The content you write is what defines your blog. Without content, there really is no blog. Because content is so important to the growth and brand of your blog, you have to write to the best of your ability.
Even though most bloggers’ know how important the content they write is, not everyone treats it as it should be treated; like a king.
King-like content has the following characteristics to it:
- It expresses unique ideas, and is presented in a simple, easy to read way.
- There is a structure the article follows (good formatting, use of headings, lists, etc.)
- Any ideas written about are fully developed and causes a reader to really think deeply about them.
- It provokes thoughtful discussions among readers in your community.
- It was written with a very distinct plan behind it.
Working out of impulse has its benefits, but when it comes to writing an article, doing it out of impulse is not the smartest thing to do. It is always safest to have a solid plan behind every article you write so you can write king-like content every time.
Think of something you have ever planned in your life. Use your blog as example. I doubt you just sat down in front of your computer one day and created your blog in one sitting. You had to plan things like the name of your blog, what you wanted to write about, what design you wanted to use and so many other things.
You just couldn’t do it at a single time. You worked off of a plan, and as a result – you have a blog that you’re proud of.
Now take that idea, and apply it to writing an article.
The actual whiteboard I use to mind map my articles.
Well, easy may not be the best word. But because of how organized I am going into writing my articles initially, I spend a lot less time than someone who had no notes or vision going into writing.
In short, the advantages I have over someone who doesn’t plan are:
- I have lists of ideas I want to write about, so I always have things to say.
- I have a vision for how the structure of my article will be. I know where I will put headlines, when I need lists, etc.
- I know when I have said enough, or where I need to put more information in the article.
- It will save me time in the long-run.
It sounds like a lot of work to spend about 20-30 minutes to plan an article, but it will save you the burden of sitting down for possibly an hour or more to write. I can usually knock out articles (the written portion) on here in about 30-45 minutes when I have a great plan.
There’s Something to Learn from a Plan too
When a blogger struggles to come up with ideas, they will often settle for anything they can think of that’s related to their niche. If they settle for anything and go into the planning stages, they will have a lot of difficulty planning their article.
When you have trouble creating a plan for something, what usually happens? You come up with bad ideas, you start working without much motivation, and you get stuck when you don’t have anything to back you up. This all wastes time.
If you plan crap, you write crap. If you write crap, you get crap results.
The thing I learned, is that if I can’t fill up my whiteboard with ideas than I probably can’t write an 800+ word articles about it either. Once I realize that I am having trouble planning I move on to my next idea. Hopefully it works out better.
More Tips on Planning Your Articles
Need more tips for coming up with a better plan for your articles? Check out these immensely helpful articles below.
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How to skyrocket your blogging efficiency
There are many distractions and bad habits we endure in order to get into a more productive workflow. In this article, a comprehensive list of 10 tips to help you get into a more efficient workflow has been compiled.
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How to quickly and calmly write a post at a last-minute
It happens to all of us, we forget we had an article to write and are now forced to do it at the last-minute. In this article, you will learn how to write at the last-minute without losing your cool.
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Effective Blog Time Management
Learn how to better organize the way you spend your time on your blog by creating a calendar for yourself. You will find yourself spending time balancing your writing and non-writing activities much easier with the suggested method in this article.
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7 steps to perfect your content writing
A list of seven steps you should adapt to your own blogging process in order to make your content creation process much smoother.
The Discussion
Leave a Comment Read Again?My goal is usually just to start writing – immediately if possible. Because the longer I sit and think about it, the harder some articles seem to be, whereas if I just start writing, the ideas just flow out naturally.
.-= Kristi´s last blog ..How to Sound Like You Know What You’re Blogging About =-.
That’s interesting, most people (like me) need to have this giant plan sitting right next to them to be able to work. Sometimes I feel like I limit myself by making a plan because when I wrote about everything in my plan, it feels like I’m done when I could add more.
I might have to try that out sometime and just write without any notes. Wish me luck.
Oh well first thing is the basic idea once you start off with the basic idea of what you want to write, word then come by itself and you just go on with the flow
.-= Salman Aslam´s last blog ..Becoming an Eco Friendly living Being? =-.
As long as you’re 100% focused on writing, you can definitely write without problems.
Have you ever tried speed writing? It’s basically where you write as fast as you can and as much as you can, not stopping for anything (even spelling, grammar, formatting). It sounds like a decent idea, and I think I’d like to put it to the test someday. WHat do you think?
Well there have been moments where i would just go on and on but at times id slow down and look from different perspective and proofread
.-= Salman Aslam´s last blog ..Becoming an Eco Friendly living Being? =-.
It looks like a hard work.
.-= paul | entertainment tonight´s last blog ..Marian Rivera is Super Inday =-.
Blogging is hard work.
I’ve had a couple brainstorming/mindmapping sessions and used those to put together an editorial calendar with post ideas for the rest of the year. I make changes and swap things out when something else seems more appropriate, but this has definitely taken a lot of stress out of the content writing process.
.-= Jean Sarauer´s last blog ..How to Host a Winning Blog Contest =-.
That sounds really cool, did it take a while to do? So does that mean you have all of 2010 planned out, or are you still working on completing the calendar?
