Producing content is without doubt one of the biggest bottlenecks when it comes to building websites.
Whether it’s for content on a money site or content used for link building, your cost to produce content is either going to be your own time to write, or your own money to outsource. Both present challenges when it comes to scaling your operations.
The problem with paying for content:
If you pay for articles to be produced, there’s a fairly lengthy list of issues that you need to deal with on an ongoing basis, including;
- Finding quality writers in the first place (there goes hours of time!)
- Placing the orders and having to give very thorough directions to avoid useless articles being delivered
- Having enough work to satisfy high quality writers before they go elsewhere for more work
- Assessing the quality of their work once content is delivered
- Correcting article mistakes and errors
- Writers accepting a job and then flaking on you at the last minute before your deadline
Even though outsourcing is certainly the way to go over producing 100% of the content yourself, it’s certainly not a “hands-off” game and it does take time to manage.
The problem with producing content yourself:
If you’re trying to keep costs to a minimum, then researching and writing articles yourself is probably the biggest bottleneck you’ll face.
I’ve been here myself and have personally opted against starting sites in niches that I am unfamiliar with because I can’t be bothered spending all that time researching and learning the niche PLUS writing articles.
The research phase for niches you are unfamiliar with is a killer. For the main pillar articles on your money sites, on a per article basis, you are likely to spend as much time, probably more, researching an article than you are writing it.
You may be able to knock out articles quickly, but learning what to write about is the major challenge I found when I was producing the majority of my content personally on topics I was not familiar with.
I’m definitely not alone here and through our Internships and Private Training Courses we’ve found that producing quality content is the biggest overall time suck.
So, we set about launching an experiment to see if we can develop a tool that can slash the time it takes to research and write articles that would be suitable for a money site.
Our goal was to cut the time it takes to write SEOd money site quality articles by 50% and to a quality that would see them pass at an average or above approval rating through a service like Textbroker.
How the tool works:
We haven’t got to that point of testing yet, but I wanted to give you a recorded example of where we’re at with the software.
I decided to record myself using the software to write a complete article for the very first time and I’m fairly impressed with what the software can do!
My test – Produce 500+ words, in under 25 minutes, on a topic I’m not familiar with:
Until recording the video below, I had not used the software before to produce an article. To put it to the test, I set out to write a minimum 500 word article on the topic of life insurance, a niche I am largely unfamiliar with and to get that done in under 25 minutes.
I’ve never written an article on life insurance and never done any research on the topic. I have a life insurance policy, but that was all setup through my financial advisor and I basically just gave him a dollar figure I wanted cover for and he set up the policy on my behalf. Suffice to say, I know very little about life insurance, certainly not enough to be able to write an article without significant research.
I’ve included a copy of the finished article at the bottom of this post and immediately below is me using the software to research and write the article
Recording of me researching and producing a 586 word article in under 21 minutes!
So there you have it, a 586 word article on a topic I’m unfamiliar with, researched + written in under 21 minutes!
Most people can pump out a 586 word article in 21 minutes on a topic they are familiar with, but to include research would usually double the time at a minimum. Very happy with the result!
What do you think?
We’re not sure how we’re going to proceed with this software (release it for public use, include as part of our courses or establish it as a paid product), but if you are interested in using it, or have any feature you think would be valuable additions to it if you were to gain access, please drop a comment below.
Copy of the completed article:
Information about life insurance policies
Insurance can be a confusing topic with plenty of jargon. Let us help you out with some explanations of insurance terms!
Insurance Companies:
Given that insurance policies for life insurance pay out after death, obviously, it is your nominated beneficiaries that will deal with the insurance company you hold your policy with in the instance that you pass on.
It is not the responsibility of insurance companies to hound you to pay out on benefits should your loved one pass on. That ultimately is your responsibility so be sure to have your loved one who holds the policy keep you up to date with the physical location of the policy and any other particulars.
Term Life Vs Whole Life Cover:
Many people are unsure whether they should opt for term life insurance or whole life insurance. Read on for more information! Although it can at first seem confusing, with a little bit of research you will soon grasp the key concepts!
If cost is a factor, understand that term life cover is less expensive that whole life cover. Certain policies and certain insurance companies will allow you to change policy terms during the course of your coverage. .
Term Life Insurance:
With this form of cover, you get insurance for a specific period of time at a guaranteed rate. As with other policies, you get to name the beneficiary of the policy at the time of entering into the contract.
