SMART TIPS FOR RESEARCHING AND FINDING RELEVANT CONTENT FASTER

When given a keyword or topic to write about, the first step is to research: find
relevant information related to that particular topic or keyword. This is where
many writers waste a lot of time simply because they don’t have smart research
skills.

If you want to be leaps and bounds ahead of thousands of other writers, you
should have smart and fast research and typing skills. You’ll deliver high quality
content within a short time. All good clients are searching for writers who can do
exactly that and finding them is rare.

But that should not worry you because at the end of this lesson, you’ll start
researching like a pro. Guaranteed!

We will look at researching content in three ways:

I. Using search engines

II. Using article directories

III. What to do when you can’t seem to find content online

I. USING SEARCH ENGINES

There are numerous search engines out there but I prefer the world’s most
popular search engine – Google. But I came across another superb one recently.
It’s called Duckduckgo.

We’ll look at each of these two.

A. Google

To get the most from Google, you are going to need to change the settings to show
100 search results rather than the usual 10.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Type google.com in your browser and enter

2. Click on settings at the bottom right corner then on search settings from
the drop down menu
3. The search settings page will open. Now click on ‘never show instant
results’ and also adjust results per page from 10 to 100

4. Click on ‘save’ at the bottom of the page and you’re now ready to research
content like a pro.
10 Least Known Tricks to Help You Use Google Like a Pro

1. Keep your search word short (at most 10 words)

Google limits you to 10 words. Anything beyond that is either ignored or

2. Google interprets single and plural search words/keywords differently

So, if you’re type in a keyword in its singular form and nothing shows up, try to
type in its plural form and vice versa.

3. Google tends to ignore most of the short words such as the, an, was, and, how, I,
is, or etc.

4. Word order is important when searching on Google

The first word is the most important one

5. Choose search words carefull

Before typing a search word in the search box, think about a word or its synonym
that sounds familiar to many people. For example, instead of searching for
Monday laziness, try something like Monday blues, instead of head pain, try
headache and so on.

6. Keep your search simple

Regardless of the word you’re searching for, use its simplest form. For example if
you’re searching for the meaning of the abbreviation M.I.A, you can type in
something like ‘M.I.A meaning’ or ‘what is M.I.A in full’? You’ll see top search
results that show M.I.A means Missing In Action.

7. Add a few descriptive words to get what you’re searching for.

For example, a client gives me a keyword: bouncing castles and I want to search
for related articles online.
Chances are if I type in ‘bouncing castle in Melbourne’ I may get lots of
useless results, mainly results showing sites that sell or hire out bouncing
castles. Yet I need blog posts articles with general, informative content on
bouncing castles.

In that case, I may vary my keyword to something like Bouncing castles blogs or
bouncing castles articles or even bouncing castles Melbourne.

8. Use search operatives to get more accurate results

Many search operatives will give you accurate search results on Google. The ones
I commonly use are the plus sign (+) and quotation marks (“)

Example:

Your keyword is “bathe an elephant indoors.” To get accurate results to help you
start writing about this keyword, you can type in the search box the same
keyword with quotation marks i.e. “bathe an elephant indoors”.

And like I said earlier, remember to give your article a unique title; probably
something like
16 Interesting Ways to Bathe an Elephant Indoors.

When using the plus sign, ensure you place it before each word and without
spacing.

Example:

Keyword given: how to tell if a guy likes you

Keyword with plus sign: how+to+tell+if+a+guy+likes+you

Get creative by using these two operators in your Google search and you’ll end up
with incredible and well-researched content. Such content will definitely wow your
client and possibly get you a tip from them.

9. Don’t ask Google questions like you ask humans

While Google gives answers to most questions, it’s a search engine and not a
human being. So don’t keep asking it questions if you want to get good search
results.

Example:

Wrong search term: In which country do people worship cow?

Correct search term: people worship cow in

10.Don’t worry about small things

Google has inbuilt features to autocorrect any typos before processing any search.
Also, whether you type in words in lower case or upper case letters, it doesn’t
make any difference to Google; you’ll receive the same results.
B. DuckDuckGo

Well, for the past two weeks, I have been using DuckDuckGo to research for
useful content online and voila! I’m thinking I may make it my default search
engine and forget about Google for a while.

DuckDuckGo is a search engines that has been gaining popularity lately because
it does those things that users want Google to do yet Google doesn’t give a damn
about those things.

So here are top 4 reasons you should start using this awesome search engine:

1. Clean

When you search for something in a search engine, the last thing you want is a
collection of annoying ads like what Google does.

DuckDuckGo doesn’t show ads. Period

2. Privacy

Did you know that when you search anything on Google, your search history is
stored somewhere?

This is even worse when you’re searching for something and you’re logged into a
Google account such as Gmail.

Someone can trace your search results to your Gmail address. And, even if you’re
not logged in, you could still be traced through your IP number as Google records
your computer’s IP data.

While this may not mean much to an average user, someone can tell volumes
about you if they happen to know what you usually search on the Internet.
Creepy, huh?

But don’t worry because DuckuckGo doesn’t collect or share your search
information. Their privacy policy is dope.

3. One page displays all search results

Unlike Google, you won’t need to adjust the number of search results per page.
Once you search for anything, all matching search results show up like a brick
ton. Your work is now to scroll down to what you want.

And I realized most of its search results are so relevant.

4. Zero-Click Info

Once you search for a word in DuckDuckGo, the search results show. But at the
top of them all, you’ll see a summary of what you’re searching for.
This search engine consolidates and fetches info from reputable sites then gives a
summary at the top there. This can come in handy when you’d like to know the
meaning of a term.

So, there you have it! So would you prefer Google or DuckDuckGo? I think
combining both will make you start thinking like a walking search engine.

Follow these tips and you’ll start writing content that is rich in master-level value
and you’ll start charging $50 and above for 500 words articles like I know some
writers do.