My work flow sometimes looks like this:
-Open new blog draft.
-Stare at screen.
-Get a snack.
-Come back and hope the writing fairy wrote something.
-Be very disappointed.

Yeah, that’s no way to get shit done. Or started.

I recently wrote a post called “Break the Imposter Chain” on my other blog, Gardening In High Heels. A lot of the techniques I explored to bust through that imposter rut also apply to finding things to write about.

Go Outside

Back when I was part of Emily Cassel’s Freedom is Sexy Sister Circle, she introduced me to Goddess Cards. They’re oracle cards that give you a boost or insight you can use to guide your day.

Well, I kept drawing Cordelia. She advises you to “Go Outside.” It’s the best way to reconnect to Source Energy and to keep yourself grounded. It also provides a jump-start for your brain so you can think clearly and refocus on the task at hand.

Plus, walking has been found to increase creativity by 60% (and it’s good for your body, too).

People Watch

People watching can be a mindless activity. Or you can put on your creative pants and use it to help your writing.

Take a look at what someone is doing. Then write a story around it. It’s better with friends.

For example, before a Pens game, myself and my boyfriend stopped for dinner. There was a couple at the end of the bar who barely said two words to each other the entire time we were there. He suggested that maybe they had a fight on the way over. So I started to think about the scenarios that would lead to a fight between a middle-aged couple before a hockey game.

The longer it goes on, the sillier it gets, and the more you have to stretch your creativity to come up with ideas.

Read Another Genre

Do you ever look at Pinterest and think, “Everyone and their dog has written about Instagram. Why should I even bother???” I don’t know about you, but I do that all the time.

We sometimes get so sucked into our niche, learning everything we can about it and exploring it from all angles that it’s hard to come up with something original to say.

When that happens, I pick up a fiction or read something funny on BuzzFeed. Anything to change gears a bit and get myself out of the black-niche-hole I’ve fallen into.

Bake. Craft. Paint.

Think about what you liked to do as a kid. Did you always play in your mom’s makeup? Finger paint? Color? Bake? Basically pick something that gave you hours of entertainment as a kid. Chances are good it still will. And it’ll probably spark something in you that’ll act as a pick-me-up.

Just do anything, even something kinda mindless to you that you enjoy. It’ll reset your brain.

Pinterest

There are a bunch of lists on Pinterest like, “500 things to write about when you don’t know what to write about.” Find one of those. Pick a topic. Start writing.

So now that you’re armed with some places to look, get it going!

Where do you turn for inspiration?

The post 5 Places to Find Inspiration for Writing appeared first on Angelica Ross.

Here’s an easy trick to optimize Pinterest for you to help plan and write blog posts.

Use Secret Boards

Secret boards on Pinterest are a fantastic way to save things that you don’t want the public to see in your profile. I use my secret boards to save posts I want to share to clients’ pages, remind myself of things I want to recall, but don’t have a specific place to put them (like a bookmark), and keep boards-in-progress hidden until they’re complete enough to show to the public.

There are all sorts of things on Pinterest and many of them are great fodder to use as a jumping off point for your post.

Let’s say you found a post about the basics of planning blog content (ahem, like this one).

And let’s say you want to take that idea and expand upon it (with credit, of course) later. Save it to your secret board! Use the caption to jot down a few notes that first came to mind when you saw it that made you want to write more on the topic.

Or just go balls to the wall and create a mini-outline right there – nothing is worse than looking at something and thinking, “Well I had something I wanted to say about this…now, what was it?”

You’re already on Pinterest, you already use it to save things you want to remember, why not use it to its full capacity and be a content generating machine.

Now, go back to planning your fantasy wedding.

When you’re ready to sit down and batch out some blog posts, you can refer to your secret board full of ideas.

Not only will you have the source to link back to (so you aren’t saying something like “I read this great post…it’s written by someone…about planning blog content….”), you can easily reference the post. It’s all right there, notes and all.

You’ll also save time since you won’t be Googling “Blog about dinosaurs and blogging.” Yup, done that. How I could forget the name And Possibly Dinosaurs, I have no idea.

How do you save articles for later reference?

The post How to use Pinterest to Plan your Blog Posts appeared first on Angelica Ross.

So let’s fix that, shall we?

Today, we’re going to focus on planning blog posts. Why? Because Post It products legally own my soul. I mean, because planning sets the groundwork for a successful marketing strategy. This is going to be short and sweet. There are two steps. That’s it. You ready for your mind to be blown?

Step 1: Color Code

I’m a fanatic for a bouquet of colored pens, a rainbow of sticky notes, a unicorn’s wet dream of colors. Give me all the hues.

Not only does color coding help because you can easily see what’s planned, it allows you to batch tasks easily (more on that later) since like is grouped with like.

It’s totally up to you how you want to break up your color coding. You can do it by category. That’s particularly effective so you can see if you’re dominating your blog with one type of post. You can do it by type of post (personal writing, DIY, event round-up, etc). Again, that’s effective so you can make sure you have a good mix of content. You can do it by length of post.

Basically it all ensures that you have a healthy content mix and one topic, style, what-have-you isn’t being domineering.

Being dominant can be fun. But having one type of post take over is boring for your readers.

Now that you’ve figured out how to break down your content by type and color, it’s time to plan some of the content.

Step 2: Outline Your Posts

I know, I know. “So original, Angelica. I didn’t see that coming.”

Listen, it has to happen. Get yourself over to CoSchedule and print out some of their content marketing editorial calendars. You’ll get a year overview so you can see a big-picture road map, an ideas worksheet where you can brainstorm content ideas, and a monthly calendar for you to plan out your specific posts (that’s where the pretty, pretty colors come in).

As CoSchedule says, you’ll save about an hour per blog post in planning, you’ll see an increase in traffic, and you’ll be able to publish almost 50% more content. Why? Because when you sit down to write, everything is mapped out, you’ll have an outline, and you can easily create content that works together and effectively promotes yourself instead of being all over.

You don’t want to be that person who isn’t prepared for a big launch and then scrambles to get content out to support why someone needs to your Facebook Ad Email Course, do you? Nope.

And that’s it. Two steps to planning blog content. Once you figure out what types of posts you want to write and have a general outline, half the work is already done. Then you just have to write, publish, and promote. And if you need a little more guidance, MeedEdgar has a fantastic list of resources to help you get more out of your blog posts from the planning to writing to publishing stage.

How do you plan your blog content?

PS: I am not affiliated with CoSchedule nor do I earn a commission for mentioning them. I just love their planning tools. Plus, they have a great blog with awesome content marketing…content!

The post How to Plan Blog Content Like a Boss appeared first on Angelica Ross.