content

Is Creating Free Content Overrated?

April 9, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Free content is an important part of any business. If you create enough free content over a long period of time, you can get a massive boost in traffic.

I’ve written thousands of blog posts spread across various blogs (mostly this one).

Blogging is an industry where most people grind for several years and then hit their breakthrough. It’s possible to hit your breakthrough and reach 6-figures in 6-12 months, but it’s not very likely.

A while ago, I set the goal to write a new blog post every day for the entire year. I’m having second thoughts on my approach. Here’s why…

Opportunity Cost

The time you spend doing one activity can’t be spent doing everything else. Every minute I commit to writing blog posts is another minute I can’t promote my business.

The focus of every business owner needs to be sales. The more time you can commit towards that area, the more successful you will become.

If you create free content every day, that’s time you can’t expand your business. One of the biggest misconceptions you can make is believing that your business expands as your content library expands.

Some people are crushing it with very few blog posts. Others publish free content at a very inconsistent schedule.

More content creators are looking towards their past content than investing additional time towards creating new content.

In Tom Morkes’ $100K Launch School, successful entrepreneur Matt Stone who blogged his way to success said that if he could go back, he wouldn’t have blogged if he could have started over again.

It takes a while to grow with a blog. Some see the time investment as an over-investment. You can spend that same time focusing on your email list and attracting customers and clients.

Content Shock

Content shock is a topic I’ve frequently discussed on this blog and even in my book Content Marketing Secrets. Mark Schaefer first coined the term to describe the increase in content output and the fixed amount of time we have in a day.

We don’t have enough time to go through so much content, and the content output is only increasing.

There is no one who can look me straight in the eye and honestly say they have read all of my blog posts, watched all of my videos, and listened to all of my podcast episodes. Not a soul.

Depending on how much content you’ve produced, chances are most or all of the people in your audience haven’t read most of the content you’ve created. That’s the power of content shock.

Showing Up At The Right Pace

The argument for frequently producing free content is that you show up more often. People know, like, and trust the people who frequently show up.

That’s why we need to treasure weekly content. Free content will always be essential for our businesses.

If you publish a free piece of content every day, opportunity cost prevents you from addressing other areas of your business.

The Rise Of The Binger

You may think that some people in your audience may get overwhelmed by the daily content. Try keeping up with your favorite TV show…except now new episodes come out every single day.

Does that sound overwhelming? I’d be overwhelmed.

But blogs, videos, and podcasts are different. There are people who will discover you today. They wouldn’t have seen any of your previous content.

Guess what they do if they enjoy the first impression? If they have time, they’ll binge.

People watch entire series on Netflix and get through seven years of an old TV series in a few months. Virtual summits are an attractive business model because the deadline before session expirations enforces binge watching.

This is why you can create new content every day. But the gist of this blog post has been all about why it’s overrated to create free content. Why would anyone consider daily content?

Stop Doing It All Yourself

This is where we reach the climax. You yourself need to stop creating content for your brand. At the very least, you should significantly reduce the amount of time you create content.

You need other people to create the content for you. That’s the secret.

I’m experimenting with shooting short videos and having a ghostwriter turn it into a blog post. My ideology still resides in the blog post, but someone else writes the 1,000+ words.

This is my next step to delegation. Soon I’ll create the content from a macro standpoint and have someone else finish all of the details.

I’ll provide an outline that doesn’t exceed 100 words. Someone else takes that 100 word outline and turns it into 1,000+ words.

I also have contributors come on the blog and publish their guest posts on my blog. In those cases, I get valuable content without paying a penny. In return, contributors get exposure and a valuable backlink.

You business can create new content every day. You shouldn’t. Understanding this statement is important for you to achieve next level success with your content brand.

In Conclusion

Free content will always be critical to the success of any brand. The free content sets people up for your products and services.

You can even use your free content to promote your offers and other people’s offers.

However, you need to promote that content for it to make a bigger impact. It’s more difficult to promote your existing content when you’re too busy creating new content. The end result in a library of hidden secrets and a time consuming hobby.

