{"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":"

I recently reviewed all the white papers I worked on from 1997 to 2020.<\/h2>\n

The results were fascinating.<\/h3>\n

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

Why do this?<\/h3>\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

What I counted<\/h3>\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