This weekend, I asked this question on Facebook.

How long does it take to write a blog post?

I appreciate all the friends who took the time to answer my (unscientific) poll. I had a range of results. You can check them out by visiting the fan page of my new project with Phil Gerbyshak —12 Minute Social Media Playbook.

By far, what I found most interesting about the comments and replies to the question is the shared conclusion that it isn’t necessarily the WRITING that consumes a lot of time. Writing — many friends noted — is the easy part. It’s the editing, adding links, and choosing images that is the most tedious.

Amy wrote “adding pictures, searching for images. It takes way too long.” (Check out Amy’s blog, with carefully chosen images, here.)

However, it is obvious from the range of answers that many bloggers invest a lot of time in crafting their posts. A few people answered with “12 minutes”, but the vast majority of us spend at least 30 minutes writing a post. Several folks said it can take several days to write a blog post.

If you could write blog posts faster, would you write more often? Is writing more often a goal for you?

Have you ever procrastinated about writing a post because of  your perception/belief/understanding that writing a blog post is an activity that takes too long?

What if… you set a timer for 12 minutes to see how much you can write in that amount of time?

Would that act be enough to help you overcome your resistance?

Sometimes, we just need to start. Once we start, we will find that we can accomplish a lot in 12 minutes. We may even be able to write an entire post.

Choosing a photo to go with it… well, that’s another story.

Tell me something! What keeps you from blogging more frequently? Is time a factor in your resistance to writing? Have you tried the 12 minute blog post experiment?

Here is a repeat to my 12 minute blog post challenge. Set a timer and see how much writing  you can finish in 12 minutes. Post links to your 12 minute posts here.

Note: I wrote this entire post in 12 minutes. I read through for edits, took a screen shot and created an image, and added links in about 7 more minutes.