Writing content can be a hassle, especially when you have to collect info on a topic you are unfamiliar with. It will take 2x or even 3x more time to finish the article. But what if you can speed up your content writing with some easy techniques and tools? Let’s find out in this blog post.
Content writing is an essential part of any digital marketing campaign and business strategy. It is the key to creating engaging and valuable content that will attract readers and potential customers (ATM machine sound). But it can be time-consuming and difficult to keep up with the demand for fresh content. Fortunately, several strategies can help you speed up your content writing and produce better-quality articles in less time.
The importance of content writing
Content writing is creating written content for a website, blog, or social media profile. Yes, having images and infographics can make an article interesting, but written words are more powerful. That is what the reader wants.
Content writers create content to engage readers and provide valuable information to help them make informed decisions about products, services, and brands. It also helps to establish credibility and trust in a company or brand, and it can also be used to generate leads and sales.
Content writing is also important for search engine optimization (SEO) and for building relationships with readers and customers. Most businesses have a blog they run to increase traffic. They create topical authority, and that way, Google recognizes them as experts, thus increasing their ratings.
Tips for writing articles faster
There are several methods you can use to speed up your content writing. The first is to start with an outline (just like we were taught in college but never did it). By writing out an outline of your article before you begin writing, you can ensure that you have all of the necessary points in place and can avoid wasting time on unnecessary writing. Your outline won’t be perfect, but at least it will guide you and help you organize your thoughts and ideas. Besides, it’s your outline, so it can have as many headlines and sub-headlines as you want.
You should also create a schedule so you know how much time you have to write each day and when you need to finish an article. For example, if you are running a blog, set a weekly number of articles you want to produce. My magic number is 4 articles per week. Sometimes it’s less than that because I spend more time on articles that are 3000+ words. But the schedule keeps me on track; that way, I know I’m producing articles weekly, and monthly goals are also hit. Set a weekly or monthly number that you are comfortable with.
Another tip is to break down the writing process into manageable chunks. First, write paragraphs that are easy or cover those headlines you are familiar with. This will help you stay focused on the task at hand and avoid getting overwhelmed by the amount of work needed.
Additionally, you should use pre-writing activities to help you generate ideas and plan your content.
Pre-writing activities
Many pre-writing activities can speed up your content writing. These include brainstorming, outlining, researching, reading other people’s articles, and researching trending ideas and keywords.
Brainstorming helps to generate ideas and topics for your articles while outlining allows you to organize your thoughts and create a structure for your piece.
Research is the most important for any content writing project because your articles must be accurate and up-to-date. It also needs to answer current questions. And it must satisfy Google to be indexed and ranked on the first page.
That is why you also need to do a SERP analysis.
What is SERP analysis?
SERP is the process of analyzing search engine results to discover which websites are ranking and why. Type the topic you cover in Google search and then look at websites ranking first, second and third. Check out their articles, how they are structured, how many words it has, and what are their headlines and sub-headlines. It will give you an idea of how to structure and write your article.
How to get your ideas down quickly
Once you have a general idea of what you want to write about, it’s time to start writing. To do this, you should use a system for capturing your ideas quickly. This could be a note-taking app (or use Google Docs), a voice recorder on your phone, or a classic pen and paper (you can have a special notebook just for article ideas). Having your notes electronically might be better, especially if you often travel. Sometimes some ideas will come out of the blue, and you want to have all ideas in one place.
You need to write down your ideas quickly so you don’t forget. Once you start writing and go down the rabbit hole, your best ideas can easily slip away. That is why you should jot down what you want to mention. In the end, you might not mention all ideas, but at least you had it as a reminder.
When writing my blog posts, I also think about which useful products and tools I want to mention. I will place an affiliate link for some products that I’m recommending. That is why I always think about tools and create content around them. Not all links are affiliate links. But, why not put affiliate links – besides, I don’t want to miss out on an opportunity to make money.
With a system in place, you can quickly jot down your ideas as they come to you and save time when you’re ready to start writing.
