I seem to have lost my momentum in article writing as I was not able to write for more than a month. Did the hiatus help or did it not?
I share my personal experience in this article. I detail the 6 triggers that prompted me to write blog posts continuously as long as I have the time and energy to do it.
In addition, I sought the help of ChatGPT in gathering more tips online that will help revive that writer’s passion — that keep writers producing content not only for their own satisfaction but also for dear readers.
Table of Contents
Article Writing Passion That Endured
The writing break I took not only gave me much needed rest from my usual hectic routine doing schoolwork, consultancy, attending to health concerns, and slowing down by taking a short vacation in Mars courtesy of Elon Musk.
Well, I’m just kidding. It’s a dream — perhaps — that will become a reality in my lifetime. I still have to save for that $100,000 Space X ticket to Mars. It must be an experience of a lifetime everyone would want to aim for.
That is, if the spaceship makes it back to earth so you can tell your story.
The Article Writing Revival
How then did I rekindle my article writing passion? Simple. I regularly monitored the gradually dipping traffic the website gets in the middle of July to the middle of August 2023. I believe doing article writing after this period also serves as opportune time to revive the kind of writing I do.
In fact, even though I did not write anything, I did some “improvements” in this blogging platform. The word improvement is in quotation marks because I’m not quite sure if my SEO strategy will work on the long term. If you have been reading my posts, you will notice that I changed the design of the homepage. It loads way much faster than it was before.
I also noticed that during the hiatus, there have been several significant changes made by Ezoic on their platform. They offered more features like AI-powered article writing and video editing tools.
Since they announced these changes, I tried them outright. I got to love Flickify and Humix which aided the production of a lot of videos I would never have imagined I could create.
The AI-powered video creation tool definitely saves you time. At the outset, my work was rough, but then as I get familiar with Flickify, I could see better video outputs.
But I have to make several tweaks to make the video more palatable to the viewers as those videos tend to host ads in unexpected ways that diminish viewer experience.
Imagine having ads right away at the beginning of the video. How then can the viewer appreciate a taste of the content first before putting up with the loud ad? Ads have louder audio than the content itself. I hope the Ezoic guys fix it soon.
The Six Triggers of Article Writing
The truth is… I cannot stop myself from engaging in article writing which served as a catharsis for me for many years. This site can now very much run on its own steam. It has gained a substantial number of readers daily that even if I don’t write, it earns on the sides.
That’s the real passive income I have been aiming for. My writing passion has become a source of extra income way better than any other investment I made. At least, for the moment.
I have published 380 posts powered by a range of moods that define my writing (Figure 1). At this writing, the website endured 10 years and 10 months of changing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) landscape.
I explored various ways of developing this website to be search engine friendly. At times my strategies work, then again come those Google updates that I need to keep up, figure out and apply.
However, the bottom-line of all SEO strategies that I went through revolve around article content that are evergreen or enduring content that connects well with the readers. Original unique content, always, is KING.
The 380 blog posts I wrote arose from mental states that get reflected in the way I wrote those articles. These mental states served as triggers for the kind of discussion I make: from serious, highly technical articles to lighthearted ones prompted by excitement.
Trigger #1: Inspiration
It’s easy to write a blog post when you’re inspired. The source of inspiration varies between people. When someone gets a pat on the back or a raise, that person tends to do more.
If you visit a beautiful landscape, you may be inspired to take a photograph to capture the essence of that landscape. In writing, you may be inspired to share your beautiful experience to others.
In my case, I get inspired when I find satisfaction in doing something new, like creating a website from scratch without previous knowledge on how to do it. When it works, I share what I have learned online. That experience serves as reference for both me and readers who find themselves reading articles in this website.
Trigger #2: Exasperated
On those times I get exasperated due to a bad experience, I write about it.
I could not forget the time I got a serious case of nose bleeding where I need to be airlifted to a tertiary hospital for treatment. The airline would not let me take the flight despite me having signed the waiver form. It was the most frustrating experience of my life that I can still remember to this day.
The lament in the article I wrote appeared to have been so powerful that it led to the end of operation of that airline. That’s what I thought when after about a year of the nose bleeding incident, the airline folded its wings.
Trigger #3: Excited
If you’re excited about the effects of something that you do, you tend to write something about it.
I got excited when I first produced an e-book using Lyx, a document processor that appears somehow complex to many. Beautiful e-books can come out of the ready-made templates available online.
Learning Lyx for many years allowed me to produce e-books complete with table of contents, aesthetically pleasing and professionally executed designs, accurate index, glossary, footnotes, and other features that someone using a word processor like Microsoft Word would envy.
