Holly Nicole
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Your blog can be many things: Your personal expression. Your online musings and rants. A chance to entertain or inform.
But even the most interesting blog can suffer from a bit of stagnation after awhile. When you start getting bored or lazy, inject new life into your blog by infusing it with some new internet blood. Here are a few things you can try.
Caption Contest
If you have a loyal following already, give them something new to do by offering a caption contest. Create a cartoon or scour the web for a random outtake from a photo shoot. You may even have a few strange photos of your own you can use. Post the picture online and offer some sort of minimal prize to the winner†of the caption contest. Be sure to set up some guidelines ahead of time to prevent profanity or abusive language if those are a consideration and then have fun!
Guest Blogging
Loosen the stranglehold a bit and consider soliciting and accepting guest blogs. If your blog is decently ranked in the search engines and has a medium or even strong following, you can let other take part in the fun of sharing. Encourage loyal readers to post some guest blogs. Not only will you get free content, but your readers will get a fresh perspective. You might even start using guest posts once per week or so to liven things up and give you a daily break on posting every now and again.
Picture Montage
Go light on words for a bit and post a series of pictures or create your own picture montage. Some blogs lend themselves to this naturally an automotive blog will likely include more pictures than a blog on SEO, but every blog has a spot for some images. Post a series of funny cartoons about your industry, for example, or post inspirational messages that are out of the norm. You can even make your own little memes to share just to break up the paragraphs.
Revisit Old Posts
Dig back through your blog to find those old posts you wrote ages ago. While they might stand a bit of cleaning to remove dead links, you can also write updated versions of things. For example, if you find a post from 2009 detailing your goals for the next few years, unearth that post and share how well those goals are going now that it's about four years later.
Disagree with Something Big
Find a hot topic right now and disagree with it. For example, if most of your readers are in favor of one political party, make it a point to disagree with them. You can frame this post by telling them you're practicing writing from a different perspective or playing devil's advocate†or you can just throw your post online and enjoy the fallout. Perhaps post a controversial post on Monday and refute it as a test or experiment on Tuesday just for the sake of the adventure.
Tell Your Secrets
Once you've built up a following online, the mystery man behind the curtain is that much more interesting. You don't have to tell every detail about yourself and you certainly don't want to have a weekly therapy session through your blog, but getting into the basics or your background will add some depth and interest to your blog, especially if that is very out of the norm for you.
Make Lists
We love lists, especially on blogs, so make some! Make a list of the most empowering music when writing blog posts. Make a list of the things you shouldn't eat before coding for ten hours. Make us laugh, make us think, make us want to read more. Your lists can be humorous or actually very helpful go with what you know and share a few tidbits at a time.
Review the Possibilities
Consider starting a new series on your blog where you review relevant items, services or locations. You may be able to arrange for some free services or products on a trial basis so long as you're reviewing as well. The trick here is to always review honestly to avoid bias or pay for review sort of services that can be sketchy. You don't have to do serious reviews either, incidentally. You may choose to review different local businesses as ideal blogging locations it's actually interesting to see where you can work easily and where you can't.
Spread the News
You don't have to be news junky or have a media bent to your blog to use your platform as a way to spread information or share your thoughts on a particular piece of news. If an article jumps out at you over your breakfast cereal, bookmark it and then pull it up later. Make a collection of interesting things your readers may like or choose articles as they come up and share your thoughts and opinions on the topic you can even enjoy poking holes in the journalism (or lack thereof) if you'd like. It's your blog after all.
Write a Letter
You can write a single letter or start an entire series of letters. Again, your letters can be humorous or just a chance to put some information and thoughts out there for your audience. Write a letter to parents with rude children. Write a letter to Santa. Write a letter to world leaders. But enjoy the process and encourage your audience to chime in with their own thoughts for the letter.
Your blog can be so many things, but the one thing it should never be is boring. Blogging is a form of communication with your readers and they don't normally sign up to read your diary or your encyclopedia. Enjoy your platform, but always work to keep it fresh and interesting as well. That's what makes this particular form of expression so freeing and empowering as well.
