Why and How to Do a Wrap-up Article

A wrap-up article is a logical and unique grouping of pieces of content where the grouping provides value to the reader beyond the individual pieces on their own. You might think of it like a themed gift basket.

There are several reasons we need to be creating these wrap-up articles. They...

1. serve as a great resource - valuable information grouped together
2. use commonly searched keywords and phrases (good SEO)
3. encourage deeper reading
4. are often faster to create
5. provide a process to repurpose past content
6. remind us of what we've written and provide inspiration to write more

Wrap-up articles serve us better than just about any other content we might create. Of course, we have to be creating content on a regular basis to be able to wrap it up.

There are lots of different ways to group pieces of content:

• by topic - e.g. content idea generation, writing tips
• by use - e.g. how-to, conceptual, tips
• by thing - e.g. infographics, videos
• by user - e.g. for beginners, for experts
• to conclude a series - e.g. after parts 1, 2, and 3
• to continue a series of previous wrap-up articles (example)

After reading this far, if you don't already have your wrap-up concept, scan your past content.

• On your blog, the fastest way to find content groupings is to use your keyword links. For example, you may have tagged all of your articles about being more productive with the keyword 'productivity'.
• For both your blog and newsletter, review the titles in the archives. I recently put together a compilation of 'how-to' advice after reviewing a client's newsletter archive while she was on vacation.

Writing your wrap-up article can be as simple as writing an introduction, listing and linking the past articles, and writing a conclusion. Use the introduction or conclusion to explain why this particular content grouping is valuable and how to use the information.

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