6 Best Ways Bloggers Can Save Time with Templates

By: | August 11, 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , |

Time-saving blogging tipsIf you had a choice between more time or more blog traffic which would you pick?

The question presumes you are a content creator, of course.

Bloggers want traffic.  It’s a fact plain and simple.  Do they want time even more?

Suppose you could have both.

You can have both, by expediting your blogging tasks.

This post will explain how to save time on each part of your blog post using free, pre-designed templates.

A recent post explained how to promote your blog and increase followers through networking.

Consider this response I received from a reader:

I read so many articles which promise ways to increase traffic. Yours is the first one that has given me tools which I really feel I could implement. Now if I can just find more time in the day.

This post is designed to help you blog quicker.  Think of what you could do with more time.

Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”  The giants in the blogging industry are the people who have blogged before you.

Don’t reinvent the wheel, to coin a phrase.

If those people who blogged before you found ways to cut corners by designing templates, use them.  In doing so, you will take a great deal of time out of blogging.

1. Post idea

Are you blogging without an editorial calendar? Do you have an editorial calendar that you don’t stick to?

If the answer to either of these questions is “yes,” then the odds are you take longer than you need devising your blog post idea. Portent is for you.  It’s free and so quick, no sign in is even necessary.

Portent blog idea generator

Portent is an idea generator.

You just plug in your snippets of thought to the template on the screen, and it generates a headline for you.

I then take Portent’s headline idea and plug it into Co-Schedule’s Headline Analyzer.  If the analysis results in a score I’d like to try to improve, I simply tweak Portent’s headline idea.

For example, for today’s post I plugged in my original idea, Time-saving tips with templates.

Portent devised Shocking Ways to Utilize Time-Saving Tips With Templates.

I didn’t think this post wasn’t going to shock anybody, so I tried again.  This time Portent produced The Best Ways to Utilize Time-Saving Tips with Templates.

I took it to Co-Schedule’s Headline Analyzer which gave the headline a score of 75 which for Co-Schedule is very high.  However, I realized if I wanted my headline optimized for SEO, I would need the word “blogging” in it.

I plugged in today’s headline 6 Best Ways Bloggers Can Save Time With Templates.  My score dropped, but only by one point, so I kept it.

Before I started using Portent, I would spend a minimum of 20 minutes thinking of a headline and plugging it into Co-Schedule, so would many bloggers I know.  Not any more.

2. Headline Templates

Many free headline templates are available for your use.

  • Jon Morrow’s Headline Hacks has 52 templates for all sorts of blog posts that seems to have set the bar for other template makers. Click the link to download a PDF of his 52 headline templates.  Morrow gave out 52 for a reason.  If you only use one a week, your traffic will still increase.

I wanted to use one each time I blogged, so I needed more ideas.

  • Pauline Cabrera from TwelveSkip.com offers 100 templates for headline writing.  Just insert the words that relate to your topic, and you’re done with the headline.  Here’s the PDF to her 100 templates.

While I was searching the Internet to get the link, I saw many headline templates available online, but none with a list greater than 100.

3. The Introduction 

Okay, I don’t have templates for you, but I have lists which still eliminate thinking time.  A successful introduction might

  • discuss the reader’s goals
  • empathize with the reader’s inability to reach those goals
  • assure them by following your tips, they can be successful
  • establish credibility
  • start with a question
  • start with a statement
  • start with a fact containing a number

By taking this “pick and choose” approach, you are using ideas proven true by blogging influencers’ research, and your thinking time is far less.

4. Article Templates

This post could serve as a template for a blog post which contains five parts.

  • The headline
  • The body
  • The conclusion
  • The call to action
  • The graphic

5. Call to Action Templates

Your call to action tells your reader to do something that will help them.  You can put it at the beginning, the end, or both.  I prefer to end with my call to action.

Once your readers have read why you feel they should take a certain action, end your post by telling them to go take it, go do it, or go sign up for it, now.  Try and inject a sense of urgency.