I write about what I have learned while trying to build my knowledge on how to use this excellent publishing tool, both as reference for later use and helping fellow enthusiasts resolve some issues associated with LaTeX commands to make the open-source software work.
I have shared those articles in the earlier articles I posted. I look forward to sharing my knowledge in the upcoming articles as I gradually ease out from my hectic day job.
Trigger #4: Tested a Strategy
The serious, technical articles I wrote for my students eventually evolved into a compilation of organized articles turned into e-books, from statistics to basic tips on how to write a research paper. These e-books sold well when the site had no ads, but tended to lose buyers when Ezoic ads came alive. Book sales are intermittent, while ad proceeds are more consistent.
In my case, it’s either I make the website favorable for e-book downloading or sale or add those numerous ads for impressions from Ezoic. Whichever one you would prefer in your website if you want to follow my blogging path is a matter of personal preference. I preferred the latter one.
Thus, my apology for the many ads you see on this site. I may have given all the articles for free without the ads, but it would be great to have something to maintain the website as there is no such thing as a free website.
Maintaining a website requires payment for hosting, domain name, overhead in keeping the computers working, plugins to make the website work better, paying for a Content Delivery Network or CDN to make videos and images load faster, pay for anti-spam and security services, pay for GPDR compliance, and spend hours and hours of upkeep and writing.
The latter activity is the costliest one if you want to incorporate your time devoted to putting out blog articles constantly, consciously aware of Google’s policy of new content published periodically for the consumers of information.
Thus, this blog is a venue for testing out strategies to be successful in getting a continuous stream of passive income. Indeed, those strategies work.
Trigger #5: Saw a Need
A decade ago, I searched on Google the meaning of conceptual framework in my effort to clearly understand what it means so that I can also clearly explain the concept to the students and guide them on what they need to do as part of accomplishing their thesis. The information I read from the articles, blogs, scientific publications if you may are difficult to comprehend. The authors have described the concept in a vague way that once you read those articles, you become more confused than when you started looking for it.
Whoever coined that word may have been a scientist who cannot connect to the layman. The term is aimed towards higher level readers or students taking their PhDs. Effective science communication is important.
Thankfully, when I retrieved my notes and recalled my advanced degree study, I saw a book written by a social scientist clearly explaining the concept albeit too short. I expounded on his explanation henceforth producing one of the top articles in this website that lasted for years… until some other guy copied what I wrote, and many others followed.
Now there are a lot of easily accessible explanations of the conceptual framework, in both article and video form. It’s great to be a catalyst in providing better information to the readers.
I saw a need and filled it. And I’m glad I did. It’s great to get highly encouraging feedback from readers who are students trying to make their way in the world of thesis writing.
Trigger #6: Intrigued
This trigger opens up so many possibilities. Being intrigued or curious about things brings out excellent material never before discussed online.
It was during the pandemic that I learned about how people in isolated places survive in places with apparently poor chance of survival, at least for a long time. People innovate to survive.
Such is the case of a community who decided to make Easter Island their home. To keep food on the table given the virtually barren land of lava rocks, the inhabitants devised lithic mulching. The link I provide here explains what it is, but I modified this ancient technology in applying it to my local condition.
The technology worked, and I reaped the rewards of producing vegetables during the isolation imposed by CoViD-19. Others can follow what I did since I wrote about it.
The Turning Point in Article Writing
Now, the joy of writing to meet the human (I emphasize HUMAN) needs for information has taken a drastic turn with the introduction of AI-generated responses such as those produced by ChatGPT, among others. For sure, nobody can defeat or replace human compositions such as the original framework that arose from my mind in Figure 1.
Yes, creativity, along with hospitality and management, can never be replaced or duplicated by any human technology–a long-term or even impossible quest for computer programmers doing machine learning stuff to emulate. We do not have a database of emotions that robots can collect, synthesize, and match up any query that comes its way in a most sensical way.
If indeed robots are able to do this in the not-so-distant future, then perhaps we should seriously consider getting displaced from earth and go to Mars.
Perhaps Elon Musk has already foreseen this scenario? Is this the scenario that the producers of the series of Terminator movies try to put across to humankind?
Okay, but that’s just it. Let’s see what artificial intelligence recommends in reviving one’s writing passion, as opposed to my previous tips on how to rekindle the article writing passion once again.
AI Tips to Rekindle the Article Writing Passion
Now, I organized the quickly generated content of the Ezoic AI of Flickify as part of its features to support writers subscribed to its site to gain more income than what they get from Google’s Adsense. Flickify is essentially a video creation tool, but I adapted the output into article form.
Yes, you read it right. You can gain more income if you enroll your website in Ezoic instead of relying on what an exclusive Adsense account pays you.
