SEO Tips: Blogging

Blogging Can Be Great For Seo But What If You Are In A Rut?

All of us find ourselves getting into a rut from time to time – where we start to grow tired of the same old routine day in and day out and start losing our usual energy and enthusiasm. If you’ve ever been in such a situation then you’ll know it’s not very nice of course, but you’ll probably also have noticed how it can affect almost any specific aspect of your life – including blog writing.

When you first created your blog you will no doubt have been filled with enthusiasm and excitement for what the future might hold. You probably took great pride and care in designing the look and feel of the site, and you’ll probably have had a ton of topics you were just itching to start writing about and get off your chest.

But then after a while you found that like anything does over time, writing a blog started to grow old. Quickly it becomes routine and samo-samo as you find yourself writing robotically about various news stories in your niche or compiling tips that you’ve come across on the web; before you know it you’ve lost the passion. And while this might make blogging less exciting for you – which is sad but bearable – you’ll probably also find that your visitors notice the lack of passion too. If you can’t bring yourself to get excited about the website you’ve seen day-in-day-out for the past year, then how do you expect your visitors to?

So what can you do to give your site a new lease of life? Here are some suggestions as to how you can rekindle the spark that got you started in the first place.

Have a Redesign
Most of us tend to take the ‘don’t fix what ain’t broke’ approach when it comes to web design. However this can be something of a mistake if it means that you’re sticking with the same tired layout for years on end. Sure, your site might look serviceable, but wouldn’t it be nice if it looked eye-popping instead and made you excited to look at it? One of the blogs I designed the other day made me so proud that I had to just sit and look at it for a while after wards. Surprise, surprise – I tend to look forward to writing for that blog at the moment. So think about how you can modernize your site, or just give it a fresh and exciting look and you’ll find it much easier to get excited again.

Learn More About the Subject
If you really feel as though you’re just going through the motions when you write then this suggests that you aren’t really bringing much new to the table in terms of information in each article and instead just going with what you already know. By taking some time out then to learn more by reading a few books or seeking out some first-hand experience you can come back to it with lots of fresh topics and a whole new interest in the subject.

Get Help
Blogging is traditionally a solitary affair which means you only really ever get one perspective on the matter. More to the point, it means that even when you’re not in the mood to write, you’ll be the only person who can which can cause resentment after a while. By getting help with your design or your writing you can get a fresh perspective and take a step back from your baby, which will help you to see it in a new light and probably bring in some new ideas. So ask a friend to help you out with your site, or failing that consider getting some guest posters in, or outsourcing some graphics. Even just chatting about your site can help you to come up with new angles and ideas.

Expand Your Niche
If you feel like you’ve exhausted all the fresh topics in your niche (you haven’t, but let’s go with it) then something that can help is to expand your jurisdiction. For instance if you have an SEO site, then could you extend that to also cover creative writing? Or perhaps technology and gadgets? Suddenly you create a whole range of new potential topics to write on, and meanwhile you’ll give your blog more of a unique selling proposition (USP) to set it apart from all the rest.

Get Creative
If you are running out of ideas for your blog then you may just need to get more creative and start thinking out of the box a little. This way you’ll be providing more unique value for your users too, so think about how you can offer something different from your site that isn’t available anywhere else.

For instance, does every post have to be written? Could you maybe offer something a bit different by writing a little utility in JavaScript, or maybe by drawing up an infographic? Or maybe it’s time to stop looking at each post in isolation and to create some kind of ‘series’ instead?

There are many ways you can increase creativity, but research suggest that adding some pot plants to your desk (or even just the color green), taking some time out to look at modern art, or even trying to ‘distract’ the conscious part of your mind can all work to help you come up with new ideas.