Caroline’s Corner: No inspiration to blog? Work on your blog’s foundation

I have a list of blog post ideas for my series here at Yoast.com. I have them written down in my bullet journal and refer to them whenever we’re discussing what my next blog post will be. Usually, when I’m inspired, I can finish such a blog post in about an hour. This time was different: I couldn’t get it done. I guess this happens to every blogger every now and then. So I asked myself: If I’m not up to writing new content, what can I do? So here’s my blog post idea: Focus on the improvement of your blog instead! How? Read on!

Although I still have around six ideas waiting to happen (and more to come, of course), none of them worked this time. After spending over an hour on 100 words for a future blog post, I told my colleagues I was temporarily blocked, swamped with other work and without inspiration. I voted to drop my blog post for this week and just focus on the next one due in two weeks. You can call it procrastination, and I think you’d be absolutely right. Luckily the blog team told me ‘nope’ – just kidding, they’re really understanding. So this made me think about what to do when you have a writers’ block: You can use the time you would normally reserve for a blog post, on the foundation of your blog. When your foundation is solid, you will take your blog more seriously. You can strengthen your foundation in several ways.

Write a media kit

If you wish to collaborate with companies or have the ambition to be taken more seriously to earn an income out of your blog, it’s a wise idea to have a media kit. A media kit is, usually, a PDF file that holds information about you, your blog, your statistics and possibilities to collaborate with companies. It should reflect who you are and what your blog stands for. On Pinterest, you can find a ton of Mediakit inspiration, or you can try Canva.com.

Look into your site structure

To increase the findability of your blog and to help your visitors understand your website, you should regularly review your site structure. Your site structure isn’t just about your menu, it’s about internal linking, removing duplicate content and fixing possible errors in your Google Search Console as well. You could also check, for instance, if you have orphaned content on your site and add some links to it. If you want to learn more about this, please see our ultimate guide for site structure!

Optimize for SEO

Chances are when you first started blogging; you didn’t look into SEO at all. You might get visitors now through Google, but could it be more if you optimize your blog posts properly? Do keyword research and optimize those blog posts that are important to you, for instance, your cornerstone content.

Work on your social media exposure

Your blog is more than just a place where you write; it’s your brand. This means that you need to reach people on social media as well. Creating a social media planning isn’t a bad idea at all. Every platform has its own unique power: use it to your advantage. You might want to share behind the scene photos on Facebook, a gorgeously styled feed on Instagram with relevant hashtags and witty comments on Twitter. Use it to your advantage to engage with your readers and potential readers. Often there are places where you can self-promote. Think of the numerous Facebook groups about blogging: there are often threads where you can drop your link.

Talk to and help other bloggers

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Networking is important as a blogger. It helps you to learn more about your niche, blogging, blogging culture, possible PR events and more. You have a reputation to uphold towards your readers, of course, you already knew that. But other bloggers are in a way your competition and your colleagues. You might see them during press events or blog events. Help fellow bloggers out by answering their questions on social media. If you do this often enough and consistent enough, people will know where to find you and you will become an expert on a certain subject within your network. As I answer a lot of questions about WordPress, technical issues, SEO and of course Yoast SEO, I now get tagged in questions in various groups. Annoying? Not at all. Helpful? Definitely. I’ll write about why networking is important next time, why you should do more of it and what it brought me so far. Other ideas

Still looking for ideas what to do when you’re out of inspiration or want to quit your blog? Why not try one of our courses? Yoast offers a Free SEO training and several other trainings that will definitely help you get a better understanding of SEO, keyword research and content writing.

And if you really do not want to do any of the above things, then maybe it’s time to sit back, relax and leave your blog until the next day. Being creative is a process and today might not be your day.

Read more: Blogging: the ultimate guide »

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