Although I don’t have a template for you, there are certain characteristics which will eliminate thought, and therefore time, on your part.

  • Start with a verb.  In my examples, go, take, do, and sign up are all verbs.
  • Begin at the end.  What do you want your reader to do?  I want my reader to start using templates.  Once I knew that, I began my post.
  • Your call to action should contain powerful words that will compel your reader to want to take action.  Co-Schedule offers a free download of more than 180 power words that will help with this.  These are also great to use in your headline.

Co-Schedule offers an example of a template that shows how to start with a verb, Don’t miss out, the final _________ ends tonight.  Do, at the beginning, is a verb.

Also notice this call to action is simple and conveys urgency.

6. Picture Templates

Each time I make a pinnable graphic for my post, I use Canva.  Canva allows you to choose pre-designed headline templates and graphic templates.  For this post, I chose Canva’s predesigned social media template.

They even have a blog post graphic template.  Using pre-designed templates saves you the time it would take to design your headline or graphic.

In conclusion, in this post I quoted Isaac Newton’s reference to the giants that came before him.  I’d like to give credits to the “giants” that came before me and enabled me to write this post:

Jon Morrow

Pauline Cabrera

Garrett Moon

Neil Patel

Readers, bloggers’ time is scarce.  If you know bloggers like I do trying to live on four or five hours sleep to try to find time to fit all their blogging duties in, please share this post.

Which time-saving tips sound the best?  Which do you think you might implement?  Which do you already use?

I look forward to your views.

Related Posts:

How to Write a Killer Blog Post

How to Build the Perfect Blog Even if You Don’t Know How

The Shocking Truth About Time

17 Time-Saving Tips for People Who are Rushed

Sources:

ososimpletechnologies.com

coschedule.com

quicksprout.com

  1. Melinda

    You live on 5 hours sleep?? You poor girl!! I need more like 10- 12 if I’m honest. I need to learn about search engines, and stuff. But I really feel like some that stuff doesn’t apply to me. Maybe I’m wrong.
    I sure hope we can get you fixed up soon, with the emails.
    Melinda

  2. Melinda

    And ironically, I’m getting yours twice now. I also get Smorgasbord’ s twice. Weird.
    Melinda

  3. Janice Wald

    Hi Melinda,
    I didn’t say I lived on four or five hours sleep, I said I know bloggers that do. Hopefully, people will find value in the time-saving tips. As far as the Emails, I will subscribe again.
    Janice

  4. Sandeep Kumar

    I really like the way it is written in this post and also I am agree that by following such small tips Bloggers can save their time.

    Thanks Janice For sharing with us.

    • Janice Wald

      Thank you Sandeep for reading what I wrote and sharing your thoughts with me. I am glad you called the tips “small”. You are right. These are small changes bloggers can make which could result in saving a great deal of time.
      Janice

  5. Maria Matthews

    A very exact and detailed piece of writing. Thank you for finding me and I will follow some of the guidelines and see if it helps to extend my audience as I have a childrens book about to be published.

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Maria,
      I am glad you enjoyed the article. As far as your book, Good luck with that! (Break a leg?) Did you ever find another illustrator?
      Janice

      • Maria Matthews

        No, not yet but I don’t give up easy. The book to be published is an early reader: The Runaway Schoolhouse. THank you for your advice and help.

    • Janice Wald

      Hi,
      I thought about your comment. I wanted you to know I am glad I found you too. I am grateful for our connection.
      Janice

  6. Eric Klingenberg

    As always this is a great article with lots of tips. The problem with reading your blog it leaves me with a slight feeling of panic and an every growing list of things I need to do to improve my blog. I worry I’ll spend all my time on it and not finishing my book!

