How long does it take you to write a blog post?

I've written almost 1000 blog posts, so I feel qualified to answer this question!

For a simple post, that involves some basic research and is mostly opinion, and not too long (say, 400-500 words), perhaps an an hour and a half seems right. For longer posts, such as where I analyze an IT failure, it can easily take 5-6 hours. For serious research posts, it can take closer to 8 hours, including research. After all these posts, it surprises me how long it takes.

I've witnessed some people, such as Larry Dignan who is Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet, bang out an insightful post during a keynote at a conference. Same thing with Dan Farber, who was Larry's predecessor. But these guys are professional journalists who honed speed and accuracy over many years. For the rest of us mere mortals, writing a good post takes time!

Interesting comments so far!

I write a new post every day (M-F) so I often get my ideas (or a title) from something I've recently read or experienced or from a conversation with a friend, business acquaintance or customer.

In most cases, a typical blog post of 350-400 words usually takes me less than 30 minutes to write IF I get the right burst of inspiration.

Posting it is quick but I can often spend 20-30 minutes searching for the right image.

Having said this, there are times I start to write a post and stall out after 100 words. I keep those articles in an 'incomplete' file and sometimes, not always, return to finish them later.

I often write multiple blog posts in a single sitting then will go several days without writing a word.

When I write longer articles (700-800 words) for mass distribution (article portals, etc) it takes about 90 minutes once I get the idea.

Like Mike, above, I start many things as they occur to me in Draft mode (simple Word doc): Usually the headline, a few random sentences, and some trigger thoughts that are interested as kind of "Ann-shorthand" that should spark context/related thoughts to help me flesh it out when it comes to the actual writing.
Time: 5-15 minutes
Downside: I've started so many Draft posts that some of them go stale and forgotten, and the next thing you know it reads like a Dada poem, and I haven't the foggiest idea what it means....

When I DON'T forget, though.. the next stage of actual writing, of putting meat on those bones, then editing for clarity and readability and the like?

Probably 3 hours or so. But I'm the first too admit that I'm turtle-slow. So 3 hours for a simple post is probably not the rule, but the exception.

Writing the actual blog post? Between half an hour and a couple of hours
Having the knowledge that allows it to happen in that time? Years

Ain't no shortcuts alas.... not even in 140 characters

I love the question, Craig. Lately, I have been spending a lot of time thinking about writing and the creative process.

Writing for me is a discipline and a process. I am always collecting ideas, and most of what I write I have spent some time thinking about or working on.

The writing process for me is defined and I work within some pretty solid, self-imposed time constraints.

I start writing at 5:30 AM every morning. I write until about 6:30 AM, and then spend a little time choosing a photo that will act as a metaphor for the idea (some are easier to choose than others, and some are better metaphors). The total time for writing about 750 to 800 words is about an hour. I start with three or four main points on an outline, and most post write themselves once I have written the major points.

I believe the writing comes easiest when your mind is clean and before the world starts making demands of your attention.

I don't post when I am done writing. I leave the post and return to it when I am done working for the day. I don't like to interrupt the creative process of writing with the editing process--I find it destroys the flow and the creativity. And, my editing is a lot stronger after I have left the post to sit for awhile.

I spend 15 or 20 minutes editing a post, adding links, embedding the picture, and posting. The total time is probably close to an hour and half.

For me the time it takes to write isn't related to the topic or what I believe to be important. The post that I believe isn't that critical of an idea is the post that generates the most conversation or interaction. The post I believe is critical reading is sometimes all but ignored. (but, if I really want comments and interaction, I put cold calling in the title and that seems to take care of that, for good or ill).

Sometimes I publish something that's really short and fast, a reaction to an ad or something I see with sales or marketing implications. That can take as little as 10 minutes. Other times it takes longer. Don't think I've spent more than 90 minutes outlining and writing something up in awhile.

