If you’re just setting out, the thought of writing a regular blog can be daunting. Even the most prolific of minds run dry from time to time. But the key thing about blogging is that you don’t have to think as big as you think – you see?! No?!

OK, I’ll explain.

Successful blogging is all in the planning and not so much the writing (but don’t tell anyone I said that!). And the best thing to do is build up a reserve of content. But you have to start somewhere, right? So this post looks at five really easy ways of getting blog content together – fast!

1. Borrow from other blogs

Look around at what other blogs are featuring. The blogs you consult don’t necessarily need to focus directly on your topic area, but just by looking at some of the ideas floating around, you’ll trigger your own thoughts.

This isn’t as random as it sounds. For example, if I looked at a very broadly popular blog like Zen Habits and saw something on productivity, I could use this as the basis of a post for my own blog on ‘book pitching productivity’.

Quite quickly I could come up with something short and pithy on how to repurpose book pitches for different publishers; how to minimise distractions when writing; or even how to fit writing book proposals around a day job. In a nutshell, just use other blogs as a hook – it’s what everyone else does!

2. Repurpose something you’ve already written

If you’re an expert on something – and everybody’s an expert on something – it’s very likely you already have a text which can be quickly converted into a blog post.

If, like me, you’re a writer, this could be an article, you’ve already written or perhaps a paper or a talk you gave somewhere. But it might even come from something like an email or tweet you’ve sent that wouldn’t take five minutes to flesh-out.

Don’t start from scratch, again, look around you, what have you already got?

3. Brainstorm the area you specialise in

Write a random but full list of ideas about what you do. I guarantee there’ll be something on that list that to you might seem inconsequential, but for new-comers or outsiders is probably fascinating.

Sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees and getting it all down on a scrap of paper (or whatever) makes it instantly clear which idea – hidden under a pile of others – will be valuable to readers.

I also like mind-mapping techniques to help you branch out into other areas of thought, but that’s an idea for another post – see once you start blogging you can’t stop!

4. Collaborate with someone

An additional option for the idea-starved is to ask an existing friend or colleague, or someone from a blog you know and like, to work on a post or two with you. Brainstorm some ideas (as above) and then email back and forth a few times until you have something that feels right.

If it’s truly co-authored, you can each feature it on your own blog which might even cross-pollinate your audiences. And if you’re really savvy, you’ll collaborate with several people at once and store up lots of good content in advance of dry spell.

5. Ask an expert

This can mean two things. One, if you are out of ideas on what to blog about, find out what blogging pros like Darren Rowse of ProBlogger would recommend for ‘bloggers block’. Two, set up an easy way for experts in your field to contribute to your site. For example, for PhD2Published, I’m interested in content that advises early-career academics on how to get their first book published.

To help me canvas opinions on this, I regularly email publishing houses and published academics and ask them for their top five tips on book pitching. By asking someone outright, and keeping the amount you need them to contribute to a minimum, you can speedily gather relevant, quality material.

It’s that simple!

Blogging doesn’t have to mean embarking on a mammoth writing spree – you’re not writing a thesis or a book! And you don’t need to be boiling over with angst about political wrongs, or ever-distracted by complex philosophical thoughts. You really don’t need to think big at all. Just think – even a little – and it’ll come together!

Ideally, as a creative professional, even if you work on a variety of roles, you have one skill that you are particularly focused on and are developing to be known for. The long term success of being known for a particular skill, whether it be website coding, illustration or music production, requires true passion for it.

If you have a focus in your work life on something you are passionate for, that’s excellent. Sometimes we can lose our way over time, and passion for what we do diminishes, or we simply get caught up in other areas of life and just forget about what we were passionate about in the first place.

Since having passion is so important, this post is about re-igniting and cultivating the passion that is already there inside you, so that you can continue to focus on your area with dedication and with great results. This can also be used for those of you who are looking to find their area of focus, which they are passionate about, but haven’t yet.

Here’s how to do this:

1. Write down ten things that are exciting or interesting about your area of work or a potential area of work.

2. Now write down three things that are interesting about each of the points you noted previously. Just keep what you have found in mind.

3. Spend half an hour looking through some good blogs or books that relate to your area of focus, and just drink it all in. Look for things that excite you and get you passionate. Consider printing out some images to inspire you that you can throw into your diary, a scrapbook, or on your wall.

4. Know your role-models. Think about who in the world you really admire and inspire you, perhaps even writing them down. Ideally what they do would relate to your work area, but simply being inspired by people who have achieved can really help boost the passion you have for your own path in life.

5. Read the biography of someone who has experienced success in the area of work you want to boost your passion in.

6. Do a training course in your area of focus or get out a book that will get you to expand on what you know about your skill. Either learn about the foundations of what you do, so that you feel generally more confident, or gain new knowledge to add to what you already know. This will add to your confidence, which will undoubtedly boost the passion you have for what you do.

7. Find somewhere comfortable to sit and get relaxed. Now spend a few minutes visualizing experiencing success in your area of work or achieving a goal related to your work. Think with no limits. Really turn up the vividness of this image, add sound and touch and colour in your mind.