But even the most interesting blog can suffer from a bit of stagnation after awhile. When you start getting bored or lazy, inject new life into your blog by infusing it with some new internet blood. Here are a few things you can try.
Caption Contest
If you have a loyal following already, give them something new to do by offering a caption contest. Create a cartoon or scour the web for a random outtake from a photo shoot. You may even have a few strange photos of your own you can use. Post the picture online and offer some sort of minimal prize to the winner†of the caption contest. Be sure to set up some guidelines ahead of time to prevent profanity or abusive language if those are a consideration and then have fun!
Guest Blogging
Loosen the stranglehold a bit and consider soliciting and accepting guest blogs. If your blog is decently ranked in the search engines and has a medium or even strong following, you can let other take part in the fun of sharing. Encourage loyal readers to post some guest blogs. Not only will you get free content, but your readers will get a fresh perspective. You might even start using guest posts once per week or so to liven things up and give you a daily break on posting every now and again.
Picture Montage
Go light on words for a bit and post a series of pictures or create your own picture montage. Some blogs lend themselves to this naturally an automotive blog will likely include more pictures than a blog on SEO, but every blog has a spot for some images. Post a series of funny cartoons about your industry, for example, or post inspirational messages that are out of the norm. You can even make your own little memes to share just to break up the paragraphs.
Revisit Old Posts
Dig back through your blog to find those old posts you wrote ages ago. While they might stand a bit of cleaning to remove dead links, you can also write updated versions of things. For example, if you find a post from 2009 detailing your goals for the next few years, unearth that post and share how well those goals are going now that it's about four years later.
Disagree with Something Big
Find a hot topic right now and disagree with it. For example, if most of your readers are in favor of one political party, make it a point to disagree with them. You can frame this post by telling them you're practicing writing from a different perspective or playing devil's advocate†or you can just throw your post online and enjoy the fallout. Perhaps post a controversial post on Monday and refute it as a test or experiment on Tuesday just for the sake of the adventure.
Tell Your Secrets
Once you've built up a following online, the mystery man behind the curtain is that much more interesting. You don't have to tell every detail about yourself and you certainly don't want to have a weekly therapy session through your blog, but getting into the basics or your background will add some depth and interest to your blog, especially if that is very out of the norm for you.
Make Lists
We love lists, especially on blogs, so make some! Make a list of the most empowering music when writing blog posts. Make a list of the things you shouldn't eat before coding for ten hours. Make us laugh, make us think, make us want to read more. Your lists can be humorous or actually very helpful go with what you know and share a few tidbits at a time.
Review the Possibilities
Consider starting a new series on your blog where you review relevant items, services or locations. You may be able to arrange for some free services or products on a trial basis so long as you're reviewing as well. The trick here is to always review honestly to avoid bias or pay for review sort of services that can be sketchy. You don't have to do serious reviews either, incidentally. You may choose to review different local businesses as ideal blogging locations it's actually interesting to see where you can work easily and where you can't.
Spread the News
You don't have to be news junky or have a media bent to your blog to use your platform as a way to spread information or share your thoughts on a particular piece of news. If an article jumps out at you over your breakfast cereal, bookmark it and then pull it up later. Make a collection of interesting things your readers may like or choose articles as they come up and share your thoughts and opinions on the topic you can even enjoy poking holes in the journalism (or lack thereof) if you'd like. It's your blog after all.
Write a Letter
You can write a single letter or start an entire series of letters. Again, your letters can be humorous or just a chance to put some information and thoughts out there for your audience. Write a letter to parents with rude children. Write a letter to Santa. Write a letter to world leaders. But enjoy the process and encourage your audience to chime in with their own thoughts for the letter.
Your blog can be so many things, but the one thing it should never be is boring. Blogging is a form of communication with your readers and they don't normally sign up to read your diary or your encyclopedia. Enjoy your platform, but always work to keep it fresh and interesting as well. That's what makes this particular form of expression so freeing and empowering as well.
