Writing isn’t natural to most people.

It takes too long, it’s tough to get started and it’s even harder to finish.

But it’s essential to content marketing.

So you labor on, with little results to show from it.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could speed the process up?

You can, and it’s easy.

The key? Separate your blogging-related activities into three parts.

By separating research, writing, and editing, your productivity will grow exponentially.

1. Research

Research is the key to good blogging. It helps keep the ideas flowing endlessly.

So make time to research and brainstorm. Try blocking time in the afternoons for researching topics and gathering sources.

Usually, you’re trying to solve a problem with business blogging. So think about the questions you always face, or things your customers have difficulties with. And then solve those problems.

You should also do some basic keyword research at this time (so you can appease the SEO Gods).

List out the sub-points for each problem, and take notes of key stats or factors that support each point.

Then plan out the storyline, and outline the sections so you can focus on writing.

2. Writing

Next comes the writing stage.

You need to find your time. Maybe that’s really early in the morning (like me), or really late at night. Or even somewhere in between.

But you should have a certain block of time during the day where you can focus and work creatively.

Then, only focus on writing. No editing. No html. No links. No images.

You can also use a product like WriteRoom or Dark Room to block out your entire screen.

This morning period is all about writing copy. The headline, a killer opening, your storyline, and a solution.

3. Editing

I hate editing. With a passion.

(Probably because I actually have to re-read what I wrote the day before.)

When we make it big and the money starts pouring in, I’m going to demand a professional editor.

Take the rough post from earlier and put it up as a saved draft in Wordpress (or your blogging platform). Then edit and delete sections as needed. You should also add any HTML formatting.

This is the period for rounding out on-page SEO factors.

Now you should also look for some images to use. If you have specific examples, then you can use Jing or Screenr to quickly grab some screenshots. Otherwise, there are nice people on Flikr that allow you to use their Creative Common’s licensed work.

Schedule the post and you’re home free.

That’s it. What do you think?