I received these two related questions when I asked my readers what you want to know about article marketing:
- When you don't really have time to blog or write an article, what is the most time-efficient way to complete the task?
- How do I make the time to put article marketing at the forefront of my To Do list?
My short answer is that you don't find article-writing time, you create it! And once you create it, you protect it!
Decide
The first step to finding time for any new thing has to be a decision that the new thing is a priority. In this case, you've decided that it's important to grow your business, and you've read enough about article marketing fundamentals to believe in the power of article marketing to grow your business. Hooray!
Since growing your business is important, article marketing is important, too.
Create
So now you'll want to devote special time in your schedule to getting your articles done. I suggest you block separate times for brainstorming, drafting, writing, editing and publishing. Batch the tasks to get the most momentum (I wrote about batching in a previous post).
I'll be posting more suggestions about some of those specific tasks in separate blog posts, beginning with brainstorming. For now, just keep in mind that some tasks have more than one part, and you'll complete them in more than one sitting.
I'll take anywhere from two days to one week to bring an article from idea to publication, depending on the amount of research and/or collaboration I have to do.
Protect
Here's a self-care article I wrote back in 2006, with some relevant messages about saying no to anything that is threatening your article writing time.
And here is a timely message from my colleague Kim Nishida, about how what's important is also the most urgent.
Remember, article writing is in service of your article marketing, and your article marketing is in service of growing your business. Decide, create, protect!