By Michelle Shaeffer

Have you ever felt chained to your blog? Or like you're in content creation jail?

Even if you really love blogging, it can get tedious if you've got to sit down every day and publish a blog post. So what can we do to give ourselves some freedom from daily content creation?

First, remember that you don't need to publish every day to be a successful blogger! Yes, during the Ultimate Blog Challenge we encourage daily blogging - but that's for a specific length of time and as an exercise to really jump start or recharge your blogging. My personal goal is 2-4 new posts a week (when it's not a challenge month).

Second, there are techy tricks and creative strategies we can use to keep consistent content without being tied to our blogs.

Here are 10 of my favorite ways to break out of that prison and keep sharing fresh content on my blog.

1. Learn to Love the "Schedule" Feature.

If you're blogging with WordPress you can easily write posts in advance and schedule them to go "live" at the date and time of your choice with the scheduling feature. Here's a step by step video: How to Schedule Blog Posts in WordPress.

I wrote this post on Saturday, July 28th but you won't be reading it until Monday, July 30th or later because I've used the schedule feature.

2. Start with Templates.

This is a "Top 10" or "10 Tips" style post. I chose the headline and format before I started blogging. It made this post much easier to write.

Here are some free blog post (and article writing) templates you'll find helpful:

• https://remarkablogger.com/?s=post+templates
• https://blog.ezinearticles.com/category/article-templates
• https://www.fuelyourblogging.com/five-possible-blog-post-templates-to-follow/
• https://www.mirnabard.com/2010/07/10-instant-blog-post-templates-to-help-you-write-articles-in-30-minutes-or-less/

3. Invite Guest Bloggers.

You don't have to write all of your content by yourself! Bring in your colleagues and friends to help.

Brainstorm other topics your readers would be interested in and then brainstorm a list of who you'd like to have guest blog - then match 'em up and start sending invitations.

4. Use EzineArticles.com to Find Content.

One of my favorite strategies is to search sites like EzineArticles.com for topics or people I'd love to feature on my blog.

Here are some articles I've shared that came from EzineArticles.com:

• Is the Cheshire Cat Your Marketing Consultant?
• Color Outside the Lines
• It's Monday, Do You Know Where Your Focus Is?
• Create Your Own Audio or Video Tip Series

Just go search for your topic and you'll find lots of possible blog posts just waiting for you to share. Step by step this is how I do it (with screenshots of what you're looking for).

5. Bring in Regular Contributors.

One step beyond featuring guest bloggers from time to time is to use regular contributors. CWAHM.com uses this strategy effectively. Each of their contributors shares 2 posts a month on a specific area of expertise.

Could a similar strategy work for your blog? Is there someone you could bring in once or twice a month consistently to share on a topic your readers would love?

6. Create Series.

Have you seen Wordless Wednesday floating around the blogosphere? There are lots of ways you can create a series for your own blog. What about an inspirational post every weekend? Or a "fun" post every Friday? An infographic one day a week? A question and answer (Q&A) day? Video blog day?

If you know that every Tuesday you're going to share a video, you can sit down and create your next 3 or 4 Tuesday posts in advance!

7. Incorporate Videos.

It's easy to share videos from YouTube or TED.

Here's how to share a YouTube video.

Here's how to share a TED video.

8. Repurpose Content.

What do you already have that you can use as a blog post, or turn into a post with some editing? How about these content types: 

Written Content:

• newsletter articles for your ezine or list
• articles for reprint you've shared on other sites
• your FAQ page
• customer welcome kit
• instruction sheets
• forum posts
• autoresponder series
• ebook (for sale or free)
• short report (great for getting list opt-ins)
• press release
• interview

Video Content:

• you tube videos of you on camera
• you tube video of a slide show with narration
• webinars of your content

Audio Content:

• audio blogs
• teleseminars
• short audio tip series

Social Networking Content:

• Facebook fan page content
• Facebook profile notes
• Tweets
• LinkedIn discussions

Image Content:

• slide shows
• infographics

9. Share a Visual.

And while we're on the idea of slide shows and infographics, the web is flooded with amazing infographics on every topic under the sun!

Find some you can share on your blog: 3 places to find infographics you can share.

10. Start with PLR.

PLR = private label rights

PLR is (usually) written content that you purchase which you can then use as your own. A great way to use it is as a "jumping off" or "brainstorming" starting point. It can save you time on research and give you a great outline for your blog content.

Here's a fantastic video that explains more about how it works: https://youtu.be/d190qWOCMO0

Michelle Shaeffer has been online since the late 80s, creating websites since the early 90s, and has worked as a virtual assistant and website designer for non-profits and small business owners including marketers, authors, coaches, crafters, consultants and others. She has mentored thousands bloggers through leading online blog challenges and her award winning blog attracts more than 250,000 page views and 40,000 unique visitors a month. Connect with her at www.michelleshaeffer.com

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