You can set a limit or duration of the policy for short or long term, for example 30 years or as little as one month! There are certain types of policies where the death benefit paid decreases over time, and so do the premiums paid as a result. This is usually on a year by year basis.
Whole Life Insurance:
With this form of cover, you receive protection for life and the premium options are level or single. There are two components of these policies; a savings component and a fixed component.
Whole life insurance will accumulate cash value within a tax-deferred basis.
Universal-Life Policies:
This form of policy is very similar to whole life cover, whoever they are often said to provide a little more flexibility. These policies give you the usual death benefit paid out with other policies, but also a cash account in addition. You can change the premium and the death benefit at any time during the policy being held.
Permanent Life Insurance:
This form of policy is best taken out when the need for insurance is over a long period of time. One downside of this type of cover is that the premiums will be a little more expensive that on term life insurance policies. These types of policy do not accumulate cash value.
Cash Benefits:
Once you pass on, the beneficiaries of your insurance policy will be paid what is owing as per the terms of the policy, by the insurer. Term life insurance is the most popular form of insurance as the benefit is set at the start of the policy and remains fixed throughout.
Interestingly, you can actually use death benefits as collateral to borrow funds. Given that the responsibility to claim on an insurance policy rests with the beneficiaries, often the benefits will go unclaimed!
Overall, the life insurance industry is quite complex, however we hope that this article has shed some light on what is often a confusing topic. As always, look to consult with an insurance expert to identify the best insurance for you personally.
Be interesting to see if this post starts ranking for life insurance long tail keywords lol :-).
Amir says:
Now where was this tool when I wrote the one pager 4500+ words on funeral insurance!
I spent a week researching and another 4 days writing that content just for google to slap it with a thinny!
I left a part of me in that article ;-)
Anyway, truly amazing tool (scary almost). I thinking it should be yes to all of the above you mentioned.
1) Have it as a paid product to further fund development
2) Include a basic version of it in the course with premium option for extra $$$
Regarding suggestions:
1) Add expand/collapse all button so you don’t have to click on each box
2) Add a word count and tally each time you click a box
3) Add an enable/disable spell checker button so you can focus on the writing without the red underline.
4) Name it ContentHero ;-)
If i think of more i will let you know. Keep up the amazing work guys.
GregNunan says:
lol, the old thinny ‘ey! Thanks Amir, great feedback!
StellTechdigital says:
This data mining tool is with having.
Ironically, I am studying life and health insurance course as I write this note here.
Keep up the gray work. Let me know if you need anything.
Cheers
Carla
StellTech
Yaro says:
Great tool Greg,
1. Since the tool snips paragraphs from internet, don’t you think Google will discover copy cat and will penalize website with this content?
If not and this tool will become popular online then Google will change their algorithm to identify copycats created by this tool.
2. You guys have many visitors and some one can make similar tool soon. I will suggest just start selling it otherwise it will be too late.
Thanks,
Yaro
GregNunan says:
Thanks Yaro. Answering those questions:
1) The tool snips sentences from various websites which are combined into a paragraph and re-written. So I don’t see that as an issue.
2) Our intention was never to sell it in the first place > that was just an afterthought. We developed it to make content production for our own sites easier. If it gives someone an idea to build something similar that’s fantastic!!
Yaro says:
Alright! Great job guys and thanks for sharing!
Rob says:
I think it is a great tool but the article still needs to be checked for readability just as it would have to be done if you wrote it yourself or had it outsourced. I believe there are at least two words that are used that don’t make sense. Whoever should be however in the first sentence of Univeral Life Policies.
Still seems like a worthwhile tool that you have created.
GregNunan says:
User error not tool error those typos. Thanks.
Vegard says:
Hey,
really great tool!
I would love to get my hands on this one. And I would gladly pay some $$.
GregNunan says:
Thanks Vegard.
Bryan Glanz says:
I would love to use this product but even in a reduced capacity.
I wouldn’t even need the google snippets of sentences. Just keywords would be. Just drag and reorder text with distraction free.
Start as a free with add-ons, find where people are using add-ons and build a paid product around the most popular items.
Anisul Islam says:
Looks like a great tool Greg! I have two questions though-
1) How does this tool differ from other spinning tools out there like ‘the best spinner’ or whatever. As I know, those tools can also pull articles/paragraphs from all other places in the internet.
2) How does this tool maintain logical correlation between sentences/paragraphs?
