Ten Ways to Crank Out Killer Posts in Ten Minutes or Less

Posted on March 10, 2009 by Michael Martine • 87 Comments
  1. alarmclockPick  three blogs you respect and introduce your readers to them. Three links to three different posts, followed by a sentence for each explaining why your readers should go read them and subscribe to these other blogs.
  2. Go to the main category page for one of your categories, copy and paste five of your best posts from it, then paste them into the Visual tab of the new post screen in WordPress. Pretty it up a little bit, and write a couple sentences at the top to introduce the idea.
  3. Ask your readers to ask you questions, which you’ll answer in future posts. You can’t hardly ask for a better reason for a short post that still helps your readers immensely!
  4. Answer a question from your readers, either from questions which have already been asked, or from doing what I mentioned in item number 3 above. Another super high-value/time-starved tactic.
  5. Ask a question of your readers and have them answer it in the comments. Ask the question in a somewhat polarizing, either-or way, such as: Mac or PC? Blogger or WordPress? Chicken or Pork? (well OK, maybe not that last one.) Your readers do all the work on this one. Don’t do this too often, but once in a while, people will love it.
  6. In the same vein, put together a poll and post it. People love to give their opinion and you’ll learn more about your audience, which will help both you and them in the long run. Total win-win in ten minutes or less.
  7. Google for the top ten sites in your niche and post them as, literally, the top ten sites. These kind of posts are highly linkable. Just copy and paste the search results page into your post writing window, pretty it up, write an introductory couple sentences, and hit “publish.”
  8. Record a video at YouTube. Use the feature that lets you record directly to YouTube so you don’t have to upload or edit anything. Talk for five minutes about a very focused topic. The other five minutes, you’re copying and pasting the embed code and writing a headline and a couple of introductory sentences. This one combines well with some of the other post ideas in this list.
  9. Embed a video from a video site such as YouTube or Viddler about your blog’s niche topic. Five minutes to find, watch, and embed the video. Five minutes to write a brief bit of commentary on the video (no need to watch every second of the video).
  10. Write something nice about the coolest new person you’ve met, recently. Link to their blog and “talk them up.” It’s good for you, good for the other person, and good for both your audiences.

If you guys can come up with even more ways to write killer posts in ten minutes or less, I’ll do another one of these that will be made up of your ideas with links back to you.

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  • http://www.ohmanresearch.com Steen Seo Öhman

    Very nice tips in the comments too…

    I mainly use cool or informative videos when i’m in need for a easy post to my blog.

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  • http://bigrobby.com Big Robby

    Dudes, great stuff. I’m always looking for ways to fill the gaps when I’m occupado on a day I should be posting. Thanks! @bigrobby

  • http://www.goodtrueandbeautiful.com Sharon

    Wonderful ideas. As always, thanks. Now I just have to find ten minutes!! No seriously, every time I read your blog I get new and better ideas. Really enjoy your advice.

    Thanks!

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  • http://www.saintelk.wordpress.com Mike Stelck

    Thanks for the great ideas! Now I will not be stuck for an article idea for at least the next 3 months.

  • http://www.petlane.com Tara Nemeth

    Thank you so much for the wonderful tips – I especially appreciate the one about commenting on and linking to an article worth reading. I have been wondering how to recommend other articles without violating copyright rules.

  • http://www.brainstorming-that-works.com Hazel

    Two more sources of ideas: brainstorming-that-works.com and the book Power Brainstorming.

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  • http://www.LifeChangeStartsNow.com/ Catherine

    WOW. Just reading your post which I found thru blogcreationworkshop got me cranked up. What an absolutely fab ideas and so do-able too, well except for the Youtube part… which seems a bit intimidating.

    It takes me way too long even with a draft and as am writing other ideas come or I decide to expand on a point and then it all gets away from me. But am a newbie so maybe that’s why. I don’t have system that works for me yet so I’m willing to try your excellent suggestions especially when am short on time or unfleshed out ideas.

    I comment/ramble on newspaper article(s) and blog posts that interest me and only started linking to posts in the past two weeks (after I found out how to do it by chance!). Then I churn them out or drip feed according to how current the subject is.

    But how do you get readers to comment though? I’ve been blogging for 3 months now, my readers fluctuate and I don’t have any idea how to encourage them to comment or ask a question. I personally need the interaction to know how am doing and what they would like to read, know, share, etc.

    I understand from more experienced bloggers that that’s the hardest thing to come by. I’ll keep on blogging in the meantime though. I love it!

    Again, thanks ever so much for your suggestions!

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  • http://www.greenandchic.com/blog Carla

    I love your ideas! I was feeling some writers blog but now I have a handful of new posts for my business blog. :)

  • http://www.crearedesign.co.uk Jenny Pilley

    I think the interaction between readers is a vital tool that we all need to be thinking of more.
    People like to be included within blogs and also to contribute to a post. It also gives you inspiration for another post. This is really great stuff thank you!