Here's the four-step process I usually follow:

Write more ideas down
When you have an idea for good content, write it down immediately. Keep paper and pen close by, or use a service like Dial2Do to quickly record an idea that can be translated to text and email for review later. If you're like me, a good idea that sits in your head unrecorded for too long (and when I mean too long, I mean more than 15-20 seconds) gets lost to the next thought. The more you document, the more blog posts you'll have to choose from.

Keep a single, ongoing list of those ideas
I use Outlook Tasks, and have a category called "Pending Blog Posts". When I have time to write something new, I go to this list and find something to get started. Ideas are constantly coming and going from this list. Whether you use Outlook or Evernote or Moleskine, keep them somewhere together.

Ideas, then outlines, then drafts
Don't sit down and intend to write a blog post in one swoop. Start with the core idea, then jot down primary points and themes related to that idea. This blog post, for example, started with nothing more than the title. It eventually became a short bullet list of points I wanted to make. Eventually, I sat down and wrote the context & deeper context behind each of those points. By doing it this way, I produced the final post more quickly and it took far less time in aggregate. Breaking new blog posts down into individual steps makes the whole process more accessible (and more likely to happen).

Write ahead of time
Don't write today with the intention of posting today. That's only going to make you anxious. Work on something today with the intention of posting later. Tomorrow, next week, whatever makes sense. By writing content in advance and setting it up to post later, you can also block time to write several posts at once. Take your ideas and outlines of primary points, and lock yourself in a room for a couple hours to bang out new content while you're focused and on a roll.

Oh dude...hours. It takes me HOURS to write a blog post. If you asked my blog how long it takes me to write a blog post? Sadly, he'd answer "Months."

On a really good day, I'd get an idea in the morning...write down the idea and let it sit until the latter part of the afternoon. Then, say around 3:00pm or 4:00pm I'd start to write, and from writing to post, it could be a 2, 2.5 hour process.

I hate answers that start with "it depends", but this question is begging for it.

When I am writing an "article" over a "post", it can take weeks. I make the distinction because an article involves interviewing people, reading studies and working papers, calling and emailing, etc. That process might start two or three weeks out. The actual writing once all the research is collected takes maybe an hour.

A "post", where the research is not extensive and the tone more opinionated, probably takes about a half hour to actually write. Proofing, as a rule, should take me between half the time and the same amount of time it took to write the post.

For curation posts, the reaching out to people and collecting data could take a couple weeks. The writing takes about 45 minutes.

I should note that I work on about two to three pieces of content per day, so the process for all these types of posts shifts daily.

Two to three hours is my average for 750 words. That incudes research, photos and/or graphics, and proofing. I like to let them sit and come back later before posting.

When I begin writing in my new office next week this may change. Currently, I have to deal with interruptions. The only internet acces I will have in my writing space is my iPhone; strictly for research, photos, and graphics.

With a book in the works, my plan is to write 4 - 6 hours per day. I'll be happy to report back in a couple of weeks.

Whether it be an article or a blog post I start out by dictating. Perhaps this relates to the fact that I am a professional speaker and can just talk off the top of my head and have things come out coherent and logical.

However, any human being can speak at about 150-160 words per minute. In terms of writing directly one study of computer users found people writing at 19 words per minute for composition. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_per_minute)

The slowness of writing makes it harder to maintain the big picture of what you want to say in your mental ram. It's easy to get lost in the minutia. But with dictating I can do a "brain dump" and then all the pieces are right there before me on the page.

I have found using Dragon Dictate on my Mac to be a time management breakthrough! Though it only takes 5 minutes to train it to train I find it to be over 95% accurate.

http://www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm

It used to be if I was going to write from scratch I wouldn't do it right away. So a lot of time would be lost thinking about doing it. Now I just grab the mic, dictate and then spend a little time editing.

