Let’s face it, most of us don’t have hours to sit at our computer screen and wait for inspiration to strike. Feeling like we don’t have the time is what keeps a lot of us from blogging on a regular basis. This article will show you how to write a blog post fast in under 2 hours while keeping it relevant and SEO optimized.
Setting the Proper Expectation
I am an internet marketer. My job is to answer questions that people ask and present a product that solves their problems. Hopefully, my content gets found, answers the question concisely, and creates a desire to own the product that I present. Naturally, if I’m presenting a product that is under $100 or just a few dollars a month, I don’t need 5000 words to convince someone it’s good. So bear that in mind when reading this. This method doesn’t work for super high ticket $1000+ stuff.
Basic Framework
There are a few key elements to this process, but let me tell you why I implement it. As a stay-at-home dad to a toddler, time is very limited around my house. Between all of my dad duties as well as the house responsibilities, I need to find time to run a business and get enough sleep. Thankfully I’ve developed a process to crank out blog content in no time. Again, let’s be clear, I’m not talking about a 5000 word, cornerstone piece of content. I’m talking about a quick, 1000 word piece meant to rank for a specific keyword that’s a 5-minute read and hopefully will drive a sale.
Spend 15 Minutes Doing Keyword Research
Obviously, the point of a blog post is to get your recommendation out there. If nobody hears what you have to say, then what’s the point? By doing keyword research before blogging, you can ensure that you are blogging about a topic that people are actually interested in and that you can actually get found for.
Neil Patel has a free tool called UberSuggest that is, in my opinion, the best free keyword research tool out there. Basically, you type in a keyword that you want to write about and it will tell you how difficult it is to get found on search engines for that keyword. The difficulty is rated on a score from 0 to 100 and variations of that keyword are also listed. This way, you can find a keyword that people are searching for but might not have too much competition. The key is finding something with higher search volume and a lower SEO difficulty. Paid difficulty and estimated cost per click is irrelevant unless you plan on buying ads.
Once you have a keyword picked out, you now have a topic to write about. Hopefully, you know a little about it because of what comes next…
Spend 15 Minutes Outlining Major Questions
Remember, this business is all about answering questions. I like to open a Google Keep Checklist and list all the major related questions on that topic. By using a checklist instead of a note, I can just drag and drop them in a logical order when I’m done brainstorming. BOOM. There are your subheadings. To speed this process up, I use Google voice typing while reclining on my couch. The software is good enough that I don’t have to edit it too much.
Spend Another 15 Minutes Answering Those Questions
This is where knowing a little bit about the topic comes in handy when learning to write a blog post fast. Still reclined on my couch, I answer the questions I just asked using voice typing. If I’m knowledgeable on the subject, I can crank this out in a little over 15 minutes with no research. I make sure to split up my paragraphs using the checklist items so I can drag and drop them later if I want to change the order. By using the voice typing software here I can be conversational in my answers and it greatly improves my readability index.
At the end of this process, I usually end up with 1,000 to 1,200 words pretty regularly. BOOM, there’s the meat of your content.
Copy and Paste Into WordPress
Now I open up WordPress. This step should take about 5 minutes to copy and paste what you spoke into WordPress.
Spend About 15 Minutes Polishing What You’ve Copied
If you’re like me, this will come out like a stream of consciousness and needs a little bit of massaging to really flow as one piece. Spend a few minutes transforming individual questions into one cohesive piece. Check for grammatical or spelling errors. At the top, I then write a quick intro paragraph explaining what the article will talk about and a quick conclusion at the end summing it up.
Once that’s done, all that’s left to do is format your questions as headings to help break up the post and increase readability. Also, you can add relevant pictures if you’d like to further increase readability. You’re done writing at this point and it’s only been about an hour.
Open Up The Yoast SEO Plugin and Optimize For Both Readability and Searchability
If you’re unfamiliar, I have a post on how to use Yoast here. Basically, Yoast will read your post and suggest edits to make it both easier to read and easier to get found. Spend a few minutes optimizing the post, adding the metadata, alt text, and other final tweaks according to the software and you’re done.
Conclusion
So let’s recap. Total time spent on this process will be anywhere between 90 minutes and 2 hours. As you get better, you may even be able to cut it down to an hour. First, you do keyword research to pick a topic and outline it with secondary questions. Then you answer those questions. After that, it’s a matter of copying into WordPress, editing it to flow, and optimizing it for search. Using this method there is no reason you shouldn’t be able to write 3 posts a week. If you’re writing a bigger piece of content, apply this method to sections of the same piece. You’ll be surprised at how much your productivity rises.
If you’re still wondering how to get started, I recommend checking out The Brambila Method. You’ll learn the basic concepts and setup of a freelance content marketing business.