I’m seriously trying to contemplate how beneficial doing something like this could be. I’m thinking of trying it out myself and maybe write about it here now (with a mention to you of course). I’m very intrigued.
I was actually planning on getting a whiteboard today for my blog. I feel it would help to have constant visual reminders on what needs to be done by when.
As for mind-mapping, I do it for every posts in my moleskine. I found it’s much easier to list out every single idea then connect them together in a blog post, instead of creating everything from scratch. The twenty minutes in the beginning definitely saves at least twenty minutes of the writing process.
I definitely recommend you get a whiteboard. I love it, and it’s always the best place for me to put my ideas on.
It can save even more time. Generally when I plan out a post really well, I can write a full article here in about 40-60 minutes without much stop (with the exception of the introduction, I always get stuck there!).
I try not to get to structured with writing.. I think of what I want to write and I write.
There is a place for planned, laid out posts.. but usually I stick to just writing what I’m thinking about.
.-= John Paul´s last blog ..Breaking Into The Top 20 Internet Marketers Online With No List =-.
Do you think it’s easier and even quicker that way? I think I’d be lost without at least some notes to work with. But like I mentioned above, sometimes the notes can limit me to what I write. Like, once I have covered everything in the article I might find myself ending the post, even though there may be more to say still. So because of that, I can see how just writing can be hugely beneficial.
You have a beautiful theme. I love it. One thing I take from this post is to keep a list of ideas. SUCH a basic and easy idea but I somehow have not managed to create a master list of possible things to write about.
.-= chris´s last blog ..iPage Web Hosting: $3.50 a Month =-.
Thanks Chris!
There are some pretty basic ideas here, but they are highly effective ones!
You should get on that though. Just take about 10-20 minutes to do it, you can get one down fairly quick.
It totally depends on what i am writing. For eg, if it is about twitter, I sometimes don’t need to plan and I am still able to make a long 800-1000 word articles. But for areas where I am a little less comfortable, I use mind maps, idea notes etc. So it simplifies my articles and makes it easy to write
.-= Gautam Hans @ Blog Godown´s last blog ..How College Taught me to be a Better Blogger =-.
I mind map everything! Even my 700 word articles (which I consider short) I mind map. I just love working off of a plan, and it really gets me going.
But it’s smart that if you have trouble, or know you’re going to have trouble, to mind map and prepare. Great thoughts Gautam, thanks for stopping by!
Great Post!
I try to jot down ideas to write about later but I discovered that the post would not be as detailed as it is supposed to be if i were to write it immediately I have the idea.
I also have a notebook where I jot down post ideas, just for future purposes. If I couldn’t get an Idea, I will go to my notebook and maybe use Google to research points on which I can expand on.
Thanks for the great post,
-Onibalusi
Have you ever looked into whiteboards? I love mine to death, and I think it would benefit you a lot.
But I use a combo of paper and a whiteboard. It’s ridiculous how effective the two are together when it comes to saving ideas.
Like Kristi, I usually “just write”; many times spur of the moment…I’m blog walking, get inspired, switched tabs to my always open blog and either draft it for later, or write it right there, then go back to whatever it was I was doing.
However, if it is not time-sensitive, I may leave it drafted for a time and add/delete/format, whatever, then publish.
.-= Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Warning: 8 Posts Coming Back to Back =-.
I tried writing in a more of the “spur of the moment” type writing today, and I did get pretty far without hesitation. I may have to keep doing it more, thanks to both of your suggestions.
I usually stop whatever I’m doing and go to either my whiteboard or the closest piece of paper and write down those ideas. I cannot lose a single post idea, they’re too valuable!
“Luckily” I get all mine right here, so I can skip the pen/paper step.
At this very moment i have 611 drafts. Only about 200 of those are done posts transferred from the old DSWM blog for republishing.
I might get 1-5 idea/drafts per day.
I see so many articles talking about “how to get post ideas”, all I think then is, “how to sell post ideas”. LOL
Yea, writers block is never an issue for me; finding the publishing/promoting time IS.
.-= Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Oops I Lied-HAHA =-.
“It expresses unique ideas, and is presented in a simple, easy to read way.”
I always create a simple and fulfilled with ideas, and one thing, don’t push yourself to post everyday when you’re not creating any useful content, it will just make your readers gone.
.-= Reza Winandar´s last blog ..5 Types of Comments That Attract Attention =-.
Do you think if you can’t come up with meaningful content, you shouldn’t write at all?
Yes.
.-= Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Oops I Lied-HAHA =-.
Fantastic advice. I write blog posts very often, so this is extremely valuable to me.
Thanks
.-= Christopher Roberts´s last blog ..New Technology Blog Domain Name – 24th March 2010 =-.
Usually when I write, I just write a draft on my notebook then will try to add more when I got more ideas from things I read and learn each day.
.-= Pinoy | How to blog´s last blog ..How To Earn Money From Your Blog =-.
Mind mapping rocks!
Generally, you have to baby-sit your articles in order to make them mature and well-versed. I usually start planning up to five articles simultaneously. Every article has its maturing period, you have to sit with each one for some time.
Finally, there are types of blog posts that aren’t that hard to implement: lits (do overuse this one), thought of the moment (do not overuse this one).
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