7 Essential Tips To Increasing Your Blogging Output

How you can write smarter, not harder.

On average, I knock out around a dozen thousand-word blog posts per week — over half of which are freelance assignments where I’m producing content for other people’s pages.

That’s a fair amount of writing, and it’s a heavy pace, all things considered. When I first started writing online — both for myself and others — it was a slower process.

Over the years, I’ve picked up some ways to increase my output without sacrificing quality. If anything, quality has only gone up as I’ve gotten more practice.

Here are seven strategies you, too, can use to up your blogging game.

Write an outline

90% of everything I write begins with an outline — including this piece.

I don’t go into great detail. In fact, you might even consider it more of a list than an outline. In general, most of my outlines begin like this:

• Introduction
• Point 1
• Point 2
• Point 3
• Conclusion

There, now I have a basic checklist for my blog.

The only part that might vary is the number of points, but even then, the number of points I wish to discuss may change during the writing process. I’ll copy this into my Google Doc, assign each label as a header and write the word “copy” underneath in regular text.

From there, I write — expanding on each point until I’ve said what I’ve wanted to say.

Write first, edit last

You can get a lot of words out in a relatively short amount of time if you can train yourself not to stop and edit along the way. Don’t worry about punctuation or grammar. Don’t worry about spelling.

All that can be fixed after you’ve gotten your words out.

Don’t like how an idea is forming on the page?

Push through. Change it later.

Even if you end up deleting half the words on the page during your editing stage, you’ll still likely have produced more words freewriting out your first draft than you would have if you stopped to make sure every sentence was perfect before moving on to the next one.

Just remember that when your first draft is done that you do need to go back and edit.

That’s… that’s important.

Write the introduction last

Have you gotten stuck before you’ve even gotten started?

It happens to everyone.

I’ve found that if I know what I’m going to talk about, it’s okay to skip writing the introduction first. Jump immediately to Point 1, then Point 2, and maybe all the way through to your conclusion before tackling the introduction.

You may even find that, in the process of writing, you’ve changed your focus a little. You’ll actually have a better idea of how to begin your piece after you’ve written the rest of it out.

Sometimes — and this is one of those tips few people mention — your conclusion could probably make a fantastic introduction with just a few words changed. Try writing two conclusions after you’ve finished your final point and pick one of them to become your introduction.

Line your research up ahead of time

If you’re writing a piece that requires research or having statistics or quotes ready to insert, have those set up in advance. I’ll keep a separate Google Doc tab open for quotes and statistics (along with references) to insert as needed. I’ll also have a separate browser window set up with multiple tabs for sources if it’s a more complex piece I’m working on.

Of the two, I prefer having things lined up on Google Docs first if for no other reason than I’ve already isolated the information I need and won’t waste time hunting down a quote or factoid on someone else’s webpage.

Exercise daily

I’m not talking about a daily set of push-ups and sit-ups (although that’s not a bad idea), but more that you should be exercising your writing habit every day — or at least as often as you reasonably can.

I get how real life works. Jobs. Family. Fire. Floods.

But the more you write, the better you become and — à propos for this article — the faster you become.

Daily practice will force you to internalize your process and will make the flow of words easier over time.

Pobody’s nerfect

Er… nobody’s perfect.

You get the idea.

Don’t be weighed down by the misconception that you can’t release a piece of writing to the world until it is absolutely perfect.

Embrace the concept that there will be errors. There will be some epic boners.

It’s okay. While it’s always a good idea to present the world with your best work, understand that even the best writers make mistakes from time to time. It’s what makes them human.

Readers are forgiving. So long as it looks like you’re putting the work in, your readers will give you some surprising leeway.

Take a break

As important as it is to keep up a regular schedule and write daily — or as often as you can — let me contradict myself a little by also suggesting that it’s okay to take a break as well.

Hear me out.

If you’re banging your head trying to write and it’s just not happening — or if you’ve been struggling a lot and are ready to chuck the whole concept of being a writer — walk away for a day or two.

It’s okay.

Sometimes you need some time to clear your head.

Taking a day or two off — maybe even a week — could be just what you needed. Then you‘ll return to the keyboard and start banging out words with an ease and confidence that will surprise you.

Getting to it

We put a lot of work into your writing, but there are ways to streamline that work and allow us to be more efficient.

If you’re serious about being putting out content regularly, you will do well to find ways to make the job as easy for yourself as possible without sacrificing quality.

These tips should help. Maybe not all, but certainly some.

Give them a try and see what works best for you.

And keep writing.

Thank you for reading. I’d love to share more with you via my Bi-Weekly Word Roundup newsletter sent to subscribers every other Sunday. It will feature news, productivity tips, life hacks, and links to top stories making the rounds on the Internet. You can unsubscribe at any time.