How long a post really takes: the honest count
Nobody counts the time a post takes, and everybody underestimates it: we remember the minutes in front of the screen and forget everything else. The seven stages of a post, and how to measure yours.
Ask a creator how long a story takes them, they will answer the time it takes to post it. Ask them why they are tired on Sunday evening, they will not make the connection. The time of a post hides in what happens before and after the screen, and as long as it is not counted, it is impossible to decide what is worth it. This article gives no figure: your time is not someone else's. It gives the list of what has to be counted, and a method to do it once and for all.
What we count, and what we forget
What we count is the visible gesture: take the photo, write two lines, press publish. What we forget is everything around it: choosing the piece, trying it on, ironing it, moving the lamp, reshooting because the colour was wrong, sorting twenty images to keep one, hesitating over the caption, and then — the biggest part — answering the messages the post triggered over the following two days. The visible gesture is often the shortest of the seven.
The seven stages of a post
- Choosing: the piece, the angle, the reason to show it today rather than another day.
- Preparing: trying on, adjusting, ironing, finding the light, placing the white reference sheet.
- Producing: the shots themselves, including the ones you redo.
- Sorting and editing: keeping one image in twenty, cropping, correcting without cheating.
- Writing: the caption, the code, the link, the size worn — what makes it possible to buy.
- Publishing and checking: posting, then coming back to check it displays well and the link works.
- Answering: the questions in private messages and on WhatsApp, for two or three days — the time nobody puts in their count.
The time after: the replies
In Morocco, a post that works does not end with a click: it ends with conversations. "How does it fit?", "do you have it in black?", "do you deliver to Agadir?" — messages that need a quick answer, because a question left unanswered for a day is a lost sale. That time appears nowhere in the platform's statistics, which only measure what happens on the platform. Yet it is the time most directly tied to the sale, and it grows with the post's success: the better it works, the more it costs.
Read also Selling fashion on WhatsApp in Morocco: the channel nobody worksMeasure it yourself, three times
The only measure that counts is your own, and it is taken with the phone's stopwatch, not from memory. For three different posts — a story, a photo post, a short video — start the stopwatch the moment you decide on the piece, pause it at every interruption, and note the time at the end of each of the seven stages. Then, over the following three days, add the time spent answering. Three measures are enough: the first surprises, the second confirms, the third gives an order of magnitude you can decide on. A measure taken from memory always underestimates — we remember the gesture, not the waiting.
What it changes for the choice of format
| Format | Where the time goes | What to expect from it |
|---|---|---|
| Story | Little production, many replies if it works | A quick sale, questions straight away |
| Photo post | Sorting and the caption | An image that stays and can be found again |
| Carousel | Production: several angles, the fabric, the detail | Fewer questions afterwards, because the piece is already shown |
| Short video | Reshot takes, editing | The drape shown, fewer returns for "doesn't suit me" |
Set the time against what it brings in
Once the time is measured, put it next to what the post produced: the number of orders placed with your link or code, visible in your space, multiplied by your commission — 10 to 18 % of the piece's price depending on your tier. You get what one hour brought you, for that format, that week. The figure will be low at first and that is normal: it is there to compare your formats with each other, not to judge you. If it says a carousel costs you twice a story for the same sale, you know what to do with your next hour.
Read also The first 90 days: building an audience from zero, with no budgetDo not measure in order to feel guilty. The stopwatch is there to choose where to put your time, not to prove you lack it.
A post takes the time you see, plus the time you don't. Only the second decides whether it was worth it.
In short
The time of a post is counted in seven stages, the last of which — answering — is the longest and the most forgotten. It cannot be guessed, it is measured, with a stopwatch, on three posts. Set against the orders it produced, that time becomes the only figure that lets you choose a format knowingly — and it is a figure nobody else can give you.
Discover the programme