Welcome, friends! I’m Lori Ballen, and today, I’m pulling back the curtain on my secret workflow—the one that lets me crank out 5 blog posts and 50 Pinterest pins in just 2 hours. It’s all about strategy, automation, and focusing on progress over perfection. I’ll walk you through every step so you can replicate this for your own blog. Let’s get rolling!
Step 1: Picking a Topic That Works
When it comes to blogging, starting with the right topic is everything. I like to use a mix of inspiration, analytics, and a dash of gut instinct to find topics that will resonate with readers and drive traffic.
How I Do It
- Start with Old Posts
- I log into my blog and sort my posts by date. This helps me spot older content that might still be relevant but needs a refresh—or posts that spark new ideas. For example, I stumbled across a post about a vacuum sealer kit and immediately thought: meal prep!
- Turn to Pinterest
- Next, I head over to PinClicks (a Pinterest keyword tool) to dive into trends. For “meal prep,” I found phrases like “easy meal prep,” “keto meal prep,” and “meal prep for the week.” These gave me plenty of ideas to explore.
- Create a Niche Board
- I start with one broad Pinterest board, like Easy Meal Prep, and build from there. Down the road, I can branch into more specific boards (e.g., “Keto Meal Prep”).
Why I Do It This Way
This process helps me stay laser-focused on topics that are not just interesting but also profitable. Using old content and Pinterest trends maximizes my chances of driving traffic to my blog posts.
Step 2: Writing the Blog Posts (Fast!)
Here’s where the magic happens. Writing 5 blog posts in 2 hours? It’s 100% doable when you leverage AI to your advantage.
How I Do It
- Generate Ideas with Harpa
- Once I’ve identified a niche (e.g., meal prep), I use the Harpa Chrome extension to scrape the most popular pins for that topic. Then, I run a prompt in ChatGPT asking for listicle-style blog ideas like:“13 Mistakes to Avoid for a Perfect Meal Prep Week.”
- Draft with ChatGPT
- I input the blog title into ChatGPT. My pre-trained workflow includes sections like a catchy intro, actionable tips, and a “Picture This” prompt for every subheading (more on this in Step 3).
- Example prompt: “Write a blog post titled ‘13 Mistakes to Avoid for a Perfect Meal Prep Week,’ using listicle formatting and including actionable advice.”
- Publish Quickly
- I paste the draft into WordPress, clean up the formatting, set a featured image, and add tags/categories. I focus on getting the blog live quickly—perfection can wait.
Why This Works
This method balances speed and quality. ChatGPT handles the heavy lifting, and by publishing quickly, I can start driving traffic today instead of obsessing over details.
Step 3: Batch-Creating AI Images
Visuals are critical for Pinterest, and my favorite hack is to batch-create stunning AI images that match each blog section perfectly.
How I Do It
- Pull the “Picture This” Prompts
- Each blog section includes a “Picture This” line (e.g., “Picture this: beautifully arranged meal prep containers that make every meal a breeze.”). I use Harpa to extract these lines from the post into a table.
- Batch-Generate in Ideogram
- I upload the “Picture This” prompts into Ideogram, an AI image generator. Each prompt creates four variations of an image, giving me options to pick the perfect fit for each section.
- Add Images to the Blog
- I insert the images where they fit best in the post. For Pinterest, I also add a 9:16 vertical pin-friendly image with descriptive alt text.
Why I Do It This Way
Batch-creating images saves hours of manual work and ensures every blog post looks polished and professional. Plus, these images are optimized for Pinterest, increasing the chances of clicks and shares.
Step 4: Scheduling Pins on Pinterest
Pinterest is my not-so-secret weapon for driving blog traffic, and scheduling pins ensures I stay consistent without overwhelming my audience.
How I Do It
- Pull Images from the Blog
- Using the Tailwind browser extension, I grab all the images from the blog post and prep them for pinning.
- Assign to a Pinterest Board
- I assign the pins to the relevant board (e.g., Easy Meal Prep) and stagger their posting schedule. I usually schedule one pin per week per blog post.
- Optimize Descriptions
- Tailwind automatically pulls alt text from the images, which I’ve already optimized with descriptive keywords like “meal prep containers for busy moms.”
Why This Matters
Pinterest thrives on consistency. By scheduling pins weeks apart, I keep traffic flowing to my blog without risking a spam flag.
Step 5: Scaling the Process
This workflow isn’t a one-and-done deal. The real power comes from scaling it—turning a single niche board into a network of traffic-driving content.
How I Do It
- Expand Successful Boards
- If a specific topic (like “Keto Meal Prep”) starts gaining traction, I create an entire board dedicated to it and build new blog posts around that niche.
- Add Monetization
- Once the traffic picks up, I add affiliate links and products to relevant blog posts. For example, meal prep articles might include Amazon links for glass containers or vacuum sealers.
- Train a Virtual Assistant
- To save even more time, I’ve documented this workflow step-by-step so a virtual assistant can handle tasks like uploading images, adding alt text, and scheduling pins.
Why I Do It This Way
Scaling means more traffic, more revenue, and less manual work. By automating where possible and focusing on what works, I’m building a system that grows itself.
Final Thoughts
This workflow has completely transformed how I blog and use Pinterest. In just 2 hours, I can create 5 high-quality blog posts, 50 pins, and set everything up for weeks of steady traffic. It’s fast, effective, and easy to scale.
If you’re ready to supercharge your content creation, give this workflow a try! And if you want to dive even deeper, I’d love to have you in my coaching program, where I share all my prompts, templates, and strategies to help you work smarter, not harder.
Let me know how it goes—and happy blogging!
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