It happens to the best of us (and to me, too): You hit a wall and can’t come up with anything to blog about. Blogger’s block.
For your average blogger, who’s just a regular person blogging, this isn’t really a big deal. Most bloggers go on breaks or take unplanned hiatuses — they’re just writing for themselves and a select group of family and friends, so there’s no problem.
But things are different if you’re explicitly blogging for an audience… like if you’re blogging not just for its own sake, but to support your customers and your small business.
Presumably, you were upfront and set expectations about how frequently you were going to blog. But the thing about setting expectations is you have to fulfill them.
So, the clock is ticking, and you’re overdue for a post. The most important thing you can do at this point is not to panic. The last thing you want to do is force out a crappy filler post — it won’t help, and will quite probably be counterproductive.
The best thing you can do is not get to this point in the first place. Now, this is not as unhelpful as it sounds, but only if you keep something in the tank in reserve. This doesn’t mean coming up with a good idea and then just sitting on it: Once you start blogging, you’ll probably get to the point where you find out you can’t possibly get to everything you want to write about (you’ve got that small business to run, and the rest of your life, remember?)
Sometimes, you’ll have a half-formed idea that never quite takes off. Or, by the time you can spare some time to write about something, events will have passed you by. This is not wasted effort — take these incomplete ideas, and stick them in your hopper for future consideration.
As I mentioned in the Solutions Out Loud Podcast (“Episode #6 – “The Inaugural Ball” Episode“), I keep a slushpile of potential topics, scattered across the drafts in my blog control panel, as well as in my del.icio.us public bookmarks. (Remember, by publicly sharing your bookmarks, you’re helping to socially share your expertise.) And usually, things will come around — all I need is a hook, and then I can update my earlier unformed thought and get it on out there.
Less often, I’ll go in and clear out my slushpile, by giving a quick postmortem on a few things that I never got to do full-fledged entries about, talking about why I originally thought they were interesting, then why I didn’t get around to blogging them.
But what if your reserve tank is empty? In case you’ve dug yourself into that substantial hole:
* Write about something you have written about before: Revisit a previous entry and post a followup, and add new information that either challenges or supports your previous statement.
* Write about something you haven’t written about before: There’s got to be some aspect of your business or industry that you haven’t written about. Use this as an opportunity to break new ground.
* Be honest: Remember, the truth will set you free… or at least, give you some new material. If you truly feel you have nothing to write about, tell people why you have nothing to write about. If your business is subject to vicious seasonality, you can talk about that. If your entire industry is experiencing a downturn, you can talk about that.
Like I said, the nature of the blogging game is usually too much to write about and not enough time with which to do it. Use that to your advantage, and build up your topic reserve, so you can dip into it during lean topical times.
Have your own way of fighting out of a lull? Please share your tips in the comments.
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