Kyle's Power Writing Challenge
The ones of you who are going through the Bootcamp lessons may remember Kyle's power writing lesson, where he challenges us to write as much as possible in a 30 minutes timeframe:
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/wa-affili...
OH. MY. GOODNESS!!! That was crazy, manic and exciting at the same time. I took up the challenge a couple of days ago, and I must admit, I already knew that I would be unable to write as much as 1500 words, or near enough to complete my post.
Nevertheless, even if I paused for thinking times, I managed to write over 600 words. And that for me was an achievement, because so far I've kept proving that I am otherwise a very slow writer.
The experiment was an eye opener. If I keep practising, will one day be able to complete an entire post in 30 minutes?
I must admit, given the fact that my main and recurring obstacle to be more productive is lack of time, being able to write a post in half an hour would be ideal and would certainly solve a lot of my problems when it comes to posting regularly on my websites.
But, there is a big BUT.
Naturally, the 30 minutes timescale would be purely to write. You would need to account for additional time to 'embellish' your post, by structuring in paragraphs, by adding pictures and amend punctuation and spelling mistakes.
The biggest BUT however is to do with prep work.
When today I went back to my 600 words of a couple of days ago, I was quite positive with another 30-45 minutes I would be able to write to reach the 1500 words as well as to add pictures, links and banners.
And then the realisation came. I hadn't applied to any relevant affiliate programs yet, nor had I looked at which keywords I could use for my piece. It took me good part of 2 hours to finish my post - longer than if I had not already written nearly half of it!
Moral of the story? Preparation is key if you want to keep trying to put your post together as quickly as possible. If you do not prepared in advance, if you do not research your material, you will end up not knowing what to write about. Let alone completing your post in 30 minutes!!
I am definitely going to take the challenge more and more. Practice makes perfect, as they say. And whilst I am well aware I shall never strike perfection (far from it), my aim however is to speed up in the delivery of my content.
How about you, are you speedy writers? Or did you find Kyle's 30 minute challenge as crazy as me? Leave your comment below, share your experience.
Giulia
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I love to write. So the challenge is fun. I also love to edit and proofread my work. I may write it in 30 minutes but after I read again and then reread and correct grammatically and spelling and look up words to make sure that I have used them correctly; it takes a while.
The key is to write and write. The more you write the easier it will be for you to write. Thank you for your post.
The key to getting lots of content published is planning and prior prep...I schedule for 2-3 months ahead of time and spend the time on the front end gathering materials that support each planned post...
That can and may include things like support articles, sites, and people, images, even drafting the pages which then can be quickly fleshed out...It saves a lot of time when you actually publish, and the content is generally more organized...
If you are traveling or otherwise busy with another project, it means you can also work ahead and set the blog post to be published...This means that you can always have fresh content, a good thing...
Personally, I still cannot do a post in 30 minutes even with preparation I mention. I would rather spend a little more time and do a credible job than a quick one that is not as good as I know it can be...
Cheers!
Dave : )
Maybe the 30 mins Kyle refers to is to start putting together that prep content that you refer to, ahead of us using that material at a later day.
The more I read, the more I realise this job is a lot about writing, writing and writing more! :)
It is important to be well prepared before you write. You need to know what you will write about and what keywords to use. I also like to have a general outline of the beginning, the middle and the end. Typically, I decide on the topic in the evening, then sleep on it and the next day I do the actual writing. When I start writing I want to continue until the whole post is done, proofread and posted, complete with picture. That does not always happen - life sometimes interferes.
Don't talk to me about life interfering- that's been my second biggest obstacle so far this year!!
But, like you, I like to start thinking of my post the day before I start writing away. The only thing is that at the moment I still take a break between writing (or typing, rather) the first part of my content, and completing my content and adding picture and marketing the post at a second stage later. Or sometimes even a day later.
I guess if I could write as much as possible all in one hit, as you do, it would decrease times.
I think you will like completing it all in the same day. Then you can take your attention off it and prepare for the next task.
I don't think we should rush writing Giulia but I must admit I do it sometimes. Most of my posts are reviews and you really need to do a lot of prep work before you can even think about writing. I like to spend a couple of hours doing my research, jotting down all of the salient points and then diving into the writing. I find I can write a post, start to finish in around half a day but that doesn't include the research.
The problem with me, Craig, is that I haven't got the half days (not yet at least) to dedicate to my writing. To me it's becoming imperative to write and put my content together faster if I want to publish 3 posts or reviews a week.
So far I don't seem to do any better than 2 posts a week, but until my 2nd site is ranking better, I must press on for my 3rd post in the week.
Or that's the plan at least...
