Being a blogger can be extremely satisfying. After all, when it goes right you are writing about topics that you love. This leads creating content that you, and your readers, love. However, there is a downside to being a blogger – especially when the well begins to run dry.

What is it, you ask? Inspiration.

The first thing to know about hitting a slump as a blogger is that it happens to all of us. When it happens to me, I turn to these must-read blogs. While other bloggers I know like to step away from the computer.

No matter what your trick is to find inspiration, here are some tricks that I have picked over the years on how to find inspiration as a blogger.

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Write Down Your Ideas

Maybe it is just a sentence or a keyword, either way, you want to keep a record of your ideas.  Did you know that Keith Richards wrote Satisfaction when he woke up one night and played a few bars into a tape recorder?  After recording the bars, he went back to bed and didn’t even remember it until he played back the tape in the morning.

There you have it, some of the best ideas in the world can come to you at any time.  As such, you want to write down your ideas so that you can go back to them for inspiration when you are looking for something to help you break out of a creative funk.

How to do this?  Some people keep everything in a notebook, while others will use a spreadsheet.  The way is probably a combination of the two.  Using a notebook – this is what Hemingway did – when you are not in front of the computer and then putting these ideas into a spreadsheet to allow for easy indexing later.

 

Check out the Competition

Blogging shouldn’t happen in a vacuum.  In fact, you want to look at what other bloggers are doing, and importantly what topics are proving most successful for them.  In this way, you can create a conduit of ideas based on what other people are doing.

Now, this is not plagiarism, this is inspiration and you what you don’t want to do is copy and paste what other bloggers are doing.  Instead, look at their blogs to get ideas for your own.

I’ll give you an example.  What if you have a wedding blog and you want to write about the best tent structure for an outdoor wedding.  One place to start is by looking at other blogs on the subject and then go to the manufacturers websites.  From there you will have a background on the topic and can then talk to your contacts in the wedding planning world to get their feedback on the best options.

'Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away at costs'. Henry FordClick To Tweet

 

Check the Pulse of Your Readers

Let’s face it, your readers are the ones who butter your bread.  I mean, without them your blog would just be another website on the interwebs.  As such, you want to reach out to your readers to see what they are interested in.

You’d be surprised how efficient it can be to reach out to your readers for ideas and this sort of crowdsourcing can push you into new creative directions without even knowing it.

You may want to read: 21 Simple Tricks to Write Content That Magnetizes Visitors

 

Trend Watching

As you know, blogging on popular topics can help drive traffic to your site.  A great way to write content is to keep eye on what is trending and then write about it.

Maybe it is just a short-form blog that you can pop out in 30 minutes or so.  Doing so will help to expand your horizons while keeping you inspired.

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Don’t Stop Writing

Every great blogger knows that they need to be methodical about their writing.

As such, they need to schedule an hour or two every day is sit down in front of their computer and pound out one or two original ideas.  This will not only help to keep your blog fresh but it will also give you the discipline to work through the inevitable writer’s block.

 

Know When to Take a Break

Yes, you need discipline to sit in front of your computer every day.  But you also need to know when to take a break.  Doing so will help to recharge your battery and remind you why you started blogging in the first place.

If the ideas aren’t flowing, then don’t force it.  Write for an hour or two, or go back and revise something that you have written before.  Then have the discipline to get up and walk away from your computer when time is up. This will help you to stay focused without losing your passion for blogging.