Stuck on the Same Blog Topic? 6 Ways to Give it a New Twist

Have you ever sat down to write a blog post only to realize after a few paragraphs that you’ve written something similar only months before?

If you’ve been blogging for any length of time, chances are good this has happened to you.

In fact, it happened to me yesterday. And, when I flippantly tweeted it, several people responded that they have that same problem all of the time.

Since this is common issue that bloggers face, this is the perfect opportunity to explore some options for remedying this issue.

So, the next time you start blogging on something you’ve already written about, you won’t waste any time determining what to do.

1. Republish the content on your own blog. Although this is something you shouldn’t do all the time, you can give your old content new life by republishing it. This is something Copyblogger often does with their vast archives. And Michael Hyatt did it last year when he was on vacation. Not only does this give you a blogging break, but it introduces new readers  to some of your best work that may be buried on your site.
2. Submit the content somewhere else. As I’ve said before, guest blogging can be a great way to get in front of a new audience. You can either write something new or you could submit your old post to be syndicated on another site. Either way, it gives you an opportunity to further spread your ideas.
3. Write a new angle. You may have talked about a particular topic or idea before, but maybe this time, you can take a different approach. Look for unique ways to talk about the topic. Or, maybe you could bring someone in for an interview on the topic. See what you can do to present the information in a new and exciting way for your readers.
4. Update the information. If it’s been a year or more since you wrote about that particular topic, it might be time to take the information and provide an update. For instance, if you wrote about your favorite productivity tools last year, you might want to update it to include some new tools that are now on the market.
5. Use a different format. If you’ve previously written about a topic, this time, you could publish the information using a different medium, such as photos, videos, podcasts, slide decks, infographics, etc. Maybe you could even interview someone on the topic or try out Vine, Twitter’s new 6-second mobile video creator. Whatever you choose, this is a great opportunity to use multimedia to reach your audience in a new way.
6. Repurpose for other uses. If you keep grooving on a particular topic, maybe it’s time to move the information off of your blog and use it other ways. Perhaps the information could be great fodder for e-letters, eBooks, whitepapers or other collateral materials.

What about you?

Certainly, if you keep coming back to the same ideas, you might need to spend some time finding new blog post inspiration and topics to write about. But sometimes, it just takes thinking about creative ways to get the most out of the good ideas you already have.

What do you do when you keep coming back to the same blog post idea?

Image credit: De Shark