Sometimes blogs remind me of the days of Victorian authors - would that we could be paid by the word like they were! I like Joe's reference to a "rant". There have some rants I wish I could take back... I have written blogs in as little as 10 - 15 minutes and it has taken hours to finish others. Recently, I decided that if it takes more than an hour to write a blog, I better hit save before I hit send because there must be something blocking me from efficient completion. I agree with the others regarding more complex blogging (such as hours to write a more technical blog). A dissatisfaction I have recently with blogs and groups is that there appears to be a very small group of people that seem to be writing blogs for each other. There is so much out there, real buyers probably find it hard to find blogs that matter. Perhaps that is why we find blog titles that contain symbols like %&#* in place of letters in words that you can't say on the television (RIP George Carlin). I guess, to some, filling in words with symbols seems provocative. I prefer, frankly, goading someone into a response that is real. I would write more, but I have a blog due in twenty minutes. And, I know, I use too many commas.

It depends on the purpose of the post.

If it's educational in nature, it could take days to do research and distill it to a short, readable article.

A manifesto-type of article takes 4-6 hours to write and additional time to send it to people I trust to see whether I'm full of hot air or it's worth publishing.

If it's a point of view that links to others, 2-3 hours to get the article written and the links formatted properly.

If it's opinion... well, let's see. I can type probably 80 words a minute and a typical post is around 400 words. So that would be five minutes!

I use a multi-step process:

- Whenever I come up with an idea, I start the article in draft mode, select a title and write as much as my attention permits. Typically, 3-10 minutes. Then I leave it in draft mode.

- When I have time to focus on an article, I check out my drafts, and select one to work on. I might give it 20-30 minutes depending on interrupts and the quality/content of the article.

- I then forward that article to my copywriter. He checks it for voice/grammar/content. Selects a graphic.

- My final review is 5-10 minutes. Then we schedule it and let it go.

That said, I've had some articles that took me 3 hours plus. Just depends on content.

I will chime in with a response. I am surprised how similar my experience is to most of the amazing bloggers here. Even a short (400-500) word blog takes at least an hour. The Tour de Force blogs, meant to change the world, takes several days.

I will hammer out a blog "stub" on my trusty Alphasmart keyboard in a coffee shop, or on an airplane and save it. Then I go back to it, revise, link, and embed images, then publish! Then there is the promotion phase since no-one reads blogs regularly (at least not mine). I post to Linkedin and Twitter, and hope it gets picked up.

I have tried to maintain a schedule on my blog, but find that difficult to do -- not because I don't enjoy writing it, but because I get busy on client projects, which often involve writing. So I tend to write in bursts.

Like others, the time involved varies a lot. A quick reaction to something is fast, but still takes minimum 30 minutes to an hour. A thought-leader piece can take half a day.

things that add considerable time:
- Writing a great headline
- Adding graphics. The most time consuming are where I try to create something metaphorical that illustrates the point in a unique way. I generally only do this when I think I can reuse the material in a speaking engagement. But even a quick product shot capture does take time to choose and snag an image, save it and post it.
- Adding links and resources lists -- also really valuable to readers -- takes time as well.

I find the most effective way to blog is actually to write a few articles are once, when i have the time and am feeling inspired. the words flow, the energy is there, it all feels fresh instead of labored. One or two will be time-sensitive and post immediately or within a day or two -- others might be a week or more in waiting.

Interesting topic!

Craig, I operate in two ends of the spectrum.

On one end, 20 minutes for a quick blurb. On the other end, similar to Michael somewhere typically between 4-6 hours.

Actually, I will add that, like Brian, there are certain kinds of posts I can knock off very quickly. For example, if I post a relevant Dilbert cartoon and a paragraph of comment, it takes about 20 minutes. Those short things are really the exception, however.

By the way, I am actively thinking of ways to write shorter, yet meaningful, posts so I can simply get more of them out there. But, doing it well is just hard and does take time.

Since I don't write on an editorial schedule - I write when I feel like I have something I want to say - it's usually something I've been thinking about for a while and composing in my head.

