How to write more blog posts in less time

There I was - struggling to churn out one post.

And the blogs in front of me were belting out post after post after post.

I was struggling to maintain something of a frequency.

But they were churning out 30-50 posts of 4000 words each per month.

I realized that I needed to tackle this problem head on, and not be passive.

I needed to be in control of my own blogging destiny [easier said than done]

So what can we do to write more blog posts in less time?

We all know the (vicious) cycle of blog content: write, promote, repeat.

But sometimes it is not enough - Sometimes, trying to compete with the countless authoritative websites [many of who are doing it full time] may seem like an uphill battle - but hey, everything worth having came with discipline and practice.

The entire blogging process can broadly be divided into these phases:

Pre-writing

Researching

Writing

Scheduling

Promoting

And today, we are going to look at the first four - pre-writing, researching, writing, and scheduling. Promoting - this monster deserves a blog post of its own [yups, you will see why]. But today we tackle the pre-writing to writing part. 

But, first things first.

Process

The writing commitment

Life and pretty much everything in it, boils down to process and efficiency. After my less than satisfactory trysts with writing without a schedule for over a year, I decided to templatize it.

This blogging ship needed to run on time.

The first thing towards anything in life is inculcating discipline. That works for blogging as well - you need blogging discipline. Instead of spending one weekend churning out 8 blog posts, and then suffering from content fatigue, design a schedule that evenly spaces out your blogging workload. 

Our natural instinct is to procrastinate [or is it just me?]. Despite however much I love writing, I can spend hours watching mindless series on Netflix or watching videos on YouTube [okay - I have been officially declared binge-watching free now].

I have made a commitment to myself to write everyday. But when to write is equally important for me. Otherwise, if I pick up writing at odd times, I tend to nitpick and hem and haw my way and not get anything done.

Discovery - I work better in “zones”. I always reserve my mornings for my writing work. Never research, never promotions. Because I know I am at my most productive during mornings. Its helps me churn out at least one 1000 word article in an hour or two [just the rough draft by the way]. Had I earmarked this time for promotions or research [both of which require me to surf through many websites], I’d keep browsing and never get any work done - But well, that’s me. You have to see what best works for you.

Its best to inculcate a blogging schedule - get into the habit of writing every day. If mornings don’t work for you because you have a busy schedule, try a pre-bedtime writing routine. If that doesn’t work as well, how about trying to squeeze in some writing during your lunch hour? The point that I am trying to make is you need some uninterrupted “me time” to practice and hone your craft. And choose the time of the day where you are most productive to do that.

How this helps?

As long as something is ingrained within your schedule, you will find it easier to do it. Think of habits deeply integrated within your life: fromsomething as simple as brushing your teeth to more complex habits as filing your tax returns. If there is a strong correlation between an action (getting up) and the habit (brushing your teeth), the deeper rooted the habit becomes. To achieve any kind of success in blogging, writing should become a daily habit for you.

So I am trying to get into the habit of writing in the morning, every day. It helps me set the tone for the day [and also, prevents me from going back to sleep, I see what else I need to do to for the blog, and literally it zaps my sleep away].

Pro tip: You need to do this routine for at least 2-3 weeks at a stretch before it gets integrated into your routine. BTW - that’s not me, that science saying that!

Writing frequency [writing more]

If you are churning out 500 words per day, make sure that not only you are writing per day, but also try to increase your writing output. How about gradually increasing your writing output to 800 words from 500? And then 1000? Writing is a muscle that you need to exercise everyday.

Use your morning (or afternoon or bedtime) writing routine as a daily writing challenge. Use it as a timer to time yourself to churn out a higher benchmark of writing output everyday.

How this helps?

Now my mind has associated my early morning waking up with writing. My formerly rebellious neural pathways have replaced the unpleasant association of waking up [from the comfy confines of my blanket] to a more loftier goal [getting my blog on track] and associated it with writing. Now as I get up, ideas are already buzzing in my head and I can’t wait to get started.

Pro tip: You need to identify your high & low productivity zones and work your writing / promotion schedules around that. Work around writing daily and improving your writing output.

Writing quality [writing better]

I remember my initial few blogging days

My objectives were:

I must not come across as ignorant.

I have to be knowledgeable

This desire to be “accepted” and “acknowledged” made my writing weird. It wasn’t conversational - and I was definitely not trying to win the Booker. But my writing definitely looked like a relic of some hungover past.

