18/11/2016

What to Do When You Have No Idea What to Post

I've been getting a lot of questions about how I come up with blog post ideas and creating great contents for my blog so I'm going to share with you my tips and tricks. I haven't been getting writer's block for weeks and I always have a few posts to finish for the current week while also adding new draft posts in between.


The first thing you gotta ask yourself before you start writing is:

"Am I in the mood to write or not?"

Writing is not an easy task to begin with. It doesn't matter if you have something interesting to blog about but when you're not in the mood, you won't be able to finish the post or you'll only be able to write a half-assed post and to be quite honest I hate half-assed posts. Your readers will know from your writings if you're posting because you genuinely want to share with them or that you just don't want your blog to look dead because your last post was published a week ago. It's okay to take a week off of blogging. It's okay to not have a post up for a month. We all have been in the rut.

If you're saying yes to the question above, the next thing you should do is:

Check you draft

Do you have any posts in draft that you still haven't finished writing such as the "What I Did Last Weekend" or "Haul from Shopping Trip With Mom" or "______ Foundation Review" (I'm so guilty of this)? You should probably go ahead and finished those posts first. Don't go around googling for "lifestyle blog post ideas" or "1001 blog post ideas when you're having writer's block" or anything along the keyword "blog post ideas" 'cause you might be overwhelmed by the number of post ideas that you still haven't done and you will end up writing about none of it, trust me.

Check your comments

Sometimes you get a lot of comments from different people mentioning the same thing so why not do a blog post about it so everyone can read it? For example, I got comments about MacBook here and since I'm using it, why don't I make a blog post about it here?

Visit your favourite blog and go through their archives

Do not copy and paste their contents to your blank post. What I mean is, go through their posts and see which one you would like to write about and change up the post title a little bit to make it more you. Use it as an inspiration for your new post. Credit them if you want to especially if their post that you're using as an inspiration for yours is one of a kind.

Blog post ideas posts

If the above methods didn't work and you insist on writing about something else, you can go ahead and find blog post ideas or you could check out my posts here and here. If you're still not quite sure about what to write even after going through 4983 blog post ideas, just turn off your laptop or go watch the Game of Thrones or something 'cause you're clearly not in the mood.

Jotting down ideas in a notebook doesn't work anymore 😕

I have figured out that writing down blog post ideas in a notebook doesn't work for me anymore. I have an easier way for keeping blog post ideas which is creating a new post, inserting the title, and saving it to draft. Whenever I'm in the mood to brainstorm, I open the post I would like to brainstorm, type out the points, and save it. If I plan on publishing that post in a few days, I can work on it without having to brainstorm for contents.

A 'DING' moment 

I always get that DING! moment no matter what I'm doing at that time where I get an idea for a blog post out of the blue. I could be watching Criminal Minds and suddenly had a DING! moment about a new beauty post I should write on my blog. And then, I create a new post and insert the title of that DING! post so I won't forget about it later.

Your blog, your ideas

At the end of the day, you are the content creator of your blog and only you know what fits your blog niche so sit back, relax, and have fun blogging!

What do you do when you have no idea on what to write?

33 comments:

  1. i selalu buat #6! i buat title je dulu then bila i dah ada mood nak write baru i write hahaha sometimes i buat intro jugak then save it je macam tu dlm draft. i'm so unmotivated right now, clearly, sebab i tak post anything in few days dah. i barely touch apa yg ada dalam my draft though, so unmotivated hahah

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    1. hahahaha that's ok, i pun pernah kena mcm tu. nak post something but takde mood

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    2. Same here! but sometimes I can't get online to make the idea into draft.

      I usually use S Note on my phone to list down any ideas that maybe worth to write something about it :)

      hanisamanina.com

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  2. nice idea . memang tgh writer block ni. hehehe

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  3. hi erin.
    i wish i can be like u, always got idea to write a post. tried to do what u mention such as trying to read other bloggers archives and try to write when i am in the mood, but that dont really work on me. so sad okay.

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    1. if that didn't work, i think you need to take some time off kot. selalunya kalau someone yang dah working ni, memang jarang and susah nak update blog sebab ada personal life yang lagi penting kan.

