Five Things To Do When You Have Nothing To Blog About

Check the Comments

When I have writer’s block, the first thing I do is read my blog comments. I get many blog story
ideas from reading my comments.

Check Out Other Blogs in Your Community

With 60+ million blogs out there, I’m sure a few of them must have something interesting for
you to write about. While you don’t have to check all 60 million blogs, it’s a good idea to check
out some of the blogs in your MyBlogLog community or the blogs of your commentators. Most
blogs write these types of post up as news or “speed linking.” Whatever you want to call it, you
should try to inject your own views into the topic. You can see an example in my What’s
Happening In the Community post.

Sometimes you will come across a good story that deserves its own post instead of being
grouped with a speed linking session. Make sure you give your views on the topic. Just copying
a pasting a quote and telling the readers to go read the full story isn’t going to provide much
incentives for the reader to come back to your blog.

Look In Your Archives

If your blog has been around for a while and has amassed a good number of posts, then try
looking in your archives to see if there are any posts that you can update into a new post. If
you’re really lazy you don’t even need to update them. Just change the date and bring the post
back to the front page. The chance of anyone noticing is very slim. John Chow dot Com has over
1,000 blog posts. If you're a new reader, are you going to read every single one of them? Many
posts are timeless. If I were to bring a post back to the front, most would think it’s a brand new
post. However, the better way is to do a new updated post and link to the old post. This way you
add new content to your blog and help bring traffic to the old post as well. You can also try a
Blast From The Past.

Check Your Email

While most readers interact by leaving comments, some will do it with emails. Sometimes, I will
come across a question from a reader that I know many would like the answer to. Instead of
replying to the author, I would answer the question in a blog post. That was the case when a
reader asked me for my breakdown of Google CPM and CPC ads. Not only did I answer the
question, but I also explained how to display your Google contextual and SiteMatch stats.

Look At YouTube

When all else fails, go to YouTube (or any other video sharing site) find a funny or thought
provoking video and post it. Remember to add your own comments/views to the video.