I write up to five blog posts every week. That may sound easy for some, but for me, it gets a little tough.
You see, I have two jobs.
I run the daily operations of a women’s apparel company that I started with my girlfriend and write full time on blogs like SocialQuant.
I dedicate 100% of my waking hours to both of these companies.
Since Leneys is still in bootstrapping mode, we do all the daily operations ourselves; from packing orders, sending them to the post office, ironing the clothes, conducting the photoshoot, photo editing, etc. You can imagine where most of my NON-online hours are for.
That is why time for writing is precious for me. I am still able to maintain writing regular blog posts and article contributions including lengthy 1,500+ words article to blogs like Social Media Examiner and Businesses Grow. Today, I’m writing for this blog.
Some have noticed this and said to me that they are seeing me everywhere – which is a good sign because it means that what I am doing is working.
The key is time management. I want to help you learn to write five blog posts a week and share my thoughts on doing expert interviews while maintaining my sanity.
1. Plan in advance
There is quote by Benjamin Franklin which I love. Franklin says that “by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
I don’t wait for the words to come to me or wait for ideas. I always note down ideas when I can. I use a paid app called Write. I love to use this because of its minimal look and because it's connected to my Dropbox.
A free alternative option would be Evernote. In my notepad it would be something like this.
September:
Week One
- Title one
- Title two
- Title three
- Title four
- Title five
Week Two:
- Title one
- Title two
- Title three
- Title four
- Title five
I write down a month's worth of ideas in advance in one or two sittings. That means I already know what I’ll be writing about at the end of the month.
2. Get rid of distractions
Daniel Goleman said that ‘The way to boost our will power and focus is to manage our distractions instead of letting them manage us.’
In the era of social media, well… that’s easier said than done! That is why I learned how to avoid distractions.
Here are my two tips:
- Tip #1: Get rid of your Facebook newsfeed. You probably spend most of your waking hours on this platform. When you get rid of your newsfeed, you’re only focused on getting your work done and not engage with your friends. If you want to engage with them, use a mobile app. A great chrome plugin I use is facebook news feed eradicator
- Tip #2: Know where you’re spending most of your time at. According to data by Vertical Response, people are spending too much time finding content to share on social media.
Tools like Post Planner will ease your work because of features to find top content, viral photos and status ideas where you have over 12,000 status to use. To get an idea about how it works I recommend you learn from Ms. Ileane’s post here.
Here’s an example of our viral photo feature.
3. Hire an editor
Drafting a crappy draft is easy! The editing part is what usually takes up a lot of time. Hiring an editor will speed up the process. This keeps you focused and helps you write consistently without worrying about editing.
You can start hiring your friends like what I did, or you can easily find amazing editors on platforms like Upwork. I love the quality of people they have on that site.
4. Outline your posts
An outline helps because it gives you the direction of what you should be writing. When I write down my ideas a month in advance, I’ll develop them by adding bullet points of 2-3 messages that I plan to cover in those articles.
For example, if I were to write a blog on writing the perfect Facebook status, my bullet points would be:
- Write personal post
- Use example by ____
- Use quotes in article
- Ask a question
5. Disconnect from the world
Sometimes disconnecting from the internet can be a savior. There are days where my mind just feels like it’s about to explode. When that happens, I’ll disconnect from the internet, take my laptop with me, sit on the couch with my dog and write offline.
Since I already listed down the ideas and bullet points on what I should be writing, I won’t need to be connected to the internet.
6. K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Silly)
I like to keep my posts simple. That depends on how complex the topic is of course, but usually most of them are 700-800 words long.
If the post exceeds 1,000 words, but the topic is something simple that doesn't require a long blog post length, I simply break the post into two parts.
If a particular point in a lengthy blog post has a lot more to discuss, I’ll take that point out and create a brand new blog post out of it. This allows me to cover specific points which people might be searching for while keeping my original post simple.
I’m sure you have your own methods too. Some bloggers have shared with me that they use Coffitivity which gives a coffee shop ambience to their writing spot and that makes them more productive in their writing. I tried it and I loved it!
What’s your little secret for writing more blog posts?
I can write many posts but the problem is that I can’t have time to promote them. tell me best tips to promote them
You can automate that process with social media management platforms. Have you tried Post Planner? it works well for Facebook.
No I did not try Post planner. is it free? if not than tell me any free and better service because in starting i can’t afford paid services
Hi Zeeshan,
Post Planner is a freemium app, it has free and paid features. 🙂
Hi Aaron,
I’d like to start off by saying these are all excellent points that I personally use. I also like to keep little notes of things that happen throughout the day in order to avoid writer’s block for when I do write an article. You’d be surprised at how many little things, like little jokes and interesting signs, you see throughout the day that you simply forget about 2 seconds later.
Hi Victor, That is a very good idea! Can imagine how much of those you can include in your posts.
