The average blog takes just over four hours to write, according to a recent report by Orbit Media.

Just think what you could do with four more work hours a week!

As the saying goes, time is money!

 

Does it Really Take Four Hours?

At least! To get a high-quality, useful post that your customers will get value from, four hours is the minimum amount of time it takes.

Writing the post might only take half an hour, but it’s all the other stuff that takes the time. Let’s break it down.

 

Planning

First, you will need to decide what to write.

If you have thought ahead, you might have a content strategy that will make this quicker.

I bet that content strategy took ages to create though, didn’t it?!

 

Research

Once you have a subject, preparation is key.

Even with a great brief to hand, there is a lot of research involved in effective blog posts.

You will need to be looking at what you’ve written in the past and what your competitors are doing before you can write a word.

You will need to do keyword and trend research, to make sure you attract the search engines and the right customers.

And then you will need to research your chosen subject.

Make notes. Trawl the internet until you feel as though you are an expert on the subject.

 

Writing

And then, you might start writing.

Now, imagine you are completely undistracted and manage to write your blog post in ten minutes.

It’s unlikely, but you deserve a pat on the back if you do this!

Your work has only just begun!

 

Editing

It is a good idea to wait before you do anything else.

Give yourself a break – overnight is best – before coming back to your blog.

A fresh head is best for editing.

And you will definitely need to edit.

At least once. Maybe a few times, to get the best content.

And there you have, easily, four hours.

 

There is More to a Blog than Writing

You’ve finally written your blog!

So, who’s uploading it?

You’ll probably want to set aside another half an hour for this bit, at best.

Once you are logged in to your site and you’ve entered the text into your blog, you should probably proofread it one more time.

We don’t like errors here!

Then you need to go through and add in any links.

And you’ll definitely need a picture to accompany your blog. Has someone else taken a picture; do you have business stock images; do you need to find a royalty-free stock image from somewhere else?

And you should not ignore the meta fields that sit underneath your blog.

These help search engines find your blog based on their user’s intent.

And the meta description will draw those users in.

You could also, if you have any time, energy or inclination left, share your blog to your business social media channels. Perhaps with an interesting introduction.

 

Want an Amazing Blog Quicker?

Then let me do the hard work for you!

Now that you know the time and effort that goes into creating a great post that you and your customers will benefit from, perhaps you are thinking of outsourcing that job after all?

Four hours could buy you a lot of business admin time.

It could improve your sales.

Or it could free up some time to spend with your family.

Or on hobbies and interests.

Spend twenty minutes on a content consultation today and save yourself some time!