I know, I know. You have a ton of things to do and your article is due tomorrow. You don’t have time to read a ton of references to get the job done.

But you know what, bub? You have to. Here’s why:

1. Multiple sources makes for a deeper article.
We’ve found that the one thing that really disappoints buyers are shallow articles. Shallow articles don’t discuss the topic in depth because the writer didn’t bother looking beyond the first page of the Google search for that topic. Sounds familiar?

I know you’re not an expert in every field out there but I do know you are a great thinker and that you can use that to create a deep and meaningful article if you do your homework. Quality research comes in, excellent article comes out, buyer places a repeat order.

2. Multiple sources means you get your facts straight.
If you stick to one (or even two) sources, you might miss out on some important facts. Worse, you might get the facts all wrong and write a damning article!

Say you’re going to talk about a new virus roaming the internet and just grab the top two news articles you find. But it turns out, it was all a hoax as revealed by a third source you didn’t look up. Blammo, instant credibility destruction!

3. Multiple sources let you add your own twist on the topic
It might sound weird, but yes it’s true. If you read more on a topic, you gather all the differing opinions and begin to create your own unique take.

This translates to a unique article that not only feeds the reader information but also makes the reader think. And that makes the article stick to their mind more, something every writer wants.

Where do you source out those multiple sources of information?

Okay, sofa potato I’ll help you out. There are lots of easy ways to get info aside from plain old Google.

1. Quora. My go to resources for qualitative research. Search the topic you’re going to write about and read all the questions and answers related to it.

2. Reddit. This amalgam of everything internet has a community for every topic imaginable. Take a stroll but be ready to read about a lot of un-mainstream stuff as well.

3. Youtube. Surprisingly, this is a good resource especially for some topics like food, fashion and media. I even found a lot of relevant videos when I was researching a company a while back.

4. Blogs. Sadly searching for blogs under Google is not possible any more but you can do a work around by googling the topic and adding “blog” at the end to get a list of relevant blogs to the niche.

5. Google Images. Another weird way to get references but also works quite well if the topic is something that is sure to have lots of images connected to it, such as events, locations or celebrities.

Photo credits: roberts87 and willmarlow