“But how am I going to come up with that many blog posts? I don’t have that much to say.”Blank Pallette

That was what one of my clients said to me recently when our conversation about strategy got to the part about how often I recommended they post on their business blog to meet their traffic goals.

A lot of times the idea of consistently coming up with creative things to write about for your business blog can be pretty intimidating. Too often people feel like they need to paint a picture but they’ve only got a blank palette to work from. Here’s the thing.

You Are Not Alone

I think it’s safe to say that everyone struggles with this problem, at least once in a while. Even folks who produce massive amounts of high quality content like Chris Brogan can struggle with it. In fact he talked about that very thing today in his post about cranking out content.

Today’s post on Copyblogger also addresses the problem as they shared how to put yourself in an effortless writing zone.

That’s just 2 prominent blogs out there who happen to be writing about the challenge of consistent creativity on 1 day. Creativity is a challenge for all of us – just like being consistent can be, especially when we have businesses to run.

Because it’s such a common problem I’m going to offer a few of my own suggestions on how to come up with a steady stream of ideas for your business blog.

Remember It’s Not Obvious to Everyone Else

The first thing to remember, and the reminder that takes most of the fear away from my clients, is this. What you do every day and know the most about is not obvious to the rest of us. There are a million or more things that are very basic parts of how you run your business that seem kindergarten-simple to you.

But to the rest of us those little tidbits are like little slivers of gold. Because we don’t have a clue. But we’d like to learn about some of it if you’d just share it.

When you get your mind around the fact that what is obvious to you isn’t so obvious to the rest of us then all of a sudden you begin to realize how incredibly much stuff there is for you to write about on your business blog.

For most businesses there is so much that goes into making things work smoothly that you’ll have enough material to keep blogging until the cows come home, if you know what I mean.

Share Your Challenges

Write about some of the challenges in your business and how you overcame them. Everybody love the underdog. People like stories about overcoming obstacles, the bigger the challenge that was conquered the more inspiring it is.

I do this a lot. I don’t know, maybe I just have more challenges than most folks. But I doubt it. Just the same, this post is itself an example of that very thing.

When I sat down I was having a little trouble coming up with what I should write about. So I decided to write about how not to get stuck about what to write about.

Problem solved. And everyone wins!

Of course this will only work if you are willing to let folks peek behind the curtain of your business just a little bit. It’s probably not a good idea to flaunt your dirty laundry out on your blog.

But showing you business is full of actual normal people (and not zombies) won’t hurt anything.

Pay Attention Throughout Your Workday

I bet that every single day there are at least a handful of things that happen in your business which could be related in some kind of interesting way on your blog.

Maybe a customer makes a common mistake, or an employee comes up with a great idea, or something noteworthy happens in your industry that you find out about. When you start making it a point to keep an eye open for “blog fodder” I think you’ll be amazed how much material just comes your way.

You may want to change the names to protect the guilty, of course. But the material is there if you just pay attention.

Don’t Expect Every Post to Be a Home Run

If you fall into the trap of thinking that every post on your business blog has to be a masterpiece you are going to quickly freeze up. And that’s especially true when a post that you think is a masterpiece ends up not getting much traffic.

Don’t put that kind of pressure on yourself.

Sure you want to avoid publishing crap. But be content with some solid singles and doubles in your blog posts. Otherwise you will never be able to keep the pace you’ve set for yourself and discouragement will beat you down to the point where you abandon your blog all together.

Some of my most popular blog posts I banged out in about 10 minutes. There are others that I spent hours “finely crafting” that were received with a dull disappointing thud.

From my experience there is no real rhyme or reason to what posts become particularly popular so it’s not worth over thinking. Just put out good content on a consistent basis.

Some of it will end up being great. And we like that! But for every post that ends up being a home run there will be dozens of posts that are, well, OK.

That’s way better than just publishing the one masterpiece without the average pieces in between. Because it is much harder (for most folks it’s really closer to impossible) to build an audience without producing content on a regular basis.

Your Turn

So let me ask you, what inspirations do you find to power your creative juices for your business blog?

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