10e20 is running a great article entitled “10 Helpful Hints for Creating Strong Website Content” that has some excellent ideas on building good content. As Jake Matthews points out in that article, generating great content takes time, effort, and work - there isn’t a quick, easy way to build up content.

His post inspired me… and then inspired me again. I know, I know… that means nothing, right? Let me explain. It was inspiring in that it served as an excellent reminder. But it also inspired me to write this post about… wait for it… inspiration.

When you first start a website, you’re probably over-flowing with ideas, topics, and things you’d like to say. It may seem like there’s not enough time in the day to get all of your content published. But as time goes on, things begin to change. The best website owners and writers out there will all tell you the same thing: after a while, it gets harder and harder to generate fresh, new content.

This is even true for “newsy” sites that cover breaking stories, constantly-changing announcements, and opinion. Trust me… I know this.

The trick is to find ways to inspire yourself when the writing becomes more difficult. If you let your site sit and go stagnant you will suffer loss of readership, loss of rankings, and loss of revenue (if you’re making money from the site). A fresh, updated site is by far the best way to succeed online.

So in no particular order, here are 10 Ways To Inspire Yourself to Write:

1. Spring-boarding: No… I’m not talking about an Olympic sport. Spring-boarding is the practice of taking a seemingly small, insignificant event and using it to “spring-board” into a broader topic. For example, if you get bit by a spider - which is no big deal and hardly worth writing up on your site - you could use the story of the bite to talk about venom… or spiders in general… or bugs… or nature… or even health care.
2. Topic Splintering: I did this right here. I took a story on generating content, which I had nothing to really add to, and morphed it into getting inspired to generate content. While this post is technically about generating content, it focuses on a specific aspect of the generating process. If you read something on ice cream, you could generate an article on the cream used in making ice cream or the flavorings added to ice cream.
3. Bring the Offline On: This is one of our favorite things to do at the Internet Marketing Monitor. Matt, in particular, spends a lot of time following offline businesses, marketing, etc. We’ve had many a discussion/debate about offline marketing that somehow ended up finding its way onto the Internet Marketing Monitor in the form of information about Internet marketing. The offline world is literally over-flowing with inspiration. Whatever your business, purpose, or topic of conversation online, it almost certainly has some basis or foundation in the offline world. Don’t forget about that foundation as a great source of inspiration.
4. Personal Experiences: The things that happen to us on a daily basis can make for great inspirational bits. What seems like a completely irrelevant, uninteresting experience can turn into your best writing idea ever. I experienced an interesting interaction at a gas station down the road from my house. Doesn’t have a lot to do with Internet marketing, right? Technically, no. But I was able to use the experience to churn out a great post representing your company online, regardless of where you are.
5. Analyze a Debate: I’m a big fan of analyzing things. I always have been. I guess that’s why I chose psychology as a course of study in college. But we don’t write about psychology (per say) at the Internet Marketing Monitor. So I had to come up with a way to work my love of analysis into Internet marketing and the result is my frequent analysis and comparison of arguments and debates that I’ve run across. From conflicting opinions on the future of Google, to debates about search engine power, and all the way to a disagreement over online video stores, I found a way to turn my analytical passion into a valuable part of the Internet Marketing Monitor. Even if analysis isn’t your thing, you’d be surprised how inspiring a debate can be. You’re most likely going to favor one side over the other. There are things you’re going to wish the person representing your side had said, but didn’t. You’re going to have things you’d like to add or respond to. Guess what? That’s a great article in the making!
6. Parody Something: Humor works. Really. A great way to not only inspire some readership (and maybe earn a link or two) is to parody something in your industry. You don’t think Saturday Night Live became popular for the character’s acting abilities, do you? We wrote about Google AdSense tattoos and toilet paper once. The idea behind the post was that Google was expanding well beyond a search advertising company… but we did it in a way that was humorous. And it actually inspired me to write a follow-up post about Google’s advertising endeavors a few days later.
7. Open Letters: Open letters are articles that are generally formatted like a personal letter and - often times - addressed to a specific person, company, entity, or industry. Pick a person or thing in your industry and imagine that you had one-on-one face time with them. It even works on inanimate objects. You could write an open letter to a cell phone to address all of the problems you have with its interface, service, etc. Even people who think they have absolutely no creativity will be surprised how easily their ideas pour out when they’re writing a letter. Take advantage of that!
8. Consume Media: I get inspiration from various forms of media all the time. Books, television, movies, the news, etc. As you’re watching TV or reading a book you almost always hear/see something that sticks with you, right? Whether it’s a really funny joke or a bit of wisdom that hits home, something will stand out. Think about ways to use that tid bit in your content generation. Apply the above-mentioned spring-board technique. Or create a debate between yourself and a character from a book. Watch the news or follow your industry and find ways to incorporate popular topics of conversation into your content. The inspirational resources are endless.
9. Chart & Eliminate: Maybe there’s something you’d like to write about that othes in your industry or genre have already covered. That may discourage you from writing - but it shouldn’t. Start with the broader topic and write down every thought, idea, or random bit of information that pops into your head. When you’re done, you should have one of those spider-looking charts with your topic in the center. Then, go through other sites and publications that look at the topic and eliminate all of the ideas or opinions from your chart that have already been covered. At the end of the exercise you’ll have what’s left… the untouched ideas surrounding the topic. There’s your article.
10. Revisit Old Content: Just because you wrote an article on transmission fluid last year doesn’t mean you have nothing new to add today. One of the easiest ways to get inspired for something new is to go back and look at your old content. What’s changed since then? What have you learned? What have you done? It’s not only a great way to get inspired, but it’s also a great way to engage existing readers who’ve probably read the old article.

There are literally tons of ways to get inspired. Even so, inspiration doesn’t always seem like an easy task. Sometimes it isn’t. But there are a lot of ways to get the ball rolling and not only break through writer’s block or content generation slow-down, but also create some great articles.