Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

The 10 Minute Blog Post

April 2, 2009 | Blogging, Feature

Remember all those essays we had to write back in school? I don’t know about you, but my English teacher back in grade school used to teach us (and force us to write) something called the five-part essay.

Little did I know that I would re-encounter it so many years later as a professional blogger.

You may remember the five-part essay yourself. Essentially, it was a short essay consisting of five paragraphs:

  1. Introduction
  2. Body Paragraph #1
  3. Body Paragraph #2
  4. Body Paragraph #3
  5. Conclusion

So, the idea is that you start your main idea in the first paragraph. Then, in the following three body paragraphs, you elaborate and/or explain your point. In the conclusion, you would restate your point. That’s it.

I remember writing these things all the time back in school. Often, the whole essay would fit on one or two pieces of paper.

Sounds kind of like a blog post, huh?

Ironically, I have also come across this concept as a time management tool for writing blog posts twice in the last week. One of those times was from Ross Goldberg in a talk in Las Vegas at the Rockstar Platinum event. Ross’s only addition was to add a Resource link at the end of the article.

So, want to be able to write a quick post in about 10 minutes? Do this:

  1. State your main point in a sentence or two.
  2. Outline three main points that support your primary idea.
  3. Elaborate on those 3 points with a few more sentences each.
  4. Wrap it up by restating your point. You might even ask the audience’s position on it (since you do want comments on your blog).
  5. Tack any relevant resource link to the end of the article. (tip: perhaps an affiliate product which earns you a commission?)

Bam! A quick blog post. I guess I did learn something useful in English class after all.

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  • I can spend hours tangled in a web of words, so for me an outline is a necessary time management tool. I've gone the free writing route, but it pretty much leads me down a path of tangents until I realize the point I was trying to make has basically spun out of control.

    Even with an outline though, I can't say it only takes me 10 minutes to write a post. If I throw research into the mix, I'd say about an hour.
  • aan
    Hi,Dave..!
    First of all, i'm newbie about this stuff, one thing for sure i will find more consumers to visit my blog with blog post which you taught me...thanks
  • Hi David,
    Good post! I never consciously observe all this. But I write, hopefully it goes well, I suppose. But I'd follow the pattern you mentioned here.
    Thanks
    Solomon
  • Wow, brings back memories of school... :)
  • Equally strong method but I think it's important to differentiate between merely repeating yourself which can sound sale-sy, and staying focused on topic. Most people are bad writers, so this can be bad advice for a lot of people.
  • Better way to say it:

    1: tell them what your going to tell them (intro)
    2: tell them (P 1,2,3)
    3: tell them what you told them (conclusion)
  • Great advice, as usual, David.

    I tend to be too wordy so now my goal is to make each blog post no longer than the picture I use to illustrate it.

    It's amazing how much stuff I write ends up being superfluous.

    I even deleted 50% of this comment before I hit "Submit!.
  • Mario -- totally. I was the haunter once. 4 paragraphs are nice too, concise is mandatory! Listen -- it can be a great starting out point, a tool to help structure information and lead you, the writer, into your next point. But ultimately, you can abandon the structure if you know what to write and where you are going.
  • That structure haunts me from old AP English classes. Works well for creating a basic outline and allowing freelance writing around certain topics. I also like to use the 4 paragraph style. Intro, Two solid paragraphs with your argument, and conclusion. My teachers used to stress 2 things "concise but strong".

    Its hard to walk that thin line with readers and attention span.....
  • this should either prove to be very helpful or another thing to undo me! in all seriousness, a great reminder of how easy it should be. and that's coming from someone who hated writing essays!
  • You make it sound so easy. Between these structure tips and the "Don't worry be crappy" post I should be able to write a good blog post pretty soon. lol Your posts are very useful to me (a new blogger) and I have learned a ton. I have tried to setup most of plugins that you have discussed as well and they seem to be working well. Now time to brainstorm my blog post ideas list, keep structure in mind and actually write...
  • I used to teach city college English, essay writing and rhetoric, specifically, and for me, structure was everything. If I couldn't convince my students that it was the structure that would allow the creative freedom to think, then I failed. Totally valid entry David.
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