057: 10-7-4: The Best “Mind-Hack” to Generate Unlimited Ideas and Master Your Content Creation

One of the best ways to make money online is to create content that solves problems but a lot of us struggle with writer's block. The answer to that "blank page" is to have a system.

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Don't be afraid that using a system or a template will result in something that is bland and not unique. It's quite the opposite. The best thing about using a system is that you get the thing DONE.

Three Elements of A System

The system component-you can think of it as your approach, the actual "1-2-3" of getting words on paper. For example, if you're creating a 400-word article, don't say 400! That sounds huge.

Instead, break it down into: Title, Intro, 3 points, Summary, and a Call to Action. Now, what if each of these sections was 50 words? Sounds a lot better, right? You can make things even easier by turning everything into a question.

This is a really easy way to do it. Act like you're having a conversation with someone about your subject and think what they would ask about your subject. The answers become your text.

Example: What are the 3 things I need to have when playing the guitar? Instead of your title being "Guitar Basics", it becomes, "How Do I Play the Guitar Quickly?"

Another Approach is "So What?"

This is really helpful in a sales letter. If you notice you have a weak headline and bullet points, pretend someone is saying to you "So what?"

You are forced to answer back with something compelling and exciting and emotional. Now, you have script that will hold your buyer's attention!

Keep in mind that with sales letters (and with books), you are going to lose someone every 10 minutes. So, for every 10 minutes of reading, you need to have something really exciting and compelling to keep them engaged.

Make your buyer say "I don't know", with your email headlines.

This is the most effective approach for email marketing.

We want to present a question that arouses curiosity.

Ex: Don't do a headline like "Simple Guitar Playing."

Instead, your headline should be "Are you missing out on these 3 simple guitar tricks?"

Then, your buyer is saying, "I don't know. Am I? Let me click over to this link and see".

Type out sentences that are only 7 words in length. It sounds silly, but it forces you to keep your language simple. Outside of academia, you don't want to use complicated language and long sentences. It turns internet readers off.

Think of keywords if you're really stuck. If you are still really stuck, think in terms of keywords. Have one keyword for each of your 3 bullet points.

For example, if you're writing about webinars, your keywords are: "title, date, and time."

Then, your first bullet point is on "I create a compelling title for my webinar", the 2nd bullet point is, "The date is more important than you might think because of your demographic" and the 3rd point would be, "Consider your customers' time zones carefully when you're scheduling."

Time Management: Give Yourself a Time Frame

You really need to do this. If you give yourself unlimited time, the odds are you will sit in front of that blank page for 5 hours with no results.

At one point, Robert spoke out 100 articles in one day. How?!!?

If you try to think of 100 subjects that your business covers, you're probably going to get overwhelmed and walk away. Instead, think of just TEN subjects and then break those down into 10 prompts (or questions) for those categories.

For example, if your business is guitar instruction, your categories might be: equipment, beginner, advanced, starting a band, album recording, etc. Then, for equipment, you'd have "acoustic vs. electric" as a prompt. For starting a band, a prompt would be "how to book shows."

With this approach, Robert just started answering and recording the questions/prompts, one after the other and each one took about 3-4 minutes.

For this, he used his Logitech Headset and Camtasia for recording. He gave himself 1-hour blocks for each category. If each prompt = 4 minutes, you can do 40 articles and have about a 20 minute break.

That timeframe sounds really tight but if you force yourself to cram a lot into a little space of time, you end up with something better than if you had all the time in the world to blather on.

The Motivation: this one is simple. For most people, that's the money. You need to put content out there if you're going to sell anything.

The "10-7-4" Mind Hack

It's easiest to think of 10 things that people need and want to know about anything. This mind hack gets you trained to brainstorm quickly and then easily find the best to offer your customers.

It's super easy. Think of 10 questions. Write them all down. Cross out the weakest 3. Now you have 7 points left. Here's how you use them! For an e-book: You now have 7 chapters. Pick the best 4, which are going to be aimed at your beginners and basic knowledge. Put those in the front. Leave the rest for the remaining 3 chapters.

For more info on how to jet-fuel your e-book writing and publishing, go to Robert's course at Make a Product.

For a Sales Letter: you have 7 modules now that you can offer in your product you're selling. Your best 4 are going to be what your program actually is and the remaining 3 modules can be your bonuses.

For more info on how to write a great sales letter FAST, check out Robert's course called Speed Copy.

For a Webinar: compress your 7 down to 4. Most webinars should only contain about 4 in an hour's time. Then, those 4 can actually mirror the 4 modules of your product. You can use the additional 3 points to interweave throughout your presentation but you're focusing on your best 4.

For a great course on how to start and run your own webinars in no time flat, check out Webinar Crusher.

Today's Take-Aways and Some Extra Advice

You need to be excited about the content that you're creating so that you will finish it.

Don't use $10 words. Write the way you actually talk. If you write an "English paper", you'll lose customers.

If you can dictate your articles, etc., that's even better. Usually, the way you FIRST said something is just about right.

It's more important to have it all down and edit later than have nothing. If you keep trying to edit while you're writing, you will never get anything done. It's important to create and put out a lot of stuff because you don't know which is going to pan out.

You want to get to the point where you are churning out content in one-take and you have a pool of content. You need to have a system, time management and motivation working together.

If you love this show, please go give us a review on iTunes.

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Filed in: Archive 1: 2012-2016 • Content Creation • Podcast