I spend countless hours each week at the keyboard, tapping out content not only for my own niche sites, but also for submission to other sites, in a race to get as many backlinks as possible. Sound familiar? If it does, then I have a question for you...
When was the last time you used an outline for writing?
Not to get off topic, but...
Have you ever watched the television series "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?"? It's a game show where adult contestants are posed questions on a variety of school subjects - math, science, social studies, language - that typical fifth graders would be expected to know.
Sounds easy, huh? Fifth grade, that's kids' stuff, after all! Well, trust me, it's not so easy - the contestants on the show are proof that between fifth grade and the present, we tend to forget a lot of the basics that we learn...
My oldest son happens to be in fifth grade. Recently, he brought home a three paragraph writing assignment. He had prepared an outline for the assignment at school, and for his homework, he needed to use the outline to write a rough draft.
Watching him work, it occurred to me that I was taught the same steps when I was in school. Prepare an outline, write a rough draft, and finally, edit the draft, in order to produce a final copy.
Despite the fact that I spend several hours a day at my computer keyboard, composing blog posts and articles for my niche marketing projects, I could not recall the last time I had actually used an outline to map out what I was going to write.