Here is a simple five-step formula that you can use for creating lengthier pieces of content (I.E. reports and products) which has rarely been shared before in the format I’m about to give to you in this lesson.
The system is called “P.A.G.E.S.” Each letter (P – A – G – E – S) stands for one of the five steps in the system…
P – PLAN out your report by brainstorming ideas.
A – ARRANGE your ideas sequentially or systematically.
G – GROW your content by “filling in the blanks”.
E – EXTRACT bullet points for your ad copy while you write.
S – SMOOTH out the rough spots to complete the report.
What I’m going to do in the remainder of this session is briefly explain to you how to put each of these five steps – these five parts of the P.A.G.E.S. system – into action so you can quickly and easily create your own 7-15 page reports to sell.
So, let’s go ahead and begin with step 01…
1. PLAN out your report by brainstorming ideas
Obviously, by this time, you should have chosen a topic to build the content of your report around. So, where do you start? You start by simply brainstorming ideas for possible inclusion in your report. The easiest way that I’ve discovered for doing this is to simply…
Write a list of everything you want to share.
That’s right, just write down everything you want to share in your report. I’m talking just start rambling on paper (or your computer screen). Everything you can think of that relates to the subject of your report. Just a list of “ideas” you want to share.
Here’s what I want you to understand about writing: writing is…
That’s all writing is. It’s putting your thoughts down on paper. Or, onto your computer screen. That’s all you need to do – write your thoughts down.
Don’t worry about relevance or whether or not you’ll even use all of these ideas. Just get them down. Think on paper.
Jot down as many of these as you can find…
- Ideas
- Notes
- Lists
- Questions
- Reminders
- Personal reflections
- Thoughts
- Things-To-Do
- Checklists
- Details
- Steps
- Facts
- Reasons
- Comparisons
- Contrasts
- Statistics
- Quotes
- Illustrations / Stories
Write down everything you can think of or find during your research.
Don’t worry about whether or not it makes sense. Don’t worry about how well it’s written. Don’t worry about that it doesn’t fit with anything else. Just write down everything you can possibly think of concerning the topic of your report.
Now, I want to give you one of the most invaluable brainstorming exercises you’ll ever use for generating ideas for your report. I call it “alphabetizing“.
———————-
Starting with the letter “A” in the alphabet, literally begin thinking of events, places, people, items, verbs, ideas, etc. that begin with that letter and are related to the topic of your report. The goal is to go all the way to “Z”. This is a great way to brainstorm ideas.
FOR EXAMPLE: If you are writing a product related to traveling to Orlando, you might have…
A = Airports
B = Business travel
C = Choosing hotels
D = Dining
E = Epcot
F = Free tickets
G = Golfing
After you’ve gotten keywords for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet, jot down any notes about each of those entries that you want to mention in your report. And just like that you’ve got 26 ideas to write about in your report. If you just wrote 1/4 page on each of them, you’d have almost 7 pages of content!
So, that’s how you “plan out your report by brainstorming ideas“. That’s the “P” of the “P.A.G.E.S.” system. Now, let’s move on to step 2 which is…
2. ARRANGE your ideas sequentially or systematically
This step doesn’t require a lot of explanation, but let me go ahead and just touch on this a bit for clarification purposes.
There are two basic ways to “arrange” your ideas once you have them all jotted down – in other words “organize” them so they make sense. These two ways are “sequentially” and “systematically”.
Sequentially: That is, you would organize your ideas in chronological steps. In any kind of “how-to” information there is a logical order in which steps occur.
You would simply outline your report based on what comes first and then what comes after that. Step 1 is… Step 2 is… Step 3 is…
Now, as a rule of thumb, I recommend that you keep the total number of steps to something in SINGLE DIGITS. No more than 9 steps. Anything more than that could be viewed as “too much work” in the eyes of your readers. So, organize all of your ideas in 9 or less steps, beginning with the step that comes first and ending with the step that comes last.
Systematically: The other option is to organize things “systematically”. In other words, you’d group ideas together based on their logical relationship to each other.
Example #1: If your title is “5 Keys to Saving Your Marriage Now”, then that’s the basic framework for your outline. You divide things into sections or parts, whatever you want to call them, one for each of the 5 keys. Key #1 is a section. Key #2 is a section. Key #3 is a section. And so forth. All of your ideas would fall into one of your 5 keys.
Example #2: If you have a LOT of different ideas, such as “101 Homeschooling Tips for First-Time Parents”, then find 5-9 main topics to group them into. For example, “tips for finding the right curriculum”, “tips for planning field trips,” “tips for creating a learning environment,” “tips for social interaction” and so forth.