The actual writing part takes me anywhere from 60-90 minutes max, including editing. I generally resist the urge to hold back, come back and polish because (for me at least) I feel as though I write a better post when I write it all at once. If I'm off base, the comments generally take care of that.

For an opinion focused blog I usually spend 30 minutes but as I write stream of consciousness I would say there is about another 30 minutes that goes into the editing process. If there is research that is included in blog piece and it is a more extensive post than 1 - 1.5 hours seems about write.

Next time I write, which will be tonight, I will time myself to make sure I am on target.

Carlos Hidalgo
The Annuitas Group
@cahidalgo

I queue thoughts for future posts. From articles I've read. Webinars I've attended. Conversations I've had. On-going part of my weekly routine.

When a 'flash' moment occurs, I'll pull from these resources a string of 'dots', write a piece that connects them around a theme, and post it. I set aside an hour to do so. Then I sleep on it. With another 10 minutes of re-read + minor tweaking, it's posted.

Funny question for me, because I'm not a professional writer. I start by jotting down main subject, then I will jot down all thoughts that come to mind, i.e., start in center of paper, then put words around main word and then connect via lines and group accordingly, then start filling in the "fluff."

Usually takes me 30 min to 3 hours, depends on topic, research needed, etc.

It really depends on the topic and the purpose. I don't think there should always be really text heavily blog posts, or really light (think news flash) posts either.

I would say a few of hours (3-4) for a value-add blog post, and anywhere from half hour to an hour for quick tips or news flash style posts.

There's always the option of re-purposing content such as white papers or case studies that can take less time. With a thought leadership white paper for example, you can break it down into a three part blog series.

Easy: one hour. Nobody reads our blog though, so it might not be any good.

I take about 5-15 minutes to plan the post;
Title, subheadlines and so on.
15 minutes to write the article and last about 15 minutes to edit it.

All in all it takes about 45 minutes, give or take.

30-45 minutes of actual typing/reviewing in WordPress (my blogging platform of choice). How so quick? Well, my blog posts "evolve", in the sense that I get a thought in my head and continue to ponder and develop that thought over hours (and even days).

I might go out on a run and develop deeper insights off my main premise. Then, before I sit down to WordPress, I sketch out my main outline on a notepad, to ensure I have all my bases covered.

So, final tally:

45 minutes prep (cumulative)
15 minutes on the notepad
45 minutes in WordPress

That comes out to 1 hr, 45 minutes ;-)

I try to write my blog entries over the weekend so I can post early Monday or Tuesday; I like to think the weekend has less distractions so I can focus and pump out the blog quicker.

However, it can still take me up to three hours because I like to include an illustration at the beginning of the blog or I like to clean up the logo of the company I'm blogging about. Sometimes I search high and low for an appropriate illustration and then photoshopping it to meet my needs can take a lot of time. Also, formatting the links correctly is time consuming because I always try to link a person to their LinkedIn profile, along with their Twitter page if they have one. Sometimes you have to search because they have a common name that you can't zero in on very quickly.

45 min to an hour and a half, just depends on all the factors described above. I'm late to this party, nothing else to add.

I would you say could write a killer blog post anywhere between 45 min. to 5+ hours depending on the nature of the post:
* If you will write an opinionated/tips/how-to post on a topic you're well-versed at, then 45 minutes can be more than enough.
* But if you are writing a statistical post where you need to compare facts from different resources, you'd need much more time.

Personally, I've written all types of blog posts imaginable: news, trends, elephant in the rooms, tips, you name it. I've never worried about the time I spend on each post as much as I cared that the post would meet readers expectations.

If it takes you 5 minutes to write a blog post that will make your readers happy, then by all means go for it.
Do you think this is how long it takes Seth Godin to write his killer one-sentence blog posts ? :)

Simple yet complex question to answer. The time to write is one factor. Other logistical factors such as finding the right graphic to keyword research to using hyperlinks can increase the overall time. As Kelly said, inspiration can shorten that writing time frame.

