“How long does it usually take to write or draft up posts and format them with photos and other content?”
The short answer is: it depends on what kind of post it is. While it’s probably fairly obvious to you guys that a post about a cookie recipe vs. a post that shows a before and after room tour are things that likely took very different amounts of time to create start to finish. What might not be as obvious is that pretty much ALL posts, or at least the ones that we share here on A Beautiful Mess, go through a similar 5-step process. So although I don’t have a simple answer like, “It takes 4 hours to write a post,” I can share our five steps to drafting killer content.
1. Brainstorm + Plan
The first step to creating any kind of content is to brainstorm and plan. Here on ABM we aim to publish an average of 45 to 50 posts every month. We share all sorts of content from fashion-related posts (like Sister Style), craft projects, room tours + decor features, recipes, informational articles about blogging, small business, and photography, product launches, and some personal/just-for-fun type articles (you know, the randos) as well. Each writer aims for a certain number and usually specializes in certain areas, and we work backward from there each month.
An obvious, but super helpful tool for brainstorming is a notebook. I like to have a notebook that I can have near me at all times, so I usually have something small in my purse. I will think of the most random recipe brainstorms at seemingly any time of day, so I like to jot down any idea (even if I end up thinking it’s dumb later) when it strikes. Then we can evaluate strong ideas and things we are truly excited about from others that we eventually cut. This eventually becomes a more fleshed out list of post ideas, usually with some room to change them up if things don’t work exactly as planned (which is a DIY hazard for sure :)).
With this list we can plan. This includes making lists of supplies to buy and noting if things can be found locally or if we will need to order online and wait for deliveries. Also, a loose timeline can be put in place once you have your list of posts. For example, I have post ideas on my list this month that will come together in just a day or two, while I also have a project I’m working on that I know will likely take 2-3 months for me to complete. Just knowing this helps me communicate, stay on track, and work within our editorial goals for ABM much more easily than if I were just “winging it” all the time.
2. Create
This is arguably the most fun and most frustrating step in the process. Once you have brainstormed and made a plan of action, it’s time to execute. This will include gathering supplies, making the project, and finding a way to photograph things along the way and the final looks for your article. The timeframe on this will vary a great deal depending on if you are working on a great salad recipe post or sharing your kitchen renovation.
Here’s just a few tips from a gal who’s been creating blog posts for years. First, give yourself time (like, build it into the schedule) to make mistakes. Things don’t always work as you plan, so don’t assume they will. It could be that a post will come together faster than you thought, giving you bonus time! But assuming it will come together in a day when it actually takes three is a sure way to stress yourself, and your team if you work on one, out. Boo to stress! And that brings me to my second tip, which is: enjoy the process. I truly believe one of the most joy filled things we can do in life is create—so don’t blow past enjoying the process of it because you are so focused on maintaining a blog schedule. Sure, hitting deadlines are super important, but so is taking time to enjoy your work. It’s a balancing act that I’m not perfect at but always looking to get better at.
3. Prepare Visuals
For us this means editing and saving our images. There are times posts require other elements, like designed pieces for readers to download, etc. But most often our posts are made up of photos and text. So once the project is complete, it’s time to edit those photos!
This is one place you can save yourself a lot of time by learning to make your editing workflow efficient. First, if you don’t use Photoshop or Lightroom, you should. We use one of these programs for around 99% of the photos you see on ABM. The only exception is if we’ve intentionally left something unedited, and for phone photos we mainly use A Color Story to edit. If you’ve been wanting to learn how to use Photoshop or Lightroom but don’t know where to start, I recommend our course, Photoshop for Bloggers. It takes you from ground zero to everything you need to know. I also recommend using actions or presets when editing (you can also utilize batch editing tools as well) as it speeds up the editing process SO MUCH. And although I love the process of editing photos, it’s not the part of my workflow where I want to spend countless hours. We have our own actions and presets you can check out, and there are other options available online as well depending on the look you are going for.
4. Write + Edit Copy
I usually write all of the copy for a post at once. So, this means I take notes during the creation process so I can go back to those notes to make sure I convey all the information that I think will be helpful to readers. Some writers like to do a slightly different process, writing bits as they go. There really is not one set “right” way to do this, I think it depends more on your style and what feels best and results in the best, most coherent post. But, I do recommend writing a post and then waiting at least a few hours or day before re-reading it. The goal is to re-read your work with fresh eyes to see if you can add anymore info, or maybe you left a step out. Also, make sure to be linking anything relevant that readers might want to read more about.
