8 Tips for Blogging Inspiration
Filed under: Social Marketing on Monday, January 21st, 2008 by Simon Heseltine
Everyone’s heard of Writer’s Block, that condition whereby an author just can’t string 2 sentences together to save their life. Maybe it’s time to update that condition to Blogger’s Block? As we’ve talked about in the past, when you have a blog, you should post regularly, and blog on a schedule where possible. Pre-blogging, where you write your posts well in advance of their due date, helps immensely, as you don’t have to worry about last minute blogging. In fact, Scott Adams of Dilbert talks about doing the exact same thing in his recent book “Stick to drawing comics, Monkey Brain”. When he started out drawing Dilbert he was drawing the comic several months ahead of the publication schedule, now he’s only days ahead…
So what happens when you’re down to the last minute, and you have our newly redefined problem - Blogger’s Block? There are several things that you can do. The easiest thing to do is, of course, nothing. However, that’s not a strategy that’s going to be conducive to the long term growth of your readership, so instead, here’s a list of real (fairly quick) solutions for your problem;
- Link Post: Do a post where you link out to posts or articles that you’ve recently read that you think are great. Why not expose your readers to them? If you’re worried about losing your readers, don’t. Instead you may find that they’ll like you for exposing them to some great new stuff, and they’ll come back to you to see what else you recommend
- News Post: Similar to the link post, but this covers news about a particular topic. Maybe it’s your industry, or maybe it’s related to a topic that you posted about the previous week. Simply go to your favorite news feed site and search until you find articles that you like
- Finish The Half Finished Post: If you’re like me, you have a nice selection of half finished posts. Take a look at them and see which may be worth finishing. Or you can do what I once did, and write a post about your half finished posts, giving reasons forwhy you won’t finish them. This actually ended up being a very popular post.
- Rebuttal / Agreement Post: Read your feeds and see if there’s an article that you feel strongly about. Post your opinion about that topic, using the original post as the starting point, before you know it, you may have some back and forth going between you and the other blog that can be beneficial to both.
- Analogy Post: Think about your activity that day. How can you relate it to a topic that you cover? For example, today I played soccer in freezing temperatures. Our regular field was unplayable, so we went elsewhere. That field had another group of people on it, with a permit, so we located another field, which worked out great for us. If I were writing a blog on technology issues, I could relate that experience to the need to have redundant backup servers in case of emergencies.
- Picture Post: Sometimes a picture does say a thousand words. One blogger I know throws a “Caption Me” picture whenever he has Blogger’s Block, this both gives him time to come up with something else, and it involves his audience.
- Historical Post: If your blog has been around for a while, it’s good practice to throw up a post with links to your best historical posts, these can either be ones that you’re particularly proud of, or the ones that drew in the most traffic (which aren’t always the same posts).
- Blogging Inspiration Post: Erm, yes, as if you hadn’t guessed that this would be the last one.
For me, as a blogger, it is OK to diversify a bit, when writer’s block manifests. Perhaps a good friend who has provided support for the blog has something good to say, so I would include a guest posting. The key is creativity, and don’t allow yourself to feel that a change is sacrificing the blog’s quality or consistency. Ultimately, people return to a blog to read YOUR ideas, and they are back to visit YOU, not just your content. Blogging is about building a personal readership and not just becoming a wikipedia of resource information.
↓ Quote | Posted January 21, 2008, 9:06 amYep, the Guest post is a way to go, however, if you’re stuck at the last minute trying to come up with something, lobbing it over the wall to someone else may just be putting them in the same situation.
With a deadline of 7am for this post, and the time sitting at 11.30pm last night, the Guest post wasn’t an option for me…
↓ Quote | Posted January 21, 2008, 9:12 amGreat post!! That is one of the reasons I do a Blog Carnival once a week , that way I can take a day off. Maybe. I write on my blog every day and still have not gotten burnt out. knock on wood.
↓ Quote | Posted January 21, 2008, 7:21 pm[...] the rest of the article you’ll just have to head over to EndlessPlain.com and read “8 tips for Blogging Inspiration“ Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...]
↓ Quote | Posted January 22, 2008, 2:31 pm8 Tips for Blogging Inspiration…
Blogger’s Block frequently occurs right at that point that you have to get a post written. When you end up being stuck in this situation, what can you do? Simon Heseltine discusses 8 different types of posts you can use to fill in while you wait for i…
↓ Quote | Posted January 23, 2008, 12:39 am8 Tips for Blogging Inspiration…
Blogger’s Block frequently occurs right at that point that you have to get a post written. When you end up being stuck in this situation, what can you do? Simon Heseltine discusses 8 different types of posts you can use to fill in while you wait for i…
↓ Quote | Posted January 23, 2008, 12:45 amGreat advice. I have a lot of blogs and “writers block” sure gets in the way of being able to write good articles on them every day! Then some days I can’t quit writing…I did notice that writers block happens when the weather is nice outside, maybe it’s because I’m an outdoors type of person and in my mind I would rather be outside doing something rather than sitting in front of a blank screen. Your advice to revamp an older article sounds good to me, after all who goes back and reads these older post? I’ll try that next time my mind goes blank.
Have a great day
↓ Quote | Posted January 23, 2008, 8:49 amKowgirl
Simon, excellent tips. I especially liked numbers one and four. Not only do they force you to break outside of your mold, but they also encourage interaction and discussion amongst other bloggers/readers creating a network of thoughts and opinions.
This is my first time here and I’m definitely subscribing to your blog. Thanks.
-David
↓ Quote | Posted January 23, 2008, 12:21 pm[...] own blog, but to dig deep and find the time to post additional articles. If you are looking for ideas for blog content, here is a great article that was written by Simon Heseltine which should help point you in the [...]
↓ Quote | Posted January 24, 2008, 12:52 pmGreat tips. When ever i write I always have ideas about ideas other than the subject at hand. I usually jot notes down, for the next time I need a new idea to write about.
marc
↓ Quote | Posted January 26, 2008, 6:36 pmThanks great tips for when your out of inspiration!
↓ Quote | Posted February 17, 2008, 2:45 pm[...] 8 Tips for Blogging Inspiration [...]
↓ Quote | Posted June 19, 2008, 9:25 am