7 Tips for Writing Quality Blog Posts Quickly

All bloggers know that they need to keep their blogs fresh in order to keep the traffic numbers up. The way to a continually fresh blog? Content. More and more content. Hats off to those of us who can churn content regularly without feeling the strain. Still, does that mean that the rest of us cannot do it? We’ve put together these great tips on how to write effective content quickly, without straining yourself.

1. Scourge For Ideas
What do you do when you sit down to write a piece of content for your blog? Do you spend a lot of time working out ideas? Nothing wastes a blogger’s time more than writer’s block, when deadlines are looming around the corner. You cannot wait for inspiration to strike you whenever you choose it.

• Whenever you get a spare moment, put down your ideas for possible content.
• Scan other blogs in your niche area for content ideas, especially blogs that are well received.
• Use a clever tool such as the WordPress Editorial Calendar plugin to maintain a running list of probable content topics.
• Subscribe to online newspapers and store inspirational pieces of content in a folder.

2. Create A Niche Bible
Collect all the information you’ve collected about your niche and put them into a Word document. Spend some time cleaning this document and arranging information under neat headers. Now, build a TOC, cross reference topics and make it easy for you to get hold of the information you want. While you’re at it, bookmark all research links into separate folders for all areas within your niche on your browser.

3. Chart Out An Editorial Plan
Don’’t apply your energies to just planning the next post. Plan your editorial calendar for the coming month. By doing this, you will ensure your blog won’t suffer because of your time away from blogging. Here are the many advantages you can gain by planning ahead:

• You can plan for holidays and special personal events while keeping your blog fresh.
• You can evaluate how your month’s blog topics relate to each other and spot gaps that could be filled with additional posts.
• You might even consider spinning related posts into a blog series.
• You can accommodate a radical new post in the middle by shoving some of the topics around.

4. Group Tasks
Now that you’ve got your editorial plan ready, go ahead and group tasks for your month’s worth of topics.

• Create a separate file for each post in your preferred word processing tool.
• Create catchy, attention-grabbing headlines for each post.
• Put in title tags, alternate tags, insert pictures, enter photo credits and so on for each post.
• If possible, copy paste relevant research information or paste the links from where to refer content into these individual post files.
• You can even put in headers and sub-headers to flesh out the flow of your post, when your ideas are fresh.

Keeping this set ready for the month will save you a great deal of time and effort when you have to post your content pieces. When you’re ready to actually write the content, you’ll find out that a great deal of the works is already done.

5. Write Several Posts In A Sitting
Remember, your headline is done, photos are done, tags are done, credits are in and even the headers are done. All you have to do now is to write the content. Stick to the tone you’ve already established and roll out several posts in one go. Then, when you’re ready to upload them one by one, be sure to read them again, fine tune them, do a spell and grammar check and certify them ready. Isn’t this much easier than writing single posts in separate efforts? Isn’t this much better than trying to recapture your original thoughts, ideas and fumbling for headlines with your posting deadline just an hour away?

6. Know Your High Productivity Timezones
Even with all this preparation, you might find it tough to stick to a schedule. You can make it easier for yourself by working during your best time of the day. What does your internal biological clock tell you? Are you most productive first thing in the morning, or during the night? Don’’t fight your instincts in this area. Do your best work according to your body’s biological clock but stick to the process.

7. Keep Your Posts To The Point
Don’’t feel you have to lay all your thoughts out in your post. You can divide up your central idea into many posts if you like. Basically, remember online audiences really cannot be bothered to read long missives. Keep your content brief, the point, funny, intelligent and respectful. Don’’t wander of topic, digress and confuse yourself and your readers.

Guest post by David who works for conversion rate optimization Company Invesp that helps businesses in improving performance of their online marketing campaigns.