How to write a blog fast will be probably your last worry as you are still struggling with what to write and how to get started.
Have you ever opened your Google Doc or Word Document, stared on a blank screen, and wondered what to write and where to start?
That was the story of my life every time I started writing a new blog post.
Writing a blog post from scratch every day or two can seem time-consuming and overwhelming.
I blog on Medium and three of my own niche blogs, work full time and keep improving my freelance copywriting agency.
So trust me when I say I know how difficult it can be to figure out how to write a blog fast.
In today’s blog post, I am sharing the strategies that I have experimented with and used in my business to make sure I not only enjoy the content creation process and know what to write, but also blog posts quickly.
Let’s get to the steps:
- Create a blogging workflow
- Stacking similar tasks
- Templates as much as possible
- Never start with a blank screen
- Turn on the timer
- Use voice input
- Edit, proofread and publish
Create a blogging workflow
Creating a blogging workflow has been one of the most transformative processes for my company in terms of efficiency and productivity.
A blogging workflow can help you keep redundant tasks on your list and give you a 6000-foot view of tasks that are time-consuming and can be outsourced.
I should also mention that a blogging workflow comes in handy when you are hiring a virtual assistant or doing some of your blogging tasks like social media planning, graphing, etc.
For more ideas on how to write a blog fast, watch this video:
So how do you create a blogging workflow?
The first step is to brain dump all of the steps you go through when you start working on a blog post. These would be things like keyword research, finding titles, graphics, subheadings, URLs, and more.
In the next step, arrange these tasks in ascending order and make sure you don’t miss any tasks.
Add these tasks as a checklist to a project management tool.
There you have it! Use this checklist every time you start a blog post.
The next step in this process would be to stack these tasks together and create a workflow for, say, five blog posts.
For example, the first task in this workflow would be doing batch keyword research for 5 blog posts. Next, the title could be set for five blog posts, and so on.
Stack similar tasks to quickly write a blog post
Switching context can be really detrimental to productivity.
The best way to improve your blog post writing productivity is to bundle the same tasks together.
So if you write four blog posts per month, you can do the keyword research for the 4 blog posts at the same time, set the URL of the four posts together, and so on.
In general, I like to group ten blog posts together, which saves me a lot of time compared to doing things sequentially for each blog post.
Here are some of the tasks that you can staple together:
- Keyword research
- Creation of blog outlines and structure research
- Creating blog and social media images
- Social media planning
Use templates as much as possible
The easiest way to save time writing a blog post on repetitive blogging tasks is to create templates for anything.
Having a blog template in Google Docs really helps make sure you don’t miss out on any important blog posts.
I also like to have Crello templates for my featured and Pinterest images so I don’t have to create images from scratch every time.
I have a separate list of all of my blog posts with internal links and backlinks so I know which post to link to.
This also helps me keep track of pages that need more internal links.
Never start with a blank screen
One of the main reasons that content creation gets overwhelmed is staring at the big blank screen.
The easiest way to counteract this is to gather a few pointers for the blog post when you decide on the topic.
This is how I write an outline while brainstorming to make sure I never start with a blank screen.
When I bundle up my keyword research and decide which keywords I want to target, I’ll create a new Google Doc with the keyword title and collect some pointers about that keyword.
This could include things from personal experience, skills, and knowledge, processes, or anything interesting I have prepared on the subject.
When I’m ready to stack my content sketches, I’ll return to the post, create a more edited outline, and write the sub-headings that I want to include in the content.
I then organize my ideas under the appropriate sub-headings.
I can come back to this post when I’m ready to write the full blog post.
Turn on the timer
Now is the time to write.
The best way I’ve found is to set a timer for 25 minutes, close all tabs, and just turn the contents out.
Since we already have an outline for the blog post as well as the subheadings, it’s much easier to put content under each subheading.
This structure helps a lot because now we only have to fill in the content for each sub-heading.
I am usually able to write 500-700 words in 30 minutes, and remember, I am a full-time copywriter, so naturally I write a lot.
Depending on how fast you type and how well your knowledge of the content of the post is, you may be able to do more or less.
You will definitely see an improvement in speed if you follow this process for a few months.
Use voice input
Hate typing? A great way to speed up the blog writing process is to use the voice input feature on Google Docs.
With this tool, you will likely be writing a post that uses a personal, chatty tone and is easier to read.
It’s faster too and can give you the pep you sometimes need to get your creative juices flowing.
You can also use a mobile app like Otter.ai to transcribe while you speak, especially if you have those random ideas while driving a car or while sitting on the toilet seat. This method is also great for turning your Facebook life or Youtube videos into blog posts.
Edit, proofread and publish
Now that you’ve worked through the first draft of the blog and completed all of the content, it’s time to edit the blog post.
When editing, I turn on the timer to make sure I don’t spend too much time editing. I know I’ll be coming back to the blog post 2-3 months after it’s published to optimize it for search engines.
I then copy the blog post from my Google document into the WordPress editor. Then I proofread it while making final changes such as bolding some content or adding HTML code such as nofollow for affiliate links.
I also add the pictures and edit the URL to make sure it is short and to the point.
Once I’ve proofread the post, I’m ready to publish or schedule it.
That’s it.
My post is ready to go live.
I hope these strategies help you write blogs quickly and reduce the overwhelming workload of content creation.
Do you have a process that you follow when writing blog posts? Let me know in the comments.