How Long Does it Take to Write a Blog Post?
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| How long does it take to write a blog post? Image Courtesy of Judith CC-20 |
Theoretically, the fastest you could write a blog post is limited by your typing speed- at 40 words per minute, you could type a 1000 word blog post in 25 minutes, plus about 10 minutes to add some pictures. So I would say 35 minutes is about the fastest most bloggers could write a 1000 word blog post if they have a topic they know well and are experienced at writing blog posts. Maybe a bit longer if you are typing on a cell phone...
I would say 35 minutes is about how much time it takes to write a journal style blog where you write about what is on your mind, make a few edits, and publish. The type of blog posts I write are usually more like magazine articles and take longer to produce.
Realistically, it takes longer than the theoretical limit of 35 minutes to write a quality blog post. It takes time to choose a topic and organize your thoughts. Depending on the topic you select, you may need to do some reading and research as well before writing your content.
Another step that takes time but is a good investment- keyword research. If you spend a couple hours writing a blog post, is anyone going to read it? Keyword research can help you answer this question before you even begin writing. You can use tools such as Google Adwords Keyword Tool to check what people are searching in Google. You can also check your potential competition by searching in Google- if the search results using the keywords you are considering are already stacked with high quality articles from reputable sources, you probably won't get much traffic even if you write a great blog post. You might want to try a different topic. Keyword research also gives you a chance to focus your content on a topic with high potential before you start writing.
Steps to Write a Blog Post and How Long it Takes
Following are some example time requirements for the steps to writing quality blog posts:
- Choose a topic idea: 15 minutes
- Keyword research: 15 minutes
- Research topic, prepare to write: 30 minutes to several hours
- Outline, and first draft: 30 minutes
- Flesh out, edits: 30 minutes
- Add images: 10 minutes
The total time required to research and write the blog post in the example above is 2 hours and 10 minutes. This seems like a reasonable estimate of time required to produce a quality blog post based on my experience, although sometimes I spend hours researching a topic, or even decide to take my own pictures which takes longer.
On the other hand, some blog posts that I write take very little time to write. I can think of some blog posts that took less than an hour to write total, including thinking of the topic idea, writing the post, a some quick edits, and adding a few pictures. If you know where to look, you can quickly find free high-quality pictures to add to your blog post. The blog posts that are easiest to write are on topics that you are very familiar with and that require little or no research.
The quickest way to produce quality content for your blog or website is to write about topics you already know well. Start a niche blog on a topic that interests you- think about things that you know about from work or hobbies that people ask you about. These can make good blog post topics that you can write quickly and easily to create valuable content.