Then, have someone else proofread your copy. At ABM we’ve had a few different copy editors over the years. Currently, Sarah Sandidge proofs and edits all our posts and e-Course content. She’s amazing—she makes it look like I know how to spell when the truth is, that’s questionable at best. 🙂 If you don’t have the budget to hire this kind of service, at least having your significant other or a friend who might be a bit better at grammar than you would be a good place to start. But, generally this kind of service is affordable. So I would recommend looking into it if you are serious about your writing.
5. Publish + Check Comments
The final step is to press that publish button! I know, the scariest part. What if everyone hates your post? Well, if they do at least you will likely get some feedback so you can create even better content in the future. Worst case scenario is you learn something, and best case scenario is the Internet goes CRAZY for your amazing blog post! So, you don’t have anything to lose, my friend. Press that publish button.
I’d love to say that we religiously check comments, but the truth is we don’t always have the time to respond to everything as much as we would like. But, we still do make as much time as we can for it. It’s important to engage with your readers, AND so often I learn from them on ways to improve my writing, photography, etc. for future posts. Also, if your readers are as great as ours, you def want to read comments because they can truly make your day. I’ve seriously cried from a really nice comment before, especially on days when I needed it.
Bonus step: Update old, but still popular posts regularly. This is not only a great practice as you’ll be improving your site’s content for readers, but Google also prioritizes sites that do this. So you’ll be upping your SEO game as well. The basic idea is to look at what posts are still being read on your site from last year or earlier (depending on how long you’ve been blogging). You can find this in Google Analytics or other backend analytics you may have access to. Read those old posts and see if you can improve them in any way, like adding more information, improving the photos, or adding a short video tutorial. Whatever would make the post a more useful resource is a great place to start. We have been working to do this on our own site this past year by adding short videos tutorials to some of our most popular posts like Homemade Bath Bombs and DIY Marbled Clay Ring Dish.
Hope you fellow bloggers out there found something here helpful! And let me know if you want us to expand on anything from this article or have other blogging-related questions you’d love us to address in future articles in this series. Thanks for letting me share! xo. Emma
Credits // Author: Emma Chapman, Photo: Mandi Johnson, Image Design: Mara Dockery.
40 Comments
This is so in-depth, thank you! Helps me get an idea of how long I should be spending on each process of my own blog.
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Great tips. Never knew it was important to keep updating old posts. Very informative.
http://www.travelbeautyblog.com
This is great! I always love hearing about the behind the scenes of this blog, especially since it’s transition from being more personal to more of a business (but still offering that personal touch – I’ve been a reader for a long time!)
Thanks for all the hard work you do!
xoLRS
http://lisarosesnow.wordpress.com/
This is so helpful! I often forget to take notes while I’m creating something that I know will end up on the blog. Must. Bring. Notebook. Everywhere. Thank you for sharing your process!
We really didn’t see the value in this as much until a year or so ago either. But the good news is it’s never too late to update when you are online. 🙂 It’s hard to prioritize this when you are also aiming to create new, exciting content for those core readers. But it’s makes your site more valuable to Google and also those readers you are looking to reach in the long run so it’s worth exploring and taking the time you can to update old content. 🙂
-Emma
Thanks for reading for so long! We strive to keep the personal touch because to us, it’s still very personal. But it’s hard to know how much of that comes off to readers so good to hear from you on that!
-Emma
I love preparing photos.
I rarely leave the house without a notebook! Content creating is not always as easy as it seems but once you get into the swing of things it can be so fulfilling ♥
Amy // snippetsofamy.co.uk
I love this series, it’s always great to get the behind-the-scenes insight, and helpful. I’ve been considering starting a blog because bloggers like you guys have been such positive role models for me as a creative young woman. 🙂
I have a request for a post: can you go in-depth on how you store and organize all your photos long-term? Do you use a certain cloud subscription or hard drives? Maybe you have posted about this in the past, but I can’t remember.
Is people not liking what you’ve written really the worst case? Okay, I really want to be liked, but what keeps me from blogging is the fear that no one will read what I’ve written. I worry about being completely ignored. You guys at ABM don’t have that problem, obviously. But does anyone else worry about that? Am I taking this way too seriously?
Oh man, it usually takes me forever to draft and write blog posts– always a good solid hour from start to publish. I think it’s because I tend to be a perfectionist though and triple check for spelling and grammatical errors before I finally hit publish!
