Is quick the enemy of quality? Not always, but when it comes to writing quality content, whether it’s on your blog or otherwise, most believe it is. And, for the most part, that turns out to be the case.
But there are ways where you can make ‘quick’ and ‘quality’ work hand in hand with your blogging efforts so that one doesn’t necessarily have to negate the other.
Let’s start with the basis that you already have a number of high-quality blog posts written and published. These are your standard, high-quality fare, each one having taken you several hours to write, proof, etc. But you want to get out some posts that don’t take so much of your time without losing quality in the process.
You can start with the idea of writing shorter posts. There is nothing wrong with providing a quick thought, tip, idea or tutorial. Not every post has to be epic, right?
But now you need a idea that you can provide enough valuable information about while keeping it short. The last thing you want to do is to drive yourself down a rabbit trail of thought that ultimately turns a “quick” idea into a multi-hour investment.
So this leads us to one of my favorite blogging hacks. Look back through your recently (or not-so-recently) published posts and grab an idea from that. Most long-form posts of 900-2500 words are made to be scannable. You might have a list of “7 things…”, or maybe you just divided your post up under sub-headings. Either way, this is exactly what you’re looking for.
Now, take each section or main point of that post, copy the text out, and paste it into a new post draft. This is your foundation for a new, high-quality post. It’s not a multi-point epic, but rather the basis for a shorter post making a singular point.
You still have some work to do with the content you copied out, but not much. Here’s what you need to do:
- Write a short intro. Start with an idea or question that can introduce your new on-point topic. Maybe present a short story or scenario that puts the reader into the mindset to grab onto the point you want to make.
- Write a short conclusion. Just as you would any other post, wrap it up. Doesn’t have to be major, just drive the point home one final time, addressing the overall value.
- Edit the body content. This is the majority of the work you need to do, but it still doesn’t have to take a long time. Provide a new example, a new way of looking at the idea as a whole, or simply tweak the content for clarity as a stand-alone topic. In many cases, the bulk of the content can stay the same. You’re just looking for ways to improve it for the new format.
Using this format, one single, long-form post can easily be turned into several short-form posts that maintain the high quality of the original, just covering less ground. The whole idea is to allow yourself to use content you’ve already created as a foundation for something new, yet still valuable–while not losing the quality aspect.
Want proof? This post is a perfect example. The 600 words you are reading here started as less than 200 words from a much broader post (see point #5) published previously. It’s not a duplicate. This single point is valid and valuable, and I’ve been able to expand on it a bit. Plus, this post is likely to be read by an entirely different audience. At worst, it will reinforce an idea they already read, which is exactly what a good teacher does.
This is a great hack that allows you to write quality content in a lot less time. You still have to do the hard work of writing epic posts, but you also get the benefit of stretching the value of that those posts, while providing new quality for your readers… and reducing the amount of time you spend on blogging overall.