No matter how passionate or committed you are as a blogger, you will get stuck at some point. Either ideas will not come to you, your life will get super busy and your posting schedule will fall by the wayside, or you will just get burnt out.
Great news! You don’t have to completely give up when that happens.
Following are three free WordPress plugins that can help you overcome blogger’s block by keeping your content creation ideas flowing.
This plugin is ideal for managing your blog posting schedule. You can view all of your previous and scheduled posts, as well as your drafts. It allows you to easily change the publish dates of your articles by simply dropping and dragging the articles. Additionally, you can quickly edit posts titles, posting dates and content.
You can use this tool to overcome blogger’s block by:
- Adding a new twist to old article topics;
- Creating audio posts by reading previous articles; and
- Maintaining a consistent posting schedule, which is one of the biggest challenges for new and veteran bloggers.
Here’s a video showing how the WordPress Editorial Calendar works:
The Duplicate Posts plugin allows you to “clone posts and pages” or edit the article as a new draft with a single click. Because these articles are already written, all you have to do is change the title and revise or delete some of the content to create a “new” article.
Examples of how to use this plugin to overcome blogger’s block:
- Change your how-to article to become a quick tips article;
- Reduce your 500-word book review to a 250-word book summary; and
- Transform your interview with the expert into “The Expert Says” with the focus on a single subject.
CommentLuv places a link to your readers’ last blog post, or the post of their choosing, at the end of their comments. This encourages interaction between the readers on your site and helps prevent blogger’s block by:
- Providing links to sites, making it easy to create a link or list post;
- Highlighting topics that can be used for comparison or debate posts; and
- Creating guest posts or interviews opportunities between you and the readers on your site.
Above are three free WordPress plugins that can help you overcome blogger’s block. In addition to helping you to keep ideas flowing, they help you to stay on schedule and add a little variety to the content on your site.
Which WordPress plugins do you use that helps you to overcome blogger’s block?
Bio: Marcie Hill is the author of the new book, “62 Blog Posts to Overcome Blogger’s Block, which is available on Kindle. This is the only blog book written to date that focuses exclusively on blog writing and content creation.
She is also a published magazine writer and blog addict who owns five blog sites The Write Design Company; Marcie Writes; Real Skate Stories; Shorty: Your Chicago South Side Resource; and Overcoming Blogger’s Block.
Connect with her on any of her sites or on Twitter @Marcie_Hill.
Latest posts by Marcie Hill (see all)
- 9 Ways Freelance Writers Are Leaving Money on the Table - August 28, 2018
- How to Write a Powerful Blogger Bio - September 18, 2016
- Overcome Blogger’s Block With These 3 Free WordPress Plugins - August 28, 2013
I agree with you , this is informative article.
Thank you for the info of these tools ! I am right now setting up my new blog and though I’m not out of ides yet it seems good to know about. The two other plugins is something I will try out today, I allready feel the need for a blog schedule and the CommentLuv seems like a great way to get more traffic / links.
Hi Marcie,
All of them are great and high quality plugins. I really liked them and there is no reason not to use them.
Hi Marcie,
Nice three plugins. I’ve not heard before about Duplicate post Plugin. I’ll try it out to see how it works for me.
Other 2 plugins are really helpful for bloggers.
Thanks for sharing!
That’s always a good strategy. Remember, you can always go back to previous posts and recycle what you already have using Duplicate Post.
I have always liked CommentLuv – the fact that it pulls up the last blog post is so useful. And of course premium CommentLuv’s additional flexibility is even more appealing. But I hadn’t thought before about how useful it could be for the actual owner of a blog with respect to generating ideas and contacts.
I didn’t know about the Editorial Calendar plugin. This will be really useful for me as I always have endless drafts and posts in progress.
Thanks for sharing these.
Hi Glenys, I love your name. CommentLuv is absolute genius. I’m glad I should introduce you to new plug-ins to help you keep your blogging flow going. Also, my book, 62 Blog Posts to Overcome Blogger’s Block, is available for additional support. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D9Q1R4A
Excellent post. I think that commentluv is one of the best plugin and if you use premium plugin then it will be one of the best plugin we ever have.
