How To Write About Unfamiliar Topics
How Can I Write An Article Or Make A Lens On Something I Know NOTHING About?
It happens to all of us at one point. You’re gliding along following my weekly action plan of some other way to earn money with free websites. You’re ready to start a new campaign, article, or lens and you’re ready to go! You go check out some newly released Clickbank products and a find a really great-looking product. Now, you’re REALLY excited. But then it hits you – Rut Roh! You know NOTHING about that topic. How can you write an article or lens about something you know NOTHING about?
Two obvious choices in this situation are:
1) Buy the product and see what it’s all about. However, for many of us, buying every single product we’d like to refer to others just isn’t financially possible.
2) Spend a few hours on the internet researching the topic, taking notes, and learning as much as you can so you can start creating lenses or writing articles.
Neither of these choices worked for me.
So, here is what I do.
PotPieGirl’s ShortCut to Instant Niche Knowledge
Let’s say I’m ready to start something new. I like those little obscure markets so I take a peek at the newly released products on Clickbank to see what looks promising. Oh, I found one… there is a new ebook out that is about how to start a soap making business. (granted, this is just for the sake of this example).
But… there is a problem…
I don’t know diddly-squat about soap making. In my world, soap is “made” when I open the box and put it in the shower. How it gets in the box… I have no clue. And all those cutesy soaps? Those come my way at Christmas. So, I suppose Santa makes soap? 😉
ANYWAY, back to my example Clickbank product…
I like this ebook. The market doesn’t look slam-packed and unobtainable so I decide I want to give it a test and see how we do. But I sure don’t want to spend the next 4-5 hours online learning about soap making just so I can get a decent lens up.
When Unfamiliar With A Niche Topic – Use This
All I really want is a summary of the topic so I can get the gist of it and get to writing. Wouldn’t it be cool if there was some free online program that would “read” the internet about a topic or keyword and just give you the gist of it all?
There is!
GistWeb is a great FREE online tool to keep on bookmark. Simply enter your terms or keywords and let the program get the gist of the internet FOR you.
You are then returned with a neat little short article that gives you a great over-view of that topic.
Nifty- neato, huh?
Now, don’t go copy/pasting that content on your lens or for your article. That is a bad idea. But using that content to organize the topic in your mind and then recreating into your own words is a GREAT idea…
And you just saved a ton of time!
Hey I have been hearing so much about gistweb and I finally got over there to try it out, and it does not seem to be working. What a shame, it looked really fun!!!
Jackie
It’s the darndest thing, Jackie. I was writing that post, using GistWeb…and it worked great.
I publish the post…. and it stops working. Did I break it? lol!
Sorry all! Hopefully it will be back up and running soon!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
The concept sound familiar with IAW. But it’s not working as it should. I tried 3 keywords but all of them return the error message that “Too little content to create a summary.”.
I tried viewing other people search results as well but was presented with the same thing.
Waken | NetBizSimplifieds last blog post..How To Make Blog Comments & Build Links The Right Way
Still not working. I’ve tried for 3 days now.
Seems like a great idea though .. I’ll try again in a few days.
Potpiegirl always recommends tons of good stuff. For Internet Marketers who haven’t made much money online, I hotly recommend you all to buy her one week marketing book.
Her book is precious.
Tried it today. Couldn’t get any results 🙁
Great tip!
Exactly what I needed for that little added info to put in my lenses and articles.
Scott
Sounded to me like a really neat idea. Pity about it being out of action though. I’m not sure if this is just a temporary fault or whether it’s been removed by order. There has been some talk about a clampdown on plagiarism.
GistWeb appears not to be working. I tries GistWeb again just now. I clicked on some of the Recent Summaries and I get this message: “Too little content to create a summary.”
Jennifer,
I am working on lenses following your One Week Marketing.
I have some questions I hope you will answer:
Even if I buy a product – ebook – how much and what information from the ebook do I use without working against the product’s landing page?
And if I use my own research without buying the ebook. How can I be sure the research information does not conflict with the ebook information?
Is it workable to have … let’s say … a groups of three or fours or five lenses for the same product but each lens targeting different aspects of the ebook or product?
Sorr y for the many questions. I am sure I will have more questions as I follow though with the program. Thanks.
Erics last blog post..New Bicycle
Hi Jennifer and fellow worshipers,
I think it really pays off to have a great education but now this country is filled with tons of PHD’s working checkout counters.
Now it is time to pay those school loans , unless your rich or overworked parents all ready did that for you, because if you don’t you’ll destroy your credit and will never see the American dream.
I am a fifty something who decided to go back to college to find that they are just a business allowing me to take twenty classes that had nothing to do with mt degree program.
