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Dare to Be Controversial : Use Your Blog Attack Popular Ideas and Replace Them With Better Ones

No Writer's Block

Which of the following article would you read first?

  1. What is Writer’s Block?
  2. How to Beat Writer’s Block
  3. Why Writer’s Block is Your Secret Weapon

The third article is from copyblogger.com.

What sets it apart from the other two?

It dispels the myth that writer’s block is your enemy.

It’s a fine example of a piece of Fight Club Content.

It goes into the ring to fight the notion that you shouldn’t summon all your resources to fight an enemy when it’s actually your friend.

So, what makes Fight Club Content stand out?

It takes a stand, even if it’s not a popular one and that alone turns it into a clickbait.

Fight Club Content Strategy

That said, how do you create Fight Club content and turn your existing and future blog posts into traffic magnets? All from enjoying yourself picking a quarrel in your content

Fight Club content is one that presents your strong views on an issue relating to your niche.

It focuses on a particular solution or approach while exposing the shortcomings or drawbacks of an existing, popular one.

Fight Club is a proven traffic magnet.

It’s content that attracts readers.

It also adds authority to your writing while helping brand yourself as a thought leader in your field.

This is how you write Fight Club content.

  1. You want to look for contentious issues relating to the topic.
  2. Choose only one to write about for each article or blog post.

Start from your experience.

  1. List down the contentious/controversial issues relating to your field.
  2. Decide on the stand you’ll take.

Come up with an attention-grabbing title.

  1. Your title should immediately  grab the reader’s attention. Invest time on this
  2. It should promise a ‘fight’ or argument on the issue
  3. It should also providing you with the direction to pursue when creating the content

Prepare a quick outline

  1. Arm yourself with a broad outline. You want to get started quickly.
  2. You may use topic headings and subheadings instead of a detailed outline.

Write away without editing.

  1. Dump all your thoughts on to the page. Write free flow.
  2. Use your emotion as fuel to finish writing the piece in one sitting.

Revise,sift, edit : use your gut feeling

  1. If you feel that your version is long, use the Power of Three.
  2. Narrow it down to three main arguments.

Research and Add Authority Content

  1. Once you’ve a workable draft, research authority quotes, opinions and expert endorsement of your argument.
  2. Choose a maximum of three.
  3. The focus should be on your own experience of your subject though.

Publish and Improve

  1. Publish your content digitally even if you think you could improve it further.
  2. You can always come back to strengthen the content.

To learn more about creating Fight Club content for your website or blog post to attract more readers and engagement, check out Fight Club Content Strategy : The 10-Minute Fix to Triple Your Blog Readers and Drive Engagement

Here’s a sample chapter from the book to help you understand how you should approach Fight Club Content

Chapter 3 How to Attack Popular Ideas and Replace Them With Your Point of View

“Someone once asked me how I managed to find things to write about. “No problem,” I replied. ‘I just have to flick through any marketing publication and I’m bound to find something absurd or stupid to comment on within minutes.’ That’s all.” Drayton Bird, direct marketing expert and author.

From the examples provided above, you could see that the Fight Club content approach consists of two parts:

1) finding ‘fault’ with an existing accepted system or method

2) offering an alternative, workable idea or method

When you’re writing a what-is or how-to article, you’re merely endorsing what’s already been written out there.

That’s why you’ll see many similarities between one article or post and many others over the Internet.

It All Begins with the Title

Say you’re writing on writer’s block. Your title is What’s Writer’s Block? Or How to Beat Writer’s Block.

The reader might have read similar articles. At the time of writing, there are 6.5 million articles on writer’s block listed in Google. He looks at your article and decides that yours will be pretty much like the others he has read.

But what if your title is Writer’s Block is a Lie: Here’s Why

Let’s put this title right at the bottom of the top articles on writer’s block in Google.

How to Overcome Writer’s Block: 14 Tricks That Work

7 Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block

How to Beat Writer’s Block

Writer’s Block

Practical Tips for Beating Your Writer’s Block The 10 Types of Writers’ Block (and How to Overcome Them)

How professional writers beat writer’s block

Purdue OWL: Writer’s Block

Writer’s Block: 27 Ways to Crush It Forever

Writer’s Block is a Lie: Here’s Why

Would your article stand a chance of being read although it’s in the last position? The rest of the nine articles admit that writer’s block exists. Your title counters the popular belief calling it a lie. Wouldn’t readers be itching to know why you say so?

Just the other day I was discussing with a friend about how writers in India and China don’t face writer’s block. They get an idea and just sit down and write away until the book or whatever is done.

I’ve listened to many interviews revolving around these writers. Writer’s block was never discussed.  There was this lyricist who said. “A composer gave me a tune and told me the theme of the movie. I finished writing the lyrics in 10 minutes.”  No big deal about writer’s block or resistance.

We came to the conclusion that writer’s block exists only in America. They’ve invented this disease so that they could sell a cure for it and make money.

This may sound ridiculous but it’s a point of view, isn’t it? Even those who don’t agree with it will pay attention to it.

