What keeps you from blogging?
- Do you have too many online and real life distractions? Not enough time?
- Do you have to write the perfect post?
- Are you unsure what your readership wants/needs to hear from you?
- Does your creativity ebb and flow?
You are not alone
Some of these excuses reasons for not blogging don’t need brilliant solutions. They call for old-fashioned self-discipline.
Too many distractions and not enough time are cover-ups for other reasons for not getting that post written.
Overcome distractions, lack of time & perfectionism
Turn off social media, close Gmail, shut your office door, shut off your phone. THEN book a daily or weekly time to blog and keep it sacrosanct. Block the time in your calendar.
Perfectionism. That’s about the perfect topic, perfect headline, perfect image, and the perfect word. Give it up. Don’t let perfectionism paralyze you. The absolute best way to get over the perfect post syndrome is to just do it. And accept that you may not be perfect.
Overcome the knowledge-hole
Brainstorm. Take 30 minutes. Think about the questions that clients/friends/colleagues ask you every day. Write them down. Then create posts around those questions. Answer them honestly and completely. That’s what your audience wants to hear from you. They ask you because they want the answers and they think you have them.
Separate brainstorming sessions from blogging
When you sit down to create a post, you need to know beforehand what you are writing about. Commit to brainstorming. Identify key topics you can write about that you think that your audience will want to read about.
Smooth out the ups and downs in creativity
There are a few tactics and tools you can use to overcome the valleys in your content creation.
- Create an editorial calendar: You’ve created some ideas to blog about. You’ve committed/blocked off time to write the post. Now determine when you’ll publish and be consistent. This is your editorial calendar. Use an old-fashioned wall calendar or create a content calendar in Google.
- Block blogging: Write a series of posts ahead of time and schedule them throughout the month
- Use the WordPress editorial calendar plugin: For bloggers who use WordPress there is a great plugin that gives an overview of your blogging schedule. You can drag and drop posts and edit right in the calendar.
Blogging is like exercise: the more you do it, the better shape you are in. Get rid of distractions, don’t worry about doing it perfectly, have a plan and commit the time.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Blogging is like exercise: the more you do it, the better shape you are in. #blogging #amwriting #contentmarketing” quote=”Blogging is like exercise: the more you do it, the better shape you are in. “]
Sounds like a success recipe to me. Just wondering: Do you have other tactics that help you to blog consistently? Please leave me a comment and let me know.