Creating free content yourself is overrated. Just do the big picture stuff and have ghostwriters handle the rest.

What are your thoughts on creating free content? Do you think we should create more free content or that it’s overrated? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Get Your Audience Involved In Your Content Brand

February 13, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Most content brands follow a very simple structure. The content creator creates content and the audience consumes it. Sure, there are other things that go into it. You have to promote content, create a content calendar, and do things like that.

But at its core, most content brands exist as content providers for people to consume.

Advanced content brands flip that concept on its head. Yes, they still produce content, and yes, their audiences engage with their content.

But these advanced content brands do something different. They break the 4th wall. They get their audiences involved in their brands.

You’ve already seen this happen again and again. But you need to notice it happening around you for it to have an impact on your brand. Here’s what I’ve noticed from advanced content brands.

Invite Your Audience To Fill Out Surveys

I’m not talking about those five minute surveys that you make 10 cents on. Several years ago, I was filling out those types of surveys. It’s an easy way to make money, but 10 cents isn’t much to celebrate about.

I’m talking about the surveys that give them a voice in your future decisions. In these short surveys (you only need 3-5 questions), ask your audience what type of content they want to see more often.

These surveys allow you to determine what your audience wants. By providing more of what your audience wants, they’ll engage with more of your content. As your audience engages with more of your content, more people will come across your brand.

The best part about surveys is that your audience will appreciate being heard. They’ll appreciate giving you a suggestion and seeing you took action based on that suggestion just a few years later.

You’ll also get plenty of epic content ideas which are vital for all content brands.

Invite Contributors To Your Content Brand

As you promote your content brand and it gets older, you’ll hear more stories about people who have been engaged with your brand for several years. These are your core fans who love what you produce and want to help.

They are the ones who will fill out your surveys, but some want to help on a bigger level.

One of the best ways to activate your audience is to give them permission to contribute to your success. This is why I opened the doors to guest blogging on my site. As I write a blog post every day, I technically don’t need the help, but I’ll happily take it.

The great things about contribution relationships is that they’re usually win-win. Contributors help me by providing more content and promotion power, and I help them by putting them in front of my audience.

You can find contributors on other popular content brands (i.e. these brands’ blogs, channels, podcasts, etc.) and ask them if they want to contribute some content for you. As you get more of these people to say yes and publish more of their content, your audience will catch on.

Soon you’ll get plenty of submissions each day as more people become more involved in your content brand.

Reply To Comments

I don’t know how Neil Patel does it. He responds to every single comment. On time.

I respond to virtually all of the comments I get, but sometimes it takes me a month to get back to people.

It’s something I am working on, and I know it will get more difficult as my content brand grows even more.

But it’s important.

Replying to your comments makes your audience realize that you pay attention to them. It’s one thing to continuously produce content. Taking the time to reply to someone who consumed your content and left a comment is a whole new level.

And let’s remember that few people leave comments. If you enjoy this blog post, are you going to leave a comment? I get hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, but I don’t have hundreds of thousands of comments to show for it.

In this blog’s history, only 0.7% of visitors have left a comment. That percentage also includes my replies, so the actual number is much smaller.

Am I just a terrible marketer then? Not quite. These are results you can see on almost any blog, even the really good ones.

To leave a comment, you have to read the blog post, have takeaways, and want to spend the 10-15 seconds it takes to leave a comment. In our fast world, people don’t have that kind of time. In that same period of time, you should find another great piece of content to read and get started on it.

I mention this because a comment indicates this person cared about your content. Even for a controversial topic, this person cared enough about your content and its message to share his/her thoughts.

These are comments you need to respond to. Let your audience know that you care, and they’ll care about you even more.

Create Polls

You can use polls to gather people’s opinions to form conclusions that theoretically apply to the whole.

Polls get your audience more involved in your content and lets you know how your audience thinks. Before I even started this blog, I did a Poll of the Day on one of my other blogs. I may bring that back in the future.

Polls get your audience involved in what you’re doing. Even if it’s a silly question that has no value for your brand (i.e. chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream), you condition your audience to engage with your content on a deeper level.

