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If you want to succeed with your blog, posting regularly is crucial. Obviously, it helps if a lot of your posts are unique and contain good quality "evergreen" content. But after a while, it can be a real challenge to generate ideas for this type of post.
It's certainly much more difficult than writing, say, commentary on topical events. In that genre, you only have to read the news to get ideas. Sometimes you can turn this kind of content into more enduring stuff – perhaps by saying a specific news item illustrates a wider, recurring phenomenon. But it's usually the case that while you might be able to score a flood of traffic and some shares with a topical post, the effect is temporary.
Wisdom quotes can inspire you to write
So, it's definitely worthwhile to have many blog posts that will remain interesting to readers for a long while. When you are keen to create this kind of content, but the ideas aren't flowing, here's an approach that I've found helps a lot:
Find quotes by famous authors, philosophers, or leaders about the subject you want to blog about. You can include one or more of them in your post. And because they are so insightful and memorable, they will often provoke your own observations on the subject, which you can write down.
Say you are writing about the need for forgiveness. There are many brilliant, famous quotes about this. Select one that really resonates with you, and tell the reader how you applied it (or wish you had!) in your own life.
I've long found that writing becomes easy when you're describing your own experiences. What citing one or more quotes does is give you a clear focus on what to write about. Not only do the words flow freely; structuring the post is less of a challenge as well.
Twitter is a good source
So, where do you find these famous quotes? Well, you can Google them, of course. But I think searching on Twitter is a better way to go.
That social network in particular is absolutely jam packed with accounts that tweet almost nothing but these nuggets of wisdom. And no wonder. They are very popular and often get retweeted.
They are also highly conducive to visual interpretation. You'll often see them attached to appealing images of sunsets, trees, eagles soaring and babies laughing, among other things.
As well as helping you generate ideas, using wisdom quotes is beneficial when it comes to promoting blogs on social media. Once you have written a post on, say, forgiveness that cites a famous quote about it, you can search Twitter for relevant tweets. There are sure to be many of them. You can reply to some of these including a link to your post on that exact subject.
Obviously you don't want to overdo this tactic. And you must tailor each reply to the original tweet. But as long as it's relevant and adds value somehow, it's not spam. I know from experience that tweeps respond positively, and they will often click on that link to see what you have to say on the subject.
It's certainly much more difficult than writing, say, commentary on topical events. In that genre, you only have to read the news to get ideas. Sometimes you can turn this kind of content into more enduring stuff – perhaps by saying a specific news item illustrates a wider, recurring phenomenon. But it's usually the case that while you might be able to score a flood of traffic and some shares with a topical post, the effect is temporary.
Wisdom quotes can inspire you to write
So, it's definitely worthwhile to have many blog posts that will remain interesting to readers for a long while. When you are keen to create this kind of content, but the ideas aren't flowing, here's an approach that I've found helps a lot:
Find quotes by famous authors, philosophers, or leaders about the subject you want to blog about. You can include one or more of them in your post. And because they are so insightful and memorable, they will often provoke your own observations on the subject, which you can write down.
Say you are writing about the need for forgiveness. There are many brilliant, famous quotes about this. Select one that really resonates with you, and tell the reader how you applied it (or wish you had!) in your own life.
I've long found that writing becomes easy when you're describing your own experiences. What citing one or more quotes does is give you a clear focus on what to write about. Not only do the words flow freely; structuring the post is less of a challenge as well.
Twitter is a good source
So, where do you find these famous quotes? Well, you can Google them, of course. But I think searching on Twitter is a better way to go.
That social network in particular is absolutely jam packed with accounts that tweet almost nothing but these nuggets of wisdom. And no wonder. They are very popular and often get retweeted.
They are also highly conducive to visual interpretation. You'll often see them attached to appealing images of sunsets, trees, eagles soaring and babies laughing, among other things.
As well as helping you generate ideas, using wisdom quotes is beneficial when it comes to promoting blogs on social media. Once you have written a post on, say, forgiveness that cites a famous quote about it, you can search Twitter for relevant tweets. There are sure to be many of them. You can reply to some of these including a link to your post on that exact subject.
Obviously you don't want to overdo this tactic. And you must tailor each reply to the original tweet. But as long as it's relevant and adds value somehow, it's not spam. I know from experience that tweeps respond positively, and they will often click on that link to see what you have to say on the subject.
