The groundhog day that is weekly blogging
Does your weekly blog content creation look like this?
Sit down to write a new blog post every Monday.
Spend 15 minutes thinking about what to write.
Check Facebook, maybe there will be some inspiration there.
Scroll Facebook for 10 minutes, respond to some comments, leave a few hearts on some kitty videos.
You open a blank document. It’s time to write dammit!
Realize you can’t write on an empty stomach, so you make a snack.
While you munch on some chocolate with coconut butter (try it), you scroll Instagram for more blog inspiration.
You get some inspiration from an article someone shared. Yes, you’ll write about staying focused and productive when you work from home.
You chuckle at the irony.
You open up a blank document and type out a title.
But you don’t really like it, so you type out three more.
You look at your four new blog titles and think they sound like totally different topics.
Hmmm… you have four different topics, that’s fantastic!
Except that you need to pick one to write about.
Which one should you write about?
You have plenty to say on all of them.
Ugh. This is hard.
You go throw a load of laundry in the washer and grab another snack. A handful of macadamia nuts this time, they’ll help you focus.
You have a blog post to write today and the clock is ticking!
Back to your document with four titles to choose from.
DING!
Oh, an email.
Starbucks has double-star day today! And it starts now. You MUST try the new Ultra Caramel frappucino.
Maybe you’ll write your blog post there. The fresh scenery and smell of freshly ground beans will help you get this thing done!
You step into Starbucks, order your frappuccino and snag a prime seat.
But first, Facebook. Those little red notifications keep going off; it must be important.
You spend another 15 minutes on Facebook and remember you’re supposed to be writing.
You told your readers to expect a new blog from you every week.
You missed last week.
Hopefully, no one noticed.
You promised you’d blog regularly. You HAVE to do it this time.
You flip over to your blog post. Or rather a bunch of titles.
Screw it. You pick the first one and save the other titles for another time.
You think you have nothing to say, but you hammer out some jumbled words anyway.
The flow is off and it needs some polishing. Oh, and about 500 more words.
You’ll finish it in the morning. It’s only a day late.
PHEW!
Is this what your blogging sessions look like?
Mine sometimes do too.
This is why I started doing copywriting marathons.
Imagine sitting down once a week to edit and finalize your blog post draft.
A writing marathon is 3-6 hours long (because that’s all our brains can focus), where you block the calendar, remove all distractions, and crank out a bunch of content that you’ll go back to edit later.
When you have a bunch of content ready to edit and publish, it will help keep your blog on a schedule, will keep your readers hungry for more and you’ll get the momentum you need to keep writing (and publishing) week after week.
You grow your audience, you attract more readers, and your readers fall madly in love with you and begin looking forward to your blog posts week after week.
WHY WRITING MARATHONS ARE A SMART IDEA
It’s a great way to write a lot of content quickly. And if you post to your blog or email your newsletter subscribers once a week, all you’ll need to do is review, edit, and post when it’s time to publish. When you spend a few focused hours on a similar task, you can go deeper than if you were bouncing around from idea to idea or task to task.
DURING A WRITING MARATHON, YOU COULD WRITE
A month’s worth of blog posts
Three months of blog post outlines
A year’s worth of blog post titles
A dozen emails for your newsletter
Your welcome email sequence
A bunch on an ebook or book
Or two or more of the above.
Writing a whole bunch of copy in a focused chunk of time will do wonders for your momentum and inspiration. The best part is that when it comes time to publish you're more than halfway there.
You’ll be able to get ahead, freeing up more time for selling, client work, or sitting on your porch with a glass of wine.
And that blogging story we lived at the beginning of this article. Not you! You’re a regular content machine now!
Need a little nudge or a giant kick in the ass to get your writing done? Check the schedule for Write Like a MOFO sessions. Led by, me!
We’ll spend three focused hours writing, and I’m there the whole time giving you answers to your burning content or copy related questions to keep you going!
Get your buns to a writing marathon here.
Want to know more about writing marathons? Here’s how to create your own.
If you liked this, you might also want to learn more about the shitty first draft, how to batch your blog, or how to be wildly productive.