Answering a poll takes less than five seconds, and those are seconds most people are willing to give you. Part of it is to share their opinion, and part of it is to see what everyone else said.

For instance, aren’t you now a little curious about whether I prefer chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream? Wouldn’t you want to know what my entire audience thinks?

It’s not something you would passionately Google. It’s more of those “Why not…as long as the data is in front of me and easy to interpret” scenarios.

But what if I asked my audience whether they prefer writing blog posts or creating podcast episodes. That’s something more interesting and related to my niche.

And it gets my audience more involved in my content brand.

In Conclusion

As content creators, we need to show more appreciation to our audiences. That doesn’t just mean creating content that they love. It also means taking the time to acknowledge individuals who acknowledge us on a deeper level.

The future winners will be the ones who can connect with more people in their audiences on a 1-to-1 level.

What are your thoughts on these tactics for getting your audience more engaged? Do you have any tactics you’d like to share? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

5 Strategies For Crafting A Rocking Editorial Calendar

February 12, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

An editorial calendar will keep you on track to produce epic content. You can use this calendar to determine and maintain a consistent publishing schedule.

When I didn’t have my editorial calendar, I sometimes forgot to publish a blog post. I’d incorrectly schedule some blog posts to the point where 2-3 got published in one day.

At a point, I became inconsistent in blogging, and my editorial calendar looked ugly. Looking at that barren calendar helped me get back on my feet and commit to writing more content to enhance the overall experience.

If you want an epic editorial calendar, follow these five strategies.

#1: Write New Content Every Day

The best way to become a better blogger is to write new content every day. I’ve taken this a step further by publishing one new blog post every day.

It takes more time than just writing one blog post each week, but this level of commitment ensures I show up every single day.

At the beginning, writing and publishing a new blog post every day may seem daunting, but it isn’t very difficult once you get on board. Any task can turn into a seemingly effortless habit with continued implementation.

Sure, you’ll have to think of more content ideas, but it’s well worth it in the long run. You’ll give your readers a better experience and more chances to see your content.

Based on my blogging schedule, I also decided to up my podcasting game. I currently publish one new episode every weekday. At the rate I’m interviewing people, I may soon make Breakthrough Success a daily podcast.

Plus, I love interviewing people and hearing their insights.

I even have plans on daily YouTube videos in the future, but that isn’t as near term as some of the things I’m doing now.

Daily YouTube videos can make a comeback for my brand by the end of Q1 of 2018. Do everything in your power to make daily your frequency. People remember the people they see daily.

And if you come out with valuable content every day, you eventually won’t have to tell your audience to check out your content. They’ll instinctively want to check it out.

#2: Plan Weekly Revivals

As you create new content every day, you must remember you have a library of old content forming your brand’s core. While some of your old pieces of content don’t drive any traffic, there are other pieces of content that continue driving traffic.

These are the pieces of content you need to focus on. Small updates here can generate big gains all across the board.

Updating your old content will give it new life on search engines. However, during these updates, you can link to your newer content. Every week, you can link to at least two of your newer blog posts in an older piece of content.

Use the older content to drive traffic to the newer content.

If you receive an old piece of content every week, that gives you 52 possibilities.

#3: Get Contributors Involved

You can only do so much on your own. Inviting contributors to help with content creation will take you to the next level. Content will literally be given to you. When you publish this content on your platform, the other person will promote it to their community.

That’s how guest blogging, appearing on podcasts, and similar relationships work.

If you have one contributor every day (you can split this up amongst your content), you’ll have at least one person sharing your content every day. Some people in your contributors’ audiences will decide to share the post.

Your content brand can get massive exposure with this one approach. But that depends on how much you scale this approach.

#4: Incorporate Multiple Media Formats

You can have a preferred media format, but you need to incorporate multiple formats throughout your journey.

I am in my zone when I am creating blog posts, podcast episodes, or videos. Since there are the fewest barriers of entry for blogging, writing is my preferred format. Podcasting comes in as a close format because even though the prep work does take some time, the advice I get from the interviews is golden.

