Previously on Apollo’s Blog, we discussed 5 reasons to make blogging a habit. The main point here was that posting on a consistent basis makes your blog more attractive to both new and returning visitors. But sitting down to write brilliant, reader-worthy posts on a consistent basis can be so overwhelming that it leads to procrastination…and more often than not, giving up on the whole endeavour!

Inspired by reader Tiffany’s comment, this post covers how you can harness your creative energies and move forward with a plan for frequent posting. Here are several methods that you can pick and choose from so you can create your own strategy for developing a blogging habit:

1. Keep track of things that spark your interest, any way you can. Bookmark websites, subscribe to RSS feeds, jot down your thoughts on a notepad, keep a diary, take photographs, doodle, draw, record, videotape, do anything it takes to capture moments, stories and images that immediately catch your eye and leave you saying “I should share this”. As you take more interest in observing, analyzing and reiterating your daily findings, the more excited you’ll be about sharing them on your blog. So mark this down, you’ll want to share it later!
   
2. Arrange your workspace with productivity in mind. This means clearing your desk or office of unnecessary clutter or distractions. Get rid of those piles of paper, dirty dishes and empty coffee cups. A clean desk is an efficient desk! Having various items taking up your workspace will stall your momentum and dull your ability to sit down and focus on blogging. You should take note of what environmental cues stimulate your creativity. Does background music motivate you or distract you? What gets you into the mood for writing? Without a well-arranged workspace, the task of sitting down and blogging becomes more of a chore than it needs to be. Free your space to free your mind.

3. Always set yourself up for future posts. After finishing one post, ask yourself where you will go next. See if you can take the information you’ve already written in another direction. Look for any unfinished business, you may be surprised by some of the loose ends and hanging threads you find. Use those as a launch pad for future posts. Sometimes to go into the future, you need to look into the past. Build on your past successes to feel good about your blog and get motivated to write. Have outlines or ‘to do’ lists to give you structural ideas of where to go the next time you sit down to blog.

4. Set goals for yourself and give your blog a sense of direction. We all have goals in some shape or form, so setting some for your blog shouldn’t be too hard. Even if they seem outlandish at first, having them will give you a sense of what to aim for with your blogging and energize your efforts. Have a weekly or monthly plan of what you want to do with your blog.For example, you can have a goal of drawing in 100 visitors by the end of the month. Having this goal will motivate you to find creative and innovative ways of drawing in traffic. Even if you don’t succeed, you can use these goals as a basis of evaluating your blog for future improvement. The desire to revamp your writing can be a great motivational tactic. Don’t let your blog remain static because you’ll just get bored of writing for it. Give your blog a sense of direction and you’ll find the drive to post with greater frequency.

5. Try different types of blog posts. Many bloggers may feel burnt out because they find their routine to be repetitive and mundane. If you are consistently writing the same type of blog post over again, it’s easy to see why you would loose interest in your work. One way to mend this problem is to try different post concepts to rejuvenate your blogging. There are many types of blog posts, like reviews, lists, link roundups, video posts, rants, interviews, instructional posts, and post series, all of which you can try a hand at to give your blog variety and add more experimentation to the writing process.
   You can tie this suggestion in with the goal setting idea as well. For instance, aim to write several ‘how to’ posts a month or find other bloggers to interview or write profiles for. Having different post types in mind gives you more creative legroom and frees you from pigeonholing yourself into one writing process or style. Of course, some post types require more effort than others, so you can alternate them according to your schedule and energy level. On busy days, you can save some YouTube videos you can quickly embed in your blog and when you have the time, you can plan your detailed lists or comprehensive articles.

So forget your fears and get into your content with greater ease by mixing and matching the above five ideas. Create a strategy to find the blogging addict in you! Habitual blogging will help you find your dream of becoming a problogger.

Blogging is a continual learning process that takes patience and perseverance to succeed. With these pointers in mind, you should be able to enter your creative zone with regularity. So get to it, and be sure to check Apollo Media’s Blog along the way.

Now that we’ve laid down are path to becoming a blogging addict, we should ask what motivates you to blog. Feel free to share your own habit forming techniques!