As part of a little research I’m doing for a post (or a short series of them) next week here at ProBlogger I’d like to ask readers to answer this question:
How Long Do You Take To Write a Blog Post?
I know each post varies depending upon what it is – but on average how long would you say you take to write a blog post? I’d be interested to not only hear the time it takes you but also you usually write posts in one sitting or come back to them over time. Also it’d probably help a little if you told us the type of posts you generally write.
Usually about 1-2 hours … I think the post type would be the biggest factor in time-to-post.
Research, how-to-guides, lists, etc… would take the most time, while, personal, rants, breaking news etc… would seem to take the least
just a thought
Shorter posts about ten to fifteen minutes. Longer news and review posts about 30 minutes to an hour. I write in entertainment.
Usually 20 to 45 minutes. I write about personal finance and I don’t post a lot of just straight up news.
I think I write a post in about 1-2 hours periods. It depends on research and modifying pictures. If i have no information and good quality pictures, I spent more time on one post.
I have a literature site, not counting the years spent reading and research, the actual post writing time is about an hour.
I have a lot of recipe/food content on my blog- those posts usually take about an hour because I need to write up the recipe, add in the instructions and any special notes, resize photos for the web, and then proofread everything.
More general posts can take between 5-20 minutes depending on the length of the post and the topic I’m covering.
2 days is my average for the deep psychology personal development stuff. But I really can’t separate the research from the writing. “Lighter” lists, like my “200 Happiness Quotes” only take a few hours of actual writing, editing, etc.
It generally takes about 45 minutes to get a post to be airtight. By that I mean, writing it, re-reading, editing, ad nauseum until I think it’s actually finished.
By 45 minutes, I mean posts like these:
Link 1
Link 2
Longer posts like this take about 90 minutes to write and edit.
I should mention that when I was writing for Ars Technica, my other fellow writers would take about that long to write similarly in-dept articles. So the more you practice, the faster you get from idea to finished product.
No one really got much faster than that, but there were a few people who were a bit slower.
I’m still new at this but it takes me between 2 and 3 hours per post depending on the length and how much research I need to do. This usually includes three drafts.
The first draft throw things out with some sort of plan. A second draft takes care of the plan, most of the grammar issues and the links. I go through one more time to make sure it’s how I like it.
It is time consuming but I’m only posting once per week. A daily blog would require less attention to detail with my current skill. I’ve decided to keep the quality as high as I can manage so for me that means posting less often. Since one of my goals is improving my writing style and skills the once per week posting works for me. Twice per week may be a doable goal but time shall tell.
Writing a German blog about technical writing/language/translation: 15-60 minutes for a normal post, up to three hours if I make one of my tutorials (with a little screencast and all).
Oh boy, it could be anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 days. The posts that require a lot of research are usually ones I have to come back to. I’m a single mom with 2 kids so I don’t get very many opportunities to sit and write without being interrupted.
I write about being a work at home mom. Some of my posts are about my own experiences, (those ones I can usually push out pretty quickly) and others are reviews on tools and software, tips, ideas, lists, etc. which sometimes take hours.
I’ve been writing articles for about five years on differing subjects ranging from CSS through to U2-Concerts. Sometimes the thought-process might only take a few minutes to concoct, but the write-up may take between a few hours and a few weeks! The time varies on the amount of research required, the timing of the article in regards to social-etiquette, and whether I feel the opinion is warranted. And I like to find and shoot a few photographs that will match the content of the post — that can take the longest time!
That said, when given a topic-of-interest to write upon I can quickly write witty, controversial, obscure paragraphs. Like just now with this response. Whilst might some might suggest simply posting these paragraphs, I prefer to ponder the words-used, consider other people’s point-of-view, and cross-link where ever necessary.
Only 15-30 minutes usually. Then there are those days when I got a lot to say and I write maybe for even few hours.
Of course researching always takes from 30 minuets to few hours.
since i only write about 3 times a week, i write longer, more content rich posts with lots of research, links, and custom bullet images (usually).
To do all of that, it takes me 1.5-3 hours per post. i just prefer that method over shorter, more frequent type postings.
Most of the time I’m a “mommy blogger” so it varies.
a quick post about something of interest- 15 – 30 min
a tutorial, start to finish- maybe a day or two
my thoughts on something- 1-2 hours
But because I’m also caring for my 3 year old at the same time, there can be alot of start and stops!
I write a daily post every day called the “TPS report” that features one item of work-appropriate clothing. That takes me about 15 minutes per post, once I’ve found what it is that I’m going to feature. I tend to write those on my lunch break, or if I can, do the week’s worth on Sunday.
