January 5, 2011 | Alyson Stanfield

The Secrets for an Endless Supply of Blog Posts

One of the most difficult things about blogging is coming up with ideas.

Sandhya Manne, Musical Tribe in Color - Nallamma. Watercolor
Sandhya Manne, Musical Tribe in Color – Nallamma. Watercolor, 14 x 11 inches. ©The Artist

Do you feel pressure to write the perfect blog post in a single sitting?
That's rarely how good blog posts come together.
The secret to having a vibrant blog is to juggle a number of ideas for posts so that you're writing a little bit at a time rather than an entire post at once.
The secret to coming up with these ideas in the first place is . . .  are you ready for it?
Listening.
The best blog content comes from listening – tuning in to what your readers are interested in. Are you paying attention?

  • What questions are people asking you about your art? Take each question and turn it into a new blog post.
  • What are people saying in their comments on your blog or Facebook page? What are people tweeting about on Twitter? Pull out the juicy ones and make them into blog posts.
  • What ideas are engaging people on other blogs? What has your attention? Write a post about it!

By staying on top of current conversations, you are inserting your thoughts into the bigger dialogue. Instantly, your blog becomes more interesting.
To ensure a continuous flow of content, keep a number of ideas in the works. I do this in multiple programs on my computer.
The tools you choose are irrelevant. What is critical is that you capture ideas before you lose them.
After you've gathered your ideas, you can go back and add, delete, and move around content. By using this process, your ideas have time and space to percolate. The pressure of trying to write the perfect post in one sitting disappears.
Do you need more ideas to spiff up your blog? Take a look at the Blog Triage class. We help you fall in love with blogging all over again.
How do you develop your blogging ideas and juggle the drafts?

16 comments add a comment

  • Reply
    Matthew
    January 5, 2011 AT 5:25AM

    I keep a lot of draft posts in my blog’s writing area. Many of these are little more than a title and notes of the content. Whenever I don’t have an idea for a post, I pull up my drafts and see which one catches my eye.
    Sometimes none of them will and I’ll spend time perusing my drafts and often combining them to better flesh out an idea.

    • Reply
      Alyson Stanfield
      January 5, 2011 AT 8:38AM

      Matthew: Looks like you’re on WordPress. Check out the Editorial Calendar plugin that Elissa mentions below.

  • Reply
    Elissa
    January 5, 2011 AT 5:58AM

    i just started using the Editorial Calendar plugin for WordPress and have already found it really helpful. It lets you look at a month’s worth of blog posts at once and if you want to change a post’s date, you just drag and drop it.
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/editorial-calendar/

    • Reply
      Alyson Stanfield
      January 5, 2011 AT 8:39AM

      Elissa: Right on! You probably know, since you were a member of the Blog Triage class, that I’m a huge fan of this plugin. I’ve kind of neglected it over the holidays, but I’m anxious to get back to it. AND, it keeps storing my ideas–even when I’m not ready for them.

      • Reply
        Elissa
        January 6, 2011 AT 8:20AM

        Actually, the Blog Triage class is the only class of yours I haven’t taken. My blog is the one thing I almost feel I have under control. :)

        • Reply
          Alyson Stanfield
          January 6, 2011 AT 8:45AM

          Ha! You’re just such a familiar face that I assumed you were in the class. And now that I think about it, your blog has never needed any triage.

  • Reply
    Katherine Tyrrell
    January 5, 2011 AT 7:20AM

    I totally agree with the point about “listening” – which for those us online means “reading”. I also try to make a point of reading around and away from my usual haunts to see if ideas are popping up which are relevant to my art blog.
    My main way of being able to post on an almost daily basis is to do three things
    1. Have a routine. It’a amazing how helpful it is to know in advance what you will be posting about on certain days or once a week or the beginning or end of the month/year.
    2. Plan in advance. If you know you want to post about something set up a draft post scheduled for the correct date and save it as a draft. That way it “speaks to you” when you visit your drafts page
    3. Have an idea, work out a title maybe add in the page which stimulated it and save it to your drafts. You’ve then got the nucleus of an idea which you can work on later. Sometimes just a really ace title is all you need! :)

    • Reply
      Alyson Stanfield
      January 5, 2011 AT 8:40AM

      Katherine: Re #1, do you have a writing routine? In other words, do you sit down at your computer to write posts at certain times or on certain days?

