Our 7-Step Workflow for Fast, High-Quality Blog Posts

 

Today I want to talk to you about something that took me at least a year to really master — writing blog posts quickly and easily. Without losing quality, of course.

Many interior designers know they need to create blog posts to market their businesses, but they don’t have the time to commit to consistency. If that’s you, I’m happy to say that I have a few solutions for you…

1. Outsource to a ghost blogger

2. Try blog post templates

3. Streamline your workflow! (Which is what today’s post is all about)

If you’re not ready to try the first two options, the third option can certainly save you time. Most of the designers I know love systems and organization, and the workflow I suggest IS a system.

If you can spare just one day — maybe even just 5-6 hours of your time — you can create at least 1-2 month’s worth of posts.

If 5-6 hours still sound like a lot of time to commit, remember this:

• Marketers who prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to see ROI

• Companies who blog get 55% more website visitors

• 81% of bloggers see some or strong results

• Plus more blogging statistics here

So over time, those 5-6 hours each month could bring in new leads, new clients, and more projects you love. Seriously. I’ve seen this in action, and it is a crazy thing to watch from the sidelines as a design firm’s ghost blogger — and even more rewarding to see happening in your own business.

Convinced? Fantastic. Now you’re ready to customize your workflow and breeze through effective content creation. So without further ado, here are the 7 steps (including organization needed in advance) to help make blogger faster, easier, and more effective.

 

1. Use a Blog Content Calendar

In a recent blog post, I talked about how O&B creates customized blog content strategies for our clients and how you can do it, too. This step is important not only because it helps you better serve and attract your dream clients but also because it saves time whenever you sit down to write a post.

You could sit down and stare at a blank cursor, wondering what this month or week’s topic is going to be. Or, you could consult the topic on your Content Calendar and get to writing straightaway. That second option is a lot faster! Believe me, I’ve tried both.

So create a Content Calendar that makes you proud and excited. Putting the work in upfront will pay off down the line. In more ways than one.

 

2. Batch Your Content

If you haven’t heard the term “batch work” yet, allow me to introduce you to any business owner’s best friend. Batch working means completing like tasks together in one sitting. This allows you to focus on one thing at a time, and studies show we are FAR less effective when multi-tasking.

What does this look like for blogging?

Well, creating blog posts requires several steps: the writing, adding photos, resizing photos, formatting for SEO (unless you do this as you write), scheduling, and promoting the post.

Each of these action-items can be tackled in one sitting for multiple blog posts. 

I suggest setting aside a day to work on 2-3 blog posts in one sitting (which can get you through 1-3 months, depending on how many you publish per month). Then…

• Write the copy for all of them.

• Then add photos to all of them.

• Then format all of them.

• Then schedule them.

• Then make all of your social graphics to promote them.

I’ll dive into streamlined ways to tackle each of these below.

 

3. Decide When You’d Like to Format Your Blog Post

There are two ways you can approach writing a single blog post. You can either write directly into your website as a draft. OR, you can write in another program, such as Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, or a Google Doc.

Honestly, there is no right way to do it, so I suggest trying both and seeing what works best for you. For some reason, I write at my best and fastest when in a Google Doc using a fun font that makes me feel creative. Do I waste time later playing the copy-paste game into my website? Sure, but I saved time on the front-end by playing into the hands of my creative zone.

So for me, the formatting of a post comes at the end, after I’ve chosen and resized my photos. I copy and paste, make sure my headers are H1, H2, and H3 sizes, and then add my photos.

For you, this could happen during your writing process — and that’s just as efficient!

 

4. Write Your Blog Post Quickly with These Tips

Everyone has their own strategy for writing blog posts, but after trying several methods across the many hundreds of blog posts I’ve written, I can tell you what has worked for me:

First, always start with an outline for your blog posts. For example, in this blog post, I wrote out my 7 workflow steps before writing anything else. This helped me give the post structure, in addition to giving ME direction so I’m not wandering aimlessly toward my main points.

Second, write on the main topics of your post before you write the intro. As my fingers are typing these words to you, my draft does not have an introduction, and I’m okay with that. I’ll go back and write an intriguing introduction later, once I’ve finalized the “meat” of my blog post.

Third, then write your introduction. I personally find this chronology easier, because the introduction is where creativity or an interesting story is required. The actual content of the post comes without much thinking — I live and breathe this process every day. The same probably goes for you in the tips you share! So I get an easy win with the meat of my post, and then take on the challenge of the intro.

Lastly, write your conclusion. This is where your Call to Action goes.

 

5. Add Photos from a Consolidated Source

I can’t tell you how many hours of my life I’ve lost hunting for photos either in the dark recesses of DropBox or down a rabbit hole on a stock photo website. And time is money, sister.

This potential time-waste is precisely the reason I suggest having a consolidated source of photos AND selecting photos for all your blog posts at once. By consolidated source, I mean…

• A DropBox folder of organized portfolio or stock photos

• A stock photo folder you can easily browse through for any occasion

Most of our clients share their portfolio photos in DropBox, which has been easy to navigate as needed.

As for stock photos, I created these Unsplash collections with over 400 design-related photos and I use them myself all the time. Other great, free stock photo resources include Pexels, Pixabay, Kaboompics, and a paid photo resource called Social Squares. Make collections in advance so you can simply pick and choose when the moment comes!

 

Important Formatting Notes

Size

The size of your photo matters — large photos will slow down your website. Most of these stock photo sites will let you download smaller versions (under 1000px). For any photos that aren’t under 1000px, this photo resizing application is a helpful resource. Again, I suggest resizing all of your photos in one fell swoop to save time!

SEO Labeling

It’s important to label your photos for SEO so that search engines like Google know what the photo is and how to categorize it in search results. This post will tell you everything you need to know about resizing and labeling photos for SEO!

 

6. Schedule Your Posts in Advance

Once your blog post is written, has images, and is formatted correctly, you are ready to publish! But wait — the point is to create your blog posts in ADVANCE, not publish the second you’re done.

In most, if not all, website dashboards, you will have the option to schedule your post to publish on a later date. If you are publishing once per month, I suggest posting on the first Monday of the month. If you’re publishing twice per month, schedule your posts on the 1st/3rd Monday or the 2nd/4th Monday. Whatever you choose, just keep it consistent from month to month.

And that’s it. Your posts will go live on the date you set it for!

PRO TIP: In Squarespace, there is a feature to automatically share your blog posts by social media and newsletter if you connect your accounts. Under the blog post editing window, go to Share.

 

7. Create All Your Blog Post Graphics for Social Media

Last but not least, we want to make sure your dream clients will SEE those blog posts once they are live and ready to be enjoyed. I highly recommend a simple program called Canva that lets you customize pre-designed templates — and I highly recommend it.

My suggested workflow is to customize a template until you are happy with the design and it fits your brand (fonts, colors, etc.). Then, when you work on your blog posts each month (or every other month), you can simply change the blog post title, change the photo, and hit download.

Let’s look at that again… Title. Photo. Download. Done.

This is what I do, and it takes no time at all. Maybe 10 minutes tops for multiple posts. You can then upload the graphics to your social media scheduling platform or manually share them yourself when the time is right.

(P.S. Graphic creation is now a service we offer to our Custom Ghost Blogging clients!)

 

And that’s it! You have now created 1-3 months’ worth of content in just a day’s worth of time — and you can feel proud of what you’re putting out into the world!

To help you as you go, don’t forget to download our Blogging for SEO Checklist here. You can print it. Tape it next to your desk. And make sure you’re ticking all the boxes for SEO in each blog post you publish. Easy as that!

Until next week,
Jaquilyn