Writing a good piece of content is never easy. You will first need to choose a topic that not only has a wide audience but also blends well with the overall theme of your site. And with most such topics, there is already a lot written about them.
Even with the assumption that you have found a topic and you know the subject pretty well, there is still a lot you need to do, before you start writing. These activities typically include :
- Who else has written about this subject ?
- How is the coverage in these articles - shallow or deep and well researched ?
- What has your immediate competitor written on this subject ?
- What have you (as a media house) written on this before ?
In summary, you need to write an article on a hot topic, give it a thorough coverage and make it interesting and engaging for your readers (remember : you are not the first one writing about it).
Pugmarks can help you answer many of these questions. Let’s say we need to write an article on “Weight loss”. How do we proceed ? First, let’s do a couple of set up activities. This is a topic that falls under Health and Fitness. Pugmarks has a list of sources from this vertical (we also support other verticals like Technology, Finance, Travel, Science, Law and Architecture)
You can follow one or more of these sources Or you can just “Follow all” (contextual relevance kills overload). Anytime you read an article on any health related topic, we will tell you what Discovery Health, Women’s Health and others in the above list have written on the same topic. But this list is not complete – it might not include your closest competitors, and it might also not include your own publication. Pugmarks has a very simple and elegant solution to tackle this – if a publisher is not on the list above, just follow them on twitter. Pugmarks acts as a contextual filter on twitter and brings in what is relevant from your twitter stream on to the page. You are now set up.
If you now open an article that talks about weight loss, here is what you would see (with some minor variations, as per your network) :
Pugmarks is telling you what your competitors have written on Weight loss – Women’s Health Mag, Everyday Health – they all seem to have covered the subject. Reading these articles will tell you how well they have covered the subject. And if you work for a large media house, you know very well that other employees might have written articles on this before. Pugmarks shows you that as well. This too, is extremely useful. You neither want your article to be a look alike of what your competition has on the subject nor do you want to bore your own audience with repetitions of your own.
Pugmarks will also help you probe deeper on parts of any article that interest you. The highlighted section of the article below talks about the importance of starting the day with protein.
Do you want to know a little more about protein foods ? Just right click on the highlighted area to search Pugmarks. Here is what you will see. The article on high-protein power snacks could be extremely valuable to your readers.
As you further your research by navigating from one article to another and gathering insights along the way, you should “mark” these articles – one click is all it takes. Why is marking so important ? Marking benefits your team. You never know when another article will need to be written on the topic. And with each mark, you are adding to a repository of articles that you and your team can dig into later. Marking also helps us know you better, and improves the quality of recommendations we make.
Pugmarks has another interesting feature. It helps you summarize the most important points covered in each article. If I search Pugmarks for “Weight loss” here is what I would see :
Pugmarks surfaces the most relevant articles on weight loss and even shows you the most important lines of these articles . It also points you to people in your network who might have a sound knowledge of the subject. You can choose to further the conversation with them.
By now, you have read articles from other media houses including those from your competitors and articles from your media firm that were published earlier. You know how good or bad the coverage has been. The comments give you a hint on how well received these articles were. You have gathered deeper insights using highlight and search. You also know people in your network who can help you further. This should give you a good start for your article on weight loss.
Pugmarks can be used similarly for a lot of other verticals as well – Law, Architecture, Travel, Science, Finance, Technology etc . If you are interested in trying Pugmarks, do visit Pugmarks.me and drop your mail id. We will get back to you soon. And before i forget, Pugmarks has no costs associated with it. It is totally free.
Happy writing !
Aditya