Yes Giulia, you need to bombard it with posts. I'm doing 5 a week now until I start making good money. I don't sleep much. I've noticed a big difference in rankings and traffic since I upped the ante.
Greetings Giulia,
Did you ever blog before coming to Wealthy Affiliate? I'm thinking the answer is "no", but here you are, blogging away! If you can come up with 600, you can come up with another 100...and another 100...and another 100...
Generally, I like to hand write out my blogs before I type them onto my laptop (for some reason, I can just type the ones for WA, probably because they are much, much shorter). Anyway, 2 weeks ago was the first time I created a post for my site without writing it out first! I was on a mission to complete a certain number of posts for the week, so I was determined. Within 2 hours, I came up with the idea, typed it up, and added images! That's something that usually takes me 3 hours or more.
Last night, I wrote out a quick outline for my next blog, it was really just words written out, no sentences. Today, I sat down and just started typing away! So it seems I have proven myself wrong about having to hand write my ideas first...twice!
So, the moral of this story, Giulia, is that you can do so much more than you think, we all can. Reading other people's posts is so inspiring, simply because each and every day, I see how so many people push through to do more than they thought they could accomplish.
Oh, and the blog I created 2 weeks ago, without writing it out first, came up to a little over 1500 words; the one today was a little over 1300 words. I have no doubt that you'll reach 1000 words, Giulia sooner than you may think.
Funny you compare blogs here on WA, Veronica, with our website posts. Because, like you, I'm much faster writing on this platform than for my website. I think with my website I end up overthinking things too much.
But, when I say I write, in fact I type. I used to jot down an outline to my posts or reviews in writing. Now I don't even do that anymore. Everything is typed out, and I've started using Rapid Writer here a lot again - that's where I took my challenge.
I'm not short of words both here and in my posts (they call me chatterbox for a good reason :) !!!), but I wish it took me shorter.
I guess the more we practice, the better we'll get at this game!!
I've heard of Rapid Writer; is that where your words are types as you talk? I started using that for sending text messages and email on my phone, it's great! Can that be used on a laptop as well?
Hi Guilia
When I first started to write content (a short 2 months ago) I found myself frustrated at times because I thought I should have accomplished more. I soon realized that what I was spending a lot of time on was preparation as you say. Sometimes I would write something and then say to myself "is that really true". I would spend some time verifying what I had written and so on.
That is the process though. Research and then when you're ready...........write. Read or have someone you can trust read what you have written. Revise, correct, improve. It's unbelievable how you many times you change your content. That is if you're trying to make it look good and read well.
Your message is a wake up call do everything you can to write good content. The more you write, the better it gets.
Luthor
First of all Luther, after one year I still question and feel I should have done more - see my weekly update blogs under my profile and be prepared: I'm a whinger!!!
Secondly, you are right. I suppose a lot of preparation is in reading as much as possible. And then, as Kyle mentions in his comment below, start jotting down the structure you are going to apply to your post. You can even do it whilst commuting, or whilst having breakfast in the morning. And then, write away to your heart content!!!
When I did Kyle's coffee cup challenge way back in 2014 there was a deadline and I found the articles at the end did get written up in a fraction of the time - I had two weeks to write 10 1500 word articles, the first couple of articles took about 1.5 weeks and by the end they were taking a few minutes and performed just as well :D
It is a brilliant exercise, thanks for the reminder.
Oh yes, I've just read somewhere about Kyle's coffee cup exercise. You are right, it is brilliant exercise, and that's why I intend to keep doing it. I expect the more I keep writing within a time frame, the more words I shall manage to write within that timeframe! :)
Like anything else, some things can go a bit more rapidly than others and it depends on the subject-matter and the audience...I taught freshman comp for eleven years in college and I can assure you that understanding your audience is the PRIMARY concern of the writer...THEN comes content...
When writing, being prepared is the key for efficient writing. Because of this, I usually break down any page/post I am going to create into "ideas" and then once I have the article flow spec'd out, I will then commence writing.
This leads to much more efficiency for me in terms of writing and is the process I have been following for many years now.
Yes, absolutely. Starting the 30 mins challenge without even sorting out an affiliate account was my fatal mistake today.
So, lesson learnt, Giulia: list down ideas, make sure all your promo tools are nicely laid out, and then start typing away, girl!
Thanks for your invaluable input, Kyle :)
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Yes, thank you for your post. I too have a hard time writing but once I start it becomes easier. It does take me a while, but I don't mind and once it's done I am glad it's done. It also helps that what I am writing about is something I have a passion for, otherwise I know I wouldn't be able to write as well.
Yes, you are right. I've found too that I'm writing more and more easily now than when I first started in this business. Sometimes I still get a bit of writing block, but I push myself - to find out, funnily enough, that once you've started, you can't stop writing!