Note: Now, let me give you a recommendation on arranging ideas that I’ve found to be very important over the years. While you want ALL of your report to be quality content that’s useful to your customer, let’s face it, some points are stronger than others. There are some things you’ll be sharing that are just better or more important or less known than others. It’s important that you fire these FIRST and LAST. That is, you want your best work (if possible, understandably “steps” come in whatever order they appear) to be in the first few pages and then finish strong in the last few pages. If you have any content that’s “weaker” than the rest, then you’ll want to include it somewhere in the middle if it’s important enough to share at all. It’s not that you’re trying to “hide” anything, it’s simply that you want to minimize your weaknesses and showcase your strengths.
That same rule of thumb can be used with any “sub-ideas” you have for each of your main points (your “ways” or “steps”, etc.): your strongest sub-ideas come first and last with the others mixed in the middle somewhere.
And with that, we’re on to step 3…
3. GROW your content by “filling in the blanks”
By this point you should have a nice outline created from all of your ideas. Now, it’s simply a matter of “filling in the blanks”. That is, write a few paragraphs of meaty information for each of your points listed in your outline. That’s all it takes. (You should have at least 26 “points” listed from the alphabetizing exercise.) Remember, this is only 7-15 pages that you’re striving for.
You just need to do a little math. You take the total number of pages that you want and divide it by the total number of ideas that you’ve written down so you can see how much you need to write for each point.
Example: Let’s suppose you want to create a 10 page report on your topic. Let’s further suppose that you have 20 “ideas” that you’ve brainstormed to share in the report that you have arranged in 5 different sections. Doing the math, we find that you need 1/2 page of content per idea in order to meet the page requirement. So, you just begin writing the first point and when you reach 1/2 page, you know you can quit anytime you finalize the thought you’re sharing.
Some of your points will require less space to share than the numbers would demand. That’s okay, because some of your points will go over. It all balances out in the end, and it’s not an exact science. It’s just a way to keep things balanced.
It really doesn’t even matter that you do the math … as long as you do the writing. Simply write a few paragraphs explanation for each of the points. Don’t be afraid to mix in some humor. Inject your own personality into the writing.
Now, what I want to do for you before we move on to the next steps is to share some “content templates” with you now that will also help you with the writing part of content creation.
Basically, here’s how it works. I’m going to provide you with five content templates. Each one consists of an opening sentence that you can apply to any portion of your product where you might need some additional ideas for content.
Content Template #1: If I could sum up ________________ in __________ steps, here is what they would be ______________”
Where you see the “blanks” you just complete the blanks with whatever topic you are going to be discussing in that section of your product.
For example: “If I could sum up doing business online in 3 steps, here is what they would be…”
I might choose…
Step 1: Develop a product.
Step 2: Build a website.
Step 3: Promote.
So, you begin a section by opening with the above provided sentence by completing the blank sections with whatever topic you plan on discussing in that section.
“If I could sum up creating an ezine in 5 steps,
here is what they would be…”
“If I could sum up losing weight and getting in shape in 4 steps,
here is what they would be…”
“If I could sum up learning to play guitar in 3 steps,
here is what they would be…”
“If I could sum up restoring antique vehicles in 5 steps,
here is what they would be…”
Your opening sentence sets the stage for that section. Just insert your own topic in the template and you’re ready to begin. Next, you write supporting paragraphs for each of the three steps, which can be as little as one paragraph, but should be preferably 3-4 paragraphs per step.
Content Template #2: One of the things that the majority of folks find most challenging about ____________ is _____________…
For example: “One of the things that the majority of folks find most challenging about selling onlineis to generate website traffic.”
Some other examples might include…
“One of the things that the majority of folks find most challenging
about losing weight is to stay motivated.”
“One of the things that the majority of folks find most challenging
about playing guitar is to memorize where their fingers go for each chord.”
“One of the things that the majority of folks find most challenging
about the game of golf is to hit a good chip shot.”
“One of the things that the majority of folks find most challenging
about buying a new car is to make certain they get the best price.”
That section of your report is then super easy to write.
First, I’d briefly describe the challenge itself. Why is it so difficult? What problems do most folks face when attempting to do it? What makes it challenging? Spend 2-3 paragraphs describing the challenge itself. Then, suggest a solution. Yep, you’ve got the answers. And you’re willing to share them. So, offer some advice on how to overcome the challenge. Outline 4 or 5 tips for solving the problem. Each tip only needs to be 1 paragraph in length, but it all adds up to a great deal of content.
Content Template #3: “A little known secret about _____________ is ______________”
Some variations on this theme include…
A seldom used tactic
An often misunderstood
An often overlooked
The best kept secret
One of the most powerful
An example might be: “A little known secret about buying a new car is to understand the sticker price.“
“A little known secret about hiring a ghostwriter
is to NEVER accept the lowest bid.“
“A little known secret about losing weight fast
is to eat smaller meals throughout the day“
“A little known secret about creating a budget
is to allot money for entertainment“
Content Template #4: “Perhaps one of the biggest reasons that people fail in ___________ is _____________”
An example would be: “Perhaps one of the biggest reasons that people fail in business online is a lack of training.”
