When you’re struggling for ideas for content for your website, try a few of these:
No Pressure
Remove a little of the pressure by scaling down your expectations. You don’t have to write an encyclopedia, nor win a Pulitzer; all you need to do is share something your customers will find valuable. And what’s “valuable” to them is often much smaller than you realize. See, you know so much about your field you tend to forget that even the littlest diamond (to you) might be huge to a non-expert.
What Did I Just Say?
Remember the last question one of your customers, or potential customers, asked, and use that as the topic for your writing. To get started, simply write down what they asked and write down your answer.
Not What Your Grammar Teacher Said
Keep in mind, too, that when writing for quick consumption on the web, your “paragraphs” shouldn’t really be any more than three sentences, and often one or two sentences work just fine. People on the web are frequently skimming; they want to find value fast and will drop you quickly if they have to hunt too long.
You Can Talk, Right?
Don’t worry too much about perfection. If you can make a point to someone in person, you can do it in writing. You can even use the same language, the same phrasing. You can, in effect, simply write down a brief conversation you had with someone.
What Your Grammar Teacher Said
DO review your writing for sensibility, spelling and grammar. Reading out loud to yourself (or another person) is a great way to review.
Include Keywords for Search Engines
DO review your writing to ensure you’ve included a keyword or two. Don’t use them too frequently; the search engines watch for that.
Procrastinate. Or Don’t.
Remember you don’t have to publish it right away, you can save it as a draft. The risk to that, of course, is that you’ll get too busy to come back to it.
Hey,
There’s no “perfect” way to write, and you can improve a little each time. Better to get good (not perfect) content up on a regular basis than to go long periods with no new content.
