I am not a natural writer. I did okay in English class, and I passed, but I haven't written much of anything since my school days. Not a lot of reason to...

Until now. 

I'm in business, a business that requires content. Emails, blog posts, sales pages, articles and more. So I had a decision to make. Did I create all of the content myself, or would it be better to pay someone else to do it for me? One way would be free but then I would have to do a lot of writing. Pay someone, and hope that I had the money to do it, and rely on others to get my message across.

For me the answer was simple. I would have to learn to do it myself. What follows are the steps and ways I used to be able to create the content my business needs. And the bonus is that I control what is presented and I can highlight my products and services in a way that I feel good about.

The first big hurdle was that I was awful at typing. I could do a decent job using my 2 finger method. I would use the index finger of each hand and go as fast as I could to get the job done. There are drawbacks to this method. The big problem is that to use my method, I would have to look at the keyboard as I was typing, and then steal a glance at the monitor to see if I made any mistakes. And it was painfully slow.

The solution came from my sister in the form of typing software called "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing". I installed it and got started learning how to type the "correct" way. I'll admit that it was slow going at first. As I completed each exercise, I would see my words per minute. It was sad. At first I was getting less than 20.

But I kept at it and soon was typing at between 30 and 40 words per minute. Not great,  but a lot better than my old 2 finger method. And now I could look at the monitor as I was typing instead of wasting time looking at my hands.

Next I had to actually start writing the content that I wanted for my site, blog posts, and emails. First up was coming up with ideas. Then there is the research. Figuring that out is a pain, but I'm not going to cover that here. 

Then I had to start writing. The only problem was that I hated to write. Every time I sat in front of the screen and started typing, I would stop, delete what I had written, and started over. I wanted to write good stuff, and I was disappointed, very much so, with what I was writing. 

A blog post was taking too long, and most days I would get frustrated and leave it for the next day. Over time, I wasn't getting much done.

Then I came across some really good advice. Common sense really. The advice was to write fast and write a lot. Get everything written and saved. 

Next was to let it sit for a day or more, and then open it up and read it over, and then make any changes and fix any mistakes. 

The real point is that the only way to get good at creating content is to create content. A lot of content. 

Sure, maybe a lot of it will be awful. Maybe you'll be embarrassed that you actually spent time writing at all. But if you write fast and write a lot, you will get better and faster. 

A wise man once said (Thanks, Brian Tracy):

"Everything is hard before it is easy".

I think about the old standby example of riding a bike or walking. Once you learn how to do it, you can walk or ride with ease. Same thing with anything you have learned. Reading, writing, skills required for your job, learning to read music and play an instrument.

At first it is hard, but once you learn, it's yours forever. Same thing with writing content. Put in the time, do it every day, and before you know it, you will get good at creating your own content too.

* Here's a bonus tip *

I like to use Dragon Naturally Speaking to create content. There are other free alternatives out there, and they are getting better all of the time. Once you learn how to use it, you'll be amazed at how much you can get done. It can be a real time saver, because unless you're  really fast at typing, you can speak faster than you can type. It makes it harder to keep the flow of ideas flowing. Speak what you want to cover and you may find that you get better results and get them a lot faster.