How to Use Mindmaps to Create High Quality Content at Breakneck Speed

This is a guest post by Sharyn Sheldon at Business Content PLR.

How to Use Mindmaps to Create High Quality Content at Breakneck Speed 

Do you ever dread the thought of sitting down to write an article or create some fresh, high quality content for your blog? Maybe you have an idea you want to write about, but you get stuck in the middle. In my case, there are times when I can't even get the first sentence out because there are too many ideas and I don’t know which one to choose first. Other times, the words flow smoothly and quickly.

The key to speeding up your web content writing pace is good planning. If you’re like me, you probably learned about creating outlines in grade school. You might even resist creating an outline for that very reason. After all, we're free of all those restrictions now, right? Wrong! An outline is your best friend in developing a piece of content that flows beautifully and speedily.

Using Mindmaps to Create Content Outlines

How can you create an outline without the pain of feeling like you're back in Mrs. Murphy’s class, watching the clock and waiting for the bell to ring? One great way is by using a mindmap. This can be done either with a piece of paper, or some software. I use Freemind on my PC and iThoughtsHD on my iPad. The first is free and the second is $9.99. You can see an example of the mindmap I used for this article in the image above.

Once you're ready to focus on some content creation, here are the steps to follow to get your outline/mindmap laid out:

1. Plan the topic.

This is as simple as doing some keyword research to identify a topic that people want to hear or read about. This is the center “node” of your mindmap. You can think of a catchy title later.

2. Identify your main points.

The major points of your content form the skeleton of your mindmap. Each one is a branch off the center node. If you are not sure what your main points should be, then do a little research first and jot down all the points you want to make. Then group those into the major categories that will form your skeleton.

3. Identify at least 3 supporting points for each major branch.

These supporting arguments are branches that come off each major branch. They would form the sub-bullets in a slide or paragraph.

4. Note examples for each branch or point.

You don't need to have examples for everything, but there should be at least one per major branch. Add them under the list of supporting argument branches, or insert them as branches that come off the ones they relate to.

5. Move branches around to reorganize your mindmap as needed.

Now that you have a full visual of your content, you will see what's missing or what doesn't make sense.

6. Finally, create a branch that will be your conclusion.

Add some sub-branches that reflect any concluding thoughts you want to emphasize.

Now that your mindmap outline is done, you are ready to create the actual content piece. You can record yourself talking through the points on the map, create slides that contain each point, create a video as you talk through each slide, and/or just write an article from the outline. A combination of these and other methods will give you a variety of unique content pieces all from one mindmap - great for building traffic and link diversification!

I hope this gets your creative juices flowing and eager to start mapping some ideas. It's a breeze to write high quality content when you are freed from the task of struggling for ideas as you write. With it all laid out, you can focus on other things (like finding an interesting word to use from thesaurus.com).

Another great way to create unique content quickly is to apply these same tactics with a PLR article. Grab my FREE guide to learn more – 10 Easy Steps to Creating Unique Content with PLR.

About the Author: Sharyn Sheldon is first and foremost an avid learner. She has spent over 20 years working with Fortune 500 companies designing learning solutions that improve employee performance. Now she has taken that love of learning to the internet with Business Content PLR. If you are a business consultant, coach, or internet marketing service provider, her site is the place to go for content that will help you and your customers achieve business success.

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Comments

[Sharyn Sheldon]

Denise, Thanks for posting my article!

I should also mention that mindmaps are great for brainstorming ideas for articles in the first place. Then you can break out each one into a new mindmap. Some people don't even bother writing their article, they just dictate it from the points and then have someone else write it up.

Would love to get others' thoughts and ideas.

- Sharyn

[Blogging tips]

Thanks Sharyn Sheldon for this unique post, Mindmaping is a great way to create High quality content. Example you have given is truly amazing. A rare content that i ever come across.

[Angie]

Great article! I love mind maps once I started to understand them more.

I actually did quite the mind map on my flight home from NAMS this past week for a project I'm working on.

Side question: I'm trying to email an iThoughtsHD mind map to myself from the iPad but it's just not working. Are there any tricks for that to work?

[Tom Treanor]

Thanks for the post. This inspired me to try mind maps one more time. I used it to brainstorm all of the posts I plan to write and it worked well for me so I appreciate the reminder!

[sarah]

Hi,
very informative article. Writing content sounds easy now. Thanks to the mind maps. No more wasting time wondering where to start.

Sarah

[Richard F. Sands]

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