If you run a blog then obviously you will spend the majority of time writing posts. But could you perhaps write the same amount of posts, but in a quicker time to save yourself a few hours per week? These few hours could then be used in an effort to get more exposure for your blog.
However there’s a compromise. Trying to write the same amount of posts, but in less time, ultimately you can expect a lower word count per post, and thus slightly lower quality. Although there certainly isn’t a 100% correlation between length and quality, generally speaking you can’t create a brilliant article in 100 words. The best articles tend to be the big powerful ‘ultimate guides’ articles, and try creating one of them in a few hundred words.
But will the extra time available to then spend driving visitors mean when all said and done you get more visitors? Therefore surely that is better for you. So is that the way forward? I’ll attempt to answer this predicament.
Why Am I Bringing This Up?
Recently I published a post containing over 2,000 words and a whole load of images too. The article is not designed to make money, it has no monetisation on it. I created it as I thought it would be wicked to have one ‘holy grail’ article on this website. However here’s the thing. It took me an entire day to do it. About 9 hours actual fully focused working time. And that was just the writing, then I had to share it socially which adds a bit longer on.
It made me wonder, whether it was actually worth it.
Overall I have to say, probably not. And that is why I think the compromise between post length/quality and time matters. It would be a lovely idea to just spend each day writing wonderful material. But perhaps having it still very good, but 10% less good, and spending that extra time on promotion would work better. That is what I wish I had done with my post. Instead of 9 hours, perhaps have spent 8 hours on creation, and 1 hour on getting it out there to get lots of readers.
How To Tread The Line
I wouldn’t overly call this a ‘fine line’ because there is a bit of room for manoeuvre. But there is still a line to tread. You don’t want to be one of those webmasters you see on forums who has a rubbish website, but appears to spend hours and hours pushing it to get links in all manner of ways. But you don’t want to be the opposite end simply spending weeks buried in your laptop writing, but with no inbound links or social presence.
Action To Take
You need to get yourself a schedule, or develop working processes to make sure you tread the line successfully. Perhaps have a percentage split in your time. Spend 60% of your time writing. 10% on website development (SEO, tweaking design) and monetisation. 10% on social media. 10% on networking with other bloggers and industry experts. And leave a 10% for day-to-day running such as moderating comments, financial accounts, checking emails.
Alternatively if you don’t like the percentage idea you could split your day up by the hours. If you work a strict number of hours per day that could suit you better. Or you could dedicate specific days for specific tasks. E.G. have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday purely for writing, and then Thursday and Friday for other tasks such as promotion, website development, social media and the other tasks.
We are all different, run different businesses and have different needs. Use the above ideas to decide how you can maximise efficiency and find a nice compromise between creating brilliant content, and getting it seen. This will allow you to meet your potential and get the biggest success possible with your venture.
Good luck.