  • http://dentalservice4less.com/cost_of_adult_braces.shtml Adult Braces Gal Katty

    Along the lines of #3, I wish there was a way to not just ask them a question but to ask them to fill a whole survey. Are there blogger or wordpress plugins to do survey within a blog? As you can tell I am a beginner. Please respond, I’m subscribing.

    Katty

    • http://remarkablogger.com Michael Martine

      Katty there are indeed WordPress plugins for this. Since you are a beginner, let me teach you something simple and valuable. Whenever you need to know if something is “out there” on the web, just do a search for it on Google. Try searching for “survey plugin,” and see what comes up. :) A Google search should always be your first step when you have a question. That’s one of the most helpful habits I’ve developed.

      Best of luck with your blog, and thank you so much for subscribing!

      • http://dentalservice4less.com/cost_of_adult_braces.shtml Adult Braces Gal Katty

        Thank you! I found a survey online and it is on my blog already! Of course, there must be other, better surveys.. the quest continues! Thanks again for your help!

        Katty

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  • http://inconsequentiallogic.blogspot.com Roschelle

    I post a great deal of information regarding successful blogging tips, improving your writing, fresh blog post ideas, etc. This is the first time I’ve seen a list this common sense. #1 is one of the simplest yet ingenious ideas I’ve seen yet. glad I stumbled on this site today. thanks again Remarkablogger!

  • Geektechlive

    love your article. I am going to use some of your info for my weekly podcast site at http://geektechlive.com … soon to be using headway!

    • remarkablogger

      Awesome, thanks! When your Headway-powered site goes live, be sure to tweet
      about it with the hashtag #headwaywp so we can promote it for you and send
      some traffic your way. :-)

  • http://www.fastregistryfixes.com/ Registry Cleaner Reviews

    Interesting post – I'm a big fan and have my own blogs. I think I'll give this a try.

  • http://www.strangenature.com/ Rob

    You make some interesting points. I am lucky as my niche can be as easy as a 'cut and paste' for a quick post. Cheers.

  • tenov

    Your open my eyes. Thanks for your tactics. I never heard these ideas until I came to your site.

  • http://www.mohamedadamjr.com/ MohamedAdamJr

    Looks like some very interesting ideas, I like it.

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  • bornfamous

    I am SO bookmarking this page, thanks! Lots of good ideas in the comments too. Here's mine: a related quote or word of the day. I did both almost ten years ago and now have regular, evergreen traffic to some of those old pages, even though I nearly let my poor blog die for lack of attention. I'm reviving it, though, and really need these ideas!

    • remarkablogger

      Love the quote idea, that's great! Good luck with reviving your blog.

  • Marc

    Hi. I'd like to suggest a blog post topic for you. It has to do with where a blogger draws the line about posting someones comment. This is a complicated and highly personal topic since no two bloggers have identical personalities and have different tolerances for all the ways that commenters can be rude. It seems there's a large spectrum in how bloggers deal with commenters. Some don't want to bother themselves at all with this and keep the comments turn off. Others seem to cherry pick their comments and some are very sensitive to the slightest hint of disagreement or debate. And there are some like Jim Edwards who will publish even the rudest comments (but will defend himself). I personally don't have skin as thick as Jim Edwards and am somewhere in the middle. I do feel that my blog isn't Youtube (I'm always amazed at the frequency of quarrelsome comments over there) so I have my own limits. There are also a number of ethical issues such as whether to publish a criticism regarding a product one promotes that also provides the money to feed ones family.

    When I decide not to publish a comment, I often wonder how the person will take the rejection. Anyway, this is a topic that interests me but I'm not holding you to making a post about this. If you do, it'll be a pleasant surprise. If not, I won't even be aware of it as I've too much to do to gives this anymore thought.

    • remarkablogger

      Not a bad idea at all, Marc. I think I'll make that this week's open
      discussion topic.

  • Marc

    Hi. I'd like to suggest a blog post topic for you. It has to do with where a blogger draws the line about posting someones comment. This is a complicated and highly personal topic since no two bloggers have identical personalities and have different tolerances for all the ways that commenters can be rude. It seems there's a large spectrum in how bloggers deal with commenters. Some don't want to bother themselves at all with this and keep the comments turn off. Others seem to cherry pick their comments and some are very sensitive to the slightest hint of disagreement or debate. And there are some like Jim Edwards who will publish even the rudest comments (but will defend himself). I personally don't have skin as thick as Jim Edwards and am somewhere in the middle. I do feel that my blog isn't Youtube (I'm always amazed at the frequency of quarrelsome comments over there) so I have my own limits. There are also a number of ethical issues such as whether to publish a criticism regarding a product one promotes that also provides the money to feed ones family.

    When I decide not to publish a comment, I often wonder how the person will take the rejection. Anyway, this is a topic that interests me but I'm not holding you to making a post about this. If you do, it'll be a pleasant surprise. If not, I won't even be aware of it as I've too much to do to gives this anymore thought.

  • remarkablogger

    Not a bad idea at all, Marc. I think I'll make that this week's open
    discussion topic.

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