Productive Blogger: Getting Unstuck

Everyone gets stuck. Productive bloggers know how trigger ideas for great new posts. Here are some methods I use for generating new ideas:

Skim a Book on Your Topic – An hour in your public library with a pencil and notebook can easily produce enough ideas for several weeks of posts.

Use Someone Else’s List – Find another list on your topic. Link back to the original to give them credit and add your commentary to the list items you feel are important. This way you use their list as a springboard, but it is primarily your content. Make sure you give them proper credit and are actually adding value.

Link Out – Gather a bunch of links to great posts on a particular topic and use them as a basis for your post. Ideally you should read each one and provide some commentary for each link. More often than not, once you finish doing this, you’ll have a bunch of ideas for new original posts. Link out posts seem to be a popular thing to put up on Friday or the weekend. When you get stuck and can’t think of anything to write, use this as a way to break the gridlock. You can schedule it to go live on the weekend and use the ideas it helps you generate for your current post.

Interview Someone – This can be as simple as writing a fellow blogger and asking them two or three questions to use as a basis for post or as complicated as emailing 50 individuals and compiling their answers.

Draw Analogies – Think in terms of “how is X like Y?” For example, a recent speech at Harvard’s graduation discussed how John Harvard was similar to a Jedi in Starwars. (The entire speech was given in Latin.) Making comparisons is a great way to trigger new ideas and get a fresh perspective.

Create a List – Even when you hit a roadblock it is usually pretty easy to create a short “5 ways to” type post.

Reread Your Previous Posts – I find I can get a lot of ideas for new posts by rereading things I wrote a year ago. By writing a new post and linking back to the original, not only do you get a fresh perspective, but you help drive people (and search engines) back to your older content.

Links From the Past – Go through your content and select the top five posts from last year. Usually these are great finds for new readers and the process will often help you discover some great ideas on the way.

Use Related Links – If your blog is setup to show you related links, find a post that you liked and see what the computer thinks is related. You may be able to get some great ideas by comparing or contrasting the two posts.

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