Looking for a little knowledge share from experienced bloggers

Hello,

Disclaimer: I've tried searching for an answer using search but couldn't find one, or it was a suggestion to experiment by yourself, for that reason posting a new thread and looking for experienced members here to shed some light for me.

Ok, so a little back story to the current situation, I've decided to try and make some extra money with Blogging. Found a niche that's not too competitive and is interesting for me. The idea is to write reviews, listicles, comparing products, and info articles. Right now, I'm just doing a product reviews and info article here or there, but man, it's so hard to write...
I feel like I keep repeating myself with each product review as the niche is kind of fitness/health related, and products are the same with slight differences, so I keep on spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to write it, so each review is a little unique and doesn't feel like a copy -> paste + mention the minor difference . So here are the main questions I'm after:

1. When writing reviews or listicles, do you worry about users checking multiple posts and seeing that it's the same stuff, maybe a couple of paragraphs of actual value there?
2. When does the writing become easier? Currently 700-1000 Words review writing takes me 2-4 hours, and It's following the same review structure. Do I need to write like 100k Words or spend 500 hours writing for it to get easier? (I want to write them myself, at least for a year, so when/if I hire someone, I'd be able to review their work and know how much effort it takes)
3. My content strategy was to get enough reviews 40-50 in place and then start comparing them (doing some VS posts) and doing listicles like ( top 7 cheapest ..., 5 best for under 100$, etc.), but I wasn't expecting the writing to go that slow... It could be the wrong approach, Perhaps I should start doing the listicles right away? (without having a normal review in place) And then return to writing each product review. (looking at competitors, those seem to drive more traffic, but I don't find them all that helpful to the end users)

I'm not doing product reviews (well, not anymore anyway, I used to do this around 2016), so I might not be the best person to give advice, but since nobody's replying... I guess you'll have to hear me out

First things first, product review sites have been targeted by google updates massively lately, so unless you dance precisely to how google sings you'll probably not rank any of those reviews. Have a look at this page to understand what google wants from you in order to give you traffic:
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/write-high-quality-product-reviews
Furthermore, heath & fitness is one helluva tough niche to break into. I'm not saying it's impossible, obviously, but for a newbie (which you seem to be since you don't even know this basic detail) it will probably take a lot of money, patience and persistence. Just saying it so you know what you're getting into

Now, with these clarifications out of the way, let me try to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge...

crowberry said:

When writing reviews or listicles, do you worry about users checking multiple posts and seeing that it's the same stuff, maybe a couple of paragraphs of actual value there?

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I do, actually. At least for the WH / authority sites. If I create autoblogs / churn & burn sites I don't care, but for the sites that I'm genuinely interested in I do mind these details. And if there isn't enough content / value to be provided I either find other keywords or - if there simply aren't enough keywords in that niche (sometimes, niches are obscure like this) - I simply change the niche.

This is not to say that obscure niches don't work, I've managed to rank a website in a crafts & hobbies niche last year with only 8 pages of content (targeting about 12-13 info keywords in total) because those have been all of the keywords that I could find in that niche.

What I'm trying to say is that 1) you should, generally, not go after narrow / obscure niches as a newbie and 2) if you do target those niches, you might not be able to create the site in the way you might have pre-planned it, so you need to be willing to change the approach.

That is to say, if you really can't find more than a "couple of paragraphs" of value then you need to change keywords, re-think your site's structure (maybe create fewer pages but which target several main keywords instead of only 1, but which are closely related to each other), or - if everything else fails - simply find a different niche (luckily, health / medical is a HUGE industry, so you're bound to find dozens of good niches in this industry with a bit of research)

crowberry said:

When does the writing become easier?

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if you don't mind writing, after few dozens of articles (especially if they're in the same niche... or at least in niches in which you have at least a slight interest in)

If you hate writing (like me, despite of what you might think by reading this novel), then never! Just like with most activities in life, writing too is not for everyone.

crowberry said:

Currently 700-1000 Words review writing takes me 2-4 hours

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yep, that's me alright! Several years ago I've spent about 6 hours to research and write a 1500 words article on "car lights", and that's after I've motivated myself for 1 week to start writing. And after writing that article (which had turned out to be amazing, luckily) I've been mentally exhausted, I've felt nausea, slight migraines, and I have not wanted to have anything to do with writing ever again, for SEO or for fun. And I've not gotten back to my "business" for 2-3 weeks after that article. That much I dislike doing research and writing, especially on topics that I have no interest in (cars for example, I never cared about cars and I hope they all get decommissioned LOL)

But anyway, I can feel your pain, if writing is not in your genes you will definitely struggle with it. And google wants fresh content every second, so we're kind of screwed. Thank God for the AI writers, they make the writing (and the research, too if I'm being honest) so much easier

crowberry said:

Do I need to write like 100k Words or spend 500 hours writing for it to get easier?

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again, if writing is in your genes, it will definitely get easier with time. If not...

crowberry said:

(I want to write them myself, at least for a year, so when/if I hire someone, I'd be able to review their work and know how much effort it takes)

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commendable, but you're overlooking the fact that not everyone can accomplish the same things with the same ease... or in the same amount of time. That's to say that however long it takes you to write an article doesn't necessarily mean that it's true for other people, as well.

crowberry said:

Perhaps I should start doing the listicles right away? (without having a normal review in place)

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I think listicles are too short (it's their nature), and I don't think you'll rank any of them in the fitness niche with (probably) a fresh site that's devoid of any authority and EEAT. I hope that I am wrong and that you'll strike gold with this approach, but I don't see it happening, sorry.

crowberry said:

(looking at competitors, those seem to drive more traffic, but I don't find them all that helpful to the end users)

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that's good news! It means that you might have a good chance of outranking your competition with content alone

Thanks for your answers @tazarbm.

Many great answers and points of view, as for google product review update this February I'm in favor of it as it seems that there's to many product reviews that focus on copy/paste description and just add fluff and not provide any actual value.