Now I am stuck with a student loan that the state I live in should be paying.
So if you think you’re alone and you’re the only one you’re not.
My point is this; being in college it was my past experience with 3 classes to graduate plus twenty classes going toward nothing I knew how to write about things I did not care about while I made that college money.
YOU CAN DO THIS!
This looks like a great tool, but I’m experiencing another problem with it. It tells me I need to add it to my trusted sites in IE, which I’ve done, and set to low level security. But it still gives me the same message.
Oh well, maybe I’ll try again in a few days to see if it’s the site. Otherwise, it sounds very much like IAW. Having a free tool that does the same or close to the same thing would be wonderful.
Hi Jennifer,
This sounds like a great site. I’ve tried to use it but I get a message that says I need to add it to my trusted site in IE. I hope they get the bugs worked out, this will be a great tool to have.
Charlottes last blog post..It’s Puppy training time!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
And anybody who has not yet bought the One Week Marketing book… It is great.
You must be a mind reader, Jennifer. I’ve been at the computer for hours today researching topics I know NOTHING about.
If it worked it would be a big time saver. Doesn’t work in IE or Mozilla. Too bad.
Hi all – Just a note from a fellow reader (thank you, Gary!)
“Just to note that you need IE to use their tools and you have to set them up as a trusted site.”
So, y’all try that and see if this nifty little tool won’t work for you =)
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
Has anyone gotten Gistweb to work yet? I’ve followed their instructions and using IE, but I still get the prompt telling me to configure IE.
It’s too bad it only works with Internet Explorer. I only use Firefox. The next time I go to the library, I’ll try it.
For all of you that can’t make this site work, read on I have instructions that should work for you.
First, Jennifer…..you are the coolest! Tomorrow is the start of week 2 for me, and I wanted to write about something that I was not familiar with because I knew it was going to come up.
Actually, I was just talking about it with my Fiance` when your PERFECTLY timed auto-responder message came in……..that is some good thinking!
Anyway, I found out how to make this thing work, so for all of you IE haters, you’ll be fine, just don’t use IE8 as it’s in Beta right now and it’s really bad, so get IE7 or IE6 if you can.
Now, to make this site work:
Do what the message tells you.
IE: Tools–>Internet Options–>Security–>Highlight “Trusted Sites” and click “Sites” then click “Add” …the address will already be in there for you, and if not just copy/paste it in and click “Add”
Seems like you are done right…….not yet!
After you click “Add” you will see your “Security settings for this zone” and you will see a button that says “Custom Level”….go ahead and click on that button.
Now, at the bottom it will say “Reset to” and it will have a drop-down box that will say anything form “Medium” to “High” depending on your settings.
You click the dropdown, and select “low” which is what the site wants you to do, but if you simply click “ok” after that it still doesn’t work…..why?
Here’s why:
After you set your settings to “low” you MUST click the button to the right that says “Reset”!!!!!
Then IE will ask you if you are sure you want to keep the changes, click “OK” or “Yes”..I forgot what it said.
Then click “Apply” then “Ok” if necessary, and it works like a charm.
Sorry for the long post, but this little site is too cool and I couldn’t stand all of the people that read this great site not being able to use it, so have fun…
Wally
@Wally
Thanks for that bit of clarification. Actually, I discovered that by accident; the “reset to” button implies taking things back to the way they were, not “apply these changes”. But once I got that applied, it worked like a charm.
Thanks! 🙂
Hi Everyone,
I have a carpet cleaning business in Houston,TX that was doing pretty good until the economy went bad, and with it my clientele. I have a website for the business but I dont
know what I have to do the get it to show up in a search. Right now it’s somewhere in the yahoo/google netherworld (LOL).
Is there someone on here that can give me some insight or know of anyone that coud give me insight on how I can get my local website on the front
page of a Yahoo or Google search to increase my business without it costing me 5 or 10k $$$? If so please share with me.
I thank you and my hungry over-eating children thank you.
thanks,
Hi,
I used the reset button and it still doesn’t work for me. Nice tool though.
Love your stuff PotPieGirl. Working on my first week.
Hi Jen,
IAlso tried the site found it “out of order” as the rest of the posts above. I’m new here just recently started with the OWM e-book and am finding it very valuable. There is tons of useful info out there even at WA but the difference you make is in how you simplify the steps to take. Thanks for a great product, look forward to learning a lot from you.
Nes
Bless your cotton socks!
Shame it doesn’t work in firefox.
Kev
Hi all,
I too am a boomer who went back to school, and have a school loan to pay off now, so thanks, Michael, for the encouragement!
