7 Methods to Easily Come Up Long Form Posts

Guide to writing long-form content

For a while now, I have been able to cover a few issues regarding the writing of long-form content. I detailed how it helped you here and why it might hurt your ranking here.

I actually know it works to help many niches rank well in their content while for others, it may be hurting.

And in the race to be on the first page and probably in position 1 of SERPs, the fight to write the longest post on topics won’t end.

This leads us to the question of how can you easily come up with long-form content even when the topics look "short-form" in the sense of it. How do you write long for a topic that seems short in scope? How do you write long when you don't have information enough to widen the scope of your topic?

The Wish to Write Long and Immediate Challenges

Even though your niche requires posting a 2000-word article to rank, can you write that much? You’ve concluded that without above-a-thousand words, you can’t possibly beat the authority websites. 

Yet, your wing is clipped because to even write 500 words is a tug of war. Then, how do you become such a writer who won’t hit the publish button without meeting a thousand words?

And if you just want to try anything, you can end up on the same net that Google had captured the content abusers. You may eventually be found guilty of:

1. Keyword Stuffing: thereby repeating the same keywords more than necessary times in a post.
2. Plagiarism: copying and pasting other people’s work as yours.
3. Content Duplication: republishing the same content on your blog with little or no variations but with different titles.

These among others are a few challenges those who want to rise to the top using the power of pillar posts are facing.

What if I told you, it shouldn’t be that difficult to come up with a post that will be long enough to win your desired position on Google ranking? What if I told you, you could achieve that for entirely all your posts without keyword repetition, content stealing, and duplication of posts?

This post will hold you by hand and show you the tactics known and used by the successful bloggers and me to arrive at literarily filling our blogs with long-form content.

But first, the basics!

Recommended: Does Reading Help to Write Better Articles/Posts?

What’s Long-Form Content?

To date, there has NOT been a consensus on what Long-form content is.

A few writers agree on posts with more than 1000 word counts. Some agree on 1500 while others agree on above 2000.

Some authors had concluded on writing above just 500.

As a matter of fact, pillar posts are better not approached by the number of words. It’s better seen as a post, be it 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, or more, that is able to detail and answer nearly all possible queries around a topic.

If we must use a specific word count, we will lose out if the topic at hand doesn’t call for a thousand words. Hence, it's safer to conclude that writing long enough to the satisfaction of a topic is ideal to be called long-form.

As a matter of fact, if ranking will be word-count dependent, the person that writes the longest, the most value-added and users/SEO friendly on a topic will top the ranking.

7 Tactics That Make Long-Form Content Achievable

You’re on this page, more likely because you want to write the longest on a topic. And if you’d agreed with me that it’s not ideal concluding on the specific number of words, then you will find the techniques below useful. They will train you to expand a topic that can be explained in just a sentence to 3,000 words.

1. Research as Much as Possible on the Topic

This is where it all starts.

If you must write long truly, you have to dive into all issues surrounding a topic.

Meanwhile, this doesn’t have to be difficult. I’d seen authors struggling to find related queries around a topic. But why?

I’ve seen people who wrote four different topics in just a post because they’re targeting a high word count. Imagine what they’d lost to this struggle.

In short, you don’t have to buy sophisticated tools to research into what you can bring on board while you’re still able to meet above a thousand-word count.

Let me share my style with you:

1. Most of my topics come from inspiration. I may come up with some while reading, researching, watching YouTube videos, scanning through forum discussions, and so on.
2. The next thing I do is start researching the topics. I use Google search-related snippets mostly. I go deeply to see more related queries. I collect them all and take them to my MS Word.
3. Then, I start tying and blending all the related queries in the post – not only in the body but into the headings. More on this later.

Following this simple strategy, you should have enough to write on even before you start out.

Read: Beyond Keyword Research: 5 Tactics to Write For Real Searches

2. Type Instead of Writing and Vice Versa

I don’t know what works better for you – writing or typing?

As for me, I love typing better. It seems to be adding more flow of energy hearing the clicks of the keys.

Unless there’s nothing else to write, I wouldn’t stop hitting the buttons.

I’d tried the same with "writing", and the difference was clear. I wrote well but not as well as when I see words following on the screen.

What about you? Tell me what you love using.

If you find writing first before typing, better, use it.

When I used the writing-first method, I noticed an advantage. It’s easier to add more information when typing (the written content) to a computer.

3. Enjoy Dividing Topics into Sections

I’ve seen several articles that the authors could have written long for but because they couldn’t adequately divide their works into sections, headings and subheadings, they ended up in short form.

Writing is psychological! If you divide your topics into various parts before you start writing or while on the keys, a part of your brain will be telling you, that you’ve not written enough for each section.

With that, you will be geared to add more until there nothing is else to add.

4. Use the Services of an Expert

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking Tolani is saying this sweetly because it’s now part of him.

You may be right.

In fact, it’s easy to think I’m a graduate and you’re not. Or I hold a Diploma in Creative Writing – a class you’d not attended.

This is not a place to argue with you. Let me just help as usual.

5. Kill Typing and Writing Boredom with the Alternatives

Yes, some aspiring writers and newbies can write well but they’re often guilty of boredom. They can easily get tired after 400 words.

So what do I recommend?

Use any available typing or writing alternatives!

You can use dictate your thoughts to a phone app. Such apps can be downloaded apps on Google or Apple stores.

There are a few of them, FREE, that allow you to speak while they do the work of displaying your words on the screen. All you have to do is send that files to your computer, edit a few mismatches, add punctuations, format, and publish.

I’ve noticed that while using this method, I’d been able to dictate endlessly. This is just like reading an unedited interview in the dailies.

However, I’d noticed this didn't give me the inspiration and energy I felt while typing.

6. Edit and Rewrite Posts on Routine

I’d written some posts in the past with titles like “3 techniques”, “5 solutions to” etc.

A few weeks or months later, I revisited those posts and read them all over. I didn’t read for the fun of it. I did that to see if there were errors to correct and if there was anything I could add.

In most cases, the 3 techniques may increase to 5, and the 5 solutions may increase to 7.

This is a quick way to bring back what might have escaped your mind while writing the post the first time. It may also be an avenue to add a new and updated experience.

7. Engage the Audience For Ideas

Let's talk about the importance of allowing readers to contact you, comment on your posts and if possible, call you.

This is a shortcut to hearing from the people you write for. These interactions and engagements are usually sources of new topics and amendments to the existing posts.

If you allow the audience to contribute, they will let you know what you’re yet to cover in the body just with a throw of questions.

Conclusion

Writing long-form content may be necessary for your ranking and it's not as difficult as you might be thinking. Following a few tactics, other publishers had used can be a lifesaver if you have a phobia of writing long or you always lose an appetite for unending writing.

While a few of the listed approaches can be professional by touch, others are literarily dummy (as simple as ABC) tactics to achieve long-form content.