Do you think you have nothing to write about? Do you assume nobody would ever be interested in what you’re blogging about? Are you grappling to come up with ideas for content on your website, blog or for your social posts. You’re not alone! We have all been there.
To help you avoid the “blank screen” effect I thought I would share with you my top ten tips to inspire your creativity.
- Make a list of the most commonly asked questions your customers ask you – This is your single most important resource. Keep it in Evernote, and keep it regularly updated. Sometimes inspiration strikes at the most unusual times, so make sure you can access your list from anywhere.
To provide valuable and more importantly shareable content you must always put your customers and clients first.
- More on answering questions… Hop on to Quora – Type your area of expertise into the search bar. The results page will show popular questions in your niche. These provide another way for you to identify what people want to know about your industry.
- Set up “Google Alerts” – This allows you to monitor the web for interesting new content in your industry sector or area of expertise.
- Subscribe – You probably get heaps of unwanted email newsletters, so make sure the ones you get are useful. Subscribe to those of other businesses or experts in your industry sector, find out what they’re talking about, it’s likely you will have something to say on the subject.
- Read the news – Both local, national and international. Search through news headlines to help you write a post on a currently trending topic that will interest your audience. If you are quick to jump on a relevant story your website may see an increase in traffic.
- Visit the Hubspot Blog Topic Generator – This tool is awesome – Find it HERE
- Get a Flipboard account – This is a social-network aggregation mobile app. It pulls in feeds from all your social channels and lays them out in an easy to read magazine-format.
- Ask somebody else to do the work for you – Invite somebody to be a guest blogger. It could be a client, it could be another industry influencer. It could be somebody who works in an industry that compliments yours. As an example if you’re a real estate agent you might ask an interior designer to blog for you.
- Review something – If you’re an accountant you might review a new accounting software programme… If you’re a chef you might review a new kitchen gadget. Or ask somebody to review one of your products or services.
- Recycle – Take a look through your back catalogue of blog posts. Maybe you’ve written one that needs an update. Fresh information is always coming out and some of your older posts may become a little less accurate over time. If you’re having a “blank screen” moment use it as an opportunity to update these posts.
