What’s the topic of your next blog post? Something I often hear amongst business owners, website owners, and bloggers is that they struggle sometimes coming up with topics. In the writing world it’s known as Writer’s Block. 
In the blogging world it’s just called Blogger’s Block. If you’ve suffered from this at some point during your blogging career or even when you’ve sat down to write your website copy then you’ve come to the right place. Over the last couple years I’ve come up with a strategy I use almost every day for coming up with blogging topics to write about. You should be able to use this strategy for your own blog and website and hopefully it will eliminate most of the stress you feel when it comes to writing.
Blog Post Title Idea Generator
When I write blog posts I separate ideas into post formats. There are many different posts formats and they are always changing, but for most purposes I find that three works pretty well in most cases. These are the three post formats I use:
- News Commentary
- Featured Story
- How to
Here is quick definition of each type of post.
News Commentary
There are some writers that chase the news. This can work, but it’s tiring and only one source of news can truly break stories. It’s a tough game and I don’t recommend doing this if you’re new to blogging. It’s also a fleeting game where posts have limited lifetime value, which is crucial for blogging success.
What I prefer instead is news commentary. People will hear about the news from their preferred source. From there, some interpret the news so they can react.
The understanding of news events is something people develop over time. It comes from past experiences, but it also comes from learning by looking to others for guidance. This is where the real value in news commentary comes in. As an expert in your industry with years of experience, you have value to offer regarding the understanding of news events. When something newsworthy happens in your industry, you can create blog posts that address the topic, but then go into your own interpretation of how it will impact your audience. News commentary can be extremely valuable for an audience and rewarding for a business blogger.
Featured Story
There are instances when news commentary will have a lifespan. I think the posts have long lives than simply stating the news, but there is a lifespan. That’s why featured stories are important for a blogging strategy. The addition of this format allows for a blog that is well balance in various forms of blogging content.
A featured story is something you research and write that is really unique and interesting.
An example of a featured story would be how the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports on the Green Bay Packers.
A news post is – Packers Rank 23rd in Room Under the NFL Salary Cap
A featured story is – Lang Has Turned From Life of Party to All Business
That’s a really interesting story. It’s something that takes more effort, but it’s a lasting piece of writing that will live on probably forever as fans continue to discover and share it. Sure, the story may have its best days when first published, but it’s something people will remember.
How to
How to blog posts have great lifespan. They are posts that really give readers something worthwhile. Whatever your industry is there are ways to provide useful how to information. You could even turn these into videos or full on manuals for how to accomplish various tasks. It would be something like – How to Clean a Garage Floor. These posts have a long lifespan and are good to have in the blogging mix. Once you have an understanding of these kinds of posts it’s time to create a calendar.
Publishing Calendar
Yes, I know. You’ve heard about the publishing calendar before. It’s supposed to be the greatest thing in the world for blogging. Well the truth is that a calendar actually helps bloggers. A calendar is especially helpful for teams that are collaborating on one or more blogs. Teams I’ve worked on often include business owners, marketers, topic experts and writers. In order for discussions to work there needs to be once place of truth. I’ve found the easiest way is to use a shared blogging calendar or publishing calendar.
For my blogging I try to use Google Calendars. It’s accessible to everyone on the team from anywhere with an Internet connection (The Cloud, as they say). There are alerts and notification settings to let people know when work is completed or when new content is added. It’s a great way to stay on top of your blogging schedule, which is another struggle I see companies having – they can’t stick to a publishing schedule and their blog ends up an afterthought. 
Create your publishing calendar and setup the ideas area. Do this by creating three columns – one for each of the post formats. Next, put due dates and publishing dates to the left. This is where you’ll transfer the best ideas when you want to write posts.
Summary
Something every blogger struggles with is blogger’s block. It happens to the most seasoned writers and to those in business that are writing their own company blogs. It can be difficult to overcome this block. The best way I have found to overcome blogger’s block is to create a publishing calendar. This way you can save ideas when you have them. You can refer to the calendar for a bank of ideas the next time you are feeling blocked. The calendar also works well for making sure your blog stays on schedule.
That’s the method that works for me. What method works for your when it comes to fighting blogger’s block?
About the Author: Dayne Shuda
Dayne Shuda is a content strategist and blogger. He is the founder of Ghost Blog Writers. Website: http://www.dayneshuda.com Twitter: @DayneShuda