Video is one area that I’m developing in. I have no problem with providing a valuable video, but starting is the problem. Starting is more challenging than the action itself. That’s true for most actions in life.

The reason you can’t stick with one content format is because your targeted audience isn’t doing that either. Some people in your targeted audience only have time to listen to podcasts on the way to work.

If you only write blog posts, you lost that ever-growing segment of the market. You can tap into that market by launching a podcast and updating it at least once per week.

If you only create videos, then you lost me. I get most of my information from reading blog posts and books. Only when I’m exercising will I listen to audiobooks or podcasts, but I almost never watch videos.

#5: Theme Your Free Content Around Product Launches

High-end product launches and service offerings are where most of the revenue is made. To get the lion’s share of that revenue, you need to warm up your audience to those promotions.

The promotion for any launch starts well before the actual promotion date.

If I’m promoting a product about social media, I’m creating new blog posts and videos about social media. I’ll publish these blog posts and videos several weeks before the product launch and all the way to the product launch date.

Don’t just publish random content at random times. Your content gets your audience interested in a topic. Getting them interested in the right topics at the right times can, no exaggeration, double your income.

I’m writing more content about content marketing because I know my audience wants that type of content. With this in mind, I also created the Content Marketing Plaza, my high-end training course.

I know you would be less interested in the Content Marketing Plaza if I wrote about productivity all of the time.

Bias your content creation towards what you plan to promote. I identify all of the products and services I promote at least six months out so I know what type of content I need to create.

While this is harder for a podcast, I can even change episode numbers to ensure that the right guests and topics get published at the right times.

Don’t just be strategic with promoting your content, but also be strategic with which content you publish and when you publish those pieces of content.

In Conclusion

An epic editorial calendar gives you the framework you need to consistently provide your audience with valuable content.

If you are not producing new content every day, you risk falling behind. Audiences are increasingly gathering around people who can produce content more often than once a week.

In fact, you may consider publishing multiple new pieces of content every day across multiple platforms. Who’s to say that you can’t publish a blog post and a podcast episode every day?

You’ll be putting more of your time on the line, and doing so will force you to think of new and creative ways to spread the word. Even if your initial blog posts get zero traffic, taking action every day will eventually lead you to the goldmine.

What were your thoughts on these tactics to craft a rocking editorial calendar. Do you have any best practices for us? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

5 Content Brand Mistakes To Avoid

January 7, 2018 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Content brands cloud up the web with valuable content as they aim to build relationships with a piece of their industry’s audience. A small number of content brands attract the lion’s share of traffic, but most get held back by these five critical content brand mistakes.

#1: Not Building Relationships

In any business, relationships are critical. Other influencers can provide you with the key to a locked door and/or promote your content. When my book Content Marketing Secrets came out, I got early praise and several immediate reviews because of the relationships I built in advance.

My favorite way to build a relationship for my content brand is to interview someone on my podcast. Not only does the relationship get built, but I also produce new content for my audience and get to learn new insights about my niche.

I believe you should launch your own podcast if you haven’t done so already because they represent an extraordinary opportunity for building strong relationships, providing content for your audience, and acting as a source of knowledge and income.

#2: Not Utilizing Webinars

While building relationships is important, it’s just as important to utilize webinars when selling products. Webinars account for the majority of sales for any launch, and that’s why I only become an affiliate for a launch when I know the product creator will host some webinars.

After changing beliefs, encouraging your audience, and sharing some insights for about an hour, you can then go on to promote your product. I recommend watching other webinars to see how this is done, and if you want the ultimate hack, just buy Russel Brunson’s book Expert Secrets. It has an entire chapter focusing on a slide-by-slide breakdown of a successful webinar.

#3: Forgetting About Optimizing The Experience

As you continue to grow your content brand and explore new opportunities, don’t forget about the core experience that you provide for your audience. As I got more inconsistent with blogging, I noticed that the core experience I provided wasn’t what it once was.

Fewer people stuck around and my traffic numbers went down. That’s what happens when you don’t focus on optimizing the experience. Now I’m creating as much content as I can each day. I’m writing daily blog posts and will have daily episodes for my podcast and YouTube channel shortly.