The key thing is to effectively ‘burn’ the thought into your mind, so that you have a strong, positive picture in your mind that will help guide you towards success with passion in your work.

8. Set aside a day or more completely dedicated to creating something amazing for your portfolio. Take some time to plan something that will really add value to your portfolio or your work showcase. This will also give you some practice, stretch your skills, improve your confidence in your work, and allow to work on something that you really enjoy.

9. Talk to people in your industry. This can be through a reach out on Twitter, or in the real world. Go out and meet fellow creatives at social events and gatherings or organize your own. Hearing from others and sharing ideas and feedback is a great way to regain and boost passion.

10. Drop the baggage. Often it is in trying to accomplish too much that we lose passion for one particular area. Make it easier for yourself by committing to working on and developing one single area of your work-life, get good at it, work at it, learn about it and passion and drive will grow.

This could be in various ways, on and offline, including the ways in which I’ve talked about here and in my ebook, such as bringing targeted traffic to your blog, making connections through social media, engaging with prospects on forums, and introducing yourself via email to your prospects.

One of the best ways to get strong, consistent results with this kind of active self-promotion is to set yourself results-oriented targets instead of effort-oriented targets.

So, for example, instead of writing a post for your blog, tweeting it, then leaving it at that, make a real commitment to bringing a certain number of people to your post and blog within a week. This might mean using a few extra web tactics on top of using Twitter, but you know what you are aiming for.

Or, for example, instead of writing five email rapport-building introductions to potential clients, commit to writing as many emails or making as many calls as it takes until you receive a response from five people who ask for more information on your services.

You can apply these results-oriented methods to any active marketing technique you have in your arsenal.

These targets are short-term, but will help you stay focused on achieving your long-term goals, fast-tracking you to success.

Do people agree with these ideas?

Whether it’s lacking energy and focus, or believing that we are “not good enough” in the face of competitors, our drive to take action in promoting ourselves and the work we do can sometimes take a beating.

Fortunately, there several ways to regain a sense of confidence and purpose, so that self-promotion doesn’t feel like a chore.

I’ve put together a hands on step-by step-approach over at the 99% for getting fired up and getting organized to market yourself in the short-term and the long-term – an essential task that too many of us neglect.

To see the steps, head over to the 99%.

I also hear of a lot of people having difficulty with motivation and productivity because you see a lot of other people’s great work around you, and feel frustrated with the competition. As well as slowing down your own creative productivity, this can threaten your sense of self worth and hamper promotion even further.

We need to tackle what lies at the root of these barriers to confident self promotion, which is self doubt.

I’ll show you six quick ways to overcome self doubt so that you can continue to feel good about yourself, your brand and your work, and ultimately become more productive, particularly when it comes to promoting yourself.

Acknowledge past successes

Write down ten real instances in the past when you doubted yourself, but ended up succeeding. This can be when you felt doubtful about yourself in any kind of situation, be it before a class presentation, meeting someone new, exhibiting your work, or even taking a long journey somewhere. Make these as varied as possible.

Having concrete evidence in writing of times when you succeeded in the face of self doubt will give you real confidence when it comes to dealing with future challenges. This includes feeling confident about developing your work and showcasing it.

Disprove doubtful thoughts

Draw up a simple table of two columns. The left side is headed ‘Doubtful Thought‘ and the right side: ‘Not True Because…‘. Fill the left column with five to ten doubts you currently have about yourself and your creative work. For example you might say you are afraid to start writing a blog because you are not an interesting writer.

You then write a statement in the other column that proves this thought to be wrong, such as: ‘I am an interesting talker, so there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to write interestingly’. This will re-align your thoughts and get you thinking rationally.

Keep an event journal

Again, get your notebook out, and at the end of a day write down everything, silly and serious, that you got through without difficulty. This could be in driving into town and back safely or talking to a client on the phone confidently. Then write down everything that didn’t go so well.

Stand back and look at what you achieved and what you didn’t do so well. You will inevitably see that when stacked against each other, you achieved much more than where you didn’t, and this will boost you greatly.

Celebrate daily successes

When you find that a situation in which you doubted yourself turns out to be a success, don’t ignore it. Make sure you acknowledge and celebrate what you have achieved. If you win a client, go out and celebrate, or watch your favourite film. Rewarding yourself for successes, no matter how small, will embed a sense of confidence into you and break up the self doubt within.

Talk to your supporters

If you feel doubtful about something, it’s a good idea to call on other people who see you in a more objective light. Speak to people who can support you, give you some praise and support the work you do. The Internet is a great place to find such people, and you will find more and more supporters through building up relationships with people through being active on social media sites, forums and blogs.

Take action and challenge yourself

There is no better eliminator of self doubt than taking action that disproves your initial self doubt. Always be searching for things that you regard as challenging, but that are obtainable. If you take little steps in doing things that take a bit of courage but are manageable, this is the route to feeling good about what you can achieve.

If you take a step that doesn’t result in success, try something a little less challenging first, before moving up a level again once more. Taking action in this way in everything you do is the route to self confidence and success in self promotion.

Do any of you have any comments or further ideas?

This could be in the form of using your services, commissioning work from you, buying your products, spreading the word about you, and so on.

