{"id":9946,"date":"2022-07-16T06:51:54","date_gmt":"2022-07-16T10:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thatwhitepaperguy.com\/?p=9946"},"modified":"2022-07-17T16:56:55","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T20:56:55","slug":"how-i-analyzed-300-white-papers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thatwhitepaperguy.com\/how-i-analyzed-300-white-papers\/","title":{"rendered":"How I analyzed 300 white papers"},"content":{"rendered":"
Of these 300 white papers, a full 50 were abandoned and never published. That’s 1 in 6.<\/strong><\/p>\n Three dozen more were published, but with clear defects. That’s 1 in 9.<\/p>\n That means 214 of my papers (71%) were published as planned, while 29% weren’t.<\/p>\n You can hear about some of the more outrageous projects in these posts:<\/p>\n \u2014 6 reasons why white papers fail<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 5 reasons why white papers are challenged<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n And you can hear about what went right more than 200 times here:<\/p>\n \u2014 How to make your white papers succeed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Now I’d like to describe why and how I did that analysis; my\u00a0methodology, if you will.<\/p>\n For years, I (Gordon Graham aka That White Paper Guy) have been keeping a list of every white paper I worked on. That’s why I knew the count was getting close to 300.<\/p>\n I can’t remember anyone else claiming to have personally worked on 300 white papers over a stretch of 20+ years.<\/p>\n That must be some kind of record.<\/p>\n When I reached that mark in mid-2020, I figured it was time to look back and see what I’d learned from all that.<\/p>\n And I wanted to share my observations and advice with the upcoming generation of long-form content writers… and the clients who hire them.<\/p>\n For this analysis, I counted any white paper that I had worked on directly.<\/p>\n I wrote most of these himself from scratch.<\/p>\n There were a few exceptions.<\/p>\n Some of these 300 white papers were:<\/p>\n I remember many of these projects like they were yesterday.<\/p>\n And for most projects, I have a finished PDF on hand.<\/p>\n Where my memory was hazy, I went back to review any notes, e-mails, drafts and invoices for that project.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nWhy do this?<\/h3>\n
What I counted<\/h3>\n
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How I rated each project<\/h3>\n