The winners are the people who put out the highest quantity of valuable content in front of as many people as possible. Think about how you are or aren’t creating that experience for your audience.

#4: Extending Yourself Too Thin

The blessing and cure with content brands is that we have so many choices for growth. Podcasting, blogging, videos, and social media (that alone has many pathways) are some of the many choices we have for creating our content and spreading our messages.

It’s tempting to explore as many of these opportunities as possible and become mediocre at all of them. Some people seem like they’re utilizing all of these platforms because they mastered one of the platforms and gradually expanded to other platforms.

If you spread yourself too thin, your work will suffer, and you’ll feel burnt out. While gradually expanding is one way to avoid feeling too thin, the next mistake (arguably the biggest business mistake of all time) can put a small cap on any brand’s growth.

#5: Not Delegating Some Of The Workload

Delegation’s importance cannot be overstated. Your workload is big enough already, and as you continue to expand your content brand, your workload will expand as well. While you can easily perform the tasks yourself, delegating them opens up more time you can use to pursue other projects.

For instance, I don’t grow my Twitter audience, edit podcast episodes, or schedule the episodes. Other people perform those tasks for me which allows me to work on my business instead of in my business.

When you work on your business, you get to take a satellite view to see what’s really happening. You get to see all of the paths you can take and contemplate the best choice instead of blindly going through each day and hoping you’re getting closer to your ultimate objective.

In Conclusion

All content brands have the potential to thrive and reach large audiences. Our inputs affect our outputs, but the ideal input isn’t based on how many hours you put towards your brand. It’s well documented that Gary Vaynerchuk works 18 hours in a given day.

Most people don’t hustle nearly as much as he does, but 18 hours isn’t the input. The input is what he puts into those 18 hours.

Your success as a content creator isn’t a minutes game. It’s a game of how much effort your exerting into every minute of your day.

What are your thoughts on these big mistakes that hold content brands back? Do you know of any other big mistakes? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

7 Effective Content Creation Strategies

January 4, 2018 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

content creation strategies

Content brands live and die based on the amount of content their creators produce. Without the content you can’t promote your content brand and get people to stick around. However, the content creation process can get difficult, especially if you set high standards. Using effective content creation strategies will help you achieve victory.

But which of the content creation strategies works best for you. I’ve personally tried all seven of these strategies, but you’ll only know which one is the best for you by giving some of them a try. I only say some of them because if you find yourself in a groove, don’t take yourself out of that groove to experiment with something that can result in a setback.

Without any further adieu, these are the seven effective content creation strategies that you can utilize to produce more content.

#1: Create New Content Every Day

This blog has seen a variety of content publishing frequencies. From twice a day to an inconsistent once every 1-2 weeks, I’ve tried a variety of content creation strategies. Some of those strategies paid off while others put me in a deep hole that I had to claw my way out of.

The best strategy for maintaining this blog is for me to create new content every day. Creating new content every day forces the habit to develop. Since this habit has developed, I have found myself writing blog posts in situations where I normally wouldn’t write blog posts.

As I found myself writing more daily blog posts, I became more obsessed with the chain. If you miss one day, the chain is over, but you can talk about the chain all you want as you build it and continue putting in the work.

You’re not taking a day off because if you take a single day off, one day becomes two, and then content creation becomes inconsistent. I almost never write more than one blog post per day anymore because if I write two blog posts on one day, that theoretically gives me a day to slack off.

Instead of writing a second blog post, I’ll outline two blog posts so I’m ready to write them when the time comes.

#2: Batch The Content Creation Process

Content batching is when you choose one day of the week and create all of that content on that one day of the week. I used to implement this content batching process for my blog after John Lee Dumas told me about content batching on Breakthrough Success.

I gave it a shot. It wasn’t great for my blogging, but it was phenomenal for my podcast. I only interview people for the show for two days each week. This gives me the other five days to delegate my efforts elsewhere.