Thanks
Saif, I agree. I didn’t really know the value until I bought it. I was seeing it promoted on other well-known sites, but was getting by with the free one. My life changed with the premium version.
Great plug-in suggestions, Marcie! As far as blogger’s block is concerned, one of the biggest obstacles that bloggers face is running out of topics to write about in their blogs. While not really a plug-in, I suggest everybody to read Sean Platt’s “100 BLOG POST IDEAS (TURN YOUR BRAINSTORMING TO AUTOPILOT)” http://seanmplatt.com/100-blog-post-ideas/ so you will have a wealth of article topics to use and enter in your editorial calendar so you won’t run out of topic ideas.
Hi Chris, I agree. Finding topic ideas can sometimes be taxing. However, they can always be re-written and recycled. My book, 62 Blog Posts to Overcome Blogger’s Block, highlights the different ways you can create posts which can help when you get stumped on topics. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D9Q1R4A
This is nice article because after reading the article I’m feeling the way of Guest Posting is the one essential thing to be considered. I liked it thanks for sharing such a great thing with us.Overcome Blogger’s Block With These 3 Free WordPress Plugins.
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Ritugupta, I would definitely encourage you to guest post for other sites. It is a great experience and opens the doors to relationships and other opportunities. Also, if you know of other plugins that helps to overcome Blogger’s Block, please let me know.
Hiren, I’m glad I could increase your knowledge of WordPress Plugins. Let me know how it works for you.
Thanks Cassie. If you learn of any other plug-ins that helps you to overcome bloggers block, be sure to share.
Whenever I suffer from writer’s block (and believe me this happens almost on a weekly basis) I will simply fire up my RSS reader and have a look at the list of blogs in my niche and I ALWAYS find something to get my brain working again. 🙂
Dean, that RSS is a winner! Visiting social media sites and reading newspaper and magazine sites spark great ideas, too.
Hi Marcie,
It’s another informative post of yours.
I think this really helpful for blogger to have a new way to manage their blog, Such a great list that you have provided.
Looking forward for your new post.
Thanks for your sharing.
Stephan Wu
Thank you, Stephan. I really rely on commentluv for new ideas. The other two plug-ins allow me to put a new twist on old posts.
Such a great list. And also, the post is very informative. Thank you for sharing this.
Thanks a lot for this tips and advices. The plugins you promoted are indeed very useful. I use them for myself and they work like a charm. Nice article! Good job!
Hi John,
Thanks so much. This is my first book on Kindle. I really didn’t have a big launch because my ultimate goal is to see my book come to life in print.
How many niche blogs do you have and do you write/produce content for all of them?
Hi
With plugin No.2, how do you avoid Google from penalising you for having duplicate content on your blog/site?
The Editorial Calendar I run, and find it handy as an overview, and of course use Comment Love Premium, but need to get into the habit of following the links out more…..
Thanks for some insights, as I do hear people mention this problem. I am lucky enough to not have that issue yet, and have a bunch of ideas, and half written blog posts saved as drafts….
If I ever get stuck, I can just go into there, and flesh something out!
Thanks again
Jon Barry
Jon, that’s a good question. You wouldn’t use the exact same title and post. Here are some suggestions. You would use a bit of creativity and
* Select one topic from the post and expound upon it, be sure to change the title
* Reduce some of the content, change the title and add images or videos
* Put a different twist on that particular topic
Those are a just few ideas that come to mine
very nice post and plugins. i am already using duplicate posts plugin and it’s really very help in many terms and ecpicially with finding duplicate content.
regards
Gaurav
Gaurav, are there other plug-ins you use that help you to generate ideas for blog posts?
hi Marcie
I like your blog post guide… I see you’re on Kindle… how does that work for you — is it your first guide there — and how was the launch?
Also, I like the calendar idea and helpful plugin you’ve shared… when you hundreds of niche blogs as I do, scheduling content and preparing in advance is not an easy task… LOL