3 Ways to Keep a Constant Flow of Fresh Content

May 25, 2011 by Daniel Sharkov|

Posting regular content is the number one thing you need to do for a successful blog. This all comes down to finding ideas, turning them into articles and publishing them. Ironically as crucial as they are, these are also the toughest blogging tasks you will face. That’s why with today’s article I decided to share some tips and tricks that will help you keep your blog content fresh: Plan Your Posting Schedule Ahead

Every serious blogger knows how important it is to have a posting schedule in place. Things can turn quite messy when you are not planning your steps ahead, especially when it comes to writing and publishing. You can choose to update your blog once a week, every three days or even every day – it doesn’t matter much how your schedule will look like and it’s all up to you to decide. What’s important is to know when exactly your next blog post is going to be published. Based on this you will be able to optimize your other tasks and get more done. On the other hand loyal visitors will feel more comfortable, knowing when to expect new content.

A few lines above I said that how you schedule doesn’t matter much. Maybe not as much as actually having a schedule, but it matters. The three examples I gave were not random. Once a week is without doubt the easiest to follow, while daily updates are obviously the hardest to keep up with. I would recommend you to avoid both of them and instead go for an article every two or three days. That’s the perfect balance. Your visitors won’t think that your blog is dead and at the same time you will have plenty of time to come up with interesting ideas.

Know How to Find Ideas and Inspiration

OK, if we assume you’ve devoted your whole day into figuring out the perfect schedule and you’re done with it, the next thing you need to do is find a way to keep a constant flow of ideas. Yeah, I know it’s easier said than done, but don’t worry, we’ll get through it nonetheless!

As you may probably know, one of the best places to seek inspiration are relevant blogs. If you are serious about building a reputable blog, then you should’ve already made your research on other blogs in your niche. Still there’s one problem – even if you are using an RSS service, going through the articles of let’s say 60, 70 or more blogs is a tough task. Finding a good post that can help you get ideas rolling is even harder.

The “ Mashup”, “ Roundup” or “ Sunday Selection” kind of posts are one possible solution. They are basically a list of the top articles a blogger has read, in most cases throughout the week. These top picks are namely the posts that can help you come up with your own article idea. Another way to find ideas can be the so called blogging networks. These are in brief sites, where you submit your blog posts, they get voted and you get traffic. What’s important for you is that those sites hold a huge collection of articles. You can easily browse them by choosing your desired category, searching with a keyword or just skimming through the main page. My top three favorites are BlogEngage, Blokubeand BizSugar. Blogs are all about interaction and the comment section is where most of it happens. Interaction means discussion and discussion means ideas. So even if you think the article you’ve just read won’t actually help you, remember to always check out the comments. Some of the most engaging blogs in the blogging niche are probably Marcus Sheridan’s The Sales Lion, Ingrid Abbound’s nittyGriddyand Tristan Higbee’s Blogging Bookshelf.

Despite of the different options available, sometimes you are just not able to come up with anything worthy of an article. That is when the frustration definitely starts kicking in and that is the time when you need to say “stop”. While in that state, making progress becomes close to impossible.

The best thing to do is to get off the PC for an hour or even two. Go watch some TV, make some exercises or everything else you want as long as it’s not blogging, Twitter, social media and all that stuff. After you feel a bit more relaxed, try again!

Be Prepared for Everything

Although having a schedule can most certainly help you save time and get more done, there are always those days when something unexpected happens. For example last week’s article should’ve been published a day earlier than it actually was. However on that very same day a friend of mine from Germany, who I quite rarely have the chance to see, happened to come in town. That of course was more than a good reason to leave everything blogging and go see him. If I had done something as simple as using the “schedule” option, which is available in pretty much every blogging platform, I would’ve been able to hold on to the posting schedule.

On the other hand there are those days when you just can’t come up with anything. You are trying and trying, writing dozens of drafts and nothing. So it pretty much turns out that unless you have an already finished article, following the posting schedule will once again prove impossible. That is why you should write articles in advance. Whenever you happen to be sitting and doing nothing, start writing instead. Yes, I know it can be kinda hard to turn from doing-nothing-mood into productive mood, but it’s definitely worth it. Think about it – if you do this every day for fifteen or even ten minutes, you will have an extra article finished within a few days!

Your Thoughts

What are your ways for keeping your blog updated? What kind of techniques do you use for finding inspiration and ideas? Feel free to share below in the comments section!

Post Written by Daniel Sharkov

I’m Daniel, an 18 year old student and the author of this blog. My articles cover a variety of topics, including blogging and writing tips, social media, traffic generation and more. Connect with me on Twitter, Facebookand Google+.

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