If, like me, you’ve been blogging for a while now, you may be feeling a bit jaded with the whole thing.
Sometimes, writing creative, interesting blog articles can seem harder than panning for gold in a chalk mine.
Over time, our enthusiasm for our industry may stay just as high as it ever was, but it can get increasingly more difficult to come up with new takes on old subjects.
I’ve found that the following tips work wonders to revitalize my approach to blog writing, waking up my passion and making me inspired to come up with more new and interesting topics.
1) Stop trying to hit word counts
You may have an idea in your mind about how long a particular blog post should be, and often it can be difficult to come up with enough words to fill your ideal page length. If you have something short and useful to say, just say it – don’t write another 500 words simply because you think you ought to publish a certain length of post.
2) Get active
When you have something to say, use active verbs to make your writing more passionate and interesting to read. Instead of saying statements like ‘The WordPress software was updated to make it more user-friendly’, try using more ownership of your language – ‘We updated our WordPress software to make it more user-friendly’. This injects more vitality in to your blogging, and makes it easier for your customer to engage with what you are saying.
3) Read to yourself
When you’ve written a post, sit down and read it back to yourself, aloud. It’s the best way to capture any errors or mis-types, and also gives you a great opportunity to see if your subject is interesting. If you fall asleep half way through, it’s time to pick a new subject.
4) Paint visual pictures
Writing is a great way to give your readers ideas, information and news that they can absorb quickly. If you use vibrant language, you’ll support your audience to picture what you are telling them about, making your subjects come alive as they read. Be descriptive, and wake your writing up with a healthy injection of creativity.
5) Be true to your own voice
When you write, the closer you stay to your own manner of speaking, the easier it will be to create great articles. If your favourite word is ‘Fantastic’, use it. While you obviously need to avoid expletives, expressing yourself in your own voice is a great way to bring your readers closer to you and get them to understand your ideas, and warm to your personality as it shines through your writing.
6) Keep it simple
When you have something to say, don’t be afraid to use simple language to say it. There’s no point writing ‘Scintillate scintillate globule vivific, Fain would I fathom thy glory specific’ when you actually mean ‘Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are’. Don’t alienate your readers by using language that makes you sound pompous and removed from reality.
7) Break up text
There’s nothing more disheartening online than coming across endless reams of text in a blog post. Our attention spans are getting ever shorter these days, as information comes to us more quickly. Break up your longer posts with bullets, images or numerical lists to make them easy to read.
8) Get inspired
If you’re running out of things to say, check out what your competitors are blogging about. Catch up on news for your industry, read up on new ideas, and find ways to apply this to your own work. If you write with your head firmly buried in your own blog, you’ll never find new and interesting things to write about.
9) Catch people’s attention
You want people to stop by your blog and see what you’ve been writing about, right? The best way to do this is come up with a catchy title to draw them in. Instead of writing ‘My experience of drive through taxidermists’, try ‘How to stuff your pet in three easy steps’ to make your subject more interesting.
10) Stay interested
If you lose faith, interest or passion in your own blog, it will come across in your writing, making it bland and boring for people to read. Stay interested in what you want to say, learn new techniques and perspectives, and get genuinely excited about blogging again. You are an expert in your field, and this knowledge and enthusiasm will capture your readers’ imaginations and leave them wanting more.
Try these ten tips to get you started, and I guarantee your writing will start to sparkle again. Blogging can be hard work, but by staying true to your subject and keeping your passion, you’ll reap the benefits of having a well-visited and appreciated website!
How do you put the spark into your blog writing?
Please share your views in the comments below.
photo credit: mdezemery
Great advice. I always have to read my writing out load before I finish it. I make so many error if I don’t. It really helps to read to someone in the room as well to get some other input on it.
Tanya
Your thoughts are similar to Debbie above. How honest are the people with their input?
Andrew
I really like these tips Andrew. Every once in awhile it is little like waking yourself up, so we don’t get boring.
One thing that I do after writing a post is to read it back to myself like I am standing on stage looking out at the audience.
Then I ask myself if I was sitting in the audience would it put me to sleep. If the answer is yes, I go back to work on it.
Number 10 is really important to me. If it is not interesting I am not going to waste anymore time reading.
Thanks again I always love your advice.
Have a great day, oops, evening
Debbie
Debbie,
I like YOUR advice…speaking to an audience!
I suppose anything could be boring if spoken in a dull voice and anything could sound great with a lot of passion behind it…what do you think?