It’s easier for me to stay accountable with content batching for my podcast because the guests keeps me accountable. I don’t want to leave a guest waiting until that guest leaves the call because I’m missing out on a great interview, and hosts feel very guilty after leaving their guests waiting.

You can apply one of these content creation strategies for one form of content and another strategy for another form of content.

#3: Reuse Your Old Content

reused blog posts

I don’t advise making this your main strategy, but as you create more content and attract more visitors, you’ll have many visitors who haven’t read many of your older blog posts. Even your most loyal visitors may have forgotten what they learned from the blog post you wrote two years ago.

In some cases, it’s better to reintroduce an old piece of evergreen content than it is to create a new piece of content. You can enhance the old content by conducting further research, linking to some of your newer blog posts, and optimizing it for SEO.

#4: Give Each Step Its Own Day

When you create any type of content, there are several steps. For any one of my blog posts, here are the steps that take it from idea to published content:

Think of the idea
Write the outline
Write the intro
Write the body
Add links to the body
Write the conclusion

What if you think of five blog post ideas and write their outlines on Day 1, write the intros and conclusions for those blog posts on Day 2, and write the bodies and add links for Day 3? If you can stick with this approach, you would have 5 blog posts in 3 days.

The idea behind this content creation strategy is that you can complete the same task several times straight without having to mentally transition across different tasks within the blog post such as going from the intro to the body.

#5: Delegate Content Creation

Who says you have to create all of the content that you publish? Many bloggers hire ghostwriters to help with their content, and other blogs allow contributors to write some of the content as well.

I prefer to hire contributors since I prefer to not hire ghostwriters. Other content creators prefer to hire a ghostwriter, but it’s all based on your preference.

You can also delegate certain stages of the content creation such as idea generation, writing the intros, conclusions, or any other part of the content. This also applies to videos and podcast episodes in which you can hire someone to edit the file and help out in other ways.

#6: Use A Themed Content Creation Calendar

Content creation calendars allow you to map out your content creation process over several months. I write down what type of content I need to publish for each day of the month based on the month’s theme.

When you theme your content creation, theme your content with any products you plan on promoting. As the first ever Content Marketing Success Summit approached, I wrote more content marketing based blog posts. This warmed my audience up to my summit and resulted in more engagement throughout the virtual event.

#7: Keep Yourself Accountable

content creator accountable

All of the content creation strategies can incorporate this ideology, but the advice of keeping yourself accountable needs to stand out. Finding an accountability partner or setting up your content creation in a way that forces you to stay accountable will help you create more content. You can also publicly state your content creation goals to your friends and your entire audience (i.e. I want to write one blog post every day).

There are plenty of ways to keep yourself accountable. The more reasons you have to stay accountable, the better.

In Conclusion

These content creation strategies are all proven, but just because they work for some content creators doesn’t mean they will automatically work for you. Pick a strategy to stick with, and keep transitioning from strategy to strategy until you discover the one that works best for you.

Once you find a strategy that works, ride with it and don’t let any other strategy get in the way.

What are your thoughts about these content creation strategies? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Find More Time In Your Day To Create Epic Content

November 7, 2017 by Marc Guberti 10 Comments

When school is back in session, I always make adjustments my work flow. The long summer hours are getting shorter and I have less time to craft content for my business.

Whether you’re a student, 9-to-5 worker, or even an entrepreneur, it seems there’s never enough time in the day to get everything done.

You may write blog post, promote your content, or respond to an email, but you’ll likely find yourself struggling to accomplish several things in one day.

Some people use this reality as a crutch: “I simply don’t have the time,” they say, but that’s a classic excuse for not getting more done.

The truth is, making excuses allows you to believe that you have more important things to do with your time.

But finding more time isn’t always a solution. There comes a point in which working longer hours results in a decrease in overall productivity, rather than an increase.

So it’s not about the number of hours you spend working. It’s about the quality of those hours, which is another way of saying “work smarter, not harder.”

I no doubtedly work on my brand for far less time than most people each day, but the time I do spend working is far more intense.