You should write in the way your readers talk among themselves, or think out loud to themselves.

Of course, grammar and punctuation is important - but don’t turn your blog post into an unrequited PhD thesis. 

How will you know which tone of voice works?

I kept on writing and refining my tone of voice and changing my writing style.

Till the comments came

I love the way you write from your experience - said one reader on Facebook

If your writing resonates with your readers, they will let you know - or the data will.

Your Google Analytics will point you towards posts that are doing - and not doing - well.

Try to analyse if the writing styles are different between the top and the worst performing posts [all other things remaining equal].

Your writing cannot resemble a user manual any more - even user manuals are user friendly nowadays. So work around chipping away the fluff from your writing.

Inject your writing with some personality and flavour.

Everyone has a natural style

Me? I can be funny [and sarcastic and ironic].I do like presenting my case with evidence but I do like to add perspectives from my experience as well.

Some people are naturally good at meta-analysis and presenting a well-researched hypothesis driven article [while imparting it with their signature writing style].

Some writers do take a stand, others prefer to remain neutral.

So what is your style? Find out what it is, cultivate it and embrace it and enhance it through your daily writing sessions.

How this helps?

If you write in your natural tone of voice, not only are you more comfortable in writing, you spend less time camouflaging it [which is what I was doing - trying to hide my plain and simple writing underneath grandiose words]. Whereas all I needed to do was be myself - as that was exactly what was needed. The world has enough “experts” as is. We can do with a few people who explain stuff simply.

Pro tip: Your writing style and tone of voice need to be in sync with the reader’s context. Doing this will take time, and iterations. Don’t give up! 

Researching

This includes

• Post ideas
• Supporting evidence [articles, studies]
• Editorial calendar

Post ideas

If you are sitting at your desk during your most productive time, wondering what to write about, that is eating away into your high productivity time, which ideally should be invested in writing, not investigating what to write

Thinking about what to write is a continuous - and sometimes stressful - activity. Inspiration can strike anytime. I’d recommend keeping a list of ready to go topics. Half of my writer’s block cases arise when I don’t know what to write about. In case you sit to write and start spending time thinking about the topic more than the actual writing, then you are not making the best use of your most productive time.

If you have a baking blog, you must have a list of “go-to” topics for your blog

Some of content will be evergreen - like:

• 10 baking tips for beginners’
• Things that you need to have in your kitchen to begin baking
• My winter baking list
• How to bake like a pro

Some of the content might be topical

• Cakes to bake this mothers day.
• Baking Divas: Featuring one upcoming baker every month.

How this helps?

Keeping a bank of writable topics will be a saviour for your low productivity days. You can pick a topic that you think may be an easy one. It will also help you have a holistic picture of the content that you plan to write / cover.

Pro tip: Fighting for one blog post at a time, can be tiring - trust me, I know. Play the big leagues - write your ideas out in advance. You should do this every single day. Write your ideas, refine them, continuously.

Tools to use: 

Blog ideas generator

Blog Topic Generator

Buzzsumo: I felt like I was the last person on earth to hear about BuzzSumo - apparently not. Many potential bloggers are still not using this wonderful tool. To create content that resonates with your audience, you need to have a sounding board. BuzzSumo is that, and much more. From finding out what gets shared on social media to evaluating what topics to write about, BuzzSumo is indispensable. To learn more about using BuzzSumo to elevating your blogging a bit (okay, a lot), do read this article on Backlinko BuzzSumo: The Definitive Guide [https://backlinko.com/buzzsumo-guide]. Psst: I love the Sumo art, its sorta cute!

Idea organizer

Trello: If organization, sanity and cohesion is what you crave, you must try out Trello. Marketers are using Trello more than ever, whether it is to record blog post ideas or article threads. To know more about how Trello can help you amplify your writing / content marketing efforts, let me point you towards this excellent article by Neil Patel How to Use Trello to Streamline Your Content Marketing [https://neilpatel.com/blog/streamline-content-marketing/]

Evernote: Wait, isn’t Evernote that desktop/ mobile app that lets you capture notes, photos, and acts as a reminder tool? Well, marketers more than ever, are using Evernote, and if you are comfortable using it for work / other stuff, why not use it for your blog? Marketers can draft articles, jotting ideas, saving articles for reading and so much more. Marketers are using Evernote more than ever, read how in this article here

Journal: You can use something as simple as a journal, jotting down ideas when they arise.

