I’ve read a lot of posts on overcoming writer’s block (or blogger’s block) recently so I thought I’d add one of my own.
If you’re blogging to a schedule (you should be, if you’re treating your blog as a business) the time for your next article will often come around when you’re feeling uninspired.
You’re left staring at the ceiling, wondering what the heck you’re going to write about.
It happens to most of us – it certainly happens to me.
So here’s what I do when that happens:
I go to the forums.
I’m a member of three pretty active forums and two social sites, all focused on my niche. I participate in them regularly as part of my social marketing activities.
So I log in and do a search on whatever subject I want to write about.
A lot of the articles on this site are about WordPress, so I often go in and do a search on WordPress.
The results usually contain all sorts of questions about working with WordPress.
As soon as I find a question that I can answer I write a blog post about it and, hey presto, I’ve met my publishing schedule.
A good practice to get into if you’re regularly participating in forums is to make a note of questions you’ve answered and keep your answers for future posts.
Right now I have 5 blog post subjects lined up as a result of doing this, so my next few publishing dates are all catered for.
For further ideas on beating writer’s block there are two articles I’ve read recently which are pretty good: find them here (this one contains over 100 suggestions from people in the comments area) and here.
Both are well worth a read.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Martin
And when you get inspired when there is no blogpost due yet you could write it already (using ScreenSteps Dekstop of course
) and upload the post before the due date (sure like Typepad WordPress can handle pre-scheduled posts) or on the day it is due.
You never know when inspirations hits
Karin H
Hi Karin,
Long time no hear, how’s things?
Yes – you can pre-schedule posts in WordPress and I use that occasionally if I’m going to be travelling.
But even though I create drafts ahead of time I generally don’t load them into WordPress because I end up editing them several times before I paste them in WP and publish.
I see from your tweets that the wood flooring business is going well at the moment – excellent..!
Cheers,
Martin.
I’m forever polishing posts
(And wood floors of course).
Do you know where most of our FAQ blog posts come from? Answering questions from readers in the comment box beneath many of the articles we write about wooden flooring. Sometimes a quick answer just doesn’t do it and so in fact our readers “write” our posts
Karin H
Karin H´s last blog ..Email Marketing Dynamite!
‘so in fact our readers “write” our posts’ – this has to be a great way to have a successful blog because you’re absolutely writing in your readers’ interests!
Cheers,
Martin.
Martin,
How true it is when you say “the time for your next article will often come around when you’re feeling uninspired.” I have started to schedule my posts and some of my social media updates. This is helping me because I can write multiple posts on days that I feel like blogging and save them up or schedule them for days that I don’t feel like it.
It feels a little weird not to write the post on the same day they are published, but it is a strategy that I think I will need to employ to be consistent over the long run. By the way, I love copyblogger and the blog post you linked to is great.
Brad
Brad Harmon´s last blog ..Customers that Make Small Business Owners Scream
Yes – CopyBlogger’s great and they manage to get really good guest writers on there too.
I have an enormous amount of time for Brian Clark, Sonia Simone and Jon Morrow. Brian and Jon have pretty inspiring life stories as well. (Sonia probably does too, but I just haven’t read it yet!
)
Cheers,
Martin.