Inspiration is a tricky thing. You’ll go through periods where you’re creating incredible content and producing it at a rapid speed and getting good results from it. Then all of a sudden it’ll feel like you’re pulling teeth just to write one good blog post or post a picture for Instagram. I’ve been struggling with the latter for a few months now and thought to myself “am I just sick of blogging? Am I not meant to do this anymore?”. It resulted in feeling depressed about the whole thing and neglecting my blog and waiting until the “right moment” would come where that I would feel inspired again. I found out that there is no such thing as the right moment and that it’s important to get back to blogging and fighting through the rut you’re in and eventually inspiration will come right back. Here are some of the best ways that I’ve found to feel inspired to blog again:
R E F L E C T + R E M E M B E R Y O U R P U R P O S E
While I don’t recommend abandoning your blog and leaving for weeks or even months (you’re going to lose a large part of your audience!), I do recommend taking some time off for a few days (or even just taking the weekends off) in order to sit and reflect on why you’re not feeling inspired. Ask yourself questions such as “what is my purpose?” and “why did I start this blog?” and think about what kinds of changes your blog needs. For some people, simply having a new website design can help them to feel inspired again while others need to expand and add new sections such as a travel or lifestyle section to their blog. Personally for me, I have a private Pinterest board filled with inspiring images or quotes that can help “trigger” new blog post ideas for the future that I always go back to whenever I’m in a rut. Lastly, I recommend going back to your old posts and seeing which ones had the most views or you felt you did your best work and try to think about the kind of mindset you were in at the time.
_____
K E E P G O I N G ( E V E N I F I T ‘ S B A D )
There have been tons of times where I posted a blog post thinking that it’s not my best yet my audience having a good reaction to it and even turning out to be one of my most read blog posts! Sometimes your audience can surprise you and you don’t know them 100%, so I would recommend to just keep going and pushing through this phase if you really want to stick to blogging. Eventually you’ll be inspired again and get it all together but in the meantime don’t give up and abandon all of your hard work!
_____
A S K Y O U R A U D I E N C E W H A T T H E Y ‘ R E I N T E R E S T E D I N
If it’s come to a point where you can’t produce any more content then why not ask your audience what they’re looking for? Bloggers seem to shy away from this because they might see it as a sign of weakness but your audience supports you and is there for you (think about it: why would they be reading your content after all this time? lol) so there’s nothing wrong with actually asking them through a survey (remember people always take surveys when there’s a gift card involved! haha) or even through the poll feature on Instagram Stories which is my personal favorite and it’s super easy and quick. Make sure to take notes and ask in the end if there’s any way that you can improve or what they wish you would change.
_____
C O N N E C T W I T H O T H E R B L O G G E R S
As bloggers, we’re fortunate enough to be a part of a wonderful community of fellow bloggers so don’t be afraid to reach out and ask others how they tackle with the lack of inspiration. While talking online is great and all, I love shooting an email to my favorite local bloggers and asking them if they would like to go out and get coffee sometime and meeting them in real life. There’s just something about talking to someone face to face and connecting with them about the issues that every blogger goes through which always leaves me with a new perspective and going home feeling inspired and ready to blog again. Too intimidated to meet new bloggers? Why not attend a blog conference which is usually packed with tons of great advice from speakers and you’ll most likely end up talking to some bloggers naturally while you’re there.
What are some ways that you feel inspired to blog again? Let me know in the comments below! And if you’re looking for more blogging advice, check out my other posts from my #BloggerBoss series by clicking the tag below or going to the search bar.
