Two blogging tricks for when you run out of ideas

Like me, I'm sure you hear people talk about blogging regularly. And it always pushes the next question to the surface: what if I have nothing to write?

Now if you've ever asked me the question - what do you do when you have no idea what to write about - you know that I've shared a simple answer with you.

"I wake up each morning and don't worry that I'll have nothing to say. It's the same for writing."

And while that's true, there's a pair of blogging tricks that I don't think I've publicly shared for why I never seem to stress about what to write about.

Mind you - the goal isn't just to write. It's to be helpful.

Trick #1 - Steal someone else's topic

Yes, I did just write that. But let me be more clear and direct: Steal someone else's topic or title, but not their content.

Here's how it works for me.

Sometimes I read a tweet that has a cool title in it - "3 ways to save an hour of your time every day" or "Make your quoting profitable"

Maybe I see the same titles in an email that has been sent to me, newsletter-ish.

It doesn't matter where I see it, I write it down in a file. And here's the important thing.

If I like the title, I don't read the article.

What I'm saying is that I like the idea as a topic to write about, but I don't want to read their content because I feel like I have my own take on the topic. And I don't want to change or shape my take.

So I keep the title, or even as I write the title down, I tweak it for me.

And that gives me a long list of titles to inspire me when I look at a blank page and don't know if I have something to say.

Inspiring titles can quickly fuel me because no matter what, I still have my own opinions and history. And those can turn into posts pretty quickly.

Trick #2 - Answer a question

My second trick also helps me focus when I get stuck.

Again, the goal when I write is to be helpful. So this approach is especially useful to me.

I have joined several groups - from Facebook groups to LinkedIn groups, and even Quora.

In each group, people show up and ask questions. Some of them are really hard but many of them aren't.

I find, as I read them, that I often have answers to them.

So when I get stuck for a topic, I jump into those groups and read for about 10 minutes. In that time, I often find a question I can not only answer, but am excited to answer.

And that second part (the excited part) is critical to me, because if not, I'll not be inspired to write. But it never fails. I always find a question I care enough about, to use as inspiration.

Want more tricks?

If you want more tricks to blogging, let me know. I'll put you on a list to get more of my blogging posts.