How Long Does It Take To Write A Blog Post?

Do I Really Need to Blog Every Day To Get Results?

My belief is that you do NOT have to blog every day to get results.

As I mentioned above… I disagree with this “blog for the sake of blogging” approach that some people advocate.

I’m guessing the theory behind this approach goes something like this:

Provided that you produce a piece of blog content everyday… 6-7 times per week… week after week… month after month… you’ll begin to get traction from your blog and start to generate leads and sales.

So it would seem that the main strategy here is simply… consistency.

Hey, I’m all for consistency!

But did you know that if you’re content isn’t good you can do irreparable damage to your brand and your reputation?

Here’s what I mean…

Good Content Must Be Worth Reading!

Lets assume that you’re like most humans and you have busy/hectic days sometimes.

Imagine on one of those busy/hectic days you still feel obligated to create your daily content and you “mail it in”.

Meaning, you write a blog post for the sake of getting it done.

As a result, this piece of content is sub par and not a good reflection on what you’re capable of producing.

Now, lets say that someone comes across this blog post (and your blog) for the very first time.

This particular piece of sub par content will be their first impression of you.

Is this how you want people to view you?

“Are You Blogging For The Sake Of Blogging?

Or Are You Taking The Time To Produce A Well Thought Out, Informational, Sharable Piece Of Content?”

The reason someone would read your content is because they want to be either…

• Educated
• Informed
• Entertained

If you’re in the information marketing space your reader likely has a problem and they hope your content will help provide a solution.

So here’s the deal…

If you’re content isn’t educating, informing, or providing a solution…

It’s highly likely this reader will feel they’ve wasted their time reading your blog post.

As a result, do you think this person will be eager to read future content that you produce?

Furthermore, if the content is not informative or entertaining…

Do you think that person will read the entire piece of content to the end and click on your “call to action” or opt into your email newsletter?

I highly doubt it.

“If you’re going to mail it in because you feel obligated to create content everyday… the quality of your content will undoubtedly suffer.”

Poor quality content won’t accomplish the intended business purpose which is to:  

1. Generate leads
2. Initial customer acquisition
3. Create offer and brand awareness

Furthermore, falling into the trap of feeling the need to pump out daily content can be bad for two reasons. 

1.) For the part time biz builders who only have an hour or two per day to work on their business; forcing out daily content will likely lead to creating mediocre or even poor content.

Too much mediocre or poor content overtime will damage your brand in the eyes of your audience and prospects.

2.) Producing content every single day can desensitize your audience to your new content.

Think about it… if I know you’re providing content everyday, I also know that I can skip today’s content because there will be another piece tomorrow.

You don’t want people to get into the habit of purposely disregarding your content because they know they can wait until another day or time to consume it.

Instead, I want my audience eagerly waiting in anticipation for my next piece of content.

I want my readers to be excited when new content is published.

I want them to feel like “I gotta read this!”

So How Long DOES It Take To Write A Blog Post?

For me, the answer to the question “how long does it take to write a blog post?” is…

… approximately 2 days.

I’ll start writing the blog post at some point on Day 1 and finish the final product and publish it at some point on Day 2.

Mind you, I’m not spending 8 or 10 hours each day on the blog post.

But I am putting in at least a few hours both days.

This process includes:

1. Research
2. Writing 1st draft
3. Editing for Final draft
4. Proofreading
5. Fact checking
6. Formatting for visual appeal
7. Adding images
8. Optimizing for on page SEO
9. Creating a compelling Call To Action

If you feel you can do all of this each and every day… and still produce high quality content that has a significant business impact… then more power to you!

However, most people don’t have the time or the ability to do everything required to create a solid blog post every single day. 

Instead, I recommend publishing 1-3 solid, high quality pieces of content per week…

Then pay to drive traffic to your content to get more eyeballs on it.

Do this and you will have more time to create high quality content AND you will get more people seeing your content and hearing your message.

Conversions, Conversions, Conversions!

Conversions are key!

Throwing noodles against the wall to see what sticks in NOT a content marketing strategy.

Your content needs to have a business impact.  

It has to do something to advance your business (generate leads, make sales, etc.)

It takes a fair amount of time and effort to create solid content that engages people and converts them to either leads or sales.

Therefore, the noodles need to stick to the wall.

Your content has to have a tangible, measurable, business impact otherwise you’re wasting your time and effort.

For more details on how you can create a solid content marketing strategy CLICK HERE

Then and Now: How Blogging Has Changed

Back in 2005 Technorati estimated there were approximately 7.8 million blogs.

Today it is estimated that there are over 279 million blogs!!

What does that mean?

It means…

1. There is more blogging “competition” today than ever before
2. Everyone and their brother can have a blog
3. There is no shortage of content out there for your potential audience to choose from

Thanks to today’s technology it’s easy for just about anyone to have a bog.

Now don’t get me wrong… I believe this is a good thing.

Everyone should have the ability to leverage modern technology to spread their message and build their business.

I certainly don’t believe that blogging should be reserved only for the “best of the bunch” who sit high atop their ivory blogging towers and bestow their invaluable knowledge down upon the lowly peons below.

“In 2005 there were approximately 7.8 million blogs online. Today there are almost 300 million!”

However, due to the rise in blogging popularity…

… there is now more content then ever before. 

In fact there is a massive, endless sea of content out there! 

The question is… how are you going to make your mark?

How are you going to stand out from the crowd? 

The Blogging Landscape Has Changed

In 2016 you can’t get away with creating an average piece of content and think…

“Well as long as I do this consistently… everything should work out well, right?”

Wrong! 

Poor or even mediocre content, even when published consistently… will NOT have the kind of business impact that your content needs to provide.

For example; earlier I went to Google and entered in the search term… 

“How to generate leads online with Social Media”.

There are approximately 20 million results that came up from that keyword search.

So what do I do?

I start clicking through the different results to see which one will satisfy my curiosity.

However, if an entry doesn’t grab my attention right away…

Or…

If the content isn’t going deep enough into the topic to give me the answers I’m looking for…

I immediately click the “back” button knowing there are literally millions of other potential pieces of content that I can access instead.

This is what I mean by “competition”.

You’re not necessarily competing against another marketer in the sense that “my blog is better than your blog”.

What you’re competing for is your audience’s attention. 

Is your content capturing the attention of your audience?

If you’re not producing content at a high level (note: I didn’t say frequent level) you risk losing the attention of your potential prospect.

Without their attention your content isn’t creating the business impact that you hoped it would when you originally created it.

We’re not in the early 2000’s anymore when you could simply blog consistently and get tons of “Google love” as a result.

The idea being that you could blog consistently, get lots of visitors to your blog, and then those visitors would become consistent followers.

Unfortunately, due to more blogs and more content in general… those days are over.

Now more than ever it is critical that your content captures your reader’s attention, pulls them through your content, and provides them a solution at the end.

Final Thoughts…

The bottom line to all of this is…

How do you want your audience to see you? 

As someone who pumps out a lot of vanilla content that doesn’t go very deep into solving people’s problems or helping them out

Or…

As someone who really knows what they’re talking about, produces excellent content, and is worth giving their time and attention to every time a new blog post is published.

I’m going to assume you’d prefer to be considered the latter.

Therefore, don’t feel the need to produce content daily just to say…

“Phew! I got a blog post done today!” 

 Instead, put in the time and meaningful thought that is required to create quality content that serves your business purpose and provides a solution to your reader’s pain.

When you do that, you’ll start getting the results from your blog that you’ve always hoped for.

To learn how to create consistent compelling blog content CLICK HERE for your free report!

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