What to write about when you’ve run out of ideas
At a certain point in anyone’s blog, there comes a point when you don’t know what else you can write about.
At a certain point in anyone’s blog, there comes a point when you don’t know what else you can write about. You explored the ins and outs of your blog’s topic, you’ve done interviews, ask me anything’s (AMAs), and a variety of other specialty posts. And now you just can’t get yourself to think of any other possible blog posts.
Luckily, there are a lot of methods you can use to come up with great, insightful, and fresh posts to keep your blog thriving and your readers interested. If you are having trouble coming up with new ideas for posts for your blog, look no further than this post.
Read Your Earlier Posts
I know that this sounds counter-intuitive, but reading through your previous blog posts will likely give you plenty of ideas for new posts. Be sure to not only read through your posts, but also take a close look at the comments on the post. If there were a good amount of questions directed at a particular topic or perhaps an area of huge debate amongst your readers, this would be an excellent idea for a blog post. Also, you may also notice posts that leave some topics underdeveloped while fully explaining others. Go back over these underdeveloped topics; you may have enough ideas to warrant multiple posts on them.
Subscribe to Competing Blogs
You should already be subscribed to blogs related to your blog topic, but in case you aren’t, do so now! Reading different perspectives and insights about your blog topic can be extremely valuable, and you may find some obvious topics that your blog has not yet covered. Make them your own though; you definitely don’t want your posts to look like recycled or spin-off posts from competing blogs.
Write a Stream of Consciousness Post
Stream of consciousness (SOC) isn’t a style reserved only for literary heavyweights. Blogs can work incredibly well with SOC posts because they:
Give you more content.
Break up the monotony of your blog with surprising variety.
Give plenty of ideas for content for the future of your blog.
To write a SOC post, all you need to do is the following:
Write non-stop for a set period of time.
Do not slow down or edit while writing.
In general, just try to write whatever is on your mind without worrying about quality and structure. Of course, do try to keep the writing in your SOC on topic with your blog, which means you may have to slow down occasionally or redirect your thoughts. Still, allow your mind to explore unexpected tangents. Even if they seem unrelated to your blog, you’d be surprised how your mind naturally travels over ideas that connect in odd ways. Maybe you will come up with an interesting metaphor for a topic. Not all of the content will be usable, but at least you will come across some great or interesting ideas for future topics to explore in your blog. I generally do the same things on my blog Digital Cruise.