Hey everyone! Here I finally am writing a new blog post to share with you guys! I have been ridiculously unproductive for days now, for a number of reasons, and I apologise about my lack of activity online. Thankyou to all of my lovely followers and friends who have still liked my few posts on social media and sent me supportive messages & comments. I really appreciate it ♥ Today I thought I'd blog all about how I find inspiration for my blog posts when I'm struggling to think of new ideas. At the moment, I haven't been doing too many things that I think are interesting enough to blog about and so I've been finding it a little hard to be inspired to write. A lot of that has to do with my depression making me really unmotivated right now, but it's also due to a bit of writer's block, so I thought I'd share some advice to help others who might be going through a similar situation. I don't know if this post is gonna be super informative or anything, but I'm trying to get myself back in my usual blogging mojo and so I'm gonna write it up anyway, haha! I hope that you enjoy reading and that my post is helpful :)
Pinterest
Seriously, Pinterest is wonderful for finding some inspiration! If you've never used it before, it's a social media website that allows people to share photos and videos which can also be linked back to websites and blogs for you to find the relevant information you are looking for. You can make folders or 'boards' and save ('pin') anything that takes your fancy into them. Pinterest is a great website if you're a crafter or creative person, because you can find all sorts of recipes, artwork tutorials, knitting patterns, wherever your particular interests lie, there's gonna be something for you on Pinterest. And the same goes for bloggers! Many bloggers share their posts onto Pinterest, myself included, so if you have a search you'll come across all sorts of content from a variety of niches. There's lots of blog post ideas lists and content on there to help you out when you need some new ideas, and I find it very useful when I'm struggling to come up with new post ideas.
Read Other Blogs
This really should have been the number one tip on my list, because there is nothing that's going to help inspire you more than reading other bloggers work :) If you're a blogger yourself, you should be reading other blogs anyway, to connect with your fellow bloggers, to make friends along the way and also because you can't just not read any blogs but expect people to read yours! Reading other people's blog posts always helps me to come up with similar and also completely new ideas for my own blog! You can also keep an eye out for any posts that share a list of blog post ideas like the kind I mentioned earlier, or other posts that are like the one I've written today that can give you some tips on how to come up with post ideas. Websites such as Bloglovin' allow you to search for topics so that you can find bloggers that share about the things that you're interested in :)
Brainstorm
Do you guys remember having to create mind maps, or spider diagrams as I used to call them, back when you were at school? My teachers used to love making us draw them for so many things, and it was definitely a little annoying for me at the time! However now that I'm not being forced to draw them with my classmates during the dreaded group activities, or for making a poster about literally everything I was taught (my high school wasn't great, haha!), I go back to them whenever I need to brainstorm ideas. I like to get a big piece of paper and create branches off my 'blog ideas' title for the different categories of posts that I want to write about. I note down literally anything that pops into my head because you never know when it might be the perfect time for you to blog about it. I will search through Pinterest and other social media sites and add to my spider diagram as I do.
I even put together a spider diagram for this post, and for brainstorming 101, my various arrows and sections included: write down your preferred blog topics (e.g. geeky, health, beauty), have you been anywhere lately and taken some photos?, do you have anything that you can review (a restaurant you've visited, a movie you've recently watched, something you got for Christmas maybe?, etc.), are you looking forward to something that's not happened yet? why not share about how you're preparing for it?, are there any topics that you can share your experience of or give advice about?, why not make something (arts and crafts, recipes, homemade and 'life hack' posts), if you're really stuck for ideas why not answer a tag or create your own?. Then branching off all of these points, I have the ideas that I've come up with. I hope that sharing what I've personally written will be helpful :) Let me know in the comments!
Tumblr
Tumblr is another website that I find inspiring when it comes to blog post ideas. Like Pinterest, it's a website where people can share pictures and videos, but it's so much more than that. It's full of fandoms and people with lots of similar interests sharing with one another, and I just get a lot of ideas when I'm browsing through it. It doesn't just inspire me when it comes to blogging, but just in general. It highlights me to a lot of small businesses and artists work, it gives me ideas for making and baking, for my nature photography hobby too. It links me to interesting articles and photo challenges and writing challenges, and I really enjoy it! If I'm inspired to go out and take new photographs, then I usually want to blog all about it too so that's great, I am practicing self care doing something that I love, getting out into the fresh air and also getting an interesting blog post out of it. Even though social media websites have their bad points (ugh, don't we all know it!) but I do get a lot of inspiration for my blog through tumblr and other platforms that I use such as Instagram and Twitter. How about you? Do you get ideas whilst browsing through your social media feeds?
Blogging Books
I wasn't sure whether to include this one because I actually only have one blogging book, but I think it's a great little book and so I thought I'd mention it and also how it's made me want to look into getting more books in the future. Do any of you guys have a blogging ideas book? The book that I own is called 365 Blog Topic Ideas and it's by Dana Fox. I bought this book mostly out of curiosity when I first started blogging because I wanted to see what it would be like and what sort of posts it would suggest. I haven't used any of the topics out of it yet but I write notes on my pages with ideas that the suggested topic has given me, and I like that it's always there with inspiration if I'm ever really really struggling to come up with a post. I do think that some of the suggestions seem like ones that have been mentioned already in the book but with a slightly different wording, however all it all I think it's useful. Plus, I'm sure that there's lots of other books out there that are like this one so be sure to shop around when choosing something for yourself. I definitely think that they will help you think of something when you're dealing with writer's block.
Keep an inspiration notebook
I wanted to end my post with an idea that isn't going to be something that you can use if you've got a case of writer's block right now, but I'm including it to give some advice on something that is very helpful for me, and I know a lot of fellow bloggers have an inspiration/idea notebook too. I take a small notebook with me whenever I go somewhere so that I can have it handy to jot down any blog related ideas as soon as they pop into my head. That way, I don't risk forgetting them or add them to my phone's note section and then forget about it. Inspiration is everywhere when you're out and about, so it's a great practice to jot down an idea whenever it hits you. I always refer to my little blogging inspiration notebook whenever I'm unsure what to blog about and also sometimes at the beginning of the month when I'm planning my posts. I occasionally keep it next to me too when I'm watching TV or movies so I can write ideas down then too :)
So, here are my tips for how you can deal with writer's block and find inspiration for new blog post ideas. I hope that it was been a helpful read and that I haven't rambled on too much, haha! I will have a Funko Pop! Vinyl figure post coming up on my blog next so be sure to check back for that soon :) Tomorrow I'll be hanging out with my best friend for the first time in what feels like forever. We are sticking to our usual date routine and going to the cinema, followed by Frankie's & Benny's. I can't wait to see her! I hope you've all had a lovely week so far lovelies, and I hope that your weekends' are fabulous too.
Thankyou for reading!
♥
Are there any ways that you find blog post inspiration?
I'm always looking for new suggestions!
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These are really good tips. Love the idea of an inspiration notebook!
ReplyDeleteThankyou lovely :) x
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