Content marketing templates (free download) - make content faster

How can you keep all of your blog researched organized? If you need to keep track of related keywords, where can you put all of them? 

Every writer has felt the pain of staring at a blank page, hoping that maybe – if you bite your nails enough – blood will spill out into your Google Doc and somehow form words. 

That’ll be the day, right?

Why not avoid all that, and use this research/outline document instead? 

This template contains ways to organize... 

• The data on your primary keyword
• Info about the other content that shows up in search results
• Secondary keywords related to your primary keyword
• Related terms and phrases that are relevant to your topic
• Resources you find while doing research
• The actual outline of your blog post 

How long can you hold your breath? 

Waiting for an editor to review your work can feel like holding your breath – but breath-holding and writing have a different connection. (“Can you say most sentences in only one breath” is one of the 23 editing tips in this checklist).

When you need to edit your work (or submit it to an editor) – what should you look for? This checklist’s 23 tips (plus explanations) will help you find things that spell check and Hemingway Editor just can’t. 

Think now, does your writing…

• Pass the “Barstool Test?”
• Have a lot of verbs ending in “ing?”
• Accidentally undermine itself with the word “but?”

If you aren’t sure – this checklist will show you.

Hate to break it to you – the success of your post is usually fated before you write a single word. And, as the featured snippet for the Google search “kismet” (fate) says, "what chance did I stand against kismet?"

If you want to get readers from Google, you need to write the kind of content that Google will show them. This checklist shows you how to analyze a search engine results page (SERP) to reverse-engineer what type of content works. 

If that sounds intimidating, don’t worry – all you have to do is look at Google search results and ask questions (no tools required). 

The key – you have to ask the right questions. These questions! (There are 8 of them included, no batteries required).

Sentences that are super long, or have a lot of commas, may demonstrate a verbosity that a multiplicity of readers enjoy; others, however, will somnambulate their way through...

Free tip from this checklist! Don’t write sentences like ^ that. 

You probably want people to actually read your work, right? This Blog Scannability checklist will help with that. 

And, because we hope that you’ll read it, it’s pleasantly short and readable itself.

How would you like to get an email reply from a big name in your industry – in less than an hour? 

(The first email template on this list got a response in 41 minutes). 

After the writing, there’s the promotion. UGH! 

But promoting yourself is easier when you know exactly what to say in every email. These 4 emails are proven to work – and for each one, you’ll see a real example of the template in action. Plus the results it got. 

This doc has emails you can use when you:

• Need to ask an influential person for a quote
• Reach out to people after you’ve mentioned them in your content (2 of them!)
• Need to make contact with someone for the very first time

Why is writing in a meter

Key to content that delivers

Content strong that doesn’t teeter

Makes the audiences shiver?

You don’t have to literally write poems (and let’s be honest, that was pretty bad) – but playing with language can help make you a better writer. 

Writing is a skill. It can be practiced. But, as massive amounts of research and folk wisdom agree – “practice doesn’t make perfect; practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect.”

The right (write?) type of practice, deliberate practice, can help you improve much faster. 

(The results for ActiveCampaign have been huge – 1000%+ growth of our blog).

This is a list of 11 ways to do deliberate practice to improve your writing. It includes things like:

• Why writing a hundred headlines a day is actually easier than not doing it at all
• The Ben Franklin Technique (it’s from his autobiography, and it works) 
• The strategy Gary Halbert used to become the best copywriter of his time
• ...and yes, a word or two about how poetry can improve your phrasing

Everything on this checklist is tiny. It’s so small, it might not even feel worth it. 

And that’s the point. 

Excellence comes from a pile of small changes stacked on top of each other – and all of us have the power to change the actions we take in those small moments.  

This is a list of tiny changes that are easy to miss – but are 100% in your control. We created it because we knew we needed a reminder of what it means to do great work. 

What’s included on this list? 15 Small Moments of Excellence. Stuff like:

• When it’s worth it to schedule meetings – and how to make those meetings as productive as possible
• How to ask for feedback on work (to avoid scope creep and 124496 rounds of revision)
• Tips for presenting your ideas, so that people will listen when you talk
• Ways to respectfully (but directly) disagree with people, including the exact words to use and the mistakes that almost everyone makes