Remember those days when your blog was new and the ideas for blog articles were hitting you one after the other, all day long?
Remember when you used to be so critical of other bloggers for beginning to show inconsistency in how often they updated their blogs? Your first premonition was probably…what?…that they chose the wrong topic?
The reality for many bloggers is that “writer’s block” is going to come. It’s inevitable. I don’t care how many articles you have on auto-publish. Those reserve articles will have come and gone…leaving you to meet a deadline.
So, how can a blogger, struggling with “writer’s block” overcome this problem? Is there a cure?
Well, I’m not a doctor, but I can suggest a few things.
How Bloggers Can Overcome Writer’s Block
1] Write Less — You may be imposing a deadline you can not compete with. I tend to write, on average, twice a week. Your regular readers do not always read your blog on the same day. Allow them enough to digest what you wrote and become part of the discussion in the comment section. What’s the big rush to throw your good content in the archive pile, anyway? You’re not a daily news blog, so stop acting like one!
2] Close Your Other Blogs(s) — Are you managing more than one blog? You’re going to have to determine whether spreading your time for creative writing can sufficiently be spread over multiple blogs. If not, you’ll have some tough choices to make. Are you willing to close one of your blogs to devote the time that is necessary to your primary blog?
3] Reinventing The Wheel — I am sometimes guilty of this. I occasionally get an urge to make an impression on the blogosphere. I want to dazzle readers, thrill them, and take them somewhere they have never been before. When that happens, …stop! You’re putting too much pressure on yourself. I’ve learned that it’s OK to revisit topics that have been covered before. Hey, no one has read what you have to say about it, right? And you always run the chance of doing it better than the original. Don’t you?
4] You Don’t Receive Enough Input — There’s enormous strides in activity and other changes in the niche/category you chose to blog about. Are you keeping up with it? Would your readers like to read about it on your blog? Of course they would. But, how else are you going to stay on the “cutting edge” if you are recycling the same boring content? Start reading better blogs. Follow the trend setters in order to become one yourself.
5] Free Content — Sure, why not? Surprisingly, I found a lot of options in the area of free, legal blog content from images, to articles, to multimedia. You would also be taken back at the size and scope of these massive, online libraries. (Click the “Free Content” link to learn more)
6] Guest Blogging — We all know another blogger who wants to promote and market him/herself and their blog. What better “stage” than your blog? Reach out to those that might be interested. You can tweet a message or two… or even have a navigation tab about guest blogging opportunities on your site.
7] Expand the scope of your blog’s content — Many blogs, with random articles, suffer from an identity crisis. It’s natural for readers to gravitate toward online content that interests them so, you must write articles relative to the niche/category. But, you can still expand your topics. Why limit yourself?
Recently, Source Blogger expanded its content to include more articles about business development and HR… and it worked!
How could you extend your blog’s material?
In Closing
Writer’s block becomes a serious challenge for bloggers in the more mature stages of their blogs.
What advice do you have for other bloggers?
How have you over come writer’s block for yourself? What inspires you? Where do you find your motivation?
Bloggers want to know!
3 Comments
Jeffrey,
This is a very helpful blog. Itemizing and setting it out like you did makes it easy to read, remember and review. I found it very interesting idea to share my blog with a guest. I will be thinking about that one for the future.
Will return for more insights.
Linda
Linda Bond recently posted..Early March Member Giveaways – Lots of Free stuff
A great post with some great suggestions, Jeffrey. Not much to add, I would say.
I have to admit that I suffer from writer’s block from time to time. My best solution was to write less and without a specific deadline, e.g. every Monday at 12am. I write whenever I feel for it, but I try not to post more than once a week, so that I always have some posts up my sleeve. The hardest part is actually holding back on the written but not yet published posts.
A while ago I discovered the Editorial Calendar plugin for WordPress. It’s a very helpful tool in planning your post or jotting down ideas for future posts. That helped me a lot.
Jan Husdal recently posted..Time is precious
His may be counterintuitive, but I actually found that it became easier to write posts when I posted everyday. When I skip days, I find I am more prone to writer’s block. Of course, time is an issue, sobi will typically post 3 times a week. But if I come up against writers block it actually gets me back into the habit of writing if I post a little more frequently. I’ll just try and be a little more imaginative during those times.
Richard recently posted..How Not to Go Viral- Alexandra Wallace Mucks it Up