Blogging can provide a consistent source of income once you establish your brand or personality. The boom of technology made it possible for thousands of people to work in the comfort of their home through their laptops and smartphones. Unfortunately, not all of them made stayed long enough to grow in their niche. Still, there are individuals use their skills and devices to offer their services who need to outsource their tasks and duties. Writing an article, maintaining a client's blog, manual input of data, and on-page SEO services are some activities that freelancers can bank on for extra income.
If you wish to increase your income for your extra expenses, you must increase your daily output. You need to beat your previous record and publish more stuff. To do this, you must learn time-saving techniques to up your blogging skills. You can refer to the five ways below to post more content and save moolah just in time for summer.
1. Improve your writing habits
Improving your writing habits doesn’t mean you have to focus on grammar and wording. It implies you must build a practice that will streamline your writing process. A beginner in writing can spend the whole day crafting a thousand-word article, especially when he or she starts from scratch. That’s a lot of time for one material! Thus, having a strategy or formulating your tactic minimizes the time you spend on writing.
(a) Write down your ideas
Creative minds can get their ideas anytime, anywhere. These ideas also fleet as quickly as they come. Writing them down gives you a list of potential blog content in case you run out of juice for your next text post. The file is also a plus every time you create your editorial calendar. It shows the subject and themes you already covered in your previous posts.
(b) Create headline templates
Headline templates take away the hassle of constructing blog titles. Often, writers get stuck because of the headline. When you have a template ready, you are sure to grab your audience’s attention because the title is already tested and proven. However, avoid repeating the same keywords and phrases over and over as the headline template will go against its function by warding off your readers.
(c) Use outlines
It’s up to you to create your template. As much as possible, use a draft that’s comfortable for you. You can use numbers, letters, mind maps, and other methods to organize your thoughts as long as it makes sense for you once you get back on it. The outline must simplify the creation of the post as it breaks the article into manageable chunks. Its form enables you to insert sentences in between and expound ideas bit by bit until you have the time to complete the narrative.
2. Have writing tools at your disposal
You can rely on your trusty document editors like Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer for desktop and WPS Office, Google Docs, and Notes app on both Android and iOS devices. Though these apps and software are doing a great job, there are other tools available that can save your ideas, skimp distractions and efficiently point and remove grammatical errors. At the same time, some editors include additional features through add-ons, built-in templates, and idea curation.
3. Conduct research on your niche
It’s true that idea generation is one of the most difficult and time-consuming aspects of writing. Fortunately, you aren’t alone in the struggle. You can use tools to stay on top of what is happening in different industries or social circles. Evernote has a clipping feature so you can capture images and information from web pages. It also supports audio recording and document scanning. If you want an easy reading on your sources, you can download Pocket. It’s like an online filing system that suggests related articles from the ones you saved. You can quickly gather news from the similar topics through the suggestions.
Another way to comb through a niche is by tracking the trending topics on Twitter. Survey the hashtags and find out if any of them relates to the theme of your blog or the topic plan to write.
4. Set schedules
If you are freelancing, there’s a chance you have a day job or a business you must keep up. Thus, you must plan your weeks and months to maximize your time and determine how many articles you can produce in a period. Be realistic on your output. Plot the blog titles and relevant information on your editorial calendar. You can use to-do lists to remain productive each day.
5. Utilize image editing tools
Besides a catchy title, it’s necessary to include a photo. Use free online photo editing tools to package your article neatly. That way, you minimize the time you spend on making visuals and dedicate it to doing something else.
The Takeaway
You must plan accordingly, adjust your habits and use necessary tools to create content. When you follow a process, you begin to increase your daily output until you become efficient in your work.