What type of voice do you use?
Andrew
Passion of course! Even when I am sitting in the office all by myself. Guess I’ll have video me practicing my post to see if they are ok!
Thanks Andrew that is a great idea.! LOL with a 🙂
Dear Andrew –
Love the idea of reading your post aloud before you publish.
If you are boring yourself it needs more action – more white space and a better story.
Don’t be afraid to dump it. Sometimes you are just off.
Do you really think that people are keeping track of when you published last?
You can quit for a week and no one will inquire about your health.
Does that mean I could drop dead and all you great people wouldn’t try to Skype me to make sure I was alive?
Actual I do know different. When we had the Aurora shooting Andrew did try to get ahold of me. Problem was I was out of town for the week.
Now that is customer service. Thanks Andrew for carrying. And yes, Corinne I know you would care too.
Hugs, Debbie
Corinne/Debbie
I do think your close on-line relationships would notice.
That’s the power of relationships and good friendship.
Andrew
I think you are right Andrew.
These are excellent. I think “Blog Writing” might be at a crossroads where one path leads to “Blogging” and the other to “Writing”. Blogging has become easier and so has writing, but by now writing is the more challenging of the two. All the more so, your sparks come in very handy.
Beat
I suppose it depends upon your definition of blogging. For many…it will be writing. But you and I know it’s much more than that!
Andrew
I need to get back to writing, I’ve mainly been doing emails recently, and while I can duplicate that on the blog I haven’t really been focused on blogging so much since I’ve been so busy. Thanks for the inspiration!
Joel,
I understand exactly what you mean!
It takes a lot of discipline to blog regularly especially when really busy. Set an hour or 2 each week and make yourself publish something.
Andrew
Awesome tips Andrew (as always). I have picked a few up for my own use and since the social media has evolve a lot nowadays, maybe you can consider writing about generate traffic to blogs in your future post.
Just a suggestion. 🙂
Raymond
I will do – thanks fo rthe suggestion!
Andrew
Andrew,
That’s a great list.
Re: point #2; I was told yeasrs ago to write with an active voice. I now look at everything I write with that in mind. It’s realy helped. Look at anything you read. Suprisingly, often fails this test.
Your point on keeping things short is vital as well. Use subheads to break things up, too. Make them compelling and leading, so people follow them to the next paragraph.
Steve,
You are so right. For me, writing a blog post is taking longer and longer. You really have to think about every sentence and remove the ‘fluff’!
Andrew
I like your advice about keeping things simple. This is something writers can lose sight of. Asking someone else to proof read, not for mistakes but for clarity, can be a good idea.
You always have good tips for a relatively blogging newcomer.
It is sometimes hard to come up with new ideas, and looking around other websites to see what people are talking about has been helpful. Sometimes though, I feel like I am jumping on the latest medical bandwagon theme!
Taking short breaks does help with motivation upon getting back on track, its good to know people don’t notice!
Thanks for the tips as always,
Anne
Anne
As long as you add your own thoughts/experience there is nothing wrong with jumping on the latest medical bandwagon theme!
Andreww
Amazing tips Andrew, the one about reading back aloud what we have just written is one of the most helpful things we can do to make our articles flow better.
Writing in our own voice was something I discovered a while ago, at first I was trying to be all formal and it was very difficult because that’s not how I am!
When I changed the writing tone to be just me, everything got easier and my audience grew and interacted more as well.
Finally, the KISS principle, gotta love that one.
Awesome article Andrew!
Sergio
PS. The sharebar is barely visible on a Macbook 13.3, it’s way too much to the left so you may be missing some shares in screens like mine.
Sergio
I agree…it does take time to write in your own voice but it is worth it – as you have experienced.
Thanks for letting me know about the left hand side share bar. I shall check.
Andrew
I read my post three times before publishing it .In this way i got more idea more about topic and also correct my mistakes.
Thanks for sharing these useful tips.
Ali
Sounds like you can see your own mistakes. I can’t. I just read what I think I have written. My wife checks all my posts before publishing.
Andrew
Good point about reading our blog out aloud, Andrew. I also feel that it’s a good idea to walk away from it before publishing it and then coming back to re-read it. Subtle changes may then be made and I’ve then noticed a difference in the way it subsequently reads – hopefully for the better! So,it helps to publish AFTER the walk away… 🙂
Laurie
That’s a good tip. How long do you walk away for?
Andrew
Twinkle twinklw little star? 🙂 Great!