Thank you!
Thanks Victor,
That is a very good tip! I can imagine all the thoughts you can include in your posts with the help of those notes.
Thanks for this. The thing I see from a lot of successful, prolific bloggers is they seem to treat it like lifting weights ie: they start out with just a few quality reps, then soon can double and triple that just like a weight lifter slow adds on more weight yet it feels the same.
Also, don’t be afraid to automate some of the work though, and PostPlanner is a great tool to do so.
I agree Ben! I too like to see if like that.
Like in bodybuilding, rest is important! Always make sure to rest to avoid burn out. 🙂
I just shared your blog post with some of my clients. Your points are just what they need to read and consider for their blogging plan. I am encouraging them to write 15 minutes per day. That’s the minimum I spend writing. I write in the spirit of Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages – just write. It can be content for a blog post, response to something caught my attention, tasks I need to tackle, concerns I have…I try to write without stopping and without the critic. I write before work, but not when I first wake up (which is why I say “in the spirit of” because I just *can’t* write first thing). Thanks again for your post. I’ll be back for more!
Hi Katrina,
Thank you so much for sharing my post with your client. That means a lot to me. I love how you’re encouraging them to write for at least 15 minutes a day. With that guidance from you, it will definitely get the ball rolling and steer them to the right path.
Thank you very much Aaron 🙂
This is what needed because i would realy like to write more posts on my blog.
Glad to hear that Nassim, do update me with how it goes 🙂
I think that by planning in advance you are setting yourself up for success in your blog posts. Keeping little notes for yourself throughout the day helps with getting writers block when writing.
Good tips! Social media is definitely a timesuck and I’m trying to be more regimented about how I post…. then I find myself in conversation… Thanks for the postplanner link – sounds really interesting and will give that a try. I work full time and am just trying to consistently post twice a week on all of my sites!
You are absolutely right… the issue is time management.
I have tried to post in a daily basis but it is kind of difficult to me
Social life? I have a couple of little kids and a wife to take care. Imagine?
Just Five Posts a week and Still ranking this much good. So good… Surly you have Something more in your Pocket. What you Do except using Seo and writing Post to Rank high?
This is an amazing post Aaron. Time management is the key to productivity. Hence proved.
Hi Aaron,
Great tips and stuff. I usually write 3 to 4 post a week and yes I feel your pain that it’s not much easy to write a post everyday.
You just have created an amazing article to write lot of blog post without leaving social content.
Thanks for sharing!
I have three full-time blogs, and I try to post three times per week on each. I also freelance, so I spend a lot of time writing.
The editor tip is a great one. I spend so much time going through my posts and editing them. I just don’t know if I would be able to give up the editing task. Often, during editing, I find other things I want to include in my blog post that add to it. But, I often end up with a less-than-perfect post because – eventually – I just have to get it done!
I have, however, got rid of Facebook completely. I can’t tell you how many times I checked up on other people’s lives instead of working on my own! Getting rid of Facebook has given me hours back in my week.
Great, simple, actionable tips – as usual, Aaron!
Here’s one to add: keep a list of the most frequently asked questions you get from your clients, customers and prospects. You can bet that if you hear a specific question all the time, it’s a question that a lot of people have…and chances are those people are looking for the answer on the web, which often makes them your ideal clients! Why not try to be there right at the point when they need you? My clients LOVE this strategy.
But…like everything else, you gotta keep notes!
B
i have been having difficulties managing my social life with my blogging life,
Anyway i hope this works for me
Lovely post
Hi Aaron,
I need your opinion that weather it is good to engage hired editor on multitasking like writing posts, uploading, promoting plus some other management features, or just limit editor with just writing? My Editor is facing problem on managing things like writing posts and managing them on Social media, please give your precious advice.
lovely post.i hope it will work for every one.
As soon as we get paid, I think we should forget everything about our social life. At the end of the day money that all matters. Well, I totally agreed with all the facts that you’ve shared here. Appreciated it as well.
Hi, just noticed you gave up the ComLuv plugin (though your “by checking this box” still betrays the remnants …)? I must say that I have, knock on wood, never felt any shortages of ideas. Yes, writing then can be a bottleneck. But fter experimenting years and years ago (before the Internet) with hired guns and in the end spending more time corresponding and proofreading I once and for all decided to write only on my own or well, leave it at a lower publishing frequency but keep a level head.
Darragh,
I use the GASP feature which adds the tick box. I turned of CommentLuv over a year ago, but people keep adding me to their lists of CommentLuv blogs. It’s a shame really.
