Welcome Guest!
Search
My Sites
Navigation Links
Copyright
All music on benbarden.com is free to share for non-commercial use only. Please see the music pages for more information.
All other content: Copyright © 2009 Ben Barden.
All Rights Reserved.
Three tips for thinking up new content
< Collecting posts for a weekly round-up | Unsorted Posts | Comparing Twitter and blogging >
Running out of things to write about? Maybe you need a few tips to help you think up some new posts. Well, you came to the right post!1. Organise your content.
In take a moment to organise your content, I explain why you should divide your content into sections instead of lumping it all in one.Having done a bit of reorganisation, I'm one step closer to where I want to be with my site. My new Blogging Guide contains most of the content that used to be in Tutorials, but with a few new areas. Meanwhile, Tutorials now contains the posts that are for a specific purpose or to help you learn something with the use of screenshots.
I've been moving posts into these sections so you can find them more easily in future. But there's another reason - it allows me to see which sections don't have many posts in yet. For instance, Promoting your site only has 2 items, and Getting over the hump only has 4 items. This post will end up in Getting over the hump once it's no longer on the front page. I see a few sections with only 3 items and I may add some more in the future, so there are always new things for me to write about.
By properly sorting your posts into categories or whatever you use to do this (it varies depending on your blogging system), it's a lot easier to see which types of content are currently lacking.
2. Engage in discussions.
Post on forums, write great comments, and reply to comments on your site. Send emails and get to know some of your fellow bloggers. Basically, get into discussions.When you add your thoughts to a forum topic, a post on another site, or by replying to a comment on your own site, you may write things that give you some content for a future post. Maybe you didn't think of them until you started contributing to that discussion. That's the whole point - other people can help you come up with posts you might never have thought of previously.
You can even create a "cross-site" dialogue by writing a post that's actually a reply to a post on another site. Make sure you link to the site you're referring to. Don't steal content though.
3. Change your focus.
You don't have to completely change the point of your site. Perhaps all you need is to broaden your subject matter - or be more specific. Sites that are too specific can run out of content very quickly, and those that are too broad can be very hard to write for without becoming an "anything and everything" site. Not that those sites can't be successful. It's just a lot harder to attract readers to a site where there isn't really an overall point to it.Don't take this suggestion lightly - only do it if you're sure it's the right thing to do. Don't keep changing your site around - it'll just confuse your readers.
What do you think?
When you run out of content ideas, what do you do?Related Content
Comments on Three tips for thinking up new content
I like to keep a few ideas "up my sleeve" for days when nothing inspires me in terms of a post idea. Only problem is, I'm still waiting for that to happen. LOL. I think that's the nature of my blogs though.
LighteningOnline being a personal blog, I blog about anything pertaining to my life at the time. Gives me scope for plenty of material.
Lightening's Blogworld is a little more specific in that it pertains to what is happening in my blogworld. Again, because it doesn't have a "specific" topic (such as just blogging tips) it gives me room for more variety and therefore it's easier to come up with material.
I think the fact that they are a broader "niche" does make promotion a little more difficult but it sure makes coming up with content a little easier.
Ben, as usual good points you have made. This may be off topic but I was looking around going back to some older posts and I kind of got lost. I wanted to go back to your latest post and did not see a way to get to your "home page". This may be it. Is there something that I missed? One more thing. I checked my Google reader and it seems to be ok now. I also put my whole blog name on my header. One of these days I am going to go with Majestic I swear. Thanks
Lulu - thanks for the comment, glad I could help. Good luck with NaBloPoMo if you decide to do it. :)
Lightening - I have an increasing number of post ideas that I haven't used yet, but a lot of them would be quite difficult to write. I may have to ditch a few of them eventually as some have been there since January. My site used to be a personal blog with a few tips here and there, but I got sick of it as nobody really commented. Then again, I changed it just before I joined Entrecard, so that would have made a difference.
ettarose - good to see those changes to your site, thanks! You can get back to my home page by clicking on the logo image at the top, or the "Blog" link just beneath it.
Thanks for the comments! :)
I am thinking about doing NaPoBloMo sometime this year but am worried I won`t have enought contect but you post was really good inspiration for thinking about what I could do!!!
Thanks!