Welcome to this weeks edition of the ‘Blogging Behind The Scenes’ series. Throughout the ‘Blogging Behind The Scenes’ series both myself and a group of bloggers will be sharing our experiences and advice upon a range of blogging related topics, this week we are focusing upon the length of time it takes most bloggers to create and publish a single blog post.
Reading VS Writing Blog Posts
As you can imagine the length of time taken to write a blog post differs according to the subject, content and length of the post but overall I find that whilst readers only spend a few minutes browsing blog posts the actual time taken to write said post is far more than most would imagine.
How Long Does It Take To Write A Blog Post?
Depending upon the topic, subject and nature of the post I vary from taking anywhere between thirty minutes to four hours. Often I find
Posts which require lengthy research, photography, image editing, video input, links adding and such like can take me anywhere from three to five hours depending upon the length of the post. Whereas I find personal posts are written far quicker ranging from thirty minutes to an hour in order to complete and publish or schedule a post.
If I were to consider the images, SEO setup, social media sharing and such like then I guess I would always add a further fifteen minutes at least to my personal writing time. Despite spending what feels like huge amounts of time writing and checking carefully over my work I often find mistakes days or weeks down the line which I have to nip back and edit.
So to answer the question posed, blog posts usually take me anywhere between thirty minutes up to five hours depending upon the specific requirements of the post. Blogging is a lot harder and more arduous than readers often expect, as a writer/ blogger I personally find that people overlook the work which goes into creating, maintaining and developing a blog especially the hours spent writing!
Having asked a number of other bloggers how long a blog post takes them to write and publish I have collected an array of differing and interesting responses:
“Anywhere from 15 mins (a recipe post with pics already taken) to about 3 hours for a more in-depth post!”
“Takes me hours to days!! Depending on how many photos need taking and editing, links need adding etc. (And how much laundry needs doing/kids feeding/fights breaking up/ first aid being administered in between times!)”
“If I’m only writing, offline with no other distractions, I can get posts written in 15 mins. But add in photos, checking back on facts etc, setting up promotions, etc and it could take 4 hours. The part after writing is where it gets very distracted.”
“Anything from 10 minutes (The ordinary moments/Living arrows) to too many hours but usually because I get distracted by Facebook notifications, text messages, toddler etc.”
“Depends what’s on the tv at the time, if I’ve social media open at the time and what mood I’m in. From 30 mins to 3 hours. Sometimes I delete whole chinks only to rewire exactly the same again.
I leave myself treats which I only get up to get once I’ve hit a goal….so all words written = sweet or chocolate, pics all edited and inserted = coffee, all seo’d and scheduled/complete =lunch and a tv show”
www.emmysmummy.com
“I write mainly about mental health so try to be as unedited as possible. I only do one read through then schedule and forget about it otherwise I chicken out and re write and then it isn’t as honest and real!
I can spend anything from 30 mins to a good couple of hours of solid writing.”
www.thatmummyblog.com
“I guess an hour to 3 hours including photo editing etc but I find myself going over old posts so they evolve a bit over time do each one is a work in progress.”
“It takes me hours. For most posts the words don’t take too long (unless it requires a lot of fact checking/ research) but add in taking photographs, editing them, editing the text and adding properties to the photo’s and it really adds time on.
Of course with children around the hours can be spread over days, but it could easily take 4 hours solid work to get a post ready to publish.”
www.countingtoten.co.uk
“On occasion I can bang out a rant in half an hour but more often it takes me hooours. Completely depends on my mood, time of day, how busy Facebook is and what it’s about. I find my own stuff a lot easier to write than reviews and things. I spent pretty much a whole weekend on and off doing a days out post (which ended up being two) but it’s been really well read and got some lovely feedback so i think it was worth it.”
“Average of 1-2 hours I think. It takes a lot longer than you think, especially when you need to take & edit photos!”
“I always aim for 1 hour but always go just over!”
“They say a task expands to fill the time you’ve got available to do it in & I think that’s true! It’s so annoying!”
“It varies for me, for my Reviews it can take ages, as I end up with lots of edits, photo taking/editing, link adding, and then checking accuracy of product information etc. That’s not to mention scheduling social promotions and emailing back the brand!”
“Sometimes it’s not the writing that takes up all my time, it’s adding images. Trying to find appropriate ones, possibly creating collages, picking ones that will look the best etc and then making something nice as a featured image on canva. I can spend thirty minutes writing and 45 minutes playing around with images! An easy post is a quick rant which won’t take long at all but one that is more meaningful can easily take 2 hours.”
https://www.wipeeasytablecloths.com/
“I work Mon – Fri 8am – 5pm so by the time I’ve got home, made tea, seen the kids etc, I probably only get about an hour per evening to write. It can take me 4-5 hours to complete one post (from start to finish) by doing it this way which is highly frustrating. I usually have to wait until weekends to take images as the lighting isn’t great after 6pm.”
“A simple post, written in flow, might take about max one hour after all the editing of pictures and adding on social media is included. But conversely, a long post, something I might have to research a bit, with lots of pictures might take several hours to write, and then if I decide to heavily promote it on social media, optimising all of that might take another couple of hours.
I find it is not the writing which takes a lot of time, it is the editing of pictures, SEO optimization and the later social sharing which is time-consuming.”
“An hour of writing and an hour of tinkering where I switch words out, change my mind and put them back in again. But I plan to take more time in the future. I am new to it so just experimenting.”
singlemumstyle.co.uk
“To write it, I could do it in an hour. But it’s the photos that take the time for me, taking them and editing them, especially when you’re working with children, that can take hours!”
“It takes me hours and hours and hours (OK, days) to write a post, especially if it’s a recipe as I tend to make it 3 times before I go live. Choosing and editing the photos also takes a few hours.”
Should you fancy being part of the series and sharing some of your own ideas or expertise then please feel free to join the ‘Blogging Behind The Scenes’ Facebook group’, we’d love to hear from you! Alternatively you can get in touch via email, drop me a message via social media or add your comments below.
1 comment
Recently my blog posts have been reviews of children’s books, luckily they have been great publications so I haven’t had to spend too much time writing about them, I make a rough draft in a notebook first then use the laptop to publish, hopefully as I become more confident with my writing I will be able to ditch the draft saving time