While there are also numerous ways to make your blogging more efficient, today we’ll look at my top seven ways to reduce the time spent on writing the content.
Use a ghost writer
The best time saver of all is to get someone else to write the posts for you! It will take time to find a good writer who understands your brand and to trust them enough to not edit every post they create for you. Of course, it will cost you money so you have to compare that with the time saved and potentially better posts.
Use guest bloggers
It does take time to find guest bloggers you want to work with, and time to check posts are suitable and possibly have to upload them yourself. If you get some regular guest bloggers who can upload posts themselves, however, your content-production time is greatly reduced.
Allow short posts occasionally
Many bloggers struggle because they have an image of how long a blog post must be. They don’t all have to be over 500 words, or even 300 words, so don’t be afraid to occasionally do a short post. It is much better to write a short interesting post than make it longer with nonsense and fluff.
Have an ideas list
Whether it is a notepad, a page in your diary, a computer document, in an electronic tool (I use One Note but you could use an email program, organizing software or mindmapping program) or even in a hidden blog post, have a place you jot down blog post ideas. Jot them down as they occur to you and during specific brainstorming sessions at least two or three times a year. When it comes time to write a blog post, it is much quicker and easier to look at your list for an idea rather than waste time wondering ‘hmm, what should I write about today?’
Split long posts
Find yourself writing very long posts all the time? Why not split them into two or three shorter posts? It means you get multiple posts out the time you allocated to one post and probably means each post is better for readers to grasp. It also gives you the opportunity to build anticipation at the end of the first post – something like ‘that’s the theory – next week I’ll explain how to put it in practice’ or ‘I’ll leave you to think about that for now. If you want to know how the story ends, come back on Friday afternoon!’
Have posts in reserve
You can sit and write lots of posts at once or write an extra post every few weeks, but the idea is to have a post ready to go that you don’t yet publish so you can use it at need. This won’t save you writing time overall but it will save you time on really busy days when you just can’t find the time to write but need to publish something to your blog.
Create lists
Creating a list still takes time obviously, but it can be done quicker than a full post in most cases, and it is handy for days when you really can’t think clearly enough to write a new post.
Lists vary from a list of your favorite posts (your own or on a topic), a simple list of information (top 10 tips for proof reading, the 5 best business books, 101 things to tweet, etc), a list of useful resources to a list format for a lot of information on a topic (such as a list of ways to save time writing blog posts…)
Many bloggers spend hour after hour writing their blogs content, and before they know it the day has been totally consumed. This method leaves little time to enjoy spending with family and friends. Applying the above tasks may help you solve this problem.
Many people believe that thy can use article re-writing software to cut short the time taken in searching the relevant references from the web space, but these software often mess up the lines and sentences to such an extent that the writer has to spend much time in correcting the errors. Thus, it is better to write a fresh content on your own rather than depending upon the software and tools.
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