Some people can only manage to squeeze in brand-building activities for 15-30 minutes a day, while others can handle much more. But anyone should be able to find short bursts of time for creating content each day, working smarter with the time they have.

Now you might be thinking that without knowing your schedule I can’t possibly be sure that you can find more time for content creation.

But even the time people spend rambling about their schedules to friends, family, and themselves is better spent more productively – creating epic content.

If you believe this doesn’t apply to you because your schedule is just too tight, prepare to have your mind blown.

Batch Individual Parts Of The Process

Every blog post contains an introduction, body, and conclusion. For a long time, I wrote entire blog posts from start to finish exactly in that order.

I was surprised to learn that this is an inefficient approach to writing blog posts. Instead of writing one post at a time in a traditional format, it’s better to come up with ideas for several blog posts at once.

After that, write the introductions for all of them. And after you’ve written the introductions, move on to the conclusions. Finally, wrap them all up with research and body copy.

This is definitely something that is rarely taught in the blogging world. The traditional format resembles essay writing, but blog posts are different, and require an altogether different approach.

Choose one day to write all of the introductions and conclusions. And another day to conduct research and write the bodies. Repeating the same bite-sized tasks over and over enables you to maintain a higher level of focus.

Without this batching process, you’re forced to make transitions each time you move from introduction to body, from body to conclusion, and from one blog post to the next.

Each of these transitions takes time that you can save by staying in the introduction mindset as you write the intros for several blog posts. Once you’re in the right frame of mind, you simply extend it to cover more ground.

How Much Time Do You Really Need?

It usually takes me around 30-60 minutes to write a 1,000-word blog post – likely because I’ve written dozens of books and thousands of blog posts. But I’ve been able to reduce this further simply by eliminating those nasty transitions.

At some point, your fingers either fall off or you become a fast typer. Not only will the batching process help you type faster, you’ll also think faster as you write each post. The result is a higher-value blog post in a shorter period of time.

If writing a 1,000-word blog posts intimidates you, there’s nothing stopping you from writing 250-500 word blog posts. Make it as easy as possible for yourself to write and publish content on your blog.

But the next time you write a blog post, keep track of how much time it took. That’s the amount of time you’ll need to make available each day or week, depending on your publishing schedule.

Use Opportune Moments To Write Your Posts

People most often write blog posts on a computer. Nowadays, you have a computer in your pocket. It’s called a smartphone, and while I’m not saying anything new for now, just read the next line.

Use your smartphone to write blog posts.

Anytime you’re waiting for an Uber, sitting on a train, suffering through tv commercials (or any other moment in which you’re waiting in line or for something to happen), add more content to a future blog post.

I’ve written dozens of blog posts from start to finish on my iPhone. That’s several months of additional content without any extra time investment. I wrote these posts during commercials, while waiting for class to begin (college life), or any other moment in which I found myself not doing much of anything.

You can also write blog posts while driving. No, I’m not advocating texting and driving. I’m taking about speaking and driving. Just install an app that transcribes your voice into text and speak out your blog post.

When you are in front of a computer with the transcription, you can then make edits and schedule the blog post for release.

It amazes me how many hours people spend commuting in a given year but how few of people turn those hours into opportunities.

Dictating blog posts is one option, but you can also turn your car into a university on wheels by listening to as many audiobooks and podcasts as possible (if you’re looking for a podcast recommendation, I recommend my Breakthrough Success Podcast with full, complete, and utter bias).

In Conclusion

We all have the same 24-hours in a given day. Your success is determined by how you utilize every one of them. I once heard that the average American spends at least four hours a day watching TV.

With those same four hours, I can write 10,000 words for my latest book, create an entire training course, or read several books.

And that’s just four hours repeated 24/7/365. Maybe you don’t watch TV for four hours a day, but chances are you do something similar that you can adjust.

For instance, I used to play a lot of video games. Then, I went cold turkey after a two week vacation (the vacation helped ease me into it). Now, I only let myself play video games when I’m visiting friends.

Your desire to create epic content must be greater than your desire to do other things.

What are your thoughts on these tactics for finding more time in your day to create epic content? Do you have any other tactics for us? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.