What do you do when you can't think what to blog about?

I’m sure you know the feeling.  It’s time for some blogging.  Maybe it’s your scheduled day to post.  Maybe it’s been a little while.  Whatever the reason, you know today’s the day to get back to the dashboard, whip up a quick post and hit the send button.

Except when you look at your blogging “to do” list – nothing grabs your attention.  When you look at some half-finished (half-baked?!) ideas in your drafts folder – you can’t find the energy or motivation to dust them down and finish them off.  You’ve a library full of useful links that you want to share – but suddenly can’t think of any way to add value to what a thousand other bloggers have already written.

And so you sit.  Prevaricate for a bit.  Surf the blogosphere to see what others are writing about.  (Only makes it worse: how come they sound so chirpy?)  Make another mug of coffee.  Surf a bit more.  Hope the inspiration will strike.   Feel the weight of the “must blog today” pressing down on your shoulders.

Sound familiar?  Well that was me this morning, until I remembered the only sure-fire way I know to get writing and blogging again.

It’s a two-step strategy.

Step 1.    Write what you know. 

Even if it’s the state of being stuck – or rather, especially if it’s the state of being stuck.  The act of writing about it will get you unstuck again.

Step 2.     Ask your readers for help.

Which is where you come in.

Because you know Claire and I have got a pretty neat blogging “to do” list for the Business Blog Angel site.  We’re using a "writeboard" on basecamp to jot down ideas, capture links, brainstorm possibilities, keep a note of what’s already been covered and comment on each other’s suggestions.

But as none of the ideas were jumping out and saying “blog me now” I figured it would help to get some input from all of you about the items that should be moved to the top of the list.  Some of the ideas we’ve been thinking about are:

More on widgets – like the recent posts on blogrush and mybloglog, and covering other things that have come along in recent months like feedjit and blogcatalog

Showcasing some of the client blogroll – you might like this one! Highlighting some of the new blogs that are up and running plus some of the redesigns that Claire’s been doing with you (a branding makeover I think she calls it)

Social media and branding – finding your way through the maze of social media services, making the best use of your time – but not missing opportunities to promote your brand online

Blogging for business – sharing some of your success stories about business opportunities that have opened up as a result of blogging (got a good story you want to share here?)

Blogging strategies – some conversation about how to get into your blogging stride, and questions like this one – what do you do when you can't think what to blog about?

If you’ve got any comments, suggestions, preferences for things you do (or don’t) want to see us blogging about – please let us know! 

You can leave a comment in the box below,  leave a voice mail message (right hand side of the BBA site), e-mail me joanna@businessblogangel.com or chip in with your suggestions at the Facebook group for Business Blog Angel clients and colleagues.  (Contact Claire at Facebook if you’d like to join)

And if you’ve got an answer for my opening question: what do you do when you can't think what to blog about? – please feel free to share:-)

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Joanna Young from Confident Writing is blogging with Claire as part of the Business Blog Angel team. 

The recent blogging focus has been on:

Watching your widgets: blogging lessons from Blogrush

How to create a blogroll

Making the most of RSS: how to take care of your feed

10 ways that MyBlogLog can help you blog

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Comments

[Jessie]

I try to avoid situations when I don't have topics to blog about. I get ideas from time to time, sometimes there're hundreds of them, sometimes not. When I'm having lots of ideas I'm trying to be a good squirrel and save them for later. I use Wrike http://www.wrike.com/ for it. The great thing is I can put a due date to my note on some idea and the tool will remind me about just on time. Unfortunately, I didn't find the due date feature in Basecamp.

[Blog Angel Team (Joanna)]

Hi Jessie, thanks for pointing us towards wrike - I haven't come across that one before.

I'm impressed that you manage to squirrel away and use your ideas for blogs - I often have a long list of ideas jotted down, but it doesn't always help me when I feel stuck or lacking in inspiration - they don't 'speak' to me for some reason, however good an idea they seemed when I first wrote them down...

Joanna

[Sandra]

Yep, I perfectly know what you mean... Last time I had this feeling of "time to blog again" one of my commentators (on the German blog) helped me out. He had dropped me a note literally judging and blaming me for my low frequency of articles and - for this man even worse - for writing about my seminar in March. "Advertising, yuck!!!" I loved that comment and had my blog for the day. My coaching analogy is "Creating a lifetime movie". So I wrote about self-appointed co-directors visiting neighbor sets and directing the movies there... ;-)

[Blog Angel Team (Joanna)]

Hi Sandra, thanks for the reminder that our readers can inspire us in more ways than one!

Thanks also for letting us know about the coaching analogy that you use - I know there are lots of coaches amongst our readers and I'm sure they'll be interested to dip into your work.

Best wishes

Joanna