Just Write the Damn Blog Post

Is perfectionism killing your content strategy?  Have you ever had a great idea for a blog post?  7 Incredibly Easy Tips, or Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Whatever.  I am going to tell you I have a million great ideas for content. But, often when I sit down to write the damn blog post, I don’t know what to say. 

Or, I need more research…

Or, I just don’t have time to write a phenomenal blog post.

Here’s the thing. People are bombarded with tons and tons of content. Your first draft on any post is rarely outstanding. 

It takes time to write an exceptional blog post.  And, to be perfectly honest, unless you have a huge following, not many people read your post when you first publish it anyway.

It takes time for a blog post to get indexed in Google and move up the ranks.  

So here’s what I do. I just write the damn blog post. 

Don’t get me wrong. Some posts I spend a lot of time crafting, but others I just write, read and publish. 

Here’s why You Should Just Write the Damn Blog Post

I try to write a variety of blog posts on Badass Web Goddess. Most of them are search engine optimized so that they’ll rank well in Google, but some of them are written more for reading or sharing on social media. I find bloggers are too preoccupied with SEO and miss out on opportunities to write really unique content.  And, they also spend far too much time perfecting their posts.

Look, every post your write and publish isn’t going to perform well right away. If you have a new website or blog, they may not even be read at all.  Don’t spend hours and hours of time perfecting a post nobody is even reading…. Yet.  Just publish it.  Even if you think it’s the most horrible post you’ve ever written. Keep reading and I will explain more on why you should do this.

1. You need A LOT of content in order for your blog to get a lot of traffic

In order to get a lot of traffic to a website or blog, you need a lot of blog posts. A LOT of them!  More content doesn’t necessarily mean more traffic, but updating your website regularly with fresh content is important for Google and your visitors. In order to create a lot of content fast and consistently, you can’t be a perfectionist.

2. More content provides you with more posts to use for internal linking

You should be using your blog to build internal links. The more content you have on your blog, the more opportunities you have to create internal links. If you get too preoccupied with writing the perfect post, it can slow down your content creation.  

3. It takes time for any post to rank well in Google

It takes links and time for a blog post to really rank well.  When you first publish a post it’s not going to rank well in Google right away. This is why you should just publish the damn blog post even if it’s not perfect. 

4. You can perfect your blog post later!

You’ll have time to perfect your post later when people are actually finding it in Google.   When it starts to rank better, or starts getting traffic to it, that’s when you can set to work on perfecting it and promoting it. 

Use my write it, read it, and publish it strategy

In the meantime, if you have a great topic or a killer headline you want to use, go ahead and write it. I don’t do this with all of my posts, but I use this strategy a lot. It’s why I recommend updating your posts regularly.  It can take quite a bit of time to write a high-quality post. Not all of your posts are deserving of this time.  

But wait, aren’t people going to read this post and think my blog sucks?  Sure, people may read it. But, most people find blog posts in Google or on social media.  Unless you’re a big dog, most people do not go to your blog regularly and read it. They find it in Google or from a social media share. 

So don’t share this content. Don’t promote it.  Wait and see if it gets read. Wait until it’s getting some traffic from Google. Then update it and make it amazing.

And by the way, have you read people’s blogs lately? Most of them suck!  If you are a reasonably decent writer, you should be able to write your post and publish it without freaking out about whether or not it sucks.  It seriously can’t suck than most of the content already out there.

Put the post on the back burner and start building links to it

Write it. Publish it and start building links to it. Then wait. 

When I see a post moving up in Google or getting traffic, I go back to the post and update it.  I might change the title, the headers in the post, or the images. I usually add more research and data to make it more interesting. 

I know how to write engaging blog posts, but I don’t spend all my energy making every post outstanding on my first publish.

Some things to consider when using this strategy

Don’t use this strategy for all your blog posts

If you just push out a lot of content and none of it’s high-quality, this can do more harm than good.  But, if you know that your post has the potential, with a little work and some backlinks, go ahead and publish it.

I have a full-time SEO business so I can’t dedicate all my time blogging. But, I publish posts regularly on Badass Web Goddess. In order for me to produce content consistently, I can’t always spend hours on each post. I use this strategy more than you’d think. 

I am super proud of my posts that rank well in Google. These are the posts I have put work into. You may not realize it from reading them now, but many of them started out as quickie post and publish content.

Plan out your content

Have a plan for any post you publish. Do you have related posts you can use to link to it?  Does it have the potential to spawn interesting related posts?  For this post, I plan to write some additional posts on how perfectionism can kill your SEO strategy and why publishing posts consistently is important. Who knows? Maybe I’ll add more related posts if my visitors enjoy this one.

I think perfectionism is a common issue for bloggers. We don’t like to publish posts until we are 100 percent satisfied with them. Perfectionism can slow down your content strategy.  Writing posts consistently is as important as writing posts that are high-quality.

While I say post it and publish it, I am not saying just write lots of crap and worry about making it great later. I am saying you need to write content regularly for your blog so sometimes you need to just write the damn blog post! You need to have a strategy for the future. Plan out some of your content to promote now and save some of your posts for the future. When they rank well, then spruce them up and promote them.

See that was easy!  I had a lot of fun writing this. If you are not using this strategy on your blog, let me know what you think in the comments.