep on going until the finish line!

3) Writing an article series can help you create multiple forms of marketing content.

There is a benefit to having a grouping of content all on the same topic--that's sort of like a little book, isn't it?

If you think of each article as a chapter in a book, when you finish your series you can compile all that content into e-book form and then offer the e-book as a free download on your site.

If this is the route you wanted to go, I would suggest that you write out your article series ahead of time, compile it into an e-book, then when you submit your articles use the free e-book as a lure in your resource box--that would be a great incentive for readers to click through to your site!

(And hey--If your content is really comprehensive, you might even want to turn the e-book into a product that you sell!)

Have I convinced you yet?

Writing an article series is a great article marketing productivity tool for an author because it provided direction, motivation, organization, and marketing content that can do double duty!