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Eric,
      I guess that’s the beauty of the Internet. The articles are there to read at your convenience. Thank you for the praise and for writing me today. I’ve met such nice people since guest posting for Chris, you among them.
      Janice

  7. Edwina

    As usual Janice yo have come up trumps with your blogging tips and ideas. I have to keep saving your posts so I can go back and go through them again, to try out your ideas. Thanks so much for always coming up with ideas that work! 🙂

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Judy!
      Thank you so much! That really means a lot! I’m sure as a blogger you know how great it is when people express thanks, so THANK YOU!
      Janice

  8. Jennifer Waddle

    Excellent post, Janice! Thank you. I needed the reminder to create strong headlines. And I love the link to Portent. Neat tool!
    ~Jennifer

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Jennifer,
      Thank you for reading what i wrote and writing me today. As bloggers, we can see the clicks out of our site. Portent received 17 clicks since my article published less 24 hours ago. Clearly, there is strong interest. I have fun clicking “refresh” and seeing the combinations of headlines it comes up with for my post. Thanks for writing. I’m glad it was helpful.
      Janice

  9. Susan Langer

    This was a very useful post. I have been using AppSumo for headlines, but I tried Portent and Co-Scheduler just now for a headline for my next blog and it was fast and easy to use. I think that I am going to switch. Thanks for the tips.:)

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Susan,
      I was going to ask if you prefer AppSumo. Perhaps I’d check it out and even write a blog post about it, but it sounds like you prefer Portent and Co Schedule.
      I’m glad you found the tips useful. Thanks for writing.
      Janice

  10. Elena Peters

    Great tips! I haven’t used the headline things but so will now. A friend of mine that designs pics for people designed my feature image. Great for consistency and branding. She gave me the template and I can’t tell u how much time this has saved me! No more fiddling with pics for hours. I strongly urge everyone to at least do that. Huge time saver!

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Elena,
      Thank you for writing and sharing the idea. It sounds like it has saved you a great deal of time.
      Janice

  11. Anonymous

    I notice you have comment luv now. Did you switch to a self-hosted site? If so, did you find it difficult to make the switch? I’m thinking of doing the same thing. There’s so many more advantages to self-hosted sites, like plug-ins. Also, did you lose all your formatting when you switched?

      • Janice Wald

        Thank you so much for the praise. I respect you so much, it means a lot.
        You stated something in your other comment I wanted to address: you said there are more advantages like plug ins when you self host.
        The StumbleUpon button is here (under More), I installed Shareaholic, and there is an SEO coach that ensures your posts are optimized!
        Janice

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Sue,
      Thank you so much for writing me. Great to hear from you. I actually referenced you in a recent post and sent it to you on Twitter.
      In answer to you questions.
      Yes, I am on a self-hosted site now. Is Comment Luv only available on self-hosted? I didn’t know. I am not tech savvy, so I am still struggling to iron out the kinks. However I would say it is not difficult. My host company A Small Orange is available for free 24/7 if I need help, so I rely on them when I need to.
      Formatting? To my knowledge I didn’t lose formatting, but I didn’t set up my site. A woman set it up for me.
      I noticed you had a few more questions on the post where I shared the pros and cons of self-hosting, so I will answer them there.
      Janice

  12. Anita Irlen

    Thanks! I’m going to follow-up on several of your suggestions. You were being sarcastic when you said “to coin a phrase?” Thanks

    Anita

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Anita,
      Thank you for reading what I wrote. I appreciate you liking my article.
      Let me explain what I meant and then ask your opinion. As a teacher and a writer cognizant of the difference in cultural idioms (I even wrote a post about it, and readers weighed in on whether they thought writers should use idioms when they write. Here is the link if you are interested: http://wp.me/p6x6vQ-YO).
      I prefer not to use idioms since I am fortunate to have readers all over the world. My post was about not needing to reinvent the wheel. I have no way of knowing if readers in other countries know what that expression means. My personality, my voice, keeps defaulting to the use of idioms despite my best efforts otherwise. For that reason, I followed the idiom with “to coin a phrase” so readers would know that was an expression I was using in case they hadn’t heard of it. I just realized “to coin a phrase” is an idiom too! What is your opinion? Do you think writers should use them? Avoid them? Or, like I did, use them and explain that they are expressions? Thanks for bringing this up.
      Janice

  13. Jennifer

    This is super helpful! I would never have thought about using a template. I’m going to look into these tips right now & put some to use. Thanks for sharing!