Usually for me the time to write averages 30 minutes. Since I have already done the keyword research, additional time is invested on the graphic, checking keyword saturation rate, hyper links, etc. Logistical time averages 15-30 minutes.

Actually it depends what are you writing about and how well versed you are with that subject.

If you have a good grip on the subject then it could take something between 1-2 hours for a effective write-up. If it involve some research then you need to add 2-3 hours more.

If the blog is supported by graphics, illustrations or graphs it could get a bit longer. And if it is a hot topic and you are highly focused on it, you can even have a go it 45 min- hour.

I think writing time is 50% information and 50% inspiration. If a post is centered around a tidbit that I'm excited to relate to my readers, it seems the words come faster than the minutes.

But if I have to think about adding research points, or avoiding certain terminology, like now because I'm trying to avoid "it depends" so Jesse above doesn't hate my response ;) it can work the other way.

For me, opinion posts take longer because reputation is involved. Research based post are usually laid out in front of me, so its just a matter of compiling it into a flowing, easy to read display.

For example, I just did a piece on how the article directories have been effected by the Panda algorithm. I had all the stats on hand, so it was just a matter of reporting my findings. That all took about an hour for over 1000 words.

Then I did a Memorial Day post explaining how business owes a lot to our military. This took over 2 hours for just over 400 words because I had to word things just so, so not to offend anyone but still get the sentiment out.

So yes, Jesse, it does depend. Mostly on inspiration and reputation, but also on how much research needs to be done (read: how little knowledge I have on the subject).

I would say I am in the Kelley camp. I have the good fortune of spending time with the usual subjects and audience of my blog, namely sales people. I am presented with numerous ideas and possibilities daily, when something hits me, I'll start banging away on my mobile device right away, and do a clean up just before I post it, if I am in a meeting I'll make a quick note, and then capture it on the mobile after. End to end, 30 minutes, add the challenge with the graphics, say 45 minutes.

The video posts are different, a bit of set up with the equipment; I need to be more prepared so there is more upfront work, editing, titles..., 90 – 120 minutes, and posting to You Tube.

Articles that are meant for different consumption, take much longer, from idea to completed piece 3 - 4 hours.

I enjoy the blog approach a lot more, as it allows me to be more casual and conversational, and it seems based on the feedback, the audience gets that.

I've been known to take two months to think up a 1,000 word original thought piece on religion and spirituality - but when I sat down to write it, it only took one evening. (Of course, this included the 45 minutes during which I wrote a 2,000 word email to a former client detailing current societal issues.)

It all depends on inspiration. As in real estate, it is all location, location, location - in writing, it's all inspiration, inspiration, inspiration.

If I clear my mind and let the words come out, the article writes itself.

It takes me at least 30 minutes to an hour to write a blog post

I tend to write fairly short posts sparked off by an observation or thought about something. In general it takes me no more than an hour to put a post together. I am also starting to add images in as well to the post.

If it's a topic I am already familiar with then about 45 minutes. If not, anywhere from 1.5 hours to a few hours. When it starts getting too long to write, I usually stop and come back to it later with a fresh mind.

What a great sanity check--and relief! My blog writing time aligns to what others have commented. To Liz's point... when perspiration overcomes inspiration, it's time to take a break. To Richard's comment about promotion... in addition to publicizing on LinkedIn and tweeting, utilities like http://su.pr/ can increase your post's "virability." Leverage, leverage, leverage...

I think only Mike Damphouse mentioned use of a copywriter. I'm surprised more busy successful professionals here don't have (or reference?!) help with turning ideas into drafts you can review.

To be honest it depends on my knowledge with the subject. If I know more than enough information I would probably start off my blog with the things I already know some information about then I'd eventually search information and as well as to check if the information I know are facts which all in all would probably take up to 2-3 hours, but if I am completely oblivious to the topic then it would probably take me about 4-5 hours.