Copyright ? 2005 Tinu AbayomiPaul
It's inevitable. Everyone hits the wall. Whether you've
been blogging ten weeks, ten minutes, or ten months,
eventually you'll find yourself with absolutely nothing
to say.
Or so you think.
So what in the world do you do when you're stumped?
1- Talk about what you've already talked about
Pick a topic you've gone over before and give it some
spin.
Try a new angle, like playing devil's advocate. For
example, if you are a search engine journalist, and
last week your position was that most mainstream sites
need Google traffic to survive, try proving your point
from the con perspective, instead of the pro position.
There are dozens of ways to write about the same thing.
By putting your point another way, you might give
someone in your audience what a client of mine referred
to as an Ah-ha! moment. That's when they realize the
true value of the items for sale at your site to them
and their business.
2- Talk about what someone else is talking about
If you want to have a popular blog, find other bloggers
in similar areas, and talk about what they said in
their posts. Friendly debate can often spark the soap-opera
like drama that will have both your audiences visiting
both blogs to see what the other fella had to say.
As an added bonus, if both of you are using Trackback
in your blogs, you've got yourself a mini-link party
that other people who are speaking on similar topics
will want to join..
3- Have yourself a good rant
The intimate nature and voice of blogs lends itself
well to the opinionated, angry ramble. But as a professional,
don't let yourself get too unfocused, and remember
to back up your opinion with facts.
4- Feature someone, something or somewhere
I like to call mine of the Day.
As I zip around the Net conducting my business and
research, if my attention is called to a resource
or tool that my audience might find useful, I hit
my blog bookmarklet and save that bad boy for later.
Then when I get too busy for a full blown tip, I'll
crown the resource, feed, tool, download or freebie
the featured Deal of the Day, changing the word deal
to something else more appropriate as needed.
After a while, my audience started to look for it
as a feature, as opposed to being upset at the interruption
in my mad, mad rambles.
5- Let someone else talk for a change
Invite a guest blogger, or post an article that offers
free reprint rights, the same way you would in a newsletter.
Of course you want to leave the resource box intact,
or let the guest promote their site, which brings
me to the most common complaint about this tactic.
But I don't want to send people away from my site.
Guess what? You'll never believe what I found out.
Ready?
In a recent startling discovery, I've found that 100%
of my visitors eventually turn off their computers
or take otherwise drastic measures that cause them
to leave my site. Apparently this is beyond prevention,
though you can stall them for hours sometimes with
good content.
Of course you don't want to send them on their way
prematurely, but if you're a good blogger, and have
done what you can to make sure they sign up to your
blog email updates or site feed, they'll be back.
Just be sure that you're giving them a good enough
reason.
In the meantime, since they're going to leave anyway,
it might as well be somewhere that gives you some
direct or in-direct benefit.
So there you have it - enough material for five more
days of posts.
Happy Blogging!