For longer stories — like on Thursday, “10 things about saying goodbye”, intended for summer associates and clerks returning to law school and business school — that one took about 3 hours to write, after I’d been thinking about it for 2 weeks. I’d say 3 hours is about average for a longer post. I do a feature called “360 review” where we review a fictional character’s outfits — those take far longer than one would think, like 3-4 hours to find all the pictures and so forth.
But still: glad to say I’m not having any writer’s block — which is a far cry from EVERY other writing experience I’ve ever had in my life.
Usually, I come up with the post idea before making the post, so therefore, I can just get going. Once I begin writing, however, I usually come up with an extra idea or two to plug into the post.
I’m generally a straightforward person, but between this and having to add images to the post, my blogging time per entry is about 2 – 3 hours, I would say. Two hours is most likely the average. Three hours is for a longer post or extreme circumstance.
2-3 days for research, one day for the actual writing/editing part.
I almost always write my posts in one sitting. I find if I leave them and come back later I am likely to hate everything I have previously written, delete it and start again.
As for how long it takes me, most serious posts take around 20 minutes, the complete fluff, 5 minutes. Oddly the 5 minute posts are more well received by readers.
I forgot to mention the research component in my previous comment. For me research is an ongoing process. I am always reading and making notes of things that interest me. When I sit down to write my blog posts I find I already have an extensive list of resources and it is a simple matter of referencing what I have already found.
Normally 1 hour for writing. But depends sometimes. Can take even one week for research and improvement.
Since I post more or less weekly, I’m more with the 2-3 hour group, excluding the research. But I have two types of research: one is reading and exploring for ideas that I can build on. This may take a day or two except when I’m traveling when the ideas are more based on the experience right in front of me. Then there is the quicker research that comes along with the writing, as when I mention something and then look for a site that would give more information. Image searching is sometimes more time consuming than I like, so when possible I try to set up and photograph my own images.
Research and all included it takes me about 2 hours to write a full blog post.
Interesting question that I think about often. The actual writing piece is about an hour…my very own lousy editing is about 15 minutes and then adding pictures(got to be pretty) then push publish is 90-120 minutes.
I just recently started blogging again. I started a few times, wrote one post, and then stopped writing there. But I am determined to start again. So far, I have 2 posts on my new blog, which I started about a week ago: gary.katsevman.com/blog/
For me, these two posts took around 30 mins each to write. However, since I am almost always reading lots of blogs, have about 100 blogs i skim on a regular basis, including yours, i guess you could say that it actually took me around 2 hours, if you include research, aka, reading blogs.
The actual writing will probably never take me longer than 30 minutes, and I usually like to write everything down in one sitting. I am not sure what I would do if I didnt get a chance to finish a post in one sitting due to writer’s block, or some other reason. Any tips?
Seeing as my blog is primarily personal, there isn’t a whole lot of research I need to do. The main thing is just finding inspiration to write. Once I find something, I can hammer out a post in half an hour to an hour. If I’m not feeling it, it can take a couple days and a few rewrites. I like to keep a few posts cued up and then just give them a re-read the day before they’re published to make sure they’re still reading good and that I haven’t missed any obvious mistakes.
We are a visual blog, so without research and photo manipulation, the actual creation of the post is less than 10 minutes. Factoring in the research, photo time, etc…it is more like 20-30 minutes per post. If we decide to write a long post, the time will at least double.
It widely varies for me. When contributing to niche blogs linking to other articles/sources, I can turn out a short post in 15-20 minutes. When it’s more research-heavy, it can take significantly longer.
I find that my personal blog can be the most time-consuming, as I’m constantly honing my tone and language choices. There’s more editing and proofreading involved when it’s a story about my life rather than a product review or pop-culture observation.
My problem is the topic to write, so others do not take longer than 30 minutes
Cheers for all
It usually takes me 30-45 minutes to write a blog post. Mine tend to be longer and fairly detailed, so there is research in there, as well. I often write a bit, get distracted by kids or other work, or Twitter or IM . . . etc. etc. etc. :) Then I come back and work some more, so the actual time lapse ends up being several hours.
My posts begin with a few news clips, have commentary by me and finish with a spiritual quote.
I do a post in one sitting.
Time? Counting the search for appropriate news and quotes, it takes about two hours.
~ Alex
My last post took about 20 minutes. On average about 20-30 minutes. Maybe I should spend more time? :)
I usually spend 1-2 hours per post in one sitting. I write “authority” posts that are comprehensive.
About half an hour – 15 minutes to write it then 15 minutes to rewrite it and/or cut back all the unnecessary words/ideas.
About an hour, depending on the article. Some more some 15 minutes.
It depends on the post.
