As bloggers, we’re constantly looking for inspiration and new ideas to write about.  Sometimes we’ll find things present themselves to us naturally and other times we have to go searching.  To be honest, writing to a calendar is great as the regularity and organization associated with it make it easier to come up with ideas.  In fact, I have some great ideas for several series that I want to write, but I’m struggling to fit them in now over the next few months as I’ve got so many other posts planned!

For my own writing, like I said, a calendar is probably my most valuable tool as it helps me to see what’s going on and what’s planned.  These events often lead to great inspiration for what to write about when applicable, but often we’re still left staring at a blank screen.

Another idea that I got from Copyblogger is to look to quotations and see how we can work our posts around them (see the full article here).

However, my favorite approach is to be more scientific.  I start by thinking about keywords that I want to write about.  I have a list of keywords and themes that I’m working on getting my blog known for and these can often inspire posts all by themselves.  Other times, I’ll go into EzineArticles and search using my keywords.  This invariably leads me to more content that I’ll ever need – all with great titles that I can use for inspiration.

Just to be clear, I don’t use the articles from EzineArticles (although I may read a few if I’m having a really bad case of writer’s lock) I simply use them for ideas.  That way, my articles should always be fresh and in my own voice.

Other ways that you could apply this idea would be to use other sites such as YouTube or even something more obscure like Twitter.  The trick is to get creative about how you find your inspiration, and your writing will reflect that creativity.

I’d love to read about how you come up with ideas for your own blog.  Please share in the comments and let’s see how many other creative techniques we can come up with!

There were a lot of great blog posts out there this week on the subject of Internet Marketing so rather than share a whole list, I’ve been selective and brought you just my top five.

Is Your Blog Really Sick? 8 Health Check Points – I’ve mentioned Patsi’s blog in the past and it says something about the quality (and abundance) of her writing that I’m continually including her posts in my blogs of the week.  In this post, she’s taking a quirky look at how we can measure the ‘health’ of our blogs.  I can certainly relate to some of the sicknesses that she’s alluding to with my own blog and I’m sure that you’ll relate to it too!

One Foolproof Trick to Blast Writer’s Block – As bloggers, we all know what it’s like to sit in front of the computer screen and have nothing to write about.  I’ve partly overcome this by scheduling my blog posts in advance (see ‘Organize Your Blogging‘) but even this strategy leaves us vulnerable to the dreaded writer’s block.

Another of my strategies is to regularly read blogs related to copywriting such as the excellent Copyblogger.  In this guest post, James Chartrand (who’s actually a woman) shares a great strategy for beating writer’s block that I’ll be putting to good use in future posts.

Create A Blogging Strategy & Avoid Burnout – It’s taken me some time (about 3 years to be precise) to realize that a blogging strategy is key to successfully growing your blog.  Don’t you love it when you think you’ve got something figured out then you read something that blows your preconceptions out of the water?  Well, that’s what Lynn Terry’s blog post did for me!

I consider myself well read in terms of what makes up a successful blog.  I know that consistent, regular quality content is all that you need.

Wrong!

Want to know why this is just the tip of the iceberg?  Read Lynn’s post…!

18 Blog Tips to Help You Succeed in 2010 – In this guest post on DailyBlogTips, Tony Hue share with us the basics for having a successful blog.  In my opinion, if you take everything in this post and combine it with the content in Lynn Terry’s post (above) you can’t fail to make it as a professional blogger!

Use it or lose it! 5 Tips on How to Keep Your Blogging Regular – Darren Rowse knows a thing or two about blogging.  In fact, he was co-author on THE book on blogging professionally!  One of the things that I really like about him is that he’s just s quick to share his failures and his successes.  When he does this though, he always does it in a way where we learn the lesson with him and come to the end of his post with new knowledge to apply to our blogging.  This post is a case in point – check it out to see what I mean.

That’s it for this week.  As ever, I’d love to get your thoughts about the posts that I’ve shared as well as any that you think I’ve overlooked.  If you have a blog of your own and you’d like me to consider including your posts in the future, please let me know.  The best way to get in touch regarding this post is via the comments below.  I personally read and reply to every comment.

Have a great week!

When you’re trying to maintain multiple blogs as well as a full time job, it pays to find ways to organize your blogging!  As I mentioned in my blog strategy post last week, one important element is to use a blog calendar to plan ahead on the topics that you’re going to write about.  Take this post for example – I planned to write this at some point between Christmas and New Year, just as I planned out the rest of this month and most of next!

I feel that by staying at least one month ahead in my planning, I can never use the excuse that “I’ve got nothing to write about” or that “it’s hard to come up with ideas”.  My ideas are on paper already so now I just have to write.

On top of this, by working ahead in this way, whenever I’m feeling creative I can sit down and plan a little further.  My goal is to always have the current month and next month fully planned so at the end of January, I’ll sit down and finish at least through to the end of March.  Of course, at any time I can add ideas to future calendar points as the idea strikes me, or I can add additional posts if I want to get something timely out.

