When a contract writing shopper provides me a 3,000-word article, it normally takes me ten days to put in writing it.
I imply, it doesn’t take ten precise days to put in writing the article, however I’d area out my time to perform a little research, do some writing ( just like the introduction), look forward to subject material specialists, or get distracted with life – twins, dinner, chores, sports activities, and so on. And by the point I get time to put in writing the article, ten days or so have handed.
However this yr, I made a decision to alter that.
This yr, I needed to work on my writing course of, streamline processes, and cut back these ten days to lower than three days.
This implies the submit is totally written, edited, and submitted inside 3-4 days.
Is that this attainable with a number of companies, YouTube channels, and purchasers?
I Was Getting a Little Jelly
I see plenty of freelance writing posts on LinkedIn, and from time to time, I see posts of younger writers sharing how briskly they’re writing their content material for purchasers.

I’d see this time and again.
Different occasions, it’s what number of purchasers freelance writers are working with.

Why am I struggling to handle three purchasers at a time?
Why does it take me soo lengthy to put in writing 3,000 phrases for a contract writing shopper?
What provides?
These are the ideas I am going by each single time I write for purchasers.
I wanted this to alter.
Necessities to Write 3,000 Phrases
I made a decision to chop down my writing course of from ten days down to a few days I needed to solely tackle initiatives I do know I may write.
This all boiled all the way down to figuring out the subject.
To jot down quick, I needed to be educated in regards to the matter and really feel snug writing about it.
I didn’t notice it, however all of the posts I write for this weblog you might be studying proper now are hundreds of phrases, and a few of them take me only a few hours to put in writing.
Why? As a result of I do know this topic…and boy, do I do know this topic.
I’ve been writing about freelance writing for a decade, so I higher know the ins and outs of writing on-line.
So, when you just lately landed a shopper and need to write quick, know the topic you’re writing about.
Solely among the purchasers I’ve give me subjects I find out about.
My newest undertaking was about occasion advertising and marketing emails.
The primary time I learn that time period, I acquired a mind fart and was like, “What the heck are these?”
Within the 10+ years of studying on-line content material, I by no means got here throughout that time period.
So, I hyperventilated and ignored the e-mail for a couple of days.
I wanted that point to speak in regards to the matter and examine it.
So, for “new” subjects, it takes me longer than three days to put in writing.
Whereas I wrote the submit in 4 days, the prep for it was about 4 days, too, for a complete of 8 days for that submit.
For my different shopper, they gave me a submit about Pinterest.
I may write about Pinterest with my eyes closed. I ended up writing 3,000 phrases in two days.
Okay –
So is that ALL you have to write quick?
Know the subject?
Properly no.
I’ve written content material I find out about for purchasers for a few years, however the submit nonetheless took me ten or extra days to put in writing.
So, what actually modified?
Let’s take a look at the method I take advantage of to make sure that virtually each shopper article I write takes me round three days.
1. A Content material Temporary
A content material transient is a doc given by the shopper detailing what you’ll write for them.
It should normally have:
- The title
- Who the viewers is
- Meta description
- Key phrase/s
- Competitor hyperlinks
- Define of submit (i.e. subheadings)
Companies SHOULD be giving their writers this doc, however I do know there are a lot of corporations that don’t.
Some don’t have a content material crew or editor whereas others actually don’t have a editorial calendar.
I’ve been lucky sufficient to have my present purchasers give me a content material transient.
Now, for any new prospects that need to rent me, one of many first questions I ask is that if they offer content material briefs to their writers.
Why is that this essential?
As a result of it makes the writing soo a lot simpler.
I don’t must spend hours pitching weblog subjects and I don’t have to take a seat there and create the define making an attempt to guess if they need this submit extremely search engine optimisation’d or extra brandable.
With a content material transient there isn’t a guesswork and which means you’ll have glad purchasers!
2. A Dump Doc
For each content material piece I write for purchasers, I’ve a dump doc.
This can be a doc the place I ‘dump’ stats, pictures, hyperlinks or components of my first draft.
Once I began out I didn’t have this dump doc. It’s solely just lately in the previous few years that I heard about this doc on LinkedIn from different writers.
So, I made a decision to adopted this in my writing course of.