      • Reply
        Katherine Tyrrell
        January 6, 2011 AT 9:21AM

        No – no routine as such, except for “butt in chair” as soon as I get up! Thinking about it, I do tend to make the decision about “what to write” pretty early in the day.
        I have notions around “the best time to write” and “the best time to post” so try to fit in with those. I like writing early morning or late at night – I seem to slow down in the middle of the day!
        Then there’s Internet speed to consider. Some posts which include lots of links have to be done at a time of day when the Internet is not slow.
        When I first started, I used to get up at 6am and aimed to have my blog post identified, researched and written before 9am! It’s a good way of getting the brain in gear for the day ahead!

  • Reply
    Suzanne Frazier
    January 5, 2011 AT 9:10AM

    I am an artist who lives most days in my right brain. Mondays are always “left brain” day….when I post a new image to Facebook, write on my blog, and make contact with other sites I have a presence on. That way, I am in touch with everyone at least once a week. After a left-brain Monday, I can teach my art classes and paint my paintings for up-coming shows without having my head filled with my “to-do-list”, since I already did all of it on “left-brain” Monday.
    Of course, I am writing this post on Wednesday, so go figure!

  • Reply
    Helen Hiebert
    January 5, 2011 AT 2:43PM

    This is a bit off-topic , but I’ve been pondering whether I SHOULD blog. I know that I wouldn’t have a problem with content, but I already have a monthly newsletter and am active on Facebook. I guess there are some advantages (blogs are free, I can easily link to FB), but my main concern is how to get all of my newsletter subscribers to sign up for my blog… I’d appreciate any thoughts/tips.

  • Reply
    January – Getting Down to Business: Selling | CYN WORKS
    January 6, 2011 AT 12:32PM

    […] Alyson Stanfield – Art Biz Blog Do you feel pressure to write the perfect blog post in a single sitting? That’s rarely how good blog posts come together. The secret to having a vibrant blog is to juggle a number of ideas for posts so that you’re writing a little bit at a time rather than an entire post at once. The secret to coming up with these ideas in the first place is . . .  are you ready for it? For more>> […]

  • Reply
    Susan Fox
    January 6, 2011 AT 9:31PM

    I blog on Monday and Friday mornings. Monday is always something about Mongolia, as in “Mongolia Monday”. Friday is whatever else, usually art-related.
    I do keep a list tacked to my bulletin board of topic ideas, but generally think up something the day before or that morning.
    What seems to work for me, at 366 posts over two years, is to just sit down and write a post in one sitting first thing that morning. The habit is well-embedded at this point.
    The re-writes are what take most of the time because WordPress doesn’t re-load all that fast. I know I could do it in iPages and then cut and paste, but images are usually integral, so I want to see the preview.
    The thought of writing multiple posts and scheduling them is an interesting thought, but at the moment I like the immediacy of doing them as I go.

  • Reply
    Tammy Vitale
    January 7, 2011 AT 4:19PM

    I have days for my blogs (Tues, Thurs and Sat). But if I miss due to being away and haven’t had time to pre-post (which is the only time I write in advance) I don’t sweat it. I don’t draft. i sit down and write. I used to do this daily (for years)…I usually have too many ideas, not too few.

  • Reply
    Steal These Blog Post Formulas — Art Biz Blog
    April 26, 2011 AT 5:01AM

    […] try to listen to what artists are talking about because that’s where I get most of my inspiration. But sometimes I don’t always hear. […]

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