From time to time, bloggers tend to hit the damned writer’s block or
more specifically hit the content wall, can’t able to come out of
creative rut in the process, and so running out of ideas on what to post
– either new or probloggers, no exception!
Let me
comfort you that it’s
not about questioning your talent as a blogger / writer to produce
quality content, you might have published some awesome blog posts earlier, right?
So as a blogger, what can you do to rectify this situation?
Here are
10 exclusive tips that I believe are exceptional in helping you to
fuel your mind and spice up your drained blogging sense.
1. Ask for it
Simply ask for it! Reach out to your friends (online / IRL), and to
your readers and ask them what they’d like you to write about.
Publish a blog post about this issue, post a poll on topics you can write, and a shout-out on Twitter / Facebook / Google+
– any sort of communication will be handy. Don’t be shy, feel shame or
guilt about it. Be open and people out there always willing to help you.
2. Try different niche
Churning out post after post in your niche (topic of blogging) is the
number
one mistake most bloggers make. It might drain your mind-resource
sooner than you think. Why don’t you expand your reach further, to other
planes, to people with different tastes? Tiring eyes always look out
for something unique.
Although it sounds like a displeasing idea, it’ll work. Say for example, if your niche is ‘photography’, take a shot on ‘blogging tips‘ occasionally (i.e. when you’re blogging about photography, right?). See what happens, move along and no harm done.
3. Open your blog for guest posting
While some folks blog for a living, most bloggers have other duties
on top. So, when time might be a constraint for you, it’s time to invite
and accept guest posting. This is a huge supply of content, and it’s
not difficult to acquire either. Make a list of bloggers in your niche
and are about your taste / level, whose writing you actually enjoy, and
request them (through their blog’s contact form or through social
networks) to author a guest post for you.
They’ll be thrilled, and glad to be able to reach your readers.
They’ll strive hard to put up their best show, and not only will you
have a nice post, but the guest authors cheerfully inform their readers
about it, and bring their traffic to your site. It’s like hitting two
birds with one stone, right?
4. Do an interview post
There are many considerations why interview posts
are admirable stuff to have on your blog, but now let’s zoom in on the
basic truth. It’s much simpler to think of a few questions to fire at
your interviewee than it is to compose a complete post from thinking
about the concept to publishing it, OK?
Moreover, it can be a brilliant way to hook up with fascinating
people. As you publish some of those reputable interview posts, you even
receive interview requests from few voluntary candidates. You won’t be
surprised! It’s a win-win strategy.
5. Post a product review / case study
Deliberately pick your favorite gadget, an app, a blog / a website, or a startup – analyze it thoroughly and write a review / case study about it – why you like it or hate it, list pros or cons etc.
But, don’t be a false witness. Your blog readers will start to
question your authenticity and the person or company in question may sue
you. One more important thing: if you’re getting a paid-review offer,
do list it in your blog post title as well as in the beginning of that
post to avoid future complications.
6. State your success / failure story
Recall about an incidence or a time when everything went in your favor, and illustrate how you got it to happen in a blog post.
Keep in mind, don’t just boast about walkovers — instead walk-through
your readers how and what it takes to get there. Sprinkle morals learned
for some added flavor.
Other than that, you may blog about your failures
too. Who wouldn’t love to read it? It’s more compelling than the
success side of you as people will like to learn the difficulties you
encountered and how you try to tackle and overcome such hopeless
situations. But, don’t stage the scenario, just write as it’s
straight from your heart.
7. Watch what is trending and write about it
Explore
Google Trends (Hot searches) and
Twitter Trending Topics
(aka hot hashtags) to find out what’s trending (hot off the press) and
people looking for – bingo! You get the picture. Now pick your topic and
blog your heart out.
If you’re in social bookmarking sites such as
Stumbleupon and
Reddit, good for you. Do stumble-upon for new contents and Reddit vote daily to get the mighty
inspiration
from the huge amount of new resources there. You can find both good
(relevant) and bad content. Pick a hint or two from good ones and make
it even better.
8. Use Google Alerts
For lazy bloggers like me (well even for busy ones),
Google Alerts
is a godsend service. You can check the interwebs for exciting new
content through Google Alerts in which you’ll get email updates of the
latest and appropriate Google results (web, news, blogs, discussions)
derived from your pick of query or topic.
Make sure to
customize how
often you want to get the updates and the volume of each update (only
the best results or all results). Create a Google alert, check your
email updates on time and voila! You get some fresh inspiration to blog about.
9. Retrace your blog archives
Go through your dusted archives of
good ol’ blog posts
for some treasure hunt. By considering issues you earlier dealt and
thoughts you’ve published, you can project outdated content into new
standards and perhaps even catch few refreshing ideas.
Here are some ideas to get you started: You can shoot a contrasting course with a
previously
formed idea. Confront your own views. Delve deeper with a study adopts
an aged topic and develops it to new extents. Moreover, you can convert
your existing posts into bonus, contemporary media like webcastings
(videos, podcasts) and charts / infographics if possible. This will give
your readers enhanced
background on the matters you are writing.
10. Lists / How-to’s
Believe me, I’m telling you this from experience – Lists /
How to posts
are easy to construct. And icing on the cake, it have a tendency to go
viral. Sometimes you may irk yourself by writing something complicated,
brain-dead boring, paragraphs
mounting stuff – let alone your annoyed readers.
People love list posts as it’s usually presented in easy to interpret format with numbers and
additional headings, and basically any sort of lists can do the trick – specially the Top 10 lists. Choose your topic, gather some details, begin with a number, and then built it up from there. Now think how I might compose this post! Follow KISS (Keep It Simple and Short) logic.
Oh! Similarly, people prefer how-to posts
to uncover clear-cut advice to assist them tackle a problem and achieve
a task. As there is plenty of problems and plenty of tough tasks out
there, you don’t get surprised by the instant ideas converge for
blogging. You can do effective how-to video posts too.
*Image credits: http://www.alopecianmuse.com/ & http://www.samvitinfra.com/
Conclusion:
The ultimate thing you can do when your blogging sense seems to be drained is to refresh and get motivated. Don’t let the creative
rut (aka writer’s block) smack you. This may feel tricky when you’re
facing at a desk full of wasted note papers with abysmal thoughts,
wasted productivity, but still you can do it. Seek inspiration elsewhere whether it’s
listening
to music, going for a walk, reading your favorite book, watching a
mind-blowing movie or doing meditation. Calm and uncluttered mind can do
wonders.
Ah, forgot to tell you! Do write and save it in your blog drafts
whenever you’ll come up with an idea and inspired by something. You
never know, it’ll come handy when you need it most.
Of course, you can use the tips mentioned in the post, when you can’t
really brain (?!) and don’t be in the mood for writing, let me assure
you that with a bit of control you’ll be up to make an awesome blog post
and wow your readers in no time.
All right, before wrapping up, I can feel I might have missed some key stuff you do to spice up your drained blogging sense.
What are they? Do share and let us thrill with it in the comments section!
