How To Grow Your Blog When You’re Not Creating Content

Jenny in Neverland

8 years ago

AD - This post contains affiliate links

Creating content you love is the heart of your blog, the thing that keeps people coming back time and time again and the reason you created your blog in the first place. But creative inspiration isn’t constant and it certainly isn’t linear and there will be times where you can’t write new content for a bunch of reasons. It’d be impossible for us to be creative 24/7. But that doesn’t mean blog growth has to stop! Here’s how to grow your blog even when you’re not creating new content.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Blogging isn’t all about the content creation. A heck of a lot goes on behind the scenes of a blog which arguably is the most common misconception that “non-bloggers” have about our industry. They only see the final product – the perfectly posed and edited Insta shot or the immaculately crafted blog post but blogging is a wormhole of behind the scenes activities which help bring those end results into fruition.

Want to know how to grow your blog without producing new content? Here are some tips!

Brainstorm new ideas

If you’re not in the place (or the mood) to actually write new content, brainstorming new ideas for future content is a great way to keep yourself productive and moving forward. Think about the time of year you’re in, can you do any topical posts around that? What’s going on in the world right now? Do you have a opinion on that you can turn into an opinion piece? Have you just tried some amazing new skincare that you can review?

Related:

Update your socials

Another main aspect of blogging is social media and making sure all your social platforms are up to scratch and the best they can possibly be is a great way to help you stay on top of the more ‘mundane’ side of blogging when you can’t actively create new content. Are you keeping it consistent across all your platforms? Is your email address noticeable in your profiles so brands can reach you? Have you responded to your tweets or Instagram comments?

Reply to blog comments

It’s very easy to let blog comments get on top of us to the point where it seems like such an impossible and daunting task that we just leave it and hope nobody notices. Now the comment police aren’t going to come and get you if you don’t reply to your blog comments but it’s always nice to take the time to thank those who are taking their own time to comment on your work.

Grow your blog by scheduling your social content

Arguably the most boring and painstaking aspect of blogging but it really does have an impact on blog views and how to grow your blog so it’s worth just sucking it up and getting it done. I use Buffer to schedule my own blog tweets, Tailwind for Pins and if you have a Facebook page for your blog, you can simply schedule a post for the future instead of posting it now. If you’re not actively creating new content right now, scheduling your old posts in a new exciting way might gain you new viewers who weren’t around when that post actually went live and keeps things interesting.

Recommended: Viral Pinterest Templates

Take photos / create graphics

If you’re not feeling writing new content right now, then maybe now would be a good time to up your photography or graphics game.Take photos in bulk – flay lays, product photos, photos of you – and get them edited and stored away ready to add to your new content when it’s created. You never know, taking photos might also give you some inspiration on what to write about. You could also hop on Canva and start creating some cute graphics for your posts too.

Make a plan

When I’m not feeling the writing part, something I always find myself leaning towards is goal setting and making plans. I’m a very goal oriented person and I like always moving forward and progressing and an important thing to remember is that just because you’re not actively creating new content, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not moving forward. Having a break to really figure out what you and your blog are all about, what topics you’re really passionate about and refining your skills in other areas, might just be the thing that helps you progress further.

So sit down and think about what you want from blogging and your blog. How you feel about it right now and how you’d like to feel about it. Where would you like to be in a years time? 5 years? Even 10, if we’re getting brave? What do you want to improve? What new skills do you want to learn? And most importantly, what steps are you going to take to achieve these things? A huge ‘behind the scenes’ element of blogging we can work on, is ourselves. So use this time wisely!