How to Always Have Something to Write About

It seems like everyone has a blog. A blog is a place where you can put our your professional or personal opinion on any subject. They now come in many different forms—Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, YouTube and more are all forms of blogs.  Enough about what a blog is—you’re here to learn how to always have something to write about.

The hardest part about a blog isn’t starting one, it’s continually posting to it over time.  Here are some common excuses you may tell yourself when it comes to writing a new blog post:

“I don’t have the time.”

“I don’t feel like it.”

“I don’t know what to write about.”

“I don’t know where to start.”

The first two are more of a personal problem. Sorry, I can’t help you with those, but I can help you with the other two.

“I don’t know what to write about.”

There are a couple of things you can do to come up with ideas of what you can write about.

1.    When you get an idea, write about it.

Throughout your day ideas are going to pop up in your head. Find somewhere to write them down. Smart phones are great especially if you us Evernote. Briefly write down what the idea is about so when it comes time to sit down and crank out your next blog piece you’ll know what you want to write about.

2.    Search the internet.

The Internet is loaded with information. Get on the search engine of your choice and search something broad then more specific. Pretty much every search engine can filter out by ‘most recent’ in advanced search options. That way you can find something current and relevant on a topic that interests you and your audience.

3.    Follow other blogs that interest you.

Even though your blog is unique because it has your voice. There are 3.9 million personal bloggers out there talking about the same thing you are.  Find a post of theirs that you like and write about the same topic. Just make sure to give them credit where deserved and it’s considered polite to give them a backlink even if you mention their post or not. You can even send them an e-mail letting them know you are using them as a reference. Building an online blogger relationship can be very helpful in many ways.

4.    Subscribe to a newsletter or two.

Online newsletters are a fantastic way to keep up with the news or hot topics. Most newsletters go out daily or at least once a week. Find a website or blog that interests you and subscribe to their newsletter.

“I don’t know where to start.”

The most important thing to remember when starting a new post is to just begin somewhere. It could be the conclusion, the middle, or the beginning. The more you continue writing, the more everything falls into place. It will all make sense.

1.    Bullet Points

Don’t just sit at your computer contemplating, “How best should I write this?” Begin by writing down some bullet points. The final product doesn’t have to have bullet points in it but bullet points help you organize the flow of your blog from top to bottom.

2.    Personal experience

A great way to start off your blog is to introduce it with a personal experience that relates to the topic you are talking about. It’s important to tell you experience in a captivating way that is easy to understand and resonates with your audience.

3.    Ask a question

Your first sentence could be a question. Many of your new audience found your post by searching it on a search engine or it was shared on social media. They searched it because they had a question they want answered. This means the question should tell your audience what your post is going to be about.

4.    Don’t delete anything

Once again, your draft doesn’t equal your final product. When drafting out your blog post you might be jumping around ideas or how you want to say something. Don’t erase a sentence or a paragraph because you found a better way to express yourself. Keep any content you have written until you are 100% certain you don’t need it anymore.

All these things are great to help you begin writing. If you want to blog, the worst thing you could do is not write. No matter how bad you think it’s written or how stupid the topic seems, write. If you aren’t being consistent with your posts, your audience will forget about you. One bad or boring post isn’t going to be the end of the world. Just make sure you don’t write a bad or boring post all the time.

Mike Alder is a University of Utah business marketing student and marketing specialist at Lendio. Passionate about entrepreneurship, small businesses, and inbound marketing. Mike shows his passion by sharing stories of successful entrepreneurs and companies with small business owners on the Lendio blog. He makes these big success stories easy-to-apply in simple and easy to read language for the everyday small business owner and entrepreneur.

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