Ok, so I tried out a bit of alliteration with the title. Creating content for your blog can sometimes leaving you blank. Often the issue is not that you don’t have anything to say, it just when you sit down to say it, the words don’t come. I see this with my clients with telltale signs of blank stares, phone silence or unanswered requests for content.
Here are my 5 tips for beating blog block:
1.) Embrace it
You’re stuck trying to string words together to create coherent sentences. Just stop. Write down any words that come to mind, it could be your to do list, grocery list, random movie quotes. Write down how you feel at that moment. Pick a letter on the keyboard and hold it down to fill the page. The point is to lessen the pressure to create a perfect post and just start writing and get out of your head.
2.) Read
You probably have trade journals/magazines, newspaper (digital or otherwise), gossip sites/magazines that you enjoy reading. Read an article or two, write down your thoughts or do a review. If it happens to relate to your industry or business, perfect. Now edit and post. If not, then it was a great exercise for your writing chops.
3.) Update Content Map
You may call it a Content Calendar, Editorial Calendar or Social Media Marketing plan. Whatever the name is, the purpose of it is to provide a roadmap for developing your content. Look it over. When you put it together the topic, timing and tags made sense to you. Do they still? Are there new topics you’d like to add? Change it, the content map is meant to be a “living” document.
4.) Talk
One “trick” I use with my clients is just get them talking, about anything and everything. During a lunch meeting where we chatted about their family, their work, their hobbies, we came up with several “easy” topics for them to write about related to their business and customers. Sometimes the mere act of verbalization spurs ideas.
5.) Share
Share an anecdote, funny quote, or image. If something made you laugh, got you thinking or was perplexing. Share it along with why you felt the way you did. Others probably had a similar experience. You know what I’m talking about. How many times have you seen a funny image that someone else has shared and found yourself chuckling. Pass it along.
These are a few I use, there are many more out there. What works for you?