I discover that it saves me a ton of time with analysis. I can determined a time to analysis and use this dump doc to collect all the knowledge I would like.
3. A Swipe File or Two
One other essential doc I take advantage of is my swipe file.
A swipe file is a doc the place you’ll be able to acquire statistics and details about your area of interest or trade.
I’ll embody:
- Present developments
- Particular topical statistics
- Hyperlinks to case research
I’ve two swipe recordsdata – one for SaaS stats and one for common content material stats – and I’ll take a fast look to see if I can use any of the stats in my swipe file.
The Content material Course of for Writing 3,000 Phrases Shortly
So with the necessities wanted, right here is my course of for writing 3,000 phrases rapidly.
1. I Use AI Instruments to Pace Up the Writing
A part of the explanation I took days to put in writing a shopper weblog submit was due to author’s block.
I couldn’t end sure sentences and couldn’t discover the phrases that I needed to make use of.
So, I’d cease writing and sleep on it and do extra analysis till the phrases got here to me.
As you’ll be able to see, you don’t need to have author’s block as a result of it simply slows every part down for you.
That’s why I’m glad that AI writing instruments like ChatGPT will help with author’s block and a lot extra.
In one among my YouTube Lives I present you how I take advantage of ChatGPT for shopper items.
What ChatGPT provides me are concepts to assist me write sooner.
2. I Give Myself Solely 20 Minutes
When a shopper provides me an article transient I give myself solely 20 minutes to learn it and kind out the define on a Google doc.
Until it’s a subject I don’t know, I can normally get a good suggestion of how one can write the article based mostly on the content material transient.
And for me, this normally takes round 20 minutes.
3. I’m Acquainted With the Subjects
Having acquainted subjects is important to writing quick. The concepts come naturally and writing sentences turn into extra fluid. You usually journey your self up as a result of your concepts are coming so quick however you’ll be able to’t sustain with the typing.
That’s what I attempt for with my shopper items. I get excited once I see a subject I find out about like writing about newsletters, or YouTube, or about my maternity go away!
However this does take time – even years – to completely perceive your writing area of interest.
As I discussed, I largely wrote subjects I’m acquainted with for a lot of the years I’ve been a contract author. It was solely within the first yr or first few months that I wrote on subjects I had no thought about like VFX, dentistry, automotive, HR practices and extra.
However, I then picked up a shopper that needed me to put in writing about content material advertising and marketing and since I used to be studying about this matter for my author web site I accepted the gig and wrote about running a blog subjects.
Over time, this data unfold to e mail advertising and marketing and social media advertising and marketing. I additionally dabbled in these subjects by having a couple of newsletters, being on social media and finally creating my very own merchandise.
All of that helped me be taught my area of interest inside and outside in order that I can write about it simply.
4. I Set Longer Writing Instances
A energetic step I took this yr was to set longer writing occasions. I have a tendency to put in writing for under a half hour earlier than I turn into ‘uncomfortable’ and have to face up and take a break.
I’d go downstairs, get a drink, verify my cellphone, do laundry, and so on..every part however write.
However, this yr is totally different. This yr I informed myself that I wanted to put in writing continuous for an hour. It first began at half-hour, then 45 minutes after which an hour.
I finally need it to be three hours uninterrupted time however it will work higher as soon as my twins are at school (it’s summer season as I’m penning this).
This one step actually helped me end my articles a lot sooner. So, as an alternative of breaking apart three hours into twenty minutes right here, thirty minutes there, wait the following day and do one other thirty minutes, now, I do this multi function sitting.
Doing this was positively a game-changer.
5. I Write High-Down
My writing course of is top-down. What this implies is I’ve to start out on the introduction to put in writing my article.
I can’t begin within the center or on the finish.
I do know there are different freelance writers that may do that, however I can’t.
I would like construction so as to write and which means writing the introduction and figuring out the angle and the way I’ll strategy my article.
The End result
As you’ll be able to see, these posts have been printed so rapidly after I wrote them. I like seeing my printed items from all my purchasers on the identical time.
I’m happy with that!

Let me know within the feedback when you discovered this beneficial or when you’re struggling to put in writing sooner!