@Kushyzee 23 August 2021 edited more from that month

How I went from an "ugh" writer to a "yay!" writer in Just a week! part 2

Start writing, no matter what. The water doesn't flow until the faucet is turned on." - Louis L’amour This is part two of this article, you can read part 1 from here (click here) https://read.cash/@Kushyzee/how-i-went-from-an-ugh-writer-to-a-yay-writer-in-just-a-week-c579b9c4 I wouldn't want to waste much time before going into the main aspect of this article, so I will go straight to the point. Getting started with copyblogger I got to know of copyblogger.com from one of Neil's articles and it has been a remarkable experience right from the get-go. https://copyblogger.com/blogging/ Copyblogger mainly talked about setting up a blog (which wasn't my interest at this point) but the one thing that got my attention was; how can you discover hot topics your audience wants to read? This brings me to my next tip: 3. When stuck, look for hot topics online. Creativity doesn't wait for that perfect moment. It fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones." -- Bruce Garrabrandt After writing my fifth article which was **I was $1800 richer for just a few minutes**, I didn't know what next to write on, so I took a cue from one of copyblogger's tips. https://read.cash/@Kushyzee/i-was-1800-richer-for-just-a-few-minutes-4b288278 Copyblogger talked about three methods of getting hot topics but I was only interested in one; using online forums (like Reddit, quora, or even Pinterest, heck you can even use Facebook). https://www.reddit.com https://www.quora.com https://www.pinterest.com https://www.facebook.com I picked quora mainly because I'm more familiar with it. The idea is to go to one of those forums or websites, search for the specific niche you want to write on, and get ready to be thrown into a world of hot juicy topics! Take Quora, for example, I went there with no idea of what to write on, so I decided to check their spaces.

I opened up the movies space and immediately I got two topics I can write on (that's where I got the idea to write on a topic about Lucifer Tv series). https://read.cash/@Kushyzee/lucifer-season-6-trailer-is-epic-apocalypse-is-nigh-eee09f20 I checked out a couple of spaces on quora and I got some topics that I wrote down. You should try to only pick topics you know about, for example, it's no use writing about cars when you know nothing about them. As it is now, I have a lot of topics that will keep me busy throughout this month and I keep coming up with more! Thanks Quora! Despite having lots of topics to choose from, I was still having difficulty selecting an appropriate title for each topic. And here goes tip number 4: 4. Write great titles/headlines Quoting an article I saw on copyblogger; https://copyblogger.com/magnetic-headlines/ On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. This is the secret to the power of your title, and why it so highly determines the effectiveness of the entire piece. This goes to show that the title of your article is the most important part, it's the door that leads people to even consider reading your article. I got the free ebook; How to write magnetic headlines from copyblogger and it's amazing! I can't really explain the feeling I got while reading that ebook, it was a fascinating read, filled with lots of great headlines. https://copyblogger.com/magnetic-headlines/ I learned a lot about writing great headlines and have started applying the knowledge I got from the ebook to most of my articles. PS: While looking for the link to the magnetic headlines article, I stumbled upon another ebook; Copywriting 101: How to Craft Compelling Copy. I already got it sent to my email and will go through it later. https://copyblogger.com/copywriting-101/ What I always do before posting any articles. **1. Run it through a plagiarism checker** Most times I scan my articles with a plagiarism checker, especially if I'm writing an article that isn't based on my personal experience or life story. I use quetest and duplichecker (it's better to use 2 or 3 plagiarism checkers). Most of the time I get 100% uniqueness, but sometimes it can be between 90-93% unique, with about 10% being plagiarised, which is usually one to four couple of sentences in your article appearing somewhere else (it's not a big deal). https://www.quetext.com https://www.duplichecker.com

But it becomes a big deal if only about 70% of your article is unique (this is the limit I gave myself), it simply means that over 30% of your work is copied from somewhere else, word for word. Duplichecker has a word limit of 1000 words, but you can just split your article if it's longer than 1000 words and scan them one after the other. There is also the option of going pro, which supports up to 10k words. Quetext also have a word limit (of about 500 words) but you can easily sign up to remove the limit. **2.** **Using Grammarly** https://grammarly.com/ This is something I always do before submitting my articles. Even if I don't run it through a plagiarism checker, I always make use of Grammarly. Why? Most of the time, we make mistakes when writing our articles (grammatical errors, spelling errors). Let's face it, we are humans and we are prone to making mistakes, but the point is to know when you made a mistake and to correct it. Grammarly helps me to improve my grammar (now you know where their name comes from) by: Suggesting appropriate parts of speech (noun, pronoun, verbs, etc) Checking for spelling errors on my articles and giving me the right spelling. Making sure I use the same variant of English throughout my articles (America vs British English) Grading the article based on correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery. and a lot of other features

You can see now that Grammarly is very important, as it helps me to discover mistakes and errors I didn't even know about. The premium version of Grammarly packs even more powerful features and you can subscribe to it to make use of all the tools available. Conclusion There are tons of other things that helped to improve my writing which I didn't mention. You on your part will have to make the effort to learn more if you are serious about leveling up your writing skills. The resources I have dropped throughout this article are packed with the necessary tools to make you a better writer. Neil Patel's youtube channel and copyblogger website will greatly benefit you on your journey to become a great writer. Let's face it, I will not suddenly become an expert just after a week of learning, compared to folks that have been doing this for decades, don't you agree?

Read up as much as you can, make more research and start writing great articles. Good luck on your writing journey. Have a wonderful week