So you’ve employed a great WordPress designer to come up with a site for you, and once they’ve finished their job, it’s up to you to keep it updated with fresh and interesting content. Sometimes, though, you just can’t think of any good ideas for what to write.
If you need to add new content to your WordPress blog but your mind is drawing a blank, here are some of my favourite tips for breaking through that creative block.
Keep an ‘ideas document’
Inspiration is a slippery thing – a great idea can come to your mind all of a sudden, but a few minutes later, it’s gone, never to return.
What you need is a means of capturing those ideas as soon as you think of them. Keep an ideas document and make notes whenever the creative impulse hits you, and the next time you need to write a blog post, you’ll have a lot of ready-made ideas from which to choose.
Answer the questions real people are asking
Question-answer platforms like Yahoo Answers and Quora are a great source of the questions to which real people want answers.
So why not serve that need by picking out a few of the most popular questions in your field of expertise, and answering them through your blog posts?
Try out different blog types and formats
Are you always writing ‘How to…’ or ’10 tips…’-style blog posts and are worried that your blog is looking a little stale and predictable as a result?
In that case, simply try something new. You could draw inspiration from existing blogs that you admire, or you could reach for any of the many suggestions that can be found online.
Maybe you could base your next blog post on an infographic featuring statistics and facts related to a particular topic? Or what about giving readers an insight into what is happening ‘behind the scenes’ of your company or brand, or reviewing a product or service of relevance to your audience?
Force yourself to write
Even if you don’t feel quite ready to write a new blog post yet, the more you force yourself to write – even if only in rough note form – the easier it will be to write.
So, open up an empty text file and simply write. Commit to writing at least 500 words, or even 1,000 words, every day, and you are sure to come up with some interesting ideas for your future blog posts.
Get offline, and allow inspiration to come to you
Sometimes, it just doesn’t feel right to force anything. You might be procrastinating and feel that you don’t have anything interesting to say.
In that situation, it might be best to just take a break and relax for a while, so that inspiration has a chance to come to you. Go outside, relax, live… do whatever you need to do to feel free and creative again. Be aware of your environment, and note down your latest thoughts and ideas at the earliest opportunity.
