How to Get Your Blogging Mojo

21 Tips to Get Your Blogging Groove

At one point or another, many bloggers wonder how to get their blogging mojo, whether they’re new to blogging or have been turning out blog posts for years. To help you get your blogging groove, here’s some help.

3 reasons you need to get your blogging mojo

Before you can figure out how to get your blogging mojo, it’s critical to understand what your what’s keeping you back in the first place. Here are the three main issues.

1. You’re new to blogging. As a result, you haven’t gotten your groove and found your blog focus.
2. You’ve hit a dry spell. During this period, none of your usual writing habits and tricks are working for you. No matter what you do, you can’t think of what to write because nothing feels new. You’re suffering from blank post syndrome.
3. You’re tired of blogging. Blogging has become a “must-do” chore and you can’t face writing any more. In this case, it’s critical be clear whether you need a blogging vacation, are sick of blogging, or have too many other commitments on your time.

21 Tips to get your blogging groove on.

Here are twenty-one tips to help you find your blogging mojo. Realize that blogging is a journey and requires time until all of the elements come together for you.

Writing habits. These questions focus on how you approach your writing.

1. Do you write everyday? Writing is a habit. Just as athletes train for their sports, you must practice writing every day,
2. Do you write at the same time every day, early morning or late night?  This helps you to tap into your creative side before you’re interacting with others.
3. How do you compose your posts? Do you write your posts out long hand and transcribe them to the Internet or do you type them directly into the computer?
4. Where do you write? Do you have a special room in your home where you write or do you write in a public places like a library or Starbucks?
5. Do you plan your posts with an editorial calendar or do you just sit down and write whatever comes to mind?
6. Do you write one post at a time or do you write them in a batch on one day? Can you just produce new content?

Niche expertise. These questions consider your level of category expertise.

1. Do you read across your field of interest? Do you know what’s going on in your targeted categories?
2. Do you get automatic alerts and engage in forums and other discussions related to current developments in your field? Are you getting the input you need to be effective?
3. Do you read and comment on other blogs in your area? It’s important to be an engaged member of the community.
4. Are you doing your homework in terms of research and testing new products? This means going through the latest findings to determine what they really say. It also means kicking the proverbial tires of the latest technology.
5. Do you read the latest books in your field? You need to know the new books as well as the classics.
6. Do you attend conferences and related events? This can be useful for getting out and meeting people as well as gathering new insights.
7. Do you source topics from your readers and customers? Ask them for input on their pain points, and the information for which they’re looking.
8. Do you provide answers to customers’ questions and inquiries?

Writing inspiration. You have to find the enthusiasm and fun in your area.

1. Do you engage with the world around you to get new perspective and ideas? This means getting out of your office and interacting with real people.
2. Do you engage in popular culture? Read magazines, watch television, see movies. These can provide topics.
3. Do you try other ways to write?  For example if you write your posts in the first person, try writing in the third person; general versus special vertical or category.
4. Do you have human interest hooks? Have you tried creating a post using a title from a magazine. Note this doesn’t mean taking someone else’s content!
5. Do you keep a file of potential post ideas? These can be the germ of an idea or a full outline of a post.
6. Do you write from proposed topics (Here are 125 free options,)? Think: What I did for my summer vacation.
7. Have you tested classic post formats to hook readers in?  Here are some suggestions for blog shortcuts to help you. 

Each blogger needs to discover what works best for their blogging style. Remember that not every point mentioned above will make sense for every blogger.

Do you have any other suggestions to help bloggers get their mojo?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Big tip of my hat to BlogChat for discussing this topic last  weekend.

Here are some related articles on blogging.

• How to blog with a little help from your social media friends
• How to turn your professional blog into a lead generating machine.
• How to blog when your heart isn’t in it

Photo credit: VanessaO via Flickr