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How to Write Good Blog Posts Crazy Fast
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One of the most common things I hear from bloggers all the time is that it takes so long to write blog posts.
For many people, it can take two, three, four, or even five hours to craft a single great blog post from start to finish! And to be honest, that used to be me too.
We're at a point in the blogging world where subpar content just doesn't cut it anymore.
You really need to put a lot of thought and effort into creating high quality content that your readers want to read if your blog is going to become popular.
But when you're a mom, we all know that time is at a premium.
And with so many other tasks to do in our business like working on our social media strategy, learning new information, finding great blog images, and creating our own products and services, we simply may not be able to dedicate hours to every blog post and still get everything else done.
So in this post, I want to show you exactly how I write really good blog posts in 30 to 35 minutes.
Yeah, I'm laying it all out there. This is my exact strategy for content creation, and I know it will help you too.
Let's get into it!
1. Making An Outline for a Blog Post is Key
The very first thing I do when I'm ready to create a blog post is open up the Google docs app on my phone. I then choose to create a new document, and I write out a quick outline for my blog post.
These outlines are super short!
I'll usually write a single word or short sentence for each of the main points I want to cover in that post.
I love using the Google docs app because it automatically connects to the web-based Google docs on my computer.
That means that if I record a post on my phone, and then decide to edit it a few days later from a cafe, it's automatically saved to my computer as well.
The key in this section is to not spend too much time creating an outline. This part easily takes me one minute or less. I simply decide what I want to talk about, write it out, and then get on to the next step.
2. Dictate Your Blog Posts Fast
This second step is where I spend the bulk of my time on a blog post. And let me tell you, this is my secret hack for how I write good blog posts fast.
I’m a pretty fast typist, but honestly, I don't know if anyone can type quite as fast as they can speak.
And since the Google Docs app has a fantastic transcribing feature, all I have to do is click the audio button on the toolbar, and start speaking.
Sure, this feature is not perfect. You do have to dictate your punctuation, which feels a little odd at first. You get used to it pretty quick though!
The transcription feature also makes some mistakes. I usually have to heavily edit my transcribed blog posts to make sure it has the correct words, punctuation, and good grammar.
Even with all that, it really only takes me between 15 and 20 minutes to dictate a pretty good post.
If I'm doing a piece of cornerstone content that will be 2,000 words or more, this might take me a few extra minutes. But overall, what might take me an hour to type out takes about 20 minutes to dictate.
This has been the biggest game changer for me in getting my thoughts out onto my blog super fast for you all to read.
3. Edit the Blog Post on the Computer
Once I have a rough draft in my Google Docs app, I will then pull out my computer and do some solid editing.
This step is really non-negotiable, because like I said the Google transcribe feature is not perfect. It gets many words wrong, and you'll need to add in most of your punctuation. So it's a good idea to not let too many days go by between dictating the post and editing it.
You want to have that post fresh in your mind in case the Google docs app throws in different but similar sounding words than what you meant to say.
One cool thing about the editing program Grammarly is that it works with Google docs. Grammarly’s basic feature is free, and using it on my blog posts makes it super easy to see what I need to change at a glance.
Once I've fixed all the mistakes Grammarly has caught, I will do a quick read through of the blog post to make sure it sounds natural.
This editing process takes me another 10 to 15 minutes to complete.
4. Consider Hiring A VA for your Blog Post Uploading Process
My last step to writing really good blog posts fast is to send the edited document to my VA to be uploaded.
I uploaded my own blog posts for many years, but at this point in my business I have a lot less time than I used to. I now have a toddler to keep an eye on, plus I'm also further along in my business than I was several years ago. Hiring out what I can to free up a little extra time is worth it to me!
Along with the edited post, I'll send my VA a quick list of things she needs to know to upload the post properly. Those things are:
- Blog post images
- Main keyword
- Which blog the post should be uploaded on
- Slug
- Alt tags
- Whether or not the post is cornerstone content
These pieces of information help my VA upload the posts so that they are SEO friendly. I use the free Yoast plug-in to make sure I'm meeting the basic SEO requirements, and these are a few of the things you'll need to fill in to make sure Google can crawl and categorize your post.
Once the post is finished, I'll then spend the last 5 minutes looking it over and making any small tweaks before it is ready to be published.
As you can see, with a little bit of help and some smart productivity hacks, it is totally doable to create awesome blog content in as little as 30 minutes per post.
Since creating content is the most time-consuming part of being a blogger, I've been really interested in finding the best productivity hacks to speed this process up.
Another tip I've found to speed up blog post creation is to batch them.
How to Write Good Blog Posts Fast by Batching Them
Until recently, my plan of action for creating blog posts was to simply write the two posts per week I needed for each of my blogs.
And because I was writing and editing them one at a time, I usually spend four out of five days per week writing content.
And to be honest, this got to be a major drag as time went on.
I love writing blog content, but it got to be stressful when I needed to do that as well as cover my bases on Pinterest, email, and do basic blog maintenance tasks. I was starting to feel overwhelmed, and I knew I needed to find a better way.
Enter batching.
If you've never heard of the term batching before, let me show you how it works.
Batching is based on the idea that it takes us extra time to switch from task to task because our brains don't like to move from doing one thing to another.
The idea is that you should group like tasks so you can really dive into that one thing, before moving on to something else.
I totally agree!
I've now started batching to create all of my blog content for both blogs in just 3 days per month. And let me tell you, it has been such a relief!
When I get my blog posts out of the way, I have so much more time to focus on other things like promoting and marketing my blog, which is so important in this day and age. (Have you heard that you should be spending 20% of your time creating content and 80% of your time promoting it?)
How to Start Batching Your Blog Posts for Maximum Productivity
First, I start with a list of blog post ideas. These are ideas that have SEO friendly titles and are based on questions I get from my readers often.
Because I post twice per week on both blogs, I need 16 blog posts for each month.
On days one and two of the month, I will dictate five blog posts per day. On the third day, I dictate six posts.
UPDATE February 2020- I’m now moving to one long and in depth post per week. That being said, this process still looks about the same for me.
Yes, this is mentally draining, and it isn't easy. But, I don't worry about editing or anything like that.
I go somewhere quiet, leave my toddler with my husband, and just start dictating away.
Another reason I love doing this is because I've found that creativity requires some mental space. It's really hard to come up with new ideas and those brilliant “aha” moments when you feel like you're on a hamster wheel of creation and tasks you need to do everyday just to stay afloat.
When I get all of my blog posts for the month done in 3 days, I then have another 27 days to manage other blog work, but more importantly, I can take the space away from creation to learn, become inspired, and find my creative streak.
In the end, I find that I create better content when I've had this space than when I'm trying to crank out content day after day to fulfill my weekly quota.
Conclusion
If you feel like you're on a blog post creation hamster wheel, there's a way out! Here are my steps to writing really good blog posts super fast:
- I write a quick outline (1 min)
- I dictate the post (15-20 mins)
- I edit the post with Grammarly (10 mins)
- I send the post to my VA with needed information (5 mins)
- I do a final edit before publishing (5 mins)
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