Obviously producing unique and high quality work as a creative will be one of your primary means of motivating people. However, there are several other ways to quickly motivate people to take action through activating appropriate emotional responses, as well as highlighting the benefits you offer.

Here are 13 ways to do this:

1. Create the impression of scarcity

Increase the assumed value of your products and services by emphasizing their rarity. For example, you might display limited stock quantities for products you might be selling or giving away. When it comes to your own work, the best way to increase a sense of scarcity is in producing work that is unique and remarkable.

You might also emphasize the scarcity of your services in the way you describe yourself, such as in highlighting what you do that few others can. Really pick out and clarify your strengths when doing so.

2. Build a sense of obligation

You can motivate people to take action when you give something away, or in helping people, which will trigger a sense of indebtedness or liability in them. By giving something away, such as in the form of free information through a blog post, this will unconsciously drive people to feel the need to give something back to you.

3. Express yourself

Revealing your personality, your passion and your character through everything you do online, particularly through your own work, but also through your writing, the design of your site and in the way you interact with people, will appeal to people in a big way, and will get people quickly interested in you.

Visitors will be more motivated to buy into your ‘brand’ after they have witnessed some of your self expression. This will manifest itself for a large part in your own work.

4. Limit options

By cutting down on the choices you offer to people, whether this be all the products you want to sell them, or in the various services you might offer, you will reduce the issue of ‘decision paralysis’, which restricts one’s ability to make a decision at all. By minimizing choice, options become clearer and easier.

Those who you’d like to take action will be more motivated to make decisions if the options in front of them are not complicated. This includes simplifying the navigation and design complexity of your site/s.

5. Evoke desired emotions

In the world of ‘cognitive marketing’ expert marketers suggest embedding messages into your writing (or spoken word) to affect people’s thought patterns through evoking positive feelings like excitement, curiosity and interest. The best way to sell yourself, products and your work is to have prospects and customers associate positive feelings with them.

Think of this as helping people better understand your benefits and not as an exercise in deceit! You can use motivational statements here and there in any persuasive communication you do to motivate people positively, such as:

“What would it feel like to have a beautiful, clean new website?”

“See how you’re getting excited about the prospect of having a print on your wall”

6. Tell stories

Weave stories into any copy you have that seeks to persuade people in the content of your blog and articles, for example. You don’t need to go overboard with telling stories but they have been shown to grab the attention of viewers and readers very effectively. Grabbing attention through intriguing stories is a powerful way of motivating people to take action in the ways you want them to.

7. Get people to make a small step

People are much more likely to make a decision or take action if they have already done something small towards it or in relation to it. According to psychologists, a small commitment in this way activates a commited ‘persona’ in the person, which they will then look to maintain with future commitments.

So, if you provide the ability to leave comments or feedback on your site, for example, this can lead to people taking further action in committing to you if the opportunity is there.

8. Activate the brain’s survival instinct

Triggering the survival instinct in a certain part of the human brain will have an effect on people’s attention, and in getting them motivated.

Three things are linked closely to the this survival trigger: sex, food and danger. Consider incorporating these themes and images relating to them into the headlines you write, your articles, images you include on your blog and in the work you create to grab attention and motivate people to act.

9. Present quick results

Promise a ‘quick service’, ‘instant download’ or ‘super fast shipping’ in the details you include with products and services you offer. Only do this if you can deliver on what you have promised. People are much more inclined to be motivated by getting something quickly.

10. List key things first

Anything you list first, such as a point on a list, or an illustration in your portfolio, will be prioritized by your visitors. So, if you want to get people motivated about a particular thing more than anything else you have to offer at that point, make sure if is listed first in a sequence to boost the priority people give to it.

11. Demonstrate ‘Social Validity’

Showing that you and what you offer is liked and respected by others, has a strong motivational effect on people. Social validation in this way triggers the part of the unconscious brain’s urge to ‘belong’, and hence will attract people to you and your work.

You don’t need to be the most popular kid in school to do this, just make sure you give preference to such validity whenever the opportunity arises.

Social validity can be demonstrated in the following ways:

• Showcase any ratings, testimonials and reviews others have made on your site.
• Enable and encourage commenting, but delete spam and any overly negative comments.
• Display popular posts and articles.
• Install social media buttons like Digg and Tweet and recently introduced Facebook ‘reshare‘ buttons.
• Display your RSS subscriber and Twitter follower numbers.

12. Use the word ‘you’

People’s attentions will be drawn to this word, and being spoken to directly, because we all give priority to ourselves in an evolutionary, survivalist sense. Speak directly to your visitors and you will see improvements in your own persuasiveness.

13. Be professional

This applies to how you present and apply yourself in carrying out your creative work with clients and in the areas surrounding this, such as interacting with prospects, and presenting your work (in the form of your portfolio site etc).

Make sure that you treat everyone you deal with with respect and courtesy, as this feeling of importance has a strong motivational drive behind it for others. Be professional as you go about writing your blog and designing your site too as this will instill a sense of enthusiasm in people as they engage themselves with your professionalism.

Let the community know if you can think of other ideas and if you have other views with regard to anything that has been mentioned.