When you’re a freelance writer, it can be tough to start every new piece of content from scratch. The smarter way to go about it is to come up with a formula for yourself to continue to write strong content. In the initial stages, however, it can take a significant amount of trial and error to find a suitable formula.

It’s essential to meticulously go through all your articles and gauge which are successful and which are not. So, how do you gauge success? If you are writing on a performance basis, then you can judge your articles by page views or social media shares. When you are writing content that is listed in a marketplace, the critical thing is your success at selling specific articles. This article aims to prove the reasons it’s vital to carry out this performance measurement exercise and how it will help you improve your own writing prowess while significantly cutting down turn-around times.

1. What works once will work again

When you write an article that’s successful, there’s a reason it performed well. It’s true you may not be able to sell a similar article again in the near future because sometimes you need to wait for certain trends. However, it’s likely the trend will come again, so another article on a similar topic will sell

2. Your clients will want related content

If you have a client that buys one of your pieces, they probably have a use for it on one of their sites/blogs. Therefore, they will want more content that is based on a similar subject and will expect the same high standard from you. Also, if they shared your article on social media and it was well received, they will be hoping for a similar result again.

Therefore, it is in your best interests to continue to follow a successful formula, and hopefully, your client will get the same result. Of course, if this happens, they will keep coming back to you for more content, as they are assured of high standards and strong page views. Remember the key to any successful business is regular buyers and to keep delivering what they want.

Read: Content Marketing: A guide to promote your online business

3. It makes process easier for any freelance writer

Planning articles is a crucial part of the process because you can only write what you have planned. Coming up with ideas can be a challenge, especially when you want to create content that won’t become dated quickly, so current news is not usually of much use. The fact of the matter is you want to limit the amount of guesswork involved.

If you know you have written an article on a specific subject that proved to be successful, writing a similar piece while it’s still fresh in your mind should be straightforward. Therefore, the entire process becomes so much easier and it’s less of a risk because of your prior success.

As a freelance writer, it’s important to pay attention to trends and when you enjoy success, remember why that is. It’s probably worth keeping a record of titles and noting which keywords worked best for you. Simply remember writing similar content takes some of the risks away, which means your clients will know what to expect from you and that makes the whole process simpler.