- Image via Wikipedia
All of us have deadlines, post quotas, and traffic targets to meet. Whether self-imposed or an employer’s requirement, these goals all rely on producing content on a regular basis. Here are five ways to keep the content coming, specifically catered for use during limited time or dry idea spells.
The Blockquote Bonanza
Someone else has written a post or article you love or hate, and you just want to add some commentary to make your own points. The Blockquote Bonanza involves writing a short intro to set the context, then zeroing in on the important points of your subject, following each blockquote snippet immediately with your own perspective. Like so:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi rutrum laoreet dui ac dapibus. Nunc at tincidunt dui. Morbi est augue, vehicula nec elementum vel, tempus sed odio. Mauris elementum congue risus, sed tincidunt augue.
Ut mi nulla, commodo non rutrum at, feugiat non elit. Sed mollis, odio id molestie lacinia, dui tortor convallis mauris, sed adipiscing massa risus vel ligula. Integer non lorem arcu. Etiam lectus nunc, dignissim eu.
Sed sollicitudin ligula eu erat porta semper. Cras ipsum libero, faucibus vitae semper quis, congue quis arcu. Sed arcu metus, pellentesque sit amet consectetur eu, tempor nec tortor. In vitae augue turpis. Donec sed nisl.
Integer nunc arcu, pulvinar ac consequat id, tincidunt at sapien. Donec et dui ut lectus adipiscing viverra. Duis rutrum vulputate urna. Mauris tempus aliquet volutpat. Phasellus felis nisi, elementum et suscipit a, pulvinar id mauris.
In posuere semper justo sit amet luctus. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer id sem libero. Donec massa turpis, facilisis et dignissim vitae, consequat id elit. Etiam at sollicitudin ipsum. Maecenas at.
…and so on and so forth. Remember to end with a paragraph summarizing the citations and your overall stance towards it!
The Summary List
Similar to The Blockquote Bonanza, The Summary List also involves adding commentary onto someone else’s content. The difference is in the structure, which usually involves citing a specific sentence and expounding on it in your own special way. Like so:
In posuere semper justo sit amet luctus. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer id sem libero. Donec massa turpis, facilisis et dignissim vitae, consequat id elit. Etiam at sollicitudin ipsum. Maecenas at.
- “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.” Morbi rutrum laoreet dui ac dapibus. Nunc at tincidunt dui. Morbi est augue, vehicula nec elementum vel, tempus sed odio. Mauris elementum congue risus, sed tincidunt augue.
- “Ut mi nulla, commodo non rutrum at, feugiat non elit.” Sed mollis, odio id molestie lacinia, dui tortor convallis mauris, sed adipiscing massa risus vel ligula. Integer non lorem arcu. Etiam lectus nunc, dignissim eu.
- “Sed sollicitudin ligula eu erat porta semper.” Cras ipsum libero, faucibus vitae semper quis, congue quis arcu. Sed arcu metus, pellentesque sit amet consectetur eu, tempor nec tortor. In vitae augue turpis. Donec sed nisl.
…and so on and so forth. Again, end with a useful summary!
The Lone Picture
Take an awesome picture you’ve found online. Whether you precede or follow it with a one-phrase description is up to you. Just remember that you can use the post title to convey everything, to use pictures with the owner’s permission, and to credit the source.
The Witty One-Liner
You may have difficulty turning your awesome insight or perspective into a full-blown blog post. Maybe it’s because you’re too tired to explore all angles, you’re simply too lazy, or you think brevity is the best presentation called for. So go with The Witty One-Liner
The Celebratory Post
Oh wow, it’s Christmas, and you forgot to pre-schedule a post for the day. Why not just go with the one-liner or lone picture, and greet your readers? Celebratory posts also apply to blogging milestones like the nth post, nth comment, or nth visitor.
Try it Out!
Having difficulty coming up with a post? Need to close out this week with a post to keep your readers engaged? Why not try out any of the methods above (except the 3rd and 5th, I guess), using this post as content fodder? You are, of course, welcome to suggest your own methods in the comments below.
11 thoughts on “5 Ways to Quickly Generate Blog Posts”
thancks
this post very very helped me !
Good Time
Nice, I like the ideas!
Good luck @Sandy! Lemme know how you do.
Yes @Rick, I should’ve quick link lists in my post as well!
@Coin Sorter and @Aery, interesting question. I’ve seen authoritative sites do this and still rank well for the topic. I guess you need to have a solid foundation SEO-wise first, and you shouldn’t be doing this regularly anyway.
Definitely @Igor, though there are rare times when my blogging brain can’t seem to accept those “gazzilions of ideas”.
You’re welcome, @Parminder, @Masud, and @Bob!
Nice ideas Rico. Just a simple doubt – Is blockquote indexed by search engines or not? I am worried about the duplicate content penalty.
Those were really brilliant ideas. I loved it. Thanks a lot for sharing!
nice tips. will help me a lot.
Thanks a lot for these great tips…happy to find your blog. Lots of valuable contents. I liked most the Summary List Idea. Lots of blogs I saw using this approach…
A great way of finding out what to blog about is to visit other blogs in your niche, watch the news and surf the forums. Injects gazzilions of ideas in your brain.
Igor
Would the Blockquote Bonanza be considered as duplicate content?
Excellent list. When I’m too tired or distracted to focus on a “real” blog post (or when I’m just too lazy to write one), I’ll often Cycle through StumbleUpon for about 15 minutes to compile a list of “cool links”. But, I like your Witty One-liner and Lone Picture ideas, too.
Wow, some fantastic ideas. I really like the Blockquote Bonanza idea although I think it could be time consuming unless you happen to know of an article in your niche that would lend itself to this technique.
I will give it a try soon.
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