  14. Janice Wald

    Hi Jennifer,
    Thank you so much. I’m glad everyone is enjoying the tips. Despite the template use, I still feel like I am being creative. I still choose, and modify the template for example.
    Thanks for writing and your compliments on my post.
    Janice

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  16. Debbie

    Try as I might (which may be somewhat of an exaggeration) I can’t seem to stick with an editorial calendar. Thanks for some tools that can help. #Sitssharefest

  17. Tiffany

    I love these tips! I developed tips of my own, it’s great to have a template to follow, it saves time.

  18. Joann

    Pinning this! So many great details in this article that I need to be sure to reference for my blog posts the rest of this month until I build a habit. I know I need help with my headlines and I never heard of the headline tools you shared so I’m excited to give them a test drive.

  19. Kristy as Giftie Etcetera

    This inspired me to make a template. My blog is so much easier and quicker to post now. And it looks much more consistent day-to-day.

  20. Lisa

    Great tip about Portent – I will have to check it out! Thanks for posting!

  21. Deb McKnight

    Thanks for sharing! I’ve bookmarked this page for future reference!

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Deb,
      I am so glad you found my article helpful. I just came from your site. You have a large community (2,000+.) I’m glad my time-saving tips could be of use. Janice

  22. Tanya

    I need help with my headlines for sure! I’ve recently used Canva after being a long term picmonkey user, I’m still getting the hang of it and settling in to what I want my picture template to be. I keep changing my blog design and I want it to match my picture template, but I suppose it doesn’t have to. Thanks for sharing with Small Victories Sunday Linkup. pinned to our linkup board and featuring your post this weekend!

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  24. Mar C

    Thank you for providing some great blogging advice. Being relatively new to the blogging world I am always searching for GOOD information. I now have a new source!
    Mar

  25. Wendy

    Janice, you have such great information! This is another article I am pinning with a note to “DO THIS!” Like one of your other readers stated, reading your blog just makes my to do list grow! 🙂 That’s a good thing! #MomsSmallVictories

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Wendy,
      Pinning? I’m glad you liked my clock and my article. Thanks for pinning and writing to tell me. Thanks to Comment Luv, I get to see your headline. “The Pinterest Game” sounds interesting. I, too, write about Pinterest.
      Janice

      • Wendy

        Janice, The Pinterest Game is an easy link party designed to get your pins more visibility on Pinterest (and ultimatley, more traffic to your blog!). The game belongs to Kathleen at 60-thenew40.com and I am one of her co-hosts. We would love to have you play each week! Winners are random, and playing is quick and easy, even when you are super short on time; you are not required to read a certain number of other posts, simply repin the winners (though I usually end up reading,anyway ?).

        • Janice Wald

          Hi Wendy,
          Sounds intriguing. However, I feel confused. Do I link a blog post, my blog, or a link to a Pinterest pin? Then, I repin the winners after you announce them? Thanks for trying to clarify. I’m sorry for my confusion.
          Janice

          • Wendy

            Hi, Janice, I am so sorry for the confusion. You link your Pinterest pin (not your blog or blog post) to the game. You then repin the previous week’s winners; you can do that straight from the current linkup. It is not required that you read the posts (though of course you may!) because the purpose of this game is to increase the winner’s visibility on Pinterest, which will ultimately (hopefully!) bring more blog traffic.

            The winner is chosen at random by inLinkz. If you enter a pin and it is randomly chosen, the following week everyone will repin your pin.

            I hope this makes sense, and I hope to see you there!

          • Janice Wald

            What day is the linkup?

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  29. Bella D. @ Self-Publishing Made Easy Now

    This is really amazing. Thank you for sharing these wonderful time-saving tips that are very helpful for bloggers. I will definitely try out the templates.

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