You just write great articles Labman. Don't worry about how long it takes because quality wins out over quantity in the long run and you're building a reputation online. I agree that the articles shouldn't be too long because people get antsy. Take your material and organize it into neat cohesive packages. Keep to a point and don't ramble. You'll hold your audience that way and will make it possible for you to put out more "quality" articles faster.

I, too, like Sophias comments. If you get in the habit of writing quality articles they will become easier and quicker to produce.
You will feel good about yourself, too, and that's important. When I read various articles online I find the majority to be subpar. I like your writing style and think your readers will as well.

I agree with Sophia. You should write high quality articles. If you keep at it, it will get easier, especially when you're in a groove of writing on a topic you feel passionate about. Ultimately, I know I want to be proud of the content I put out on the Internet with my name on it.

Having said that, keep in mind that high quality doesn't mean long. Apparently the articles people like the best are the ones with a few bullet points on your topic. Short and sweet but with real valuable information. My tendency is to want to exhaust a topic to death by covering it from every possible angle. If that's your challenge, then narrow down your topic to something you can cover in a few bullet points for each article. You may end up with ten or fifteen articles where you originally thought you had only one, but that's what you want, right?

It all comes down to what is the purpose of your article. If it's purely for SEO purpose, then you shouldn't care about the quality. If it's meant for article marketing, then you should put some thought into it. I don't do article marketing. I just use articles to increase my websites search engine rankings. So, I just outsource the articles that I have to submit to article directories. If I am writing for my website, I take a lot of time and put out really good content. Sometimes it will take me 1-2 hours to write good content for my website. But if I am writing for an article directory, I won't spend more than 10-15 minutes.

Your path is the only path, that is what I say & personally I would much rather read qaulity content than fluff & stuff, remember as time goes on you will get faster at creating quality content, it took me 2 weeks to create my first article ever and I waited a week for it to be approved but when it was I was awarded expert author status. Money is a necessary evil of this life at the moment but ask yourself this - just how far are you willing to go to get it? In my world it's all about passion & giving...what is your world all about? No you are not sabotaging yourself, you are a writer with a Heart, please remember this if you care to. all the best from your buddy sophia x