If I’m writing a “quick” post to direct readers to other topics of interest online, or to feature another website that has something on it I think would be of interest to readers, I can usually whip up that kind of post in about 15 minutes. Those are “one sitting” posts, definitely.
But those types of posts are in the minority – I might do one every week or so.
Posts that feature a project will usually take a lot longer, because I have to take photos and format them, and then write out a more detailed “how I did it.” These types of posts can take up to an hour to prepare, and I usually come back to them to polish them up or add little tidbits before publishing. Book reviews fit in this category, as well. They can take me up to an hour to write and polish, depending on what I’m highlighting in the book, and what other information I point readers to outside the book.
Posts that include a detailed photo tutorial, or a product comparison, can take up to two hours to write, and sometimes even longer, and I always come back to them to polish them. The writing, though, is the easy part, and it takes the least amount of time in the whole preparation of the post. Working up a tutorial that includes photos of every step of the way – especially if it’s a complicated process – takes longer than writing the post!
My video tutorials usually take at least a couple hours for editing, as well, but the writing of the post doesn’t take long, since the video itself is the feature. Actual filming time isn’t included in this. I’ve spent 6 hours in a row filming video clips, and ended up with material for only about 4 videos of 4 or so minutes each!
I always spend at least 10 hours a week working on the blog itself, as far as writing goes, and that doesn’t include getting out and seeing what other people in the niche are up to, or responding to e-mails, etc. Easily, time-wise, I put in 15-20 hours a week on my blog, and sometimes more. And again, this doesn’t include the work behind the scenes – my own personal projects that I work on and photograph so that I can blog about them.
Blogging is a time-consuming process. I often talk to people who ask how much I make a month blogging, and are amazed that I make “that much a month” just by “blogging” (as if it’s doing nothing!)… they rarely understand the time that goes into it!
Woops. Sorry about the length of that comment! Now you know why it takes me a long time to write a post.
Actually, that took me less than 5 minutes to write…. I had a great typing teacher….
30-60 minutes, usually. If I write anything more extensive, I usually write it over a period of several days maybe spending up to 2 hrs at any given time.
I would say it depends on the topic I am writing for. If it is technical which requires screenshots, images it takes around 2-3 hrs otherwise some posts can be wwritten in as little as 15 mins also
Ideally 5 to 10 minutes. I’ll take up to an hour if it’s going to be something mega. This “Getting Real” strategy to writing must have something to it, as I have 16k subscribers on my main blog! :)
Of course, reading the above, I now know why people go crazy at less than $50 a post ;-)
Roughly 30 minutes, give or take. I spend much more time on the behind the scenes aspects of my blog because I am a much better writer than a technical geek, networker, or business woman.
Depends what kind of article I’m writing. If it is a pillar article and I for sure take a couple hours to make it absolutely perfect because I know in the long run a lot of people are going to see the article. However if it is just a simple article and I’m not expecting people over a year to keep reading then it probably takes me 30 minutes to an hour.
I usually write 500 words posts and it takes me 20 minutos to write, more 5 minutes to rewrite and cjeck the words. More 5 minutes to get the appropriate links. So, each post takes me 30 minutes. If I have to make reasearch, it can take me one hour or two. My posts are about education, teachers careers and publica schools.
Time varies with different type of post but I will say 60 – 90 minutes would be an estimate.
Because I have to search for sources and all.
My last post – http://www.balkhis.com/advertising/13-ways-i-used-to-promote-my-blog-to-success/
took me close to 2.5 hours to write. With all the images and such.
Probably on average I spend about 30-60 min on each post. Some less, some more. My posts generally focus on different things having to do with sci-fi/fantasy and specifically writing in those genres.
I hate how my comments always get put in moderation and they never get posted. It isn’t like I am standing problogger.net.
How long it takes, depends on how much research I have to do. For http://tattoo.infmom.net I often have to look things up and locate appropriate Creative Commons licensed artwork, so I’d say that a post there takes at least half an hour, usually more (fortunately, I am a very fast reader and typist, and good at Google searching).
For my LiveJournal and my personal journal http://infmom.net/journal, it’s all a matter of opinion, so unless I’m talking about history and have to look things up to make sure I’m historically correct, I type 110wpm so most posts take 15 minutes or less.
sometimes my posts are as simple as a sentence about a cute artist or blog I’ve been into that day,
sometimes they are a little more in depth which usually takes about 20 minutes to write.
but on occasion I like to research and make a nice meaty post in which case I will usually:
– jot down the idea as an outline as a draft in WP
– research a little
– write the post in microsoft word (saving it as a draft in WP if i tend to edit it over a few days time)
– let it stew, try to gather further points if neccessary
– polish it up
– post it on my blog
It takes me on average 20-30. Though sometimes with research it will take upwards to an hour.