This was such a great post! And good point to update past posts! Definitely going to take that one into account. xoxo
Thank you so much for these helpful tips! I totally agree with your five steps, I pretty much have the same. x
Jessica — NinetyCo
It is always so interesting to see how different people work and this post is no exception! Some great tips here on organising and creating a great work flow!
Gemma
http://www.fadedwindmills.com
This was SUPER helpful! thanks a lot!
Woah, this is brilliant! Thanks for such a useful post. I am a new blogger on the block – only been bogging for a year and once my kids are in bed – and trying to learn the game by just looking at other people’s blogs but your article gave me some good referencing points, I am well chuffed! Hugs from London, Julie x
http://www.jafinthebox.wordpress.com
This is a great read. My husband and I are in the early stages of travel blogging, so it’s really great to have these Q&As as a guide to start out strong. Please keep them coming!
http://www.wattwherehow.com
Love this, thanks so much for sharing your workflow!
http://objectsicantafford.com
Love that you guys are always so forthcoming about the nuts and bolts of your blogging business. I had some posts that readers seemed to always go back to, so I finally decided to update them. Because if new readers are seeing them, why wouldn’t I want them to be the best they can be? 🙂
http://www.wonderlandsam.com
People always look at me funny when I say that I blog for my job, but they don’t realize all the hours that go into it… like last night when it took me hours and hours to finish editing photos and getting todays post live, it really is a full time gig.
Paige
http://www.thehappyflammily.com/2017/01/unplugging-in-heber-valley-utah.html
I would also love to know what you do regarding photo storage! I’ve been better about deleting all of the bad photos that I’ll never use, but I still have so many photos. I had to buy a 2TB hard drive to store my blog photos on, and I worry that my older hard drive will die at some point… I’ve been considering using cloud storage but don’t know what’s the best option. I really want to start shooting photos in RAW but I know those will eat up space 5x faster than regular jpegs so I need to figure out a good storage solution.
This is a really great article. I don’t think many people realize all the thought and creating that goes into content. I do have to say that all my images are much prettier by using your Color Story photo filters. I absolutely LOVE them 🙂
I would really love that to!
Thank you for sharing your process and adding the helpful links. I just started blogging and have a very long way to go.
Lori you are most certainly not alone in this – this has been my biggest concern as well, especially now when I’m working on relaunching my blog with brand new focus and content. Obviously, when you make that effort and take the time out of your busy schedule to write and create something, you want it to be seen. I don’t really have a solution for this – just keep doing what you love, produce quality content and I’m sure that the right readers will find their way to you!
Fingers crossed 🙂
What plugin(s) do you use for your archive pages? I love how clean it looks and love how all the post snippets have the perfect amount of space between them. Please do tell!
This topic is exactly what I was looking for
This is exactly what I do for all my posts plus lots of research time for some of them, for example where I write about wines or about the history of English pubs as i did for my last post . Thank you for sharing
Pop by to check my last post
http://www.elegantduchess.com/2017/07/09/pig-whistle/
Well detailed… Creating content is never easy… However, content is King!
I am trying to publish almost 35-45 posts per month. How much time will take to write a content depends on its length. The total time combines post idea + writing + choosing images + SEO.
I appreciate the ideas and tips you shared in the post. Well done.
Take care,
Have a nice week ahead.
Developing content in never easy. Niche depends tho, some require intensive research
A good way I like to start a blog is mapping out the “who, what, when, where, and why.” It helps me brainstorm and usually my content flows a little faster.. Oh, and a beer helps too sometimes. http://richmondseopros.com
Your development is not easy. I do not know how long it takes to get a blog so perfect. Thanks a lot.
I have been following your blog for years. This has been so helpful. Thank you!!
This is so helpful and this point can never be over emphasized, Content is King!
Nice and lovely
It takes a few hours to compose a good article but if you aren’t a skillful writer it would become a hell wasting time. My recommendation is to read blogs for writers such as https://persuasivepapers.com/how-persuasive-essay-looks-like/ . While you would improve your skill it would take less time to write a good essay.
Hmmm…..article, not as easy i think 😀
BTW i love all pic and colour in beautiful mess, beautiful.
What a wealth of information! I am just starting my blog and struggling with an organized routine. These 5 steps have really given me a plan I can start with! Thank you so much for sharing!
This a wonderfully comprehensive list for first-time bloggers and great reminders for experienced bloggers. Most new bloggers (or the ones who have been blogging for a while) don’t realize that it takes time to build a blog – like every other business. Just stick with it and see what fits the best.
Thank you for this great artcle!