We’ve talked about a ton of topics recently. We’ve talked about scheduling social media posts, creating calendars, creating videos, and automating your posts. But where does that content come from? If you’re like me, you’re likely spending a fair amount of time writing your own content, picking your own images, thinking about what your next post will be, or making sure that your headers are appropriately tagged for SEO purposes. Like me, you may suffer from writer’s block. Sometimes, I run out of ideas for this blog and how to write for it. Fortunately, since I’ve experienced my fair share of this, I’ve also come up with some strategies to overcome it. How do you overcome writer’s block? I’ll shed some light on some of my most successful strategies.

Use your competitor’s best ideas

I can’t take full credit for this idea. If I’m being completely honest, I was given this idea by a blog written by a website that I use for SEO. Ahrefs came up with this idea of analyzing your direct competitors for traffic and figuring out what they have successfully published and gained a lot of traffic from. Your competitors have successfully figured out which posts are best for them, and if they are successful, they can help you generate new content. In fact, this can help you steal a little bit of your competitor’s traffic. I have a spreadsheet that I work with to build my content, and ahrefs suggests many techniques to perfect this technique. I highly recommend checking out their video guide to help you steal traffic from your competitors.

Use your favorite keywords and build from there

I like to find a trusted set of keywords and build related topics from there. You’ll notice that when I publish blogs, I usually publish in series. I may have a post on content curation, and evolve to evergreen content. Building a series of posts is a lot easier than building your blog one post at a time. You can also research topics online and start from your last post’s keywords to do so. I use my posts to plug into Google and then I figure out which keywords are closely related to my last blog post’s keyword set. This is a great way to make a set of blog posts quickly and easily, and perhaps create a theme for your blog.

Use your tools as inspiration

You’ll notice that a lot of my blog posts have a lot to do with tools and techniques that I use for marketing. If you use a tool, find out if that’s the best one for the job? Do a little bit of trial and error. Figure out which tool works best for you! Many times, in the process, you will find a tool that not only works, but might work better for the job that you’re needing to use it for. For example, my infographic tool post talked about the right tools to create infographics. As a college student, I use these tools for more than one purpose. I found that one of my infographic tools actually worked very well for my schoolwork as well as my marketing work. You may find that some tools you are researching aren’t great for the job that you need. That’s fantastic too! Write it down for your readers. Your readers want to hear honest feedback about your experiences so that they can learn from your mistakes.

Make it personal

Chances are, your readers may have experienced what you’ve experienced. For example, I have personally experienced writer’s block. Rather than working through it and making it a part of my sordid blogging past, I’m telling you about it. My blog is about a field that involves creating content. This is extremely relevant to my readers. If you have a mommy blog and you have had experiences with a park or a swing set or even a department store, write about it! Your readers want to hear about your experiences and how they are relevant to their interests. You will more than likely have readers that have gone through or will go through the same circumstances. You’re probably reading this because you’ve encountered writer’s block yourself! Instead of thinking about what you want to write, write about your journey to the piece that you publish.

Don’t forget to relax

Writers thrive on different circumstances. I like to write with some low noise in the background toward the evening hours, when I’m at my most productive. Pick your most productive time to write. Find your environment that inspires you. For me, that’s my desk at home with a couple of candles burning and some music in the background, usually with my husband playing computer games in the next room. You may have a different tone of inspiration, but whatever gets you in that creative place, go with it! You can’t create in a state of panic, and that’s what happens when you’re not relaxed when you write. Remember that the content is just as important as the creator.

Keep a journal of your topic ideas

You may have a topic or two in the wings, waiting for the light of day. You may have completely forgotten them. Stop yourself from doing that and write them all down. My topic ideas usually make it into my cell phone jotted down in a notepad somewhere, and when I run low on ideas, that notepad comes out with all my ideas behind them. Usually, I even come up with more ideas related to the ones that are already written down. This post, in fact, came from my notepad. So, you see, there are many ideas that may not be feasible to write about at the time you come up with them, but given time, they may become more relevant to your audience and you might find a perfect time to publish them.

Writer’s block may be an obstacle, but you can overcome it

Remember that all the best writers have encountered this. You’re not alone in this fight to create endlessly. Blogging is hard work and finding your voice is crucial to your success. Remember that your competitors and fellow bloggers alike are probably working against that endless struggle too. Give yourself time to adapt to the rigorous schedule that is publishing, and your ideas will flow. And don’t forget to publish your blogs to your social media accounts. You don’t want to keep all that creativity to yourself! And I always love seeing great content put out by my fellow writers.

Happy Writing, bloggers! Go forth and create!