“Perhaps one of the biggest reasons that people fail
in building a list is they don’t have a good squeeze offer.”
“Perhaps one of the biggest reasons that people fail
in losing weight is a lack of discipline.”
“Perhaps one of the biggest reasons that people fail
in house breaking poodles is the wrong approach.”
After exposing what is perhaps the biggest reason that people fail in achieving their desired outcome, give the reader several quick tips on how to avoid failure, specifically mentioning how to achieve success.
See how easy this is when you just have a starting point?
You could probably easily work in 4 or 5 tips about achieving success in a particular area. You could probably weave in a short 3-5 step system for achieving success in a particular area. You could probably pose and answer several questions relating to success in a particular area.
It’s all about having something to begin with, which is the purpose of our content templates here.
Content Template #5: “The one thing I always get asked about ______________ is _________________.”
An example might be: “The one thing I always get asked about dieting is can I lose weight fast?”
“The one thing I always get asked about homeschooling
is will it hurt my child’s social skills?”
“The one thing I always get asked about online dating
is is it safe?”
“The one thing I always get asked about relieving headaches
is what can I do to avoid them altogether?”
Fire away your most asked question and then answer it. Provide them with as many tips or steps in your answer as you can.
So, those are the five content templates. Plug in your responses and you’re off and running.
Now, let’s move on to step number 4…
4. EXTRACT bullet points for your ad copy while you write
With any good salesletter, there will be a “bullet list” of benefit statements. You’ve seen them at salesletters online. They offer encapsulated glimpses into what the product or service being offered means to you in terms of its benefit to you.
What I like to do is develop these bullet points as I’m writing the content. Over and over again, I’ve found myself writing things in my reports like, “the fastest way I know to…” or “3 of the easiest ways to…” or “my own secret weapon for…” or “if you don’t do anything else, make sure you do this…”
So, when I find myself writing those things, I stop at the completion of my thought process and I write down a variation of the statement that I made for use as a bullet point. Some examples include:
- The hands down, fastest way to double your affiliate commission checks!
- 3 of the easiest ways to turn private label content in your own multiple streams of profit empire in about 30 minutes per week!
- Revealed: my own secret weapon for getting completely free search engine traffic without any tricks or gimmicks! (Hint: You can download it from a freeware site and virtually NO ONE knows you can use it this way!)
- Warning: If you don’t do anything else with your blog, make sure you do this one “trick” for getting bigger Adsense® commissions. (Unless, of course, you just don’t like extra money with no extra work!)
Notice, of course, that they are in bullet form. J
You’ll undoubtedly notice that you make similar statements throughout writing the content for your special report. Take just a few seconds to extract those statements so you can use them on your salesletter as bulleted benefits. I recommend that you grab about 10-12 of them for the sales page for these kinds of special reports.
And then, it’s off to the final step…
5. SMOOTH out the rough spots to complete the report
Once you’ve written the content for your special report, you’ll want to fine-tune it. Generally speaking, there are three things that I recommend you do in putting on the finishing touches for your report…
- PAD. That is, look for areas of your report that need further explanation. Are there any areas that are not clearly explained? Are there areas that are noticeably weaker than others? Make sure your points are understandable. Try to add in as many examples as possible to better illustrate the points. Toss in a few more tips here and there where needed. You can add interview transcripts, quotes, research and other bits of information to get the points across better and add a bit more meat to the report.
- POLISH. Use different fonts to distinguish areas of your content. Change colors. Use alternative styles such as bold face, italics and underline. Indent text where appropriate. Use bullet points. (Especially on lists.)Insert headers, footers and graphics (just don’t overdo it!) Make your special report look, well, special! J (We’ll talk more about this in our next section.)
- PROOFREAD. The final “smoothing out” you need to make certain you do is to proofread your entire document for typographic and grammatical errors. Better still would be to allow someone else who is qualified to do it for you. While this isn’t a deal breaker by any means (quality of content is MUCH more important than quality of grammar in information based reports), it certainly is a good idea to put your best foot forward.
So, there you have it, the “P.A.G.E.S.” system. Each letter (P – A – G – E – S) stands for one of the five steps in the system…
P – PLAN out your report by brainstorming ideas.
A – ARRANGE your ideas sequentially or systematically.
G – GROW your content by “filling in the blanks”.
E – EXTRACT bullet points for your ad copy while you write.
S – SMOOTH out the rough spots to complete the report.
