Even Michael Hyatt wakes up some mornings and thinks, ‘I’ve said everything I have to say – probably 3 or 4 times already. There’s nothing left to blog about.” But there is.
STRATEGY #3: Fill the well on a regular basis.
“This is a survival strategy as a blogger,” Hyatt says. “If you don’t have an input source, content coming in, you’re going to soon run out of stuff going out. Your job as a blogger isn’t necessarily to come up with original ideas, but to sometimes synthesize the best ideas or use other ideas as a catalyst to write something stimulating for your audience.”
- Read books.
- Listen to podcasts.
- Conduct reader/customer surveys to learn demographical, statistical info as well as frustrations and desires to serve as fodder for blog posts.
- Collect FAQs you’re routinely asked that you’re tired of answering. Instead of one-off responses, compose the perfect answer in a blog, then point people there instead.
[_] ACTION ITEM: Identify one new way to fill your well.
STRATEGY #4: Collect your ideas in a centralized place.
Find a system, an idea repository, to store all of your blog ideas in one place. It should be something ubiquitous, something that’s always with you everywhere. Maybe it’s a simple notebook, or a system that syncs across your electronic devices. Hyatt uses Evernote to collect title ideas, quotes, outlines and other articles to serve as inspiration.
Then, develop a frictionless workflow for translating those ideas into blog posts. Here’s Hyatt’s:
[_] ACTION ITEM: Decide how you will collect blog post ideas.
STRATEGY #5: Develop a blogging template.
Without a template, you waste time figuring out how to get started and what to do next. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you write a blog post, but your template should fit your brand voice and objectives. Here’s Hyatt’s:
[_] ACTION ITEM: Design your own blogging template.