Blogging is an enjoyable form of freelance writing work. Whether you are lucky enough to have found a blogging job, you have your own blog just for fun, or both, once you start blogging you must continually come up with new content that keeps your readers coming back for more. Sometimes, it is easy. You go about your day and then when it is time to sit down at your computer and write, you recall something that you saw or did that day which just so happens to be excellent fodder for a blog post. You spend the next ten to thirty minutes typing effortlessly as the words just flow right out. You’re in blogging heaven and life is good.
There will be days when it is not that easy to sit down and write your blog posts. Since blogging requires content to be posted at regular intervals, you can not always put it off until another day. When you must write a blog post (or two or more) and you find yourself staring at a blank page, try one of these tricks to get the wheels of your imagination turning.
One place that I go looking for ideas for blog posts is my email inbox. I subscribe to a few mailing lists, and occasionally one of them will have a story that creates a question in my mind, a question that I can then research and write about. Searching for answers to questions that you or others may have about the things that you blog about is a good way to generate content. Sometimes the contents of my inbox cause me to form an opinion about something. Once that opinion is formed, I can write about that and explain the underlying basis for my opinion.
Another place that you can look for inspiration is your past blog posts. Perhaps you wrote something a while ago that could be expanded upon in greater detail. Readers may have commented on past posts and their comments may reveal a different angle on the subject that you had not yet thought of.
Those are just a couple of the places that I go looking for inspiration for blog posts when the words don’t come easily. What are your favorite ways to get inspired to write those posts?
Photo by earl53 on morguefile.com.