GistWeb looks great BUT i only use Firefox…know of anything comparable in Firefox???
Thanks.
Hi all,
GistWeb is working OK now on Firefox – just used it and it is a gem to have available. Thanks Jen
I contacted GISTWeb about the problem because I get an error message thar says it can only work with IE and they said basically there is nothing they can do if I have done what the error message prompts say. Not a great load of help. I could really use this tool! Lisa
Lisa, the same thing happened to me, but it does work if you do two things:
1) make the adjustments to your settings in IE and…
2) remember to apply those changes by clicking on the “reset” button. It’s not enough that you make changes to the dropdown menu, you must also click the reset button in order for them to take effect.
I hope this helps. 🙂
Y’all are the best! Thank you so much for helping each other out this way!!!!
It’s really, really cool to watch =)
Hi Jen,
I really like what this site says it does, but I cannot get it to work and I did follow the steps that Wally suggested above… too bad, it looks as if it would be really useful IF IT WORKED!
Thanks,
Cindy
Cindys last blog post..Catch That Cheater!
This was exactly the question on my mind when I started reading OWM a week a ago..” I DON”T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT XYZ… how am I supposed to write about it?!”
Thanks for the heads up Jen. I’m still a a bit puzzled though. How do I turn 1 article from Gistweb into at least 5 lenses and 5 articles pointing to each lens i.e how do you guys generate enough content to for any new niche you know nothing about?
Hi Jen,
One of your faithful followers here…thanks again for great advice and content….you are an inspiration! Your OWM is awesome…thought I’d give something back…check out the free toolbar at cashkeywords.com and tell me what you think…I am a noob but it seems to be pretty cool so far!
Thanks mucho!
Carole
FireFox Fans: Just click on the tab at top that says Gist. They have a box at the top that says drag this Gist It link to your bookmarks toolbar. It only summarizes just the page you’re on, but it’s better than nothing. When you want to know what a page is about just click on the gist it bookmark and it’ll summarize it. (in a new tab)
Tried having gist it as an ie tab using the Firefox ie tab add-on, but didn’t work. Not changing the trusted site settings for IE to low. IE security is why I use FireFox lol!
This look interesting,so far.
If it’s not just all bots here, let me know. I’m looking to network
Oh, and yes I’m a real person LOL.
Peace,
Hello Jen,
Thank you for your unbelievably fast response to my question in the WA forum, you are very supportive indeed.
Unfortunately, i still can’t get gistweb to work…it still gives the same message about using IE, reset the security, blah,blah,blah. I read all the responses on this thread and the vast majority of folks here have the same exact problem. I followed the instructions to the letter and still no luck. Too bad, it would have been a great tool to use. Ok, so any alternative free tools or websites we can use for research ? I don’t want some miracle tool to write the articles for me, just a trustworthy place like gistweb where i could get enough info to study,understand and write in my own words to write a unique, quality article. If i have to spend all day just to gather enough info for 1 lens, then it seems article marketing may provide an income but steals all your time. And time is more precious to me than $. I hope you understand what i am trying to say. Thanks for all you do for us, Jen, you are awesome.
P.S. This issue has really ruined my day, wasted so much time trying to fix it, instead of writing lenses…ughhh 🙁
I finally had that Ahhaa !! moment 🙂
to Margaret
kudos to you for your tip on using gistweb with firefox, even though it only “gists” the current page, that is good enough. thanks for sharing that invaluable piece of info, many folks on this thread will benefit from that.
to Jen
i found a great way to use the limited (firefox) gistweb method by combining it with a few resource directories like wikipedia and especially http://www.about.com. All you have to do is scroll through these, find a few webpages that are relevant to the topic, gist it and then copy and paste the info to a blank word document. Pick out the info that you like and will help the consumers, ie. general overview, benefits, helpful tips, etc. and you have plenty of meat for your articles. And you can also “gist” the vendors page to get more in-depth info about their product’s benefits. Last step is to simply re-write the article in your own personal words to make it your own so it’s unique.
What do you think Jen, sounds like a good plan or not ? your feedback on this would probably help a lot of the new affiliates here.
Thanks for everything 🙂
i need to make a correction…
in my earlier post i said “re-write the article in your own personal words”. that is incorrect…what i meant was, take the info that you get from the reference websites, and pick out some small but relevant information from several topic searches that you find, put it all together, pick out the good stuff you think would benefit the consumer and construct your own personal article from that info, using your own writing style and personality.
Ok, good, i didn’t want anybody to misunderstand me and start copy/pasting articles, that would be a bad idea. You still have to write your own stuff, but my method is just the starting point for your research. Hope that clarifies things, good luck to everyone 🙂