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Blogging can be intimidating when you feel like you don’t have anything to say. I’ve been there. It took months for me to really get a groove in consistently sharing content. Even now I struggle on occasion with feeling unsure of what to blog about.
We’ve shared tips in the past on how to push through writer’s block when blogging and today I want to share a few ideas you can use to make the goal of consistent blogging less intimidating. Before I do that though, I want to address some of the thoughts that can keep us from the habit of blogging consistently. Do any of these sound familiar?
- I don’t have anything to say.
- No one cares about what I think.
- I’m not {experienced, good, smart, well-written, creative … } enough.
- I don’t have time.
Recognize these negative thoughts and ditch them because they will keep you from achieving success in blogging. You need to push through and replace those thoughts with positive thinking about yourself and your fabulous blogging potential. Then, use the ideas below to help you produce consistent, fresh, interesting blog content.
Keep Your Blog Fresh and Fabulous with these 5 Content Ideas
Now that we’ve tackled some thoughts that keep us from blogging, let’s talk about some fun ideas to keep the creative juices flowing in blogging. I’ve used all of these techniques and I keep a running list in Evernote of blog ideas in case I hit a road block. Try them out! With these ideas, you can give yourself a road map for several months of blogging once a week to get started.
- Answer customer questions.
I was recently inspired while reading the book Youtility about how answering questions within your blog can be really successful. In the forward within the book, Marcus Sheridan of The Sales Lion shares how he saved his business through answering questions on their company blog. He literally just started blogging everyday answering questions that his customers commonly asked. One suggestion within this strategy is to look through your old emails, new business pitches or reference client discussions because these can be the springboard for an abundance of blog posts! - Create ‘Top’ or ‘Best Of’ lists.
These lists are helpful and fun. Just come up with a topic and share your top ten tips, tools or resources around that topic. Think: Top 10 Reasons Why Monday is the Best Day of the Week, 7 Best Practices for Managing a Team, Best of PR Blogs, etc. - Write about something you read recently.
Of course this means you have to be reading blogs, books, news articles and industry news. Think about what you’ve been reading. If you find it interesting, chances are your readers will too! - Share a roundup of articles / blog posts.
This can be a roundup of your own blog posts or content you’ve found around the web. You can share a roundup based on a topic, sharing links and discussing why each resources is a part of your roundup. - What have you been thinking about? Write about it!
What keeps you up at night? What problem are you working to solve right now? What success have you had recently? What do you wish you had known sooner? Write about those things and you’ll find others are going through the same questions and challenges.
A Note of Encouragement Regarding SEO
The good news is that you don’t have to blog everyday to make a positive impact on your blog’s search engine ranking and keep your audience engaged. Start out with once a week and see how you feel. Take time to create content you find interesting and see what feedback (through social sharing and comments) you receive from others. Experiment with how often and what you blog about and grow from there.
How do you push through the feeling of ‘I have nothing to blog about’ and keep your blog moving forward? I’d love to hear your ideas so leave them in the comments below send me a tweet 😉
