The Mission, Should You Choose To Accept: One Hour Blog Post

Can You Write a Decent Blog in One Hour?

Let’s Find Out…

As marketers, we tell our clients that blogging not only helps them, but that it’s one of the keys to success. We give you tips, tricks, topics, and everything you need to keep your blog running and successful. We even write blog posts on your behalf. We understand that time, projects, and other work gets in the way of blogging, especially if you don’t like writing to begin with. As a writer, I typically don’t have a problem writing content of any kind for our clients. However, sit me down and tell me to write about what I do and I freeze… “It’s a complex process,” I may say. Or “It’s hard to put into words. It’s just something you need to try to get the hang of.” And I believe that; to an extent. See, the reason why writing seems to be easier for writers is that sometimes, we don’t always know how we write what we write. We just do. Which is why it’s hard when a client comes to you and says “How do I write a blog? And not only that, how do I write a blog quickly, so that it doesn’t take up too much time?”

Let’s Test This Theory

A while back, HubSpot held a challenge for people to attempt to write and publish a blog post in one hour. Yes, that is almost as terrifying as it sounds. A whole host of things could happen. You could run out of time and publish a blog mid-sentence, you could miss some major and embarrassing spelling errors, or you could even - GASP- get it done, and get it done right. While I missed the original opportunity, I decided to host my own little One Hour Blog Challenge! The original challenge rules were:

Instead of writing a blog and publishing it right away, the new and improved rules are to take one hour of my day and write a blog post using the Blog Topic Generator, and then publish it inside this blog post. It’s like Edgar Allen Poe said: “All that we see or seem is but a blog within a blog,” or something like that. Let’s get started.

The One Hour Blog Process

Before my one hour started, I used the Blog Topic Generator to pick my topic. While this is a good tool for anyone stuck and looking to find a topic that works, it’s not your only option. Choosing a topic is the hardest part about writing a blog. Pick something you’re knowledgeable on, something that won’t feel like a chore when you’re writing about it. Once you have a topic and a working title, the rest shouldn’t be too bad. Now, my first attempt at using the generator didn’t go over too well. And that’s mostly because my interests didn’t quite fit into the confinements of the topic generator, as you can see.

So instead, I took another approach, integrating one “fun” interest of mine - books- and two work related topics that on any other day could make a great blog post - twitter and content. That left me with these options.

I chose the first option, 14 Common Misconceptions About Books. Since I am a book junkie, and I want to save some of those other topics for later blog posts, I figured this would be a great choice.

Writing With a Time Restriction

As a copywriter, I’m used to writing under the pressure of deadlines, but this felt different. It felt good giving myself a time limit to write, knowing I couldn’t go beyond it and drag the process out. Now, non-writers may need some practice with this. It’s not always easy writing under pressure and coming up with something that you like. With that being said, please feel free to jump over to the next blog and check out my one hour blog post.

After Thoughts

While I wrote my one-hour blog, I had a plan in my head about how I wanted to spend my hour. My plan was to begin with an introduction, choose my main points, fill in the details (researching along the way), finalize the introduction and conclusion, and then go back to format and add links and images. As you can see, I chose to shorten the number of misconceptions. Once I started writing them out, I realized that 14 was too many, but 10 was perfect for both my time limit and how many things I could actually manage to think of. As expected, some parts took a bit longer than the others, and sadly I did not have time at the end to include a picture. 

All in all, I thought that this was a great learning experience to see what my own limitations are as a writer and to get a better understand of my own writing process. Now, do I think this is the best blog post I’ve ever written? No. But, I like it. With practice, a great topic, and a clear mind, you can easily write a decent blog post within an hour. Or at least greatly cut down on the time it normally takes you. Now, I have a challenge for you. Write a One Hour Blog, post it, send us the link, and detail your experiences so we can compare! I would love to see how this works for other people, both writers and non-writers. And who knows, maybe next I’ll challenge the rest of the ProspectMX team to see how they do.

Want to see how I did with this challenge? Check out my one hour blog post.

By Rachel Delaney, Chief Copy Writer

Rachel is ProspectMX’s writer, editor, and grammar nerd. Rachel comes to us from Millersville University with a BA in English and Print Media. She brings a creative mind and big ideas to the table. Her passion for reading, writing, and learning brought her into the world of internet marketing where she gets to combine her writing skills with a broad range of topics. Rachel uses her skills and upbeat personality to help our Content Marketing campaigns thrive.