Tips to Create Content When Your Blog has the Blahs

Some days, the hardest thing in the world to do is create content. It seems that no matter how herculean the effort, the words just sit there like a lump.

I’m writing metaphorically, of course. But those can be frustrating days – you want so badly to write something compelling and the words just don’t come. The more you force it, the worse it seems to get. As someone who has spent more than 25 years as a writer, I’ve been in that position enough times to appreciate just how miserable it is.

That’s why I’m going to share a little content creation secret – the list.

The list is your friend when you are having an off day creatively. They are generally easy to put together and readers love them. They like to read them, they like to argue about them and – if you do a list compelling enough – they will extend that argument to their friends, spreading inbound links to your site all the way.

Now, you don’t want to throw just any kind of list out there. You do need to give it a little bit of thought. For those of you located here in Wisconsin who can relate your marketing strategy to the Green Bay Packers, a top 10 reasons the Pack will return to the Super Bowl list is an outstanding choice.

Most of us don’t have a clear link to that kind of list, though. But we do have other things of interest that we can use. As Frank Isca wrote in his blog, your existing content is a goldmine of opportunity. Need a list? What do the analytics say are the most popular things customers and leads do on your website? Turn that into a top 5 or a top 10 list, with corresponding links.

Not only does it give you a compelling blog entry, but as readers spread the list, they also create more inbound link opportunities to bring others to your site.

Here at Weidert, for example, we publish a new blog post almost every day of the work week. By looking at our analyst software, I can quickly determine which blog posts are the most popular. Now, I can put them in a list as links, like this:

The Whole Brain Marketing Blog Top Five

1. Small Businesses Missing the Point of Social Media, Inbound Marketing
2. A Good Tweet Can Help Your Inbound Marketing Effort
3. Best Social Media Stories Of The Week
4. 6 Reasons To Consider HubSpot’s CMS For Your Next Website
5. Top 6 Check List When Launching Your New Website

Simple enough. I’ve created a quality post based on our existing content, created an opportunity to spread inbound links and introduced popular content to customers and prospects who might have missed it the first time.

Additionally, since these topics are the most widely read, I now have a good idea of things I should be writing about in the future.

Not bad for a day when your blog had the blahs.

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