Keeping things simple is always the best approach, everywhere and in every field. Not that blogging today is as easy as it was but simplicity always pays.
Hi
I have a blog and i do sometimes feel bored about writing articles in it. Nice tips, i would love to use them the next time when write an article. Thanks for sharing it.
@Andrew: I haven’t stopped by in last two weeks but I am going to miss these gems 😀
I think I would put point 8 at the top. I get most of my post idea when I read industry news and want to write about ‘what I think about that development’.
I would say that allowing others to guest blog when you are feeling jaded may give you a break and also give you a new perspective on things.
Your other points like ‘Get active’ are great, but I guess those should now be basics for anyone who is now looking for a spark 😉
Jeet
Allowing others to guest blog is a good way to take a break…just check how good the guest blog is before you publish it!
Andrew
@Andrew: True, given that you may receive a lot of junk submissions, it’s possible that you spend more time reviewing them before you find a gem. – You still don’t have to write anything. I call it ‘lean back blogging’ 😉
Hi Andrew,
No doubt getting jaded with our blogs is part of the experience. I definitely do many of the things you mentioned in your post. One thing that inspires me is watching You Tube videos.
I often watch You Tube videos and it is amazing how much awesome, new information is out there that I can share with my readers.
Justin,
Thanks for sharing your idea about watching YT videos. I do – as long as they are short and not full of ‘fluff’!
Andrew
Too many people are thinking SEO. You have to leave this behind and think human. If you create content that is good, is readeable by your audience, if you engage with them, everything will follow. Everybody is trying to make things look as natural as possible so be best thing to do is be natural! And then you will do everything better!
Andrei
You are right – great content is what brings traffic and will also create natural backlinks.
Andrew
Excellent post. You really dialed that in. It’s the simple principles that worked for people that have already been where we are heading and desire to be that we should pay close attention to.Thanks for keeping it real and I always look forward to your next post!
Really nice and good post. I really like the tips that you told about how to blog. Now a days while blogging bloggers are giving attention to make it good for seo. but i think while writing blog we need to wright it for humans.
Hi Andrew. I find that walking away from it for only five to ten minutes does the trick. It’s surprising what the difference can be.I’d make a cup of tea maybe and then start again with the proof reading. Just having the break away from the computer makes a difference.ATB Laurie.
Laurie,
That sounds good – I shall try it myself.
Thanks,
Andrew
You’re very welcome Andrew. I hope it works for you too. Do let me know?
ATB
Laurie.
really great points..
but the first one is awesome..this happens mostly with newbies.they try to write long posts and sometimes short just because they find it on google.
but we should write what we have in mind and what is necessary. we should not care about the length. thanks for sharing this post
Great points all together…i am going to restart mine old blog…i think this points will surly help me in future..
Thanks you..
It was hard for me in the beginning to write my own content so i opted for outsourced help but when i started saving money i learnt that reading other peoples blogs brought a lot of confidence and sparked that drive i needed to put pencil to paper while remembering not to copy another bloggers content but adding onto it.
Silas
That’s a big step – how well is your writing received by your visitors?
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
you just made me want to paint visual pictures very desperately. Sorry I can’t read further than #4 but I have an idea and I need to start right now. But I’ll come back to finish reading since I love this post so far. Thank you so much for sharing!
This list is inspiring and helps out a lot. I really connected with Paint visual pictures, Keep it simple (stupid), and Catch people’s attention. These tips really are short, sweet, and to the point and really can be helpful when you try to keep it simple like you shared.
Also, I enjoy throwing in stories and quotes which help me out as well.
Thanks again,
Eric
Eric
Stories/quotes are going things to add. Do you have a favourite person to quote?
Andrew
I really like these tips Andrew. Every once in awhile it is little like waking yourself up, so we don’t get boring.Thanks again I always love your advice.
Thanks, Taran.
What action will you be taking?
Andrew
Hey Andrew,
Nice post with great tips and I really enjoyed this post while reading and I really like the 1st and 3rd point. We shouldn’t depend on the length and we must have to write what we have in our mind and when we write it completely then we have to read it loudly in a room because its a best way to remove errors from the post.
Sudipto
As long as what we have in our mind can help our visitors!
Andrew
Thanks! i am also a newby in blogging.
Where do you get the inspiration for a blog? and how many hours a week do you spend on your blog? Just curious 🙂
Keep up the great blogs!
Bram,
This is my business – so the inspoiration comes from making an income to live!
On the actual blog – about an hour a day.
Andrew