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  4. Nice sharing Erin.
    Expecially visit blog kegemaran dan go through their archives
    Mrs.A selalu ada cerita kat draft tapi title dan intro aje hehehe...
    Part yang teruk tu ada masalah M = kerajinan di bawah par

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    1. hehehe best perap draft lama lama kan. tu la, ni semua sebab malas kalau tak hari hari boleh update sebenarnya

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  5. hihihi.

    nadia selalu ikut mood if nak post entry . that's y nadia punya blog sometimes a week or more baru ada.

    " ding " moment tue slalu jugak . Ada idea , letak title . Bila tgk draft - masyaallah banyak rupanya yang tak abis and publish lagi - example like my trip entry hahaha berkurun kotttt baru today publish utk day 4 trip korea punya .

    agree too , sometimes nadia visit my favourite blogger cari inspiration what i should write and I do credit them too . =) Like I use your numbered list idea ... hihihi

    thanks for sharing . =)

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    1. tu la perasan jugak lambat betul nadia update entry korea tu hihi.

      kan???? favourite bloggers tu penting untuk time time takde idea. boleh visit blog dorang :)

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    2. You are in my list favourite blogger Erin. Everyday mmg akan visit your blog page . Paling suka bila buka dkt office sebab screen office besar . So best terjah blog org tapi not all . Yang ada blogspot.com mmg company block .

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    3. thank you so much nadia!!! <3333 tu la kelebihannya pakai domain sendiri kan hehehe

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  6. I usually do all of them erin!
    And also adding reading books sometimes trigger my inspiration. :D

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  7. For me personally, to have ideas to write is by looking around. I love watching people, eventhough it's just about a scene in the Tesco counter, I managed to get few ideas from the scene :)

    And also every time I have conversations with my friends, there will always be something interesting to ponder. Then I use that ideas as blog posts :)

    hanisamanina.com

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    1. i get inspiration from watching people at tesco too! same goes to conversation with friends, well in my case my mom 'cause i'm home all the time haha

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  8. I did all above but still.... hmmm

    Perhaps, I should stop blogging hahaha xD

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    1. haha you're busy kan claudy, you have a job semua. i don't :)

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  9. Thanks for the tips, Erin.

    Points 1 & 2 are literally me. I always focus on searching blogging post ideas while my posts on draft are not even touched at all and the worst thing is I took about few days for a post just because I have no mood to blogging. But still, what you mentioned are true. Writing is not an easy task to do 😊

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    1. you should focus on your draft first. nanti search post ideas banyak banyak, tambah lagi draft haa

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  10. yes! betul apa yang erin cakap yg first2 skali tu.. kalau tak ada mood mmg tak akan menjadi la nak post apa2 di blog ni. busyra kalau tak ada mood blog pun malas nak buka. mood tu penting kan. hehe

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    1. betul tu! ada masa masa rasa nak write, ada masa pulak macam malas nak tengok blog tp rasa kesian pulak

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  11. i banyak gila draft title tau . kena tunggu time and mood.

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    1. betul tu! kadang kadang i buat dia terperap lama sampai i dah takde hati nak publish post tu haha

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  12. Same! I always write the title first and maybe a bit intro so I know what the title is about. But then now, I have 60 unwritten posts in my draft hm too much procrastination I guess.. haha

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  13. Love your amazing post, truly inspiring, thank you for sharing!!!

    xxx

    www.bridesonamission.com

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  14. Siqah pulak suka tengok camera roll sendiri. Then kadang2 daripada gambar, ada gak idea to write a post.. macam latest entri pasal makanan tu. Hihihi.

    Apa pun, semuanya kena ada mood jugak. Draft berlambak tapi duk buat post pasal benda lain sebab yang draft berlambak tu, just no idea to finish all.

    Siqah suka blogger tag like you did, Q&A, dan blogger challenge. Suka join sebab at least i do have something to write :)

    Admit - suka dengan blog erin sebab ada je benda nak cakap and a good idea. LIke "10 Facts and A Lie". Biasa orang buat 10 Facts je and erin tambah A Lie which is sooo good :D

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    1. betul tu. nak write ni kena ada mood. and tgk pulak in the mood untuk jenis post apa. tu satu hal lagi. erin pun suka tags/challenges. best baca. thank you siqah! dapat idea from blogwalking :)

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  15. This was so useful thank you! I can't even begin to count the amount of times Ive complained about writer's block and I have over 10 drafts waiting to be written!!
    Yemmi | ItsYemmi

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    1. it's better to work on your draft posts first, right? :)

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