So, you’ve got your blog up and running and everything’s moving along swimmingly until one day you hit a dreaded patch of writer’s block. Think you’ve run out of ideas for great blog content? Well, think again. I’m going to share some ideas with you that will ensure you never run out of ideas for your posts!
1. Take a Break – As counter-productive as that might sound, it’s actually not a bad idea if you’re stumped for something to write. Sure, you can sit there and bang your head against you monitor hoping to jar some brilliance within your tired mind, but chances are, you need to take a break from thinking so hard. Give it a rest for a few hours or until tomorrow. You’d be amazed at how many bright ideas can come to you when you’re rested, de-stressed and looking at your monitor with ‘fresh eyes’.
2. Scour News Sources – Great blog content can always be generated out of news items you’ll find online, in your morning paper or in your favorite monthly publications. Put your own spin on an interesting story; share your opinion (especially if it’s opposing – who doesn’t like to read someone’s scathing contradiction of a popular topic?).
3. Read Other Blogs – If you read blog posts written by other people that are within the same vein as your own, you will no doubt be inundated with inspiration and will in no time be typing away. Again, put your own spin on what you’ve read and make it work for your audience.
4. Write Drafts/Partial Posts Even if You Think they’re Going Nowhere – It happens to me quite often. I’ll have a brilliant idea for a post and start researching and writing it, then think to myself that maybe the idea isn’t so brilliant after all. This might simply be because I’m not in the mood to write at that very moment, or it might be because I run out of steam with my idea. But, rather than scrap it, I always leave partial work on my desktop because more often than not, I revisit what I’ve written and when I look at it with fresh eyes, I’m able to work some magic and turn it into an interesting post – even if it’s not the same post as it originally started out to be. The idea is to always have ideas!!
5. Always Have a Pen & Notebook Handy – You never know when brilliance is going to strike – and when it does, you want to remember what was so brilliant. Like lightening, bright ideas don’t often strike twice in the same place. There’s nothing more frustrating than knowing that you had a great idea, but not remembering what it was. I even keep a pen and notepad handy on my bedside table, because as weird as it sounds, I have awoken in the middle of the night countless times with ideas churning – and good luck remembering those after falling back asleep and awakening five hours later!
6. Hit Your Local Library – Check out a few books related to your niche and voila!: an instant plethora of fresh ideas. Libraries are still a great place to source information and to even do some writing (remember the days before the internet when we did our research at the library?)!!
Ideas can be sparked anytime, anyplace. You can be inspired by so many different, ordinary things. Just use your imagination, do some good, old-fashioned research and give your mind some time to decompress and come back with fresh thought.
Remember, blogging can be a very enjoyable undertaking as opposed to a daunting task - have some fun with it and the ideas will come pouring in!
For more on blogging and how to get your ideas for infinite content rolling – why not join one of our Social Networking for Business workshops, where we’ll offer you a multitude of tips and tricks for optimizing your blog. Check out our schedule at: http://www.escomputertraining.com/courses/details/industry/2/course/20
If you have any tips you’d like to share about how you come up with ideas for you blog posts, I encourage you to share in our comments section.
And, keep checking back here for more on blogging – my favorite topic!
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