I just don’t have enough time to write! Do you ever catch yourself saying this? There are only 24 hours in the day and so many of them seem to disappear quickly.
And yet there are some people who seem to be able to crank out dozens of articles and other content.
They publish guest blog posts, articles for marketing, free reports for building their email lists and all sorts of other content. How do they do it? And how can you?
For the sake of keeping this post focused, I’m going to assume that you already have a general topic picked out. If you need help with how to find ideas, check out Jane’s post on killer posts.
Sometimes, half the battle of cranking out an article is to have a bank of ideas at your fingertips. After that, your challenge is to sit down and actually write the darn thing.
Here’s a quick, proven process for writing blog posts fast that many of those speed demon writers use. It’ll make your own writing a piece of cake that you can’t wait to sit down and gobble up!
Step 1: Schedule Yourself
Get in a place where you have no distractions. I like just going to the local Starbucks sometimes because it’s 3/4 full of people typing away on their laptops anyway.
Make sure you have closed any windows or programs on your computer that you don’t need for the writing process.
Step 2: Select a Topic
Decide on your topic. Hopefully, you have an idea bank to pick from.
If you don’t already have this sorted out, then you can get ideas from keyword research (I recommend Market Samurai for this), seeing what people are writing a lot about on related blogs, or reading through comments on related forums to see what’s being discussed.
Step 3: Research
Use your keywords as search terms to do a few research forays on Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. You can choose to focus on news sites, blogs, or other types of sites for your research.
Jot down notes on interesting points you’d like to include in your blog post.
Step 4: Pick your key points
Once you have enough notes for a blog post (time yourself to keep your research under control), you can start picking and choosing which points you will actually use. These will form the meat of your blog post, so pick the most important ones that you want to talk about.
Depending on your topic, anywhere between 3 and 10 points is usually enough for a solid, value-packed blog post. More than that and you’ll end up with a white paper or novel instead.
If you have too many points, consider separating them into different categories and writing a series of blog posts on your topic.
- take a break –
Step 5: Outline
Use the points you’ve chosen to create an outline. You can do this on paper, using Evernote, directly into a Word text document, on a mindmap, or any other place that’s easy to reference when you’re ready to write.
Most of the time, I use Evernote since I have two monitors and can keep my notes on one screen while writing in a document on the other.
- take another break, if you need it –
Step 6: Write
Sit down and write your article. Don’t worry about editing it as you go. That’s one of the biggest mistakes that will slow you down considerably.
If you just write and write without worrying about grammar, spelling, sentence construction and word choice, you will produce that article in record time. This is a method called “free writing”, and it can often result in far more creative thinking than if you kept stopping to edit your work every few seconds.
Step 7: Stand Back
Don’t edit your article right away. Instead, sleep on it overnight so that you can get a fresh perspective the next day.
Step 8: Edit
Edit your article. With a clear head, you’ll be able to quickly revise and fine-tune your article to get it to a ready-to-publish state.
Don’t worry about perfection, but do worry about accuracy and value.
Step 9: Publish
Publish your blog post wherever you intended it for. Some people prefer to write a series of blog posts before publishing anything.
If you’re on a roll, in full writing mode, then this makes sense. Make the most of the mood that you’re in.
Step 10: Do it again
Start again at Step 3 and write another article using another related keyword or topic.
This process goes very quickly if you already have some knowledge of your topic. If not, it will take you a little longer.
However, make sure you’re not “paraphrasing” content. You should be expanding on what you research or adding some type of value to it to give another viewpoint.
Where it fits, you can always quote someone. Just make sure you quote the source accurately!
One final idea to consider is to avoid “writing” completely. I know there are some people who use mindmaps and then talk through them rather than writing.
You could do that with Dragon Naturally Speaking or record it through audio and pay someone to transcribe it.
Don’t reject the idea of using existing PLR content either. Good quality PLR is the best rough draft you can get and can be a ready source of ideas and research. Just be sure to edit it to add your own voice and customize it to your market.
This is the fast blog post writing process that works best for me. What are your secrets for writing blog posts quickly?
Jane’s Note: I’d also recommend you to take a look at Danny’s Write Like Freddy training program.
Sharyn Sheldon is the owner of Business Content PLR, where you can find ready-to-use, easy-to-customize content for your online or offline marketing and blogging needs. With an MBA from Columbia University and over 20 years designing business training for major corporations, Sharyn now provides the highest quality plr content for achieving business success. Want to know how easy it is to create unique content for your blog quickly? Sign up to get her free guide on >How to Create Unique Content with PLR.
