Publishing Articles on Linkedin – The Slippery Slope!

Today I want to talk about publishing articles on LinkedIn and share with you the slippery slope. I'm a super lazy person.

This means that if I create content for one channel, I want to repurpose that content to many other places to leverage the work I already did.

LinkedIn is apart of that strategy. The million-dollar question is why do you want to publish an article on LinkedIn?

It helps you gain trust, credibility and of course, get someone back to your website. It's free traffic and it can be targeted traffic.

At the bottom of your article, you should have a call to action to get someone to view your website. This probably is the most important part of your article, don't forget it.

You might be wondering what is the difference between a LinkedIn post and an article? Posts are added to LinkedIn very quickly but can disappear in the feed.

LinkedIn articles are searchable on the platform and in search engines, which makes them more powerful.

LinkedIn posts are generally shorter at around 700 character limit, while articles don't have a limit. Shorter articles are easier to write, but if they are longer they usually do better.

Longer meaning 1,500 to 2,500 words.

How to Write Long Articles?

The key to writing longer articles is to break up your article into chunks. Instead of writing a 1,500-word article just write five 300 word articles and connect them.

You could write the headlines for the five articles and then simply fill them in. What I like to do is have the ideas of what I'm going to write about pre-planned, almost like its paint by numbers.

Then I simply fill in the slots and it's kind of fun.

When it comes to productivity, I like to block out time to write. Even if it's just 1 hour a day, that time can add up. Also, I enjoy listing to background music as I write, but experiment and sees what works for you.

The key to writing is just to start even if you think it's crap. There is no such thing as writer's block, it's being scared of what others with think of your writing that you think is crappy. Write how you talk and you can always go back to edit it.

The most important thing is to write about something you're interested in.

I like to look at it like I'm a reporter and I'm simply learning about a topic.

Then I simply share what I learned, like the helpful neighbor. You don't have to know everything about your topic, just enough to give value and be helpful.

When it comes to spelling and grammar Grammerly.com has a free program that checks everything. Also, I use a free program called Openoffice writer to write my document.

Another free program you can try out is Google Docs.

When it comes to the content of your article the key is to make it fun. This means you want to break up your text as much as possible. Big blocks of text are intimidating and can turn people away.

If you break up your text and add a lot of spaces, then people are more likely to continue reading because it's seen as being easier to read. Also include some nice photos, videos, quotes, and anything else that makes it fun.

Another free tool you can use to view how many words your article has is easywordcount.com.

Getting Your Article Viewed?

There is a saying that great emails, videos, and articles never get viewed because their headline sucks. The headline is the first place to grab someone's attention.

How do you write good headlines? One tip is to include a hyphen or colon in your title. A study by Content Marketing Institute found that doing this increased click-through rate by 9%.

Here is an example of using it. Use a colon in your title: you will not believe the results!

The biggest key to creating a title is the word curiosity. You want the title to create as much curiosity as possible. Anything that makes your title different than everyone else is going to help as well.

People wake up bored, go to sleep bored, so if you can get them out of their boredom for a short amount of time then you will get their attention.

You can also check out a free program called https://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer to analyze your title.

Lastly, titles that have 40-50 characters have a better chance of getting traffic than shorter ones.

Next up is SEO to get your article viewed more. The key to SEO is to go after long-tail keywords that don't have a lot of competition.

The way to view the competition is to directly view the competition in Google. If forums, Quora are in the top spot then it's not very competitive.

Are the websites on page 1 not very authoritative, then that is a good sign. Also, if the articles are very short then you can more easily compete.

Can you write a more helpful resource?

If the answer is yes, then you can compete. To see if a keyword is searched the best place to check is Google itself. Type in your keyword and if Google suggests it, then you know people are searching for it.

Also, at the bottom of Google if your keyword is in the searches related to, then that is a good sign as well.

When it comes to SEO, you just want to make sure your keyword is in the title, first sentence, last sentence, and be the first in the tag.

Many other factors are included with SEO such as how long someone reads your article if they comment but the main thing is to be very helpful.

Also, getting someone curious to continue reading can help since it's a slippery slope. If someone has the momentum of reading then they will likely continue and this helps with SEO.

If you can make your first sentences very short this helps the slippery slope. Maybe even drop some hooks and tease some things they will discover if they continue.

Do everything you can to get your audience to read the first few sentences and want to continue.

Oh, and who can forget hashtags. Hashtags are important because they help your article get found on LinkedIn.

You just want to make sure your hashtags are as targeted as they can be. You want the right people to read your article. All you have to do is put # in front of your word to create a hashtag.

To verify a hashtag you could type the hashtag into the search and see what comes up. Other ideas include Hashtagify.me to see how popular a hashtag is.

Another idea is to use Tagdef to see how popular a hashtag is.

When it comes to how many hashtags you can use, there is no limit. You just want to make sure the hashtags are relevant.

A good rule of thumb is to use around 5 very targeted hashtags.

Lastly, when it comes to LinkedIn the time you post is important. Posting on weekends is bad and Monday through Thursday morning is best.

You know, during normal business hours, since LinkedIn is a business platform.

Mistakes to Avoid

Inverting problems is a thing I love to do. Instead of thinking about all the ways to succeed at something, what you want to do is brainstorm a list of ways to fail and then don't do that.

The first way to fail with LinkedIn articles is not to write any. Yes, like the famous quote from Wayne Gretzky.

“You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.”

Even if your articles suck at first, writing something and publishing it is 100x better than not writing at all. Plus, if you write enough you are going to get better naturally.

The biggest reason people don't post content is due to fear of judgment. What helps me overcome this is realizing that everyone else sucks too.

The next mistake to make that I used to make for a long time was writing articles that were too short. Short meaning 300-500 words.

300-500 word articles deserve to go in a post, not in an article. On the flip side, you don't want your article to be WAY too long.

People's attention span is shortening. 1,500 to 2,500 words is fine, but the main thing is your content should not be too boring.

Another mistake that I used to make a lot is with spelling and grammar. Sure, some spelling mistakes are ok but too many and it's a distraction.

Oh, and lastly, you don't want your article to be too much of a sales pitch.

I used to pitch at the beginning of my content. Don't do this, instead, give value, and then at the end of your content, you can promote your website.

Monetize your Article

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in creating content is not having a call to action. How is your audience going to check out your website if you don't tell them about it?

Are they supposed to read your mind?

Where should you direct your audience? You should direct them to an opt-in form or squeeze page.

The reason why is so you can keep in touch with them and you own the list. Nobody can take that list away from you.

There is a right way to promote products and services to your list and there is a wrong way. To discover the most helpful guide I have found on how to promote products to a list check out my website at www.trustthelink.com.

I hope this article on publishing articles on LinkedIn was helpful. Please leave a comment and tell me if you create content on LinkedIn. If so, what is your 1 tip on creating content for this platform?

Have a great day, bye for now.