GregNunan says:
Hey Anisul,
1) The best spinner delivers a spun article based on synonyms. I think G is smart enough to work out spun articles from manually re-written. This tool is not so much about reducing the writing time, it’s more reducing the research time. It reduces time for both, but it was mainly built to cut down researching articles within niches users are unfamiliar with.
2) I have no idea about the technical aspects of it! But it finds related keywords and then pulls X amount of sentences for each keyword from Google results. The user then puts those sentence into a paragraph. You can see from the video how effective it is.
Wayne Vass says:
I’d love to get my hands on something like this…..let me know if you guys decide to sell it..
GregNunan says:
Will do Wayne.
Thomas says:
I really like the tool. I could definitely use it. So far ive really just stuck to niches im somewhat familiar with for the same reasons you mentioned. Awesome tool it would be super useful. (A lot better than content creature)
Greg says:
Having spent time in the insurance business I can say the article is spot on. Well done. I certainly would be interested in the software.
Victoria says:
This looks simple to use and I like that you can rewrite and add your own “flavor” to the snippets. I’d like to try it for 30 days to see how much time it would take me do go through the process and if it would help with writing regular blog posts. Let me know what you guys decide to do with it.
Glenn says:
Great piece of software. As a suggestion, perhaps the ability to add your own keywords to generate paragraphs?
Another would be to give out a free copy to your readers whose suggestions you’ll take on board to improve the software. Thanks in advance! :)
GregNunan says:
Hold that thought Glenn. An issue with no. of concurrent users atm, but we’ve got a small test group using it now. Will likely require more.
Kat says:
This is gold. I have been struggling with the time it is taking to research and write articles for my sites. Looks easy to use and would save time. Well done guys.
GregNunan says:
Thanks Kat.
Zeus says:
Try Article Builder.It is more advance than your product and you can get it for about $15/month.
GregNunan says:
Article builder is not money site quality. And it’s rarely 100% unique.
GregNunan says:
I should add that AB is a reasonable product. Have used it myself. But not for the purpose we want.
Randy says:
I wish I could be part of the beta test. One of the most difficult things for me is content creation and being on a tight budget outsourcing is not an option right now. I love the concept of this software and the ease of use apears to be outstanding.
Alan says:
Looks like a great tool. Id be interested in it. Would be useful to include a spell checker tool with it and perhaps basic word functions, bold, underline etc
Tao says:
I have written my own PHP script that does something similar and yes, it does really work well.
The best part is that your articles are all in “your voice” and I find it very easy to write on a subject I know nothing about and extend a 500 word article to near 800 without too much effort. I take my son to football (soccer) practice on a Saturday morning and spend that hour re-writing an article for my site.
Adam says:
Would pay $ for this!
Gillian says:
I would love to try this out. Content creation is one of the largest time sucks in this whole process!! Put me on the list to help you test it!
James Brooks says:
Looks super interesting Greg. Love stuff like this! Thanks for sharing.
GregNunan says:
Pleasure!
David Forer says:
Great stuff and I would love to {use|try|test|sample|borrow|evaluate|examine} this new tool
GregNunan says:
lol. love it!
Robert van Boxtel says:
Is it possible to use this tool for other languages, like Dutch?
That would be great ;)
Robert
GregNunan says:
THAT is a very good question, beyond my scope of expertise to answer lol > will forward onto the team developing it!
Mohit Tyagi says:
Nice tool maybe you can add speech to text functionality which can reduce the time to rewrite these articles.
GregNunan says:
Would be cool! Pricey too maybe?
Casey says:
The quality is pretty damn amazing. I could really use this right now. I’ve been thinking of ideas to produce content faster, all day. Lol
Andre Campbell says:
Wow, that’s pretty impressive. I’d definitely be interested in something like this. Save me a lot of time and money, while still having quality.
Sam says:
When will this be available?
Mike says:
Hi, I’m intrigued by your content-authoring software and would love to try a copy. I’m glad to be following the progress you are making with Pat Flynn’s Security Guard site, as well.
Mike
Robert says:
I like the looks of this tool. I do have a couple of questions.
1: It looks like this post went live over a month ago. Are you seeing this post ranking?
2: Anyway to get involved in the beta of this system?
Jesse says:
Looks like a useful software. Would be perfect to use on all my sites. Please let me know if you’re letting people try it still.
GregNunan says:
Currently allowing access for our interns to use it and it’s going very well!
Pete Thorn says:
Hi there, sounds really interesting.
But whatever happened to this tool? Did you ever release it or kept it for internal use only?
I’m a fan of instant article wizard and such and wonder how this differs.