How to Write a Blog Post in 30 Minutes

Guest Post by Andy Walton

Writing content for the web can be enjoyable, satisfying, fun and hopefully profitable but it can also be hard work at times. Every writer experiences those occasions when their output slows to a crawl, and the finish line seems to drift further into the distance. I've been there a few times, so here are my tips on how to beat the block and produce a new, quality post in less than half an hour - and to prove my point, I'll write this in 30 minutes.

Get into a Positive Mindset
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OK, first up is your attitude. If you have a defeatist approach, you'll likely be defeated. Look at the facts - you're only trying to write 500 words, not a novel. It doesn't seem that intimidating now does it?

And remember - in less than 30 minutes you'll have a piece of work that can start earning you money. So be positive, and get thinking.

Pick a Subject
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Next part is perhaps the one you consider the hardest - the topic. It's always easiest to write about what you know, especially if you want to write quickly. Research and fact checking can take time, so you're best sticking to opinions or advice. By the way, I've taken 10 minutes to get to this point.

Sketch out Your Headings
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This is the bit I find the most constructive, as it allows you to see a mental path to the finish. By listing 3 or four headings, you'll be halfway towards a completed post as you can expand on each one for a paragraph or two.

Add the Flesh to the Bones
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Now go back through each section and think about why you wrote that header. What point were you trying to communicate, and can you express it concisely to your reader? After all, they probably want to read as quickly as possible so be brief and succinct.

Check and Correct
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Finally once you have your finished draft, read through it. Assuming your post is around 500 words this should only take the last 5 minutes or so. You're checking for the obvious spelling and grammatical errors (which your spell checker should help with), but also for any problems with the flow of the text.

At this point you also want to try to make the article as user friendly as possible, so you could perhaps add some bold and italic highlights to help your readers to scan. And at that point, you're done! And so am I, 444 words in 28 minutes from start to finish. I thank you.

Author Bio:
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5 Tips For Successful Squidoo Marketing

Squidoo is relatively new but it has already gained a top spot. The internet marketers love it for its social aspect and the freedom which it gives to them. Sometimes the marketers lack the edge and Squidoo can provide you exactly that. You should never ignore this great internet marketing tool.

Squidoo can help you to get more traffic to your site and blog; and getting more traffic means more money to you. There are few steps which will help you to do so more effectively. Here are those steps.

• The very thing that you would need to take care of is the importance of giving something to the viewer. You will not get the visits to your website if you are not giving something valuable to the reader of the lens. Remember that this something can even be quality information. In fact quality information is the best thing that you can give to the reader. The readers will click your link if you have succeeded to make them read till the end with interest. So make sure that you are paying special attention to the quality of the content on the lens because this is going to help you a lot.

• The profile tags are important. You will have to make sure that the tags are proper. The proper tags mean relevant tags. So if the tags are not relevant to your Squidoo, you will be at loss. You can even get your lens deleted. Apart from this potential danger, you will also be loosing many potential customers which are an unbearable loss for the online marketer. Also make sure that the relevant tags have a good search volume. There would be hundreds of relevant tags but you should find the tags which will give you high search volume. This will help you to attract more visitors to your lens.

• The lens is like a webpage and this is how the search engines treat it. So that means the URL of the lens has the same importance as has the webpage. You will have to make sure that the URL is according to the requirements of the search engines for better optimization. What are those requirements? In fact there are no requirements but there are certain things which would help you to get a good rank with the search engines. You should follow them in your lens as well. One of them is to use shorter URLs with the keywords used in the name. This one small act will go a long way and will help you. Also do link building your lens. Get lot of relevant one-way links pointing to you lens and you'll soon see your lens rank in Google and enjoy targeted traffic.

• Make sure that you are pinging. Pinging will help you to get the attention of the people. They will instantly know that you have updated your lens and that there is something new to look for.