Me? I love using Evernote, but I find the journal irresistible - less distraction- you know me, I can do with less distraction. 

Supporting evidence

A well researched article is hygiene. If you plan on presenting multiple points of views, historical perspectives, you need to back it up with evidence.

Things live on the internet forever - especially a poorly written article.

I approached evidence like a forensic investigator. I made sure I quoted them correctly and provided a fat list of references at the bottom of the article. Bad move. I was losing link juice all over.

Now all my references are in-line and evenly interspersed to provide outbound links.

My post ideas also help me in saving relevant articles / links whenever I come across something. Since I know I might be writing an article on “Content Writing Tips for Fashion Bloggers” - I keep an eye out for any article of interest and save it, if I come across one.

How this helps?

Instead of scouting my way through references in the midst of my writing time, my prep during the researching phase helps me pick out the five outstanding articles that I need to read before I actually begin writing. It helps me be my most productive during the actual writing time when I can just distill my thoughts.

Pro-tip: Your literature search / reference analysis can also lend you additional ideas for your subsequent posts. Identify how much content RoI you can generate from one topic and outwrite anyone else in that genre.

Editorial calendar

Having an editorial calendar is di rigueur. You cannot have a slew of posts in February and then no posts for 2 weeks and again 1 post in March. An editorial calendar will help you build frequency regularity in your posting schedule. It will also ensure that you don’t miss out on important milestone days and generally be more consistent with your blogging.

Tools

Google Docs: Well me, I could do with a few lesser tools in my life? So, if something can multi-task, I love it. I have been using Google Docs for sometime now. Obviously not cutting edge as some of the other scheduling tools, but gets my job done. I am a one woman team (or army, the way I like to see it), but for others who have a team, it is a relatively easy to use collaboration tool.

You can also try out Co-Schedule, Trello, Asana

How this helps?

An editorial calendar helps you with organization and consistency. It will help you in streamlining your publishing schedule. You can get your content ideas organized, stop missing deadlines, and generally be a marketing superstar that you wanted to be..:)

Before I boarded the editorial calendar bus, I missed out posting on days important to me - like all the time.

I missed posts around:

Safer Internet Day

World Book Day

World Environment Day

Social Media Day

Things which I would have loved to write about!

Having it scheduled into your editorial calendar will save you the regret of having missed out on important days. This will ensure that you never miss an opportunity to plug your content around any milestone.

Pro-tip: Don’t get intimidated by editorial calendars right away. If you are not comfortable using one, just try to use Google Docs / Calendar as an editorial tool. The idea is to build frequency and volume right now in your blog. 

The prep in terms of knowing what to write and when is it due is a great time saver for me. The idea is to remove as much uncertainty from the process of writing.

Writing

Now that you have your prep is sorted, you are writing everyday, and you are gradually amping up your word count. Yaay! So you are finally writing, and writing more and writing better.

Now you need to get into the writing zone. Write in as many formats as your readers would like to read:

Post types

List articles

How-to’s

Best of _______

Tips on how to do ____________

FAQs

Interviews

Discussion

Cheat sheets

Tutorials

Newsletters

Checklists

Case studies

Reviews

Comparisons

A day in the life of _______

Behind the Scenes

Exercise your writing muscles, stretch and write out as many content formats as possible.

Scheduling

If you are posting content every week / day [or whatever is your posting frequency] right when you need it, then you are just playing catch up. Now in case you are using Google Docs / Google Calendar or some other form of editorial tool, then you definitely need scheduling.

You need to create posts in advance, schedule them so that even if you are asleep, your blog is not.

I prefer writing my posts in advance now that I have discovered the magic of scheduling. Its that nice feeling when you submit an assignment ahead of time instead of fumbling your way across at the last minute.

How this helps?

Have a full time job? Struggling to dedicate time to your blog? Eliminate the uncertainties in blogging by writing your heart out whenever you get the time and using your weekends to schedule your posts throughout the week / s.

Going away for a vacation? Why should your blog be left alone? Schedule your posts to keep your posting regularity and momentum.

Blogger, like most platforms, offers an in-built scheduling tool - which I use. Most editorial tools have an inbuilt scheduling tool as well.

Putting it all together

If the prep is right, the writing will follow. Write relentlessly everyday to achieve the discipline and the drive that will make you a better writer. The tools are there to support you, but you have to lead the way for them to serve you better.

Do you have any tips to share? I would love to hear what worked for you. Do let me know in the comments section below.