All bloggers get stuck from time to time. Either you can’t come up with what you feel is a compelling topic for your next post, or you have a great idea but just can’t seem to get it down on paper.
This can be especially challenging for networkers because very often your blogging time has to be squeezed in around your offline business building activities. Yet in order for your blog to rise above the noise you need at least some interesting and unique content. Here are a few tips to help you get started:
- Free Writing is a technique where you write whatever comes out of you and save the editing for later – usually the next day. That way you don’t get hung up on details and your creative mind is free to do what it’s supposed to do – create. In that respect it’s like brainstorming. Then you come back with fresh eyes and a different perspective to finish up. Free writing is a very powerful method for beginners so I’ll write more about it in a future post.
- Write in List Format - eg. “5 Ways to Build Your Business Through Local Networking” – Or, like this post. Lists are a simple tool yet they are extremely potent. Creating one can bring fresh ideas for future posts and even serve as the jumping off point for a series. They’re easy to write and – even more important – easy to read. Web users scan when they read a web page – they don’t usually read word-for-word, plus these days everyone is on information overload. Since they are easy to scan, lists actually get read. They’re also more popular on social bookmarking and sharing sites. When you write your list-based post, don’t make a laundry list; just pick a few points to expand upon and save the rest for later.
- Have someone specific in mind when you write – Think of someone in particular and write as if you were writing to them. I use this one a lot. I get the same questions over and over from customers, see friends getting stuck in the same places, or notice less experienced colleagues making the same mistakes. I’ve come to see that this is what makes writing in a blog so powerful. I address someone’s problem or answer their question and I know that by putting it online I am potentially reaching out beyond my immediate network to thousands of others who are stuck in the same place.
I’ll go into more depth about each of these at a later time, but that should help get some of you get the ball rolling. A blog post doesn’t have to be perfect. You can always revise and refine your original post or – even better – revisit a topic in a future post. The key is to take action. Even a poorly written post will get things moving energetically and let the search engines know you are out there.
