“I am tired of blogging,” a friend told me.
As I resisted the urge to play him the world's tiniest violin, I asked him why he was tired.
“I am out of ideas,” he told me.
"Blog about that," I told him. "Write about how you are out of ideas."
"You're messing with me aren’t you," my friend asked me.
"Always," I told him. "But I'm also serious."
I like to tease my friend, but the reality is we’ve all been where he is at some point in our blogging lives. It can often feel as though you’ve said everything you can possibly say, and tried every trick you can possibly try.
This is why bloggers give up. They throw in the towel. They come down with what I call "the blogging blues" and assume there is no remedy.
Well, I'm no doctor, but I do know a thing or two about the blogging blues.
If you're tired of blogging, try the following four techniques. At the end of the post in my bio section, I'll show you where you can get four more.
Ready? Let's go.
1. Read your old blog posts
If you’ve been blogging for any length of time, you have quite the collection of posts in your archives. And, if you're like me, you’ve forgotten some of the things you wrote.
Read through them.
In addition to potentially giving you new ideas (maybe you will find a post you can update, or a bullet point you could flesh out into a post of its very own), reading your old posts will reconnect you to the days when you weren’t down on blogging.
You'll see the joy you once poured into your writing, and you may just get to experience this joy all over again.
2. Focus on the blogs of others and leave comments
Sometimes the best way to beat being down on your blog is to shift focus away from your blog and onto the blogs of others.
Forget about writing. Forget about brainstorming new topics. Forget about your blog altogether.
Go visit the blogs you already read and enjoy, or go find new ones. Read their posts. And don't just skim through them. Read them.
After you’ve read them, leave detailed, insightful, helpful comments.
What's the point?
Well, for starters, you’re taking pressure off of yourself. Freed from the burden of conjuring topic ideas for posts, you can relax.
But secondly, you're getting back to the core concept of blogging, which is interacting and engaging with others.
When you concentrate solely on leaving great comments on other blogs, you're no longer thinking about yourself and your own work. You're shining the light onto others.
Plus, you might just think of a few topic ideas during this process.
3. Tweak your blog design
It’s been a said a new coat of paint can transform a room. If it’s good for your kitchen, why not your blog?
Unless you’ve already abandoned it, the reality is no one looks at your blog and its design as much as you do.
Mix it up.
Change your color scheme. Play around with a new logo or header. Add that cool gadget to your sidebar you’ve seen on other blogs.
Changing the way your blog looks could change the way you’re currently feeling about your blog. And if what you’re feeling is negative, change can only be a good thing.
4. Write something off topic and fun
It’s true. Some of the people who blog don’t even like blogging. It’s a job to them.
But for most of us?
We got into it because we enjoy it! Sure, we want to be successful, and many of us try to make some money from it, but deep down blogging is something we love to do.
However, when writer’s block or the blogging blues hits, blogging stops being fun. It becomes work, and boring work at that.
What to do?
Get back to the root of why you love blogging in the first place. Tell a story. It doesn’t have to be on topic. In fact, it’s best if it’s completely off topic.
Need an example?
I once wrote a story about camping. Except it wasn’t “me” writing it. It was a bear writing it. A bear who called himself “Bob Human” and who was, you guessed it, pretending to be a human. The bear was trying to trick campers into doing things like smothering themselves in honey so he could eat them.
It was crazy. It was hilarious. And it helped me get through the blogging blues I was experiencing at the time.
Whatever off-topic story you write about, make it fun. You should laugh while writing it.
And no, you don’t have to publish it. But do share your humorous masterpiece with family and friends.
Over to you
What tricks have you used to get over the blogging blues? Let me know in a comment below.
Kevin Duncan is the owner of Be A Better Blogger, where he helps people become the best bloggers they can be. Click here to get 4 more free tips for beating the blogging blues.
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