Spice up your blog with creative examples from professional organizers
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Do you sometimes feel like you’re just churning out articles week after week, looking for new ways to say the same old thing? Maybe you’re in a blogging rut!
Although there’s a lot to be said for consistency, doing something a little different will spice things up for you and your readers alike. After all, there’s no rule that says all of your blog posts have to be in the same format.
Since I originally wrote this post in 2011, most of the links were broken, so I scoured the Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival Megastar Bloggers‘ blogs for more recent examples of blog post formats for you to explore.
- Share one or more of your favorite quotes, like Linda Samuels did in 5 Favorite Motivation Quotes to Empower Your Day When You Need an Extra Boost.
- Create a game for your readers to play, like Hazel Thornton did in Let’s Play Organizing & Productivity Bingo!
- Profile a colleague, like Sabrina Quairoli did in Fabulous Small Business Owner Interview featuring Diane Quintana from DNQ Solutions LLC.
- Host a contest, like Julie Bestry did in Declutter Your Life with Uncle Bob’s “Address Your Mess” Contest.
- Post an image that speaks for itself, like Seana Turner did in Polly’s Lost Jewelry.
- Ask your readers or colleagues a question and share their answers, like Julie Stobbe did in 11 Mindsets to fight to obtain organizing success.
- Embed a video, like Janet Schiesl did in A Lost and Found Basket Works! (and most of her other posts).
- Announce an achievement, like Debbie Rosemont did in Laurie Cardoza Awarded Golden Circle Membership with NAPO.
- Invite someone to be a guest blogger, like Ellen Delap did in Spring Cleaning and Organizing: Guest Post by Katie McCall.
- Compile interesting content by others, like I did here!
Have you tried any of these, or another unique blogging format? Share your example in the comments. Please note that if you include a link, I may have to approve your comment before it appears.
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Photo © Janet Barclay
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Terrific ideas, thanks!
It is so fun to check out all the blogs and ideas! I am inspired! What a great post!
Maureen and Tracy – once you’ve tried some of the ideas, please come back here and leave a link to your post(s)!
Very helpful post to stimulate new ideas for blogs!
I’m glad you liked it, DeeDee!
Thanks for including me. I often contact members of the blogging organizer, Facebook group to ask permission to use a link to one of their blog posts that will support what I am writing about. Since I read several of their posts often, it’s easy for me to identify an author that I would like to link to.
I hope you don’t mind that I didn’t contact you before linking to your post., ?
Thanks for including Polly in this list of ideas, Janet. you are giving me more ideas for my blog this year. Keeping things fresh can be a challenge, but it does give “life” to our blogs. Great suggestions, and many from friends, which is even better!
I love Polly! I consider you a very creative blogger, so I’m impressed that I’ve given you some ideas.
Wow, I wrote that post almost 9 years ago! I’d completely forgotten about it!
I love seeing the variety of options available to us!
(I can’t imagine why one would ask if their post could be linked to — that was the original purpose of a blog, originally called a weblog, to link to things you found on the web. I always tell people that I *have* linked to them, usually via a shoutout in social media. FWIW.)
I’m guessing contests aren’t as popular as they used to – or that people take down the posts once they’re over – because I actually had a hard time finding an example. But I was of course happy to include your post!
I agree with you about linking. Who wouldn’t appreciate a little link love?
Thanks for sharing my post, Janet! I love these topics to spice up the blog post! Discussions I had with clients or answering their questions in depth on the blog are other ways to spice up the blog. Spending time once a quarter to create unique topics for the blog helps me stay focused and not write the same old thing. Revisiting Older posts and deepening the topics and solutions also helped me. I used to write concise posts early on, and lengthening them helped me create more thought-provoking posts.
Thanks for sharing your process, Sabrina! Now that you mention it, I’ve also written posts which cover topics I’ve addressed with my clients, such as Are those big photos slowing down your website?.
What a fantastic list of ideas to keep the blog (and bloggers) fresh! I’ve used about seven of the ideas you suggested. One of the features I haven’t done in a while is the “Ask the Expert” series. It was fun to do but pretty labor-intensive, so I tapered off at some point. You gave me some other ideas to consider.
Thank you so much for the shout-out. I love quotes and collecting them. How awesome that you chose to feature that particular post.
Also, I agree with Julie about not needing to ask permission to link to a post. I do what Julie does and let the person know I linked to them via email or social media.
You are a very inspiring blogger, both in what you write and the way you blog. I’m grateful that you’re part of my community.
I have started adding informatics sometimes because I like having a visual picture to show a process. I love the suggestions you have shared in this article.
I agree – many people find it easier to take in information that’s presented visually.