Do you suffer from bloggers’ block? Do you sometimes struggle to just get your blog ideas down on paper, let alone write a full blog post? In this article, we’ll discuss how bloggers can overcome it – there are ways to push through bloggers’ block and get writing prolifically again!
1. Get To Grips With Google Alerts
Google Alerts can really help you find articles that spark ideas for your own content and Google indexes thousands of articles on a daily basis – sign up for Google Alerts and you can add and delete alert topics at any time based on projects you’re working on. Include keywords relevant to your blogging goals in your alerts.
2. Go Back To School!
Online webinars, in-person seminars, and workshops, you name it there is a plethora of free or subsidized training and education out there which will enable you to acquire new material to write about but which will also introduce you to new developments and directions. Seek out online directories of mailing lists detailing upcoming webinars and events in your industry.
3. Podcast Your Net
Podcasts are packed with information on every topic under the sun and best of all you can listen at your own pace, in your own time – behind the wheel, on a train, cooking a meal, on the treadmill or your daily jog or dog walk, you name it they literally are accessible anytime, anywhere.
They really can be a fun and stimulating way not only to glean new knowledge or brush up on your existing know-how, but the very activity of listening to them potentially offers a wealth of thought-provoking insights to inspire your writing. Why not record your own Podcast or better still series of Podcasts to get your creative juices flowing again and eliminate bloggers’ block?
READ MORE :
4. Self-Impose Deadlines
Writing takes time and it can become all too easy to put the task off. Deadlines help you to sort the wheat from the chaff and force you to focus on completing an article. Rather than picking a date far in the future, commit to a ‘pre-deadline’ prior to a blog post or article’s official submission date to concentrate your thoughts and curb the temptation to write too much and go off topic.
5. Be A LinkedIn Groupie
Being the sole source of content for your blog can be quite a weight on your shoulders. Share knowledge, ideas, feedback, and questions on topics of common interest with other group members. You can see what people talk about and use the information or trends you spot as a writing prompt to help get you started on a new piece of content. Group comment boards can also be a very effective resource for a new article or blog post.
6. Readers’ Questions
Revisit questions on your blog and social media channels. More often than not, whilst only one reader may have taken the time to post a question there will be others who would also benefit from the answer you provide. Questions can help stimulate ideas for future articles.
If they are a fellow blogger or a thought leader you aspire to, why not interview them for fresh, dynamic content for your blog?
7. Introduce Yourself to Infographics
A correctly placed of pertinent inform rapid can convey in a picture what it would take a thousand words to say! It is also a savvy way of visually and therefore simpler way of getting across and conveying complicated concepts or discussions with text to pepper it and compliment it. Google image is a great tool for finding clever graphics of online topics or discussions. Image-based or visual social networks such as Pinterest and Instagram are also rich pickings for the same.
Alternatively, why not create your own infographics to help you mind map complex ideas or topics – after all, infographics are the social media equivalent of mind mapping.
8. Nail Those Notebook Ideas
Whether it’s a handwoven, moleskin affair or a simple school-style notebook, keep track of your thoughts as they occur or flow, even better, keep it with you when you’re on the move to capture your thoughts and inspirational ideas. Or better still, record them electronically. Where you capture your thoughts is immaterial, but the material you record certainly isn’t!
An old idea is never a lost idea and themes are more often than not cyclical. If you find yourself going through a bit of a writing drought, refer back to them. You may even find some cohesion and a thread of continuity for your seemingly disconnected mind map! Revisiting old ideas may just create or inspire new ones.
9. Quotations
Aside from the obvious benefit of illustrating or quantifying what you are trying to say, quotations are a useful way if padding out your blog or article if you are struggling to, but perhaps, more importantly, they are a powerful way to enhance your writing and ideas and also provide you with the opportunity to link back to their owners, assuming they are alive and online of course! Regardless, on social media networks at least, quotations are also one of the most shared pieces of content.
10. Hot Desk!
Something as simple as changing your environment can really reactive and stimulate your senses. And if you can’t or don’t want to physically move you can still very easily achieve the same effect by enhancing your environment with sounds or smells to refocus your writing and re-engage your mind. Familiarity does breed contempt – try a change of scenery or ambient sound to refocus your mind and recharge your writing.
11. Don’t Move The Goalposts
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by goals and deadlines, it would be futile to create further ones, unless you are merely resetting existing ones, of course. What I mean by this is re-examining those you have set and seeing if they are realistic and achievable – if not, do something about it. This could be as simple as splitting a seemingly unobtainable target into bite sized chunks which themselves have mini deadlines.
12. Become A Research Fellow
Use insight from Nielsen, Brand Republic, Gallup and others – a wide range of research findings can make excellent topics and references for a wide range blogs and articles. Of course, some or all of these isn’t relevant or helpful for your own niche or specialists, but take a time to find out who is doing research relevant to your industry and take steps to see the reports when they’re first released. Even if you just redistribute their findings to your own networks and followers with some introductory text, you will still be pointing people in the direction of useful and thought-provoking text which they will thank you for, hopefully by posting comments to your blog!
There’s no denying that writer’s block can be difficult to overcome regardless of whether you are writing on paper or online. The beauty of online writing, however, is the plethora of media available to create new methods of content when you are experiencing bloggers block; podcasts, video casts, infographics, top tips, how-to guides, interviews and so on.
Whilst there is no one-fits-all tried and tested method for all bloggers, finding new ways of sharing your knowledge and reaching new audiences which put you out of your comfort zone may be just that you need to overcome your own bloggers’ block.
