The number one challenge for any blogger is their ability to write quality articles on a consistent basis. Sure it’s easy enough to throw some words up and call that a blog post but that provides zero value and will more than likely cost you readers.
I myself have found it a struggle to make the time to blog. Not that I don’t enjoy writing or have the information to pass along but more so because of time. My old method of blog writing was to wake up, usually around 11am and think of a topic to write about for that days post. I would find myself halfway through an article and realize I’m not giving myself enough time to write or research everything needed. The last thing I want to do is put out a garbage post. I would delete what I had so far and tell myself I will write later tonight and post it for the next day. That just does not work, at least for me.
My new plan…
Some days I feel better than others and to be honest I’m not in a mood to write every day. I have come to realize the days I’m feeling in a funk, it is better not to write. What I have decided to do from this point forward is to write several posts when I’m feeling great. This actually does a couple things, it assures top quality articles are being produced and will also save me time throughout the week. Instead of writing an hour a day I may spend four hours in a single day and write posts for the entire week. This may or may not work for everyone. My blog is more personal, it’s about my experiences trying to make money online, blogging and domaining. For others your blog may revolve around reporting the news, something I rarely do nowadays. I have no urge to report the news on a daily basis. For those of you that do though you have to report daily. When a new story breaks you have to get it online before the other guys do. Instead for myself what I have thought about doing is posting a recap of that weeks news. More than likely I’ll do it in a video blog and capture all of the headlines from the week.
In closing, if you are in the mood to write then just keep writing. Don’t limit yourself to writing one article, write multiple articles and save some for a rainy day.
Writing 30 mins a day and then stopping helps put out quality articles. More than that, you are usually doing to much research or filling the article with BS. If you do not finish the article in the 30 mins, its ok just pick it back up the next day. Besides its better for SEO to release articles over a period of time rather than banging out articles like its 1999. Also keeping articles between 400-500 words helps your SEO and keeps the quality of the article to the fullest. If you need more words then you need more words, that’s a simple fact. These are just guidelines that i like to follow when writing.
tHE #1 Problem is coming up with new ideas.
I see so many same old blogs, same old content stolen from some other blogs.
400-500 words per article?? Better for SEO???
That’s something new
Oh no.. All of mine are made up of thousands.
I need to slow down !
Best,
Mike
Yes, the faster a search spider can roll through your site and pick up the keywords the better. If you have a long article that talks about multiple things then it is harder for the search engine to rank it for its keywords. Basically if it knows exactly what the keywords are straight through the whole thing the better chance of ranking for those keywords. Bots are computers and computers are dumb. All a bot sees are relevant keywords, if it does not see that through out an article it does not know where to place it. You have to remember that SEO is for computers not humans. This is why its so tricky to have great articles that are optimized for search engines as well as your readers.
Patrick, great timing – I’ve been this way about blogging too. I find that there are days I really just dont have it in me to write anything interesting. There are days when I try fighting it, but the content really turns out poorly, and lacks any engagement. Especially when you care about what you write, you become your worst critic, but it is this little voice that keeps you on track writing content that makes you “you”, and the reason why people subscribe to your notions.
In writing about ideas or perspectives, I can take my time and write a bit each day and mold it as I see fit, but for something timely, I’m quite challenged. Luckily, when writing for clients, my naturally inquisitive mind to find out about things for which I know nothing motivates me to do the requisite research, and for that I am very thankful
Good idea Patrick. That’s what I try to: sit and write 3 or so articles and schedule them to post over the following week. Unfortunately, some of my stuff is time sensitive so it doesn’t always work out.
But I agree, writing 2 posts while you are jiving is much better than writing 1 while you are jiving and 1 while you are in a funk. I feel this almost always leads to a higher quality content.
The less I worry about making money and keeping those $$ signs out of my eyes, allows me to write some good stuff. If somebody is simply blogging to make money, it get’s hard to write. If you blog because you love what you are blogging about, it’s not all that bad and you can even make a couple bucks doing it.
Being a full time blogger, is for a small army really and not just one person.
A good t-shirt would be “bloggin’ ain’t easy and neither is pimpin’”
Tip to have more stuff to write about. Research!
I like that idea for a t-shirt. I was going to title the blog post Bloggin Ain’t Easy but wasn’t sure how many people would get it.
Patrick,
I do read your blog but because I read most blogs off my PDA, commenting is often difficult. I decided to come home and comment on this one.
In my own case, the method I have adopted is to write when I am moved by something in me to write. It is easy for me to take this stance because my blog is currently not monetized so I do not have to write for writing sake. Also my blog does not deal with breaking news so I dont have to compete on getting it out first. I write when the spirit moves me and that I have found to be the best approach. Also gives me more time to play with my daughter. And oh yeah I sometimes write more than one post at a time and publish them on different days.
About time you posted a comment
Thanks for stopping by Frankie.