Some people get in a jam, or something happens in their life that they can’t blog a lot for a certain period of time. For people who read their blog, this can be annoying because you expect new content from them. Here are 8 things you can do to help make sure you always have content rolling on your site, even when you are in a hard time in your life.
Write a list of ideas.
Whenever you think of an idea for any type of blog post, related to your subject or not, write it down. This allows you to have a good place to start when you aren’t ‘inspired’. Often when something happens in your life, it takes more priority over your blog, so you are thinking about it constantly instead of a blog post.Â
Have a backup of blog posts.
Whenever I can, I try to have at least 2-3 blog posts that are ready to go. This makes it much easier when I need to do something really important, because now I can simply press publish and it is up. If you use WordPress, you can schedule posts. So if you go on vacation, your posts can go out at set times while you are away.
Make a post about how you post
Some of the easiest blog posts to write are about things you are already doing. You already easily know how to do it, so it should be natural to write about it. I actually do have a list of ideas for my blog, and drafts for when I need them. If you’ve read my blog, I post often about things I am already doing, or things I would like to do. If you are strapped for time, writing on something that doesn’t require a lot of brain work is probably the best way.
Lists
Lists are simple, quick, and often can be made in less than 3-4 minutes. Find a topic, and then go thorugh and name a bunch of items about that topic. If you have 15+, you probably should either not write any description, or a one line subscription. If you do a paragraph per item people might get bored. Anything less than 5 should have some explanation with each item.
Don’t let distractions get to you
You might be in a situation where someone could call you at any moment. But don’t be distracted by waiting for the call, it will happen anyway. Simply start writing and if someone calls, they call, if you finish before they call, you just got a blog post done.Â
Outline
Many people simply delve into blog posts going from start to finish. I think that if you are dealing with something either fairly long, or has a lot of points you want to hit on, outline it before hand. I simply write headers for each part I’m talking about and maybe a quick sentence. Then I come back and write the actual content afterwards.
Guest Posts
When you can’t blog, give other people a chance to reach your readers. Ask a few friends to guest post on your blog. Normally, they will be willing to do so, and it benefits them by getting traffic going to their site. It can also generate traffic going to your site. My second most read article was written by Holden Page at lostthetech.com.Â
Post less often
Some people recommend this method even when you can post. People are already swamped with news stories from everywhere else, so if you post less often and post better content, your readers actually look forward to the next post. It also helps you because you can re-edit stuff and pick more worthy topics to talk about instead of just trying to get out a post.
If you are caught in a bind, your blog isn’t your number 1 priority. Use some of these techniques to get through the bind, and we all hope to see you on the other side.