I divide the generated article by Flickify into the Introduction, Main Content, and Conclusion sections. And changed the term “video” to “article.” I omitted some paragraphs to suite the article format.
Introduction
In this captivating article, we delve into the importance of article writing and how it can significantly impact your success as a content creator. Join us as we explore the challenges that many writers face and discover five powerful strategies to revive your article writing skills.
In the introduction, we shed light on the significance of article writing in today’s digital landscape. Whether you’re a blogger, marketer, or entrepreneur, mastering this skill is essential for effectively conveying your message and engaging your audience.
Section 1 takes a deep dive into understanding the challenges that often hinder writers from reaching their full potential. From writer’s block to lack of inspiration, we address these obstacles head-on and provide valuable insights to overcome them.
Moving on to Section 2, we unveil five proven strategies that will breathe new life into your article writing. These techniques are designed to enhance your creativity, streamline your writing process, and captivate readers from the very first sentence. Get ready to unlock the secrets to crafting compelling and impactful articles.
As we reach the conclusion, we emphasize the importance of taking action and implementing the strategies discussed. It’s not enough to simply understand the challenges and strategies; true improvement comes from putting knowledge into practice.
We encourage you to take the leap and witness the transformation in your writing skills. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to improve your article writing abilities. Read the rest of this article and embark on a journey towards becoming a more confident and skilled writer.
Main Content
In today’s digital age, where information is readily available at our fingertips, the skill of article writing has become more important than ever. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or an aspiring writer, being able to effectively communicate your thoughts and ideas through articles is a valuable asset.
Articles play a crucial role in various fields, such as journalism, marketing, academia, and even personal blogging. They allow us to share knowledge, express opinions, and engage with readers from all around the world.
So, if you want to make an impact with your writing and stand out from the crowd, it’s essential to master the art of article writing. In this video, we will explore the challenges that many writers face and provide you with five strategies to overcome those challenges and improve your article writing skills.
So, let’s dive in!
Before we dive into the strategies to revive your article writing, it’s important to understand the challenges that many writers face.
Writing an article can be a daunting task, especially when you’re faced with writer’s block or struggling to find the right words to convey your message. Additionally, time constraints and distractions can hinder your productivity and make it difficult to stay focused on your writing.
Another common challenge is maintaining a consistent flow and structure throughout your article, ensuring that your ideas are organized and easy to follow. Lastly, receiving feedback and criticism can be tough, but it’s essential for growth as a writer.
By understanding these challenges, you’ll be better equipped to overcome them and enhance your article writing skills. So, let’s explore the strategies that will help you tackle these obstacles head-on!
Now that we understand the challenges, let’s explore five effective strategies to revive your article writing and take your skills to the next level.
Strategy number one: Research and Planning.
Before you start writing, spend time researching your topic thoroughly. This will help you gather valuable information and insights that will enrich your article. Plan your article structure by outlining the main points and organizing your thoughts.
Strategy number two: Overcoming Writer’s Block.
When faced with writer’s block, try freewriting or brainstorming to generate ideas. Don’t worry about perfection at this stage; just let your creativity flow.
Strategy number three: Enhancing Clarity and Conciseness.
Review your writing and eliminate unnecessary words or sentences. Use clear and concise language to convey your message effectively.
Strategy number four: Creating Engaging Introductions and Conclusions.
Grab your readers’ attention with a compelling introduction and leave them with a lasting impression through a strong conclusion.
Strategy number five: Seeking Feedback and Editing.
Share your work with trusted peers or mentors who can provide constructive feedback. Use their suggestions to refine your article and improve your writing skills.
By implementing these strategies, you’ll be able to overcome challenges and breathe new life into your article writing. Let’s move on to the conclusion and discuss how to take action and further enhance your skills.
Conclusion
Congratulations! You’ve now learned about the challenges of article writing and discovered five effective strategies to revive your skills.
But it doesn’t end here. To truly improve, you need to take action. Start by implementing the strategies we discussed in this article.
Research and plan your articles thoroughly, overcome writer’s block with freewriting or brainstorming, enhance clarity and conciseness, create engaging introductions and conclusions, and seek feedback from trusted peers or mentors.
Remember, practice makes perfect. The more you write, the better you’ll become. Set aside dedicated time each day or week to hone your skills. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try new techniques. Keep pushing yourself to grow as a writer. And most importantly, never stop learning.
Stay updated on industry trends, read articles from successful writers, and continue to expand your knowledge. With dedication and perseverance, you’ll see significant improvements in your article writing. So go ahead, take action, and watch your skills soar to new heights.
That’s it!
So which is better: the tips I gave based on my personal experience or the ones recommended by the AI. Suit yourself.
