If 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. Â 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. Â 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 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. Â 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 IntroductionÂ
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. Â You can put it at the beginning, the end, or both. Â 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. Â What do you want your reader to do? Â I want my reader to start using templates. Â 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. Â Co-Schedule offers a free download of more than 180 power words that will help with this. Â 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. Â 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:
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? Â Which do you think you might implement? Â 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
17 Time-Saving Tips for People Who are Rushed
Sources:
ososimpletechnologies.com
coschedule.com
quicksprout.com