How to structure your content
Once you’ve written down your ideas, it’s time to start structuring your content. This includes breaking down your content into sections, creating an introduction and conclusion, and adding images and videos if necessary.
The best thing is that you don’t have to start with the intro immediately—that is honestly the hardest part. Start with an idea from your outline that you feel most comfortable with. Start with easy tasks first, then move on to harder things – like writing an intro (Yikes).
By structuring your content, you’ll be able to create a more organized and cohesive piece of writing.
Of course, always have a reader in mind. Put yourself in your reader’s shoes. Ask yourself: do ideas flow logically? Is the article easy to understand? Are ideas easy to follow? Is this useful to the person reading this article? You are not creating an article for yourself; you are creating it for your audience. Know who your audience is and adapt the article to them.
Tools to speed up your content writing
There are several tools and techniques that can help you speed up your content writing. For example, you can use a speech-to-text program to quickly transcribe your thoughts and ideas or a text-to-speech program to read your content and help you identify areas that need improvement.
You can also use an AI tool to generate article headlines, outlines, and paragraphs and even write the entire article for you. Yes, welcome to 2023, where AI is replacing content writers!? Well, no, not yet. Here are a few suggestions that can help you with everything that I mentioned before:
Best AI writing tools:
Writesonic: you can use Writesonic to write SEO-optimized articles in seconds. This tool offers many templates, and you can easily generate long-form blog posts, paragraphs, blog ideas, and anything your heart desires. If you need a 1500+ word article, Writesonic will write one for you in less than a minute.
Surfer: if you need help with keyword research and SEO-optimized articles, then Surfer has your back. This tool will guide you and help you to write articles that read well and rank high. It will also detect plagiarism to avoid penalties. You will have a perfectly structured article that is Google Search-friendly and reader-friendly.
GrowthBar: if you need all in one (keyword research, outline generation, blog post writing, backlinks, and competitive analytics), then GrowthBar is the number 1 choice. It’s the #1 Rated AI Writing Tool. It’s very similar to Surfer, but GrowthBar will write the entire article for you.
AI is great, but you can’t solely focus on that. Besides, Google will penalize you if your article is 100% AI-generated. AI is not perfect, and not everything is correct. So, you need to check the article and edit it. It will speed up your writing process but can’t replace you as the content creator.
If you need more tools, you can read our blog post on 25 best AI tools that can boost your productivity.
Content creation techniques to increase efficiency
In addition to using tools and techniques to speed up your content writing, you should also employ certain techniques to help you write faster and more efficiently.
For example, you should use the active voice whenever possible, as it is more concise and easier to understand. Try to create content that is conversational form. If the reader asks you: what is SERP? Reply as SERP is. Don’t beat around the bush. Even Google will recognize this as useful and relevant.
Additionally, you should use shorter sentences, as they are easier to read and understand. Leave long, complicated sentences for the research report. Blog posts and articles should be fun and interesting.
Finally, you should use a thesaurus to find synonyms for commonly used words, as this will help to make your writing more interesting and engaging. Or use Dad jokes if you know some.
Editing techniques to save time
The last step of the content writing process is editing (also read: grammar check). Editing is essential for ensuring the accuracy and quality of your content, but it can also be time-consuming. Currently, I have 50 mistakes, according to Grammarly’s report.
To save time, you should use an editing tool such as Grammarly to quickly identify and correct any errors in your writing. Grammarly will spell check for you and suggest new words to sound more confident, convincing, and interesting. Yes, this is another tool you need to pay for, but it’s worth it.
Final thoughts
Content writing is an essential part of any business and digital marketing campaign, and it can be time-consuming and difficult to keep up with the demand for fresh content. Fortunately, several strategies can help you speed up your content writing and produce better-quality articles in less time.
By using pre-writing activities, AI tools, writing techniques, and editing techniques, you can create engaging and valuable content in a fraction of the time. So, don’t wait — start writing faster and more efficiently today with these proven strategies!
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