Hi Ileane, I wasn’t visiting because of these ComLuv settings. 😉 I actually am not quite sure if ComLuv in light of constant Google algorithm changes might not one day backfire. Still, if I happen to do research and I happen on a CL blog, I will still comment if I feel it worthwhile (for both sides). But I believe any “easy street” to backlinking is doomed in the long run, because the more who jump on the band wagon, the more diluted the thing will get plus Google will, even if it does not penalize it straight away, just decide to algorithmically ignore it. So the think is called GASP 😉 As for these bloggers listing you as a ComLuv blog: they are actually not doing research themselves. Becoming a bit miffed and curious I followed these ComLuv lists around the blogosphere and found that they are actually all copy/paste efforts going back to essentially one old master list. This can be proven by seeing that all of them contain the same long-defunct blogs whose websites went offline long before their “compilation”. So they can’t have done their research really. All the speculate on is link and traffic bait and wasting everyone’s time in doing so.
Writing 5 blog posts a week! Wow!
A good time waster is looking at facebook, twitter and other social media. I liked your point about disconnecting from the world – thats an important point as it helps you focus on the task in hand rather than focusing on the unnecessary
Hi, I like your ideas on forward planning the blog posts. Also the idea on having notes in bullet points so you know what to write about.
Hey Aaron,
Planning and managing time is really going to work in anyone case but staying away from social networks particularly Facebook where a new post is coming every second (since bloggers have large network) is really tough.
In my case, I’m using News Feed Eradicator for Facebook extension in Chrome and it had really helped me decrease the Time I’m spending on the Facebook.
Your other tips are really helpful and going to help every blogger once followed truly, cheers 🙂
For me biggest time waster is thinking of the topic I should write today. And in case I already have some topics with me, things become really easy and I become more productive. I have also analysed when I had my Google Analytics and Social media accounts especially Facebook is open, I use to waste lots of my time there. So when I had to finish a post in a given time frame, I happen to close all of browser windows which can distract me.
Great tips Aaron thank you for sharing these.
Thanks for sharing this blog….for a nice and trying to cope coping with my social lifetime having my blogs lifetime,
Regardless i really hope this kind of performs for me personally
Attractive publish…..
Wow, five posts a week, you’re a machine. I’m lucky to do a couple a month, definitely agree on evernote, I wouldn’t be able to blog without it.
Great post. I like posts like this especially Productivity posts.
As you mentioned, Aaron. Outlining posts prior to writing helps a lot. It speeds up the process of writing blog posts insanely.
Spending half an hour weekly for brainstorming ideas to blog upon helps a lot. You will never again sit blank blinking your eyes with the cursor.
Topic hunting is the great time sucker.
Rather than using technical jargon, being simple and straightforward is what the readers like the most. Simple and effectiveness. It both saves time and energy.
Fantastic post.
When you sit down to write a post, you shouldn’t leave until that post is finished. That’s my personal opinion, but something that has helped me manage my time very well
Thank you very much for that info, I will try and and write titles for each day of the next upcoming weeks, and specially thanks for that quote by Franklin. Never heard that one before, will never forget that one 🙂
Thanks .This information is very useful for my blog. because i am a beginner in blogging.
Hi Aaron: In keeping with your #1 point, I write draft notes often when I’m on the computer, which is all day everyday, usually. I use Blogger and I simply make a draft post when I run across something interesting, promise to interview someone, or want to share some of my expertise. In this way, my “draft posts” folder always has content waiting to be fleshed out and published. Now, getting back to it and doing that is the key, because I don’t do that as often as I’d like. Implementing your tips should help with that. Great suggestions and thanks!
Thanks for the tips Aaron. 😉 Will check out the app. 🙂 Cheers. great help to a newbie like me 🙂
Hi,
Mr. Lee, This was really a helpful post for me, Time management is always something I had been battling for years now, this is because I had always wanted to build a successful career in blogging, while working offline for companies, hence updating my blog had not been so easy, but with your tips here, I am fully convinced how I can do better at blogging more without hurting my Jobs offline, Thank you so much Bro & hope to see you again 😀
Ms. Ileane, I think this should be about third time I am commenting on your blog, I will still say it again, “I LOVE YOUR BLOG”.
Hi Aaron,
Just like I have other jobs as well and hence I am not able to write more than 3 posts a week but your tips seems good enough to work on to write more posts in a week.
Advance planning and get rid of distraction are the best points in my opinion.
Keep writing such stuff.
Hello,
this was one reason I was thinking to shut down my blog. It was hard for me to create 3 or 4 articles per month but after reading your point of view I have finally got a serious method to follow.
Hi,
Thanks for posting this. I really needed this. I am a blogger myself and trust me one thing that I am struggling the most is with putting together words for my blog. I have ideas and have them all the time but always struggle to find time to write them down. Some of the strategies listed by you sounds effective and I am sure will help anyone who give them a serious try. Once again, thank you for sharing this post.
Great article Aaron. I struggle with keeping up my consistency week in and week out. This was a good reminder and game plan.
Thanks,
Brett