Managing your blog activities can take a lot of efforts and nerves, or even money. What it definitely takes is time: both for creating valuable content and for making your blog popular enough to think about monetizing. Today we are going to talk about creating great pieces of content in no time. We know that preparing great content can be time-consuming, but with our tips and tricks it can be easier and quicker than ever before.
What is blog?
Long story short: blog is usually a website or a feed for publishing content. An author also called a blogger, is in charge of posting content and engaging audience. Blog posts can be published in different forms: plain text, text with photo gallery or just photos/videos. The massive boom of social media (we all can definitely relate) made blogging even easier, as one doesn’t require setting up their own website or account on blogging platform any longer. Why? Ask microinfluencers – those bloggers often build their following around photo or text blogs set up on social media like Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
Blogs are relatively easy to set up, configure and manage, that is why a lot of people see a lot of potential for monetization purposes, but also as their hobby. While some bloggers think about monetization purposes from the very start, others only find out after some time. You can use some simple forms like Google AdSense or get into sponsored content and content aggregator websites to find some orders and advertisers. However, first of all – you need to deliver added value to your constantly growing audience. Otherwise, there will be no one to read your blog and no one to buy adverts on your blog.
What should a blog post consist of?
A blog post should include a few parts, and we strongly recommend you to follow the list carefully:
– an appealing headline. This is where the story begins – if the headline is attractive and catchy, it can make people want to get familiar with your content. If your headline is not appealing enough, they are likely to miss your blog post. Headlines should not only be great for the audience, but also for SEO – positioning really matters for bloggers, and search bots can recognize good content. Then, such content is promoted and ranks higher on Google. Sounds great, isn’t it?
– a „lead” – this is a term that reflects a few first lines of your blog posts. If you attracted your audience with a headline and made them click through to your blog, well done, you are halfway there! However, to maintain your followers’ attention, you should make a subtle intro to what you’re into. It may be enough to simply put a long story short and highlight what you are going to cover, it can have a form of bullet points as well. Some call this part „key takeaways” but you can as well include them in the outro. If your audience won’t be interested by lead, they are not likely to familiarize themselves with the whole article, so your work can be in vain.
– an actual blog post. This is where the show goes on – and you should divide it into a few parts, prepare subheadlines (H2 and H3 should become your best friends in the world of blogging) and some interactive content like photos, videos, infographics, animations or checklists. Interactive content plays the role of a break of the wall of text – with the attention span of a goldfish, people can’t focus on too much text at one time. They simply need a break and you should deliver it to them.
– an outro. This is incredibly important to finish your blog post in style and with class. Make people think about what you want them to think and encourage to follow your digital steps. If you leave your audience without any conclusion, then you may not see them back, and that is not what you would like to notice.
How to save time on creating blog posts?
- prepare a content strategy. Without a content strategy, coming up with any idea for blog post can take even longer than actual writing. You should put all of your ideas altogether in a form of a content calendar and declare when you are going to deliver blog posts. This requires consistency and discipline but is necessary to keep you on track. Your content strategy should be flexible in case of any changes, however, you should take very great care of keeping it stable. This is a one-time activity and it can take you a lot of time to prepare, however, you save time later on. Instead of inventing new ideas, you just take a topic from the list. Faster creation? Confirmed.
- divide your article into a few parts and give all of them some meaning and titles. Preparing the name of subheadlines can be a part of work done on your content strategy, but doesn’t have to be. Writing headlines as a first thing when you open a text editor is a great way to structure your blog post and give you an indication for writing.
- eliminate anything that could distract you. Close browser tabs you are currently not in need of, put your phone away and focus on writing. There are several tools online that can help you do so – one of the interesting concepts is Forest or Pomodoro. Both of them are timers, you can set up your time and focus on a particular task. As we are speaking of writing blog posts, even 25 minutes of intensive writing can replace a few long hours spent on many tasks including that blog post. Another tool worth mentioning here is The Most Dangerous Writing App – it deletes everything after 5 seconds, you can’t copy and paste what you already got. This is a very risky option, but some bloggers who create a lot of content love it and are very much used to benefit from The Most Dangerous Writing App. Also, you should take very good care about getting rid of your distraction offline: having a clear desk and good light can help a lot with a process of concentration and result in better and faster writing.
- find your “perfect hours”. Some people love writing blog posts early in the morning, others prefer evenings. Try a few times during the day (and night, if you feel like it) and find the time that suits you the most. While some people are not distracted at all in the morning, for others waking up that early is linked with being sleepy and not focused on any tasks, if they even can wake up that early.
- prepare some materials before you start writing. If you know you’ll need some pictures or animations, it is better to have them ready before you write. The same is about cover photo, research or statistics you may need, or that you know you will be likely to use. The worst you can do is to have a lot of distractions, as we mentioned it before. Of course, you can’t avoid looking for some necessary information during the process of writing, but a lot of things you can have ready earlier.
How to make a blog post interesting and popular?
- do your research. Not only of materials you may need for a particular blog post, but even more important is to make some studies on other blogs, especially competitors. What kind of content delivers them the best results and helps them interact with their audience? Maybe they have already covered something you want to cover as well – then decide if it is worth the hassle or come up with other, even better idea.
- think about redistribution. Even if you already have a plan in mind, think if there is anything more you can do. Wise redistribution helps better content be the best content, and reaches target groups you care about the most. Social media distribution can be time-consuming, but using schedulling tools (e.g. Kontentino) you can plan it in a smart way and actually focus on a business core.
- consider interactive content. Video animations can work wonders in terms of engagement and attractiveness. If you are not familiar with video animation tools or simply have no time for onboarding and creating, there are some solutions on the market that helps you make amazing videos in a heartbeat. Try Lumen5 or Recast.Studio – they help making videos based on content you upload. You only need to choose a few templates or fonts, or even music if you wish to add it to your video. Then, you have a video ready to be downloaded and shared throughout social media platforms or other blogs.
There is nothing wrong to plan your work even using sticky notes and a piece of paper. Being organized really helps in creating good blog posts faster. You can use some apps to track time or make you keep focused (we also recommend Coffitivity – it resembles of noises in a cafe, for some people this is what keeps them going and helps them be more productive), but the main thing is in you and your ability to focus and deliver. Good luck!
