Your next newsletter is due out this Friday! You’ve got your newsletter template in front of you; you’re sat at your PC all ready to go, and, horror of horrors… you’ve got blank page syndrome a.k.a. writer’s block. Your mind is a complete blank and you can’t think of a single thing to write about!
Writing articles is one of the main reasons why many solopreneurs put off producing a newsletter – they think they won’t have anything to write about and writing an article is too time consuming anyway!
WRONG!
You would be surprised at how easy it is to come up with writing your own articles, and how much fun it is too!
Let me share with you today my top three tips for overcoming writer’s block:
Tip 1: What is your area of expertise?
A great source for coming up with an article is to think about your area of expertise. Can you write an article on, say, ‘Ten Top Tips for [put in your area of expertise here]’.
Brainstorm some ideas.
Example: I could write an article called Ten Top Tips for Organizing Your Office.
Tip 2: Use article titles for inspiration!
Some great article titles, which will also get you thinking, are:
* [Number] Top Tips For …
* How To …
* The [number] Key Ingredients for …
* [Number] Mistakes to Avoid to …
Where you need to insert a number, odd numbers always seem to work best – try 3, 5 or 7. Top 10 Tips articles are also good too!
Try and come up with three or four article ideas – you will probably find that you can think of a lot more
Example: I could write an article called The 5 Key Ingredients for Organizing Your Office.
Tip 3: Visit the article submission sites and see what other’s are writing about.
Head on over to any one of the top article submission directories and have a look around at the articles that have already been written on your chosen niche. Let me be clear, I don’t advise copying those articles or any parts thereof and passing them off as your own, (I know you wouldn’t do that, but I just have to say it anyway) simply do this as a way of researching possible article topics and inspiring you to write your own original article.
Perhaps you’ve found an article of interest to your niche but you can present the topic from a different perspective – one that’s not already been covered. Or you’ve read an article on your particular niche, but the author hasn’t covered a specific area that you know a lot about. Write an article that covers that area!
Example: There are many articles on office organization and general organizing tips, but my particular niche is in office organization for online solopreneurs, so I can write office organization articles specifically for solopreneurs. It’s a slightly different angle to general office organization.