In terms of finding the time to write, the trick here is to use the tools at hand.  I work with Wordpress which allows me to save posts before they’re finished and come back to them later.  It also allows me to write a post and schedule it to be published at a specific time.  For example, I’m writing this post on Saturday evening but have scheduled it to publish mid-morning on Monday.  I’d actually like to get Wednesday’s post written before Monday so that I have time to work on other things during the week!

If you consider that I work full time, this means that I can use my time very effectively on a weekend to produce the majority of my content for the coming week, and have only minimal work to do on an evening to keep everything ticking by nicely.  If you consider that this is for 2 blogs, you’ll see just how effective this strategy can be.

I would encourage you to look at your own blogging and consider how you can apply these ideas to become more organized.  I’d also love to read any tips and tricks that you use to keep your blog growing consistently.  Please use the comments to share these ideas – I’ll read every one and may even include some of the best ones in a future post!

I spend part of each day reading various industry blogs and I find this can be a really helpful way to not only keep up to speed, but also to get inspiration for new blog posts of my own.  Here are the best posts that I’ve come across this week.

The Blah Blah Blah Blogging Rules. F It. – Long time readers of this blog will know that I’m a fan of ProBlogger.  I particularly like his maverick style and this post really sums it up!

Without Backlinks, You Have Nothing. – Lynn Terry has a reputation for being one of the top affiliate marketers of today so I’m a regular reader of her blog.  This week she pre-launched a fantastic new service that aims to give you thousands of backlinks to your site.  Read the post to find out more…

The Oft-Confused Features And Benefits – One thing I can’t stand in a sales letter is when it sells nothing more than features!  This is not only irritating for the reader, it also kills conversions!  Learn from Michel Fortin, one of the Internet’s top copywriters, how to make sure you get your sales copy right and sell only benefits.

Dumb Excuses for Not Blogging – I’m sure everyone finds blogging a bit of a drag sometimes.  However, if we’re relying on it to support our families or to maintain our brand, then we have to make ourselves do it.  This post from Patsi Krakoff reminds us of the importance of our blogs and encourages us to give them the priority they deserve.

21 Outstanding Wordpress Plugins – I love a good, effective Wordpress plugin, don’t you?  This post describes 21 of the best – some of which I already use, and some that need some investigation.  If you use Wordpress as your blogging platform, I’d encourage you to check this post out!

It’s All About Free, Baby! – You’ll hear a lot of successful Internet marketers talk about giving stuff away.  Some refer to it simply as ‘freebies’, others as ‘paying it forward’, and the fancy guys out there call it ‘moving the free line’.  In this post, Jessica Swanson (the Shoestring Marketer) gives us her take on the part that free products play in your marketing strategy.

Get More Subscribers: Seal the Deal with Incentives – I recently started using Aweber for all my new mailing lists.  This week, they posted as item on their blog dealing with how to incentivize people to sign up.  I figured that if I’m going to learn about sign-up rates and how to improve them, then Aweber is as good a place to start as any!

Finally, I wanted to share one more post with you.  This one is not something that will make you more money, but it’ll give you a good laugh:

Advice for Bloggers: Karate Kid Style

Enjoy!

As we start the new year, I’m making a commitment to you, my readers, to deliver more from my blog.  More useful information, more how-to articles, more reviews – more of what you need to be more successful with your Internet Marketing.

In order to achieve this, I’m having to get über-organized!  To start with, I’ve downloaded the fantastic blogging calendar from BlogEnergizer.  This calendar not only has space to plan out all blog posts for the coming year, it also has all important dates and events included to help you find inspiration.  I’ve printed this out and started a new folder for each of my primary blogs and am planning to work at least a month in advance in terms of planning.  I’ve already completed my plans for January and February for this blog and my new self help blog and will complete March once this month draws to a close.

The other major thing that I’m looking to introduce is some regular features:

• Book of the Month – This is where I’ll write a review of a book that I’ve found useful in my own Internet business so that you can find out if it’s right for you without having to spend any money.
• Top Blogs This Week – I spend a lot of time every day reading other peoples blogs.  Occasionally, one of the posts will stand out and I’ll be collecting these and bringing them to your attention towards the end of each week.
• Product of the Month – Just like the Book of the Month, I plan to write detailed reviews of products that I either use on a regular basis, or have at least bought myself so that you get to find out the pros and cons without parting with cash.
• Mini-Series – A Mini-Series is a great way for me to deliver more content to you without you having to wade through one long post.  I already have a few planned for the coming months, and I think you’ll find them beneficial.

Of course, with all of this extra workload that I’m putting on myself I need to step up my discipline and start working ahead on my posts.  Having the calendar helps of course, but I’ll need to start focusing my daily work more effectively in order to keep things moving.  I have some ideas on how to approach this and I’ll share what works and what doesn’t once I’ve been doing it for a while.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you.  What do you think of my new strategy?  Is there anything else that you’d like to see in addition to what I’ve mentioned above?  Do you have any tips for time management that you’d like to share?

Whatever your thoughts, please don’t be shy – please share them in the comments below.