No one said blogging was always going to be easy. It’s true that once you start, it does become sort of like a habit or obsession but sooner or later, most bloggers will feel a little lost for topics. It’s up to us to figure out how to combat this blogging fatigue. Here are some useful tips I’ve found and tried and had at least some success avoiding blogging burnout.
Your Email Holds Dozens Of Topics To Explore
Not long ago, I spoke with David Spark, who wrote an entertaining ebook about overdoing it on social media, which can lead burnout, too. David favors putting more effort into blogging and suggests looking at your inbox. What are your clients asking you about? Go to your Sent folder and see what you wrote back. Chances are, your answers can be fleshed out into several very good posts. If one client was wondering about a particular issue, chances are others are as well. This simple but brilliant solution has saved me and I suspect countless others from blogging burnout.
I also subscribe to several newsletters, some daily, others weekly, and then there are those that seem to have a schedule as complex as Google’s algorithm—perhaps as the spirit calls. Look to your newsletters for ideas. If you read an intriguing but clumsy article and think you can do a better job with it, go ahead and do so—but be sure to do your own research and credit original thoughts to their origins.
Read Your LinkedIn News Feed And Join A Few Groups
As I’ve said many times, everyone in business or looking for work should be on LinkedIn. Be sure to complete your profile and join a few of its groups as well. There are thousands to choose from.
By completing your LinkedIn file, you will get a News Feed similar to the one on Facebook but obviously less gossipy. And when you join its groups, that feed will showcase their latest discussions. (You can also get email notifications.) Be sure to keep up with the LinkedIn world; people in these groups often write about trends, start discussions, and provide other kernels you can grow into blog post. If you’re lucky, the comments can also offer interesting ideas.
Read A Variety Of Sources To Get New Perspectives And Avoid Blogging Burnout
I know someone who can watch both Fox News and MSNBC without her head exploding. She does this because she likes to know what both sides (admittedly, on the edges) are saying so that she can counteract both extremes and identify a middle ground.
It is best to leave politics out of your blog altogether (unless you are a political blogger, of course) but take a page from this and expand your sources. Click on article links to see where a writer gets his or her information. And don’t forget that even the mainstream press can be a resource for you; virtually all city and regional papers have a business section and many have technology pages as well.