Based on the above discussion we can come out with a title for our piece:

Writer’s Block: The Big American Lie

Now, that’s what we call a Fight Club title. The moment you read the title, you know there’s going to be some fight taking place and wouldn’t anyone be eager to watch it?

Thinking about the matter further, I came up with another title – How to Make Money with Writer’s Block. Although it’s a how-to article, there’s going to be some quarrel in it. Yes, this article will contend that writer’s block is a non-existent disease for which ineffective cures are sold and boatloads of money made.

Get your title right and the rest of your Fight Club content flows naturally. Although there’s advice that you should write the blog or article title last, after you’ve finished or edited your content, it doesn’t quite apply in our situation here.

For a Fight Club article you write the title first. If you can’t immediately think of a confrontational title, it’s alright. Start with a generic one and modify it with a ‘fight’ angle.

Let’s look at another example. The topic is How to Write a Book.

An article on the topic will usually cover the following:

Get an Idea -write about what You Know

Explore whether the idea has a market

Research the idea

Outline the Idea

Write the Book

Edit the Book

Look for a suitable publisher or self-publish the book.

If you’re going to write an article on how to write a book, and follow the outline above, you may not get the attention you expect. Thousands if not millions of other web pages offer similar content.

But take heart, there’s a way out.

How to Attack a Well-Meaning System and create Fight Club Content

First of all the how-to-write-a-book outline is just a well-meaning, cut-and-dried system

If you’ve tried writing a book, you may realize that not all the steps work for you. But you just accept the system and move on because it seems to work for the great majority of folks out there. You’re willing to have it rammed down your throat.

And when you write on a similar topic you just set out to ‘pay tribute’ to other content already out there.

Not anymore. Now that you’re willing to be a Fight Club member, you’ll look to see if you could stir up ‘trouble’ using your experience as ammunition.

Yes, you toss off your educator’s cap and pull on a politician’s or lawyer’s cap and decide to use the Fight Club Content Strategy. You look at the system and decide to tear it apart.  If not the whole, at least a part of it.

You decide to speak your mind and for starters, contend that market research isn’t a requirement and should be ignored.

So you write a quarrelsome article – Market Research Before Writing A Book is Nothing More than a Load of Bull – saying, when writing a book, you shouldn’t concern yourself with what the market wants.

Folks would immediately sit up and take notice and would want to lend their ears to why you’re saying so. You have your ammunition ready.  You line up the following points and get ready to open fire.

You contend that the market doesn’t really know what it wants. It just recognizes a good book when it sees one. You should write your book because you feel you have something valuable to offer the reading public not because there’s a market for it.

You provide examples of successful writers who write without the market in mind.

You go on to argue what the market wants today may not be what it fancies tomorrow. You argue your book might go unnoticed today but might be a future bestseller and so on.

Since everyone else is writing what the market wants there’ll be huge competition and chances of your book fizzling out amidst the big names are high.

On the other hand, a book written on a ‘passion subject’ will fare better in the long run because there’s always someone who shares your passion on the subject.

You go on to provide examples of books that were once bestsellers but have now sunk into oblivion. You touch on books written without market research (Harry Potter?) which are mega bestsellers.

You may even provide examples of the type of books you could write without being punished by the market. You conclude, calling on writers to publish fearlessly whatever they have to say and even suggest the self-publishing route if the traditional publishing route proves to be a stumbling block.

Your article may go against popular opinion or accepted practice. Many ‘informed’ people will not see eye to eye with your views. That’s good. You’re getting noticed.

Some ‘successful’ writers might point out you don’t know what you’re talking about, swearing that market research has always been the key to their flourishing careers.

Here’s the thing. Whether they agree with your views or not, they’ll read your content. Isn’t readership what you’re after?

At the same time you’ll win supporters among writers who have been thinking along the same lines but have yet to air their views.

You content might spark off hope among wannabe writers who are delaying writing their masterpieces because of ‘market considerations. Those who have succeeded in writing bestselling books without regard to the market will give you two hoots.

Get the drift? Good.

Now where do you quickly get ideas and inspiration for your Fight Club Content?

Other Chapters in the Book:

Chapter 1 High-Quality Content that Drives Readers Away

Chapter 2 Start Looking for Trouble Like a Politician

Chapter 3 How to Attack Popular Ideas and Replace Them With Your Point of View

Chapter 4 Where to Quickly Find Limitless Ideas for Fight Club Content

Chapter 5 How to Study and Analyze Fight Club Content

Check out Fight Club Content Strategy : The 10-Minute Fix to Triple Your Blog Readers and Drive Engagement

8 Comments

  1. Vivek

    Nice article on “How to Write Fight Club Content : Step-By-Step” i read the whole article and enjoyed a lot……..

    Thank you so much…….Keep inspiring us

  2. Celine

    hello
    nice article..

  3. chris

    very nice… i really like your blog…

  4. Anjali

    thanks for sharing your knowledge

  5. Harry Kalyan

    Hey
    The Article was very useful keep it up with the good work

  6. ANIL GUPTA

    nice post

  7. Art Pen Ru

    I love the Fight Club (book and movie) and I love this post. I will keep these in mind and bookmark this page. Then I will start writing again.

  8. Higgie Somers

    Looks realy great! Thanks for the post.

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