If you’re a blogger, you’ve probably experienced it - sitting in front of your computer, fingers on the keyboard, cursor blinking.

And blinking. Still blinking.

So, instead of writing you decide to check your stats, read a few other blogs, play a game of solitaire, click the stumble button for a while. You can always post tomorrow. Right? Well yes, but is it going to be any easier?

What are the reasons that you’re stuck?

• You’ve lost interest in the topic. Is what you’re writing interesting to you? If it’s not interesting to you, who’s going to want to read it?
• You don’t have enough information on your topic. Writing about something you know very little about is one of the tougher things to do. Sure, you might be able to wing it for a while - but eventually, you’re going to end up having very little success if you don’t educate yourself fully on what you want to write about.
• Your idea is under developed. This follows along with the previous idea - little research equals little writing. Sometimes as a blogger you come up with a great idea, but without research or planning, that idea will pan out to be little more than an idea instead of the fantastic blog post that it could be.
• Too tired or surrounded by too many distractions. Sure, it would be nice to be a pro blogger, but if you’re like most other people - you go to work, you come home, you go out, you walk the dog, cook dinner, Christmas shop, etc. Sometimes just finding the time to blog can be difficult. And then you find that extra hour, and instead of writing a number of blog posts, you sit there and don’t know what to do with yourself.

So how do you overcome these blogging issues?

First things first. Decide what your blogging goals are and set a schedule.

Img Credit: pittaya

Do you want to update daily or a few times a week. Whatever posting frequency you are comfortable with and decide on, you’re going to need to create a set schedule.

A professor of mine in graduate school would talk about having casual conversations with people in situations like plane trips. Whenever somebody would ask her what she did for a living and she would say that she was a writer, she hated hearing this response, “Oh really? I would love to write, if only I had the time.”

What she hated about hearing this was the fact that the person saying this was assuming that somehow my professor had been granted a block of time to become a writer. As though god had come down and granted her the time that she needed to become a novelist, given her all the time in the world.

That never happened. Writers make their own time. Bloggers need to make their own time. Were the big guys, the professional bloggers, somehow granted a clear block of time to develop their blogs? No. Like us, at one point, even they had jobs and families and responsibilities that they had to juggle along with their blogging aspirations.

What sets them apart is the fact that they treated blogging like a job. Writers treat writing like a job. It might be a part time job, or a night job, a secondary job that they have to balance with their bill paying job, but it is a job.

There’s the old saying, “Dress for the job that you want, not the job that you have.”

Set a schedule for your blogging. If you want to be a pro blogger, you’re going to have to put in the time. If it’s a hobby, schedule a few hours every week that you can dedicate to your hobby.

The first step to overcoming blogger’s block is setting a schedule so that you can make blogging become a habit. If you’re used to writing every night after dinner, your mind will begin to prepare itself to write every night after dinner if you make it a habit.

Second, reading goes hand in hand with writing.

Img Credit: Tom@HK

If you’re having trouble getting started on a blog post, spend some time reading. It doesn’t even have to be on the same topic or another blog for that matter.

I’ll often pull a favorite book off of my shelf and read a favorite section to get the creative juices flowing. I’m no brain surgeon - but whatever neurons are firing when you’re reading are probably the same neurons that are going to be firing when you’re writing.

Like I’ve said, to overcome blogger’s block, you want to make blogging a habit. Make it so it’s second nature to you. When you sit down with the purpose of writing, take 5 or 10 minutes to read. Think of it as stretching before you go out to run. Same thing. For bloggers: Reading = Stretching.

Third, write.

You can’t overcome blogger’s block unless you actually, physically write.

If you’re having trouble diving into the post you want to write. Start with something else. Write an email. Write a to do list. Write a description of what you had for lunch. It doesn’t matter. Just get some words down. If you build it, they will come. Right? Write. If you start writing, your brain will begin to unfreeze.

Those first few lines might be a struggle, you might feel like you’re pushing a stone uphill, but it will become easier and you will start to loosen up.

Here are some techniques, ideas, and exercises you can use to overcome blogger’s block.

Img Credit: Catherine Trigg

• Write an outline. A lot of the time I’ll have so many things going on in my head about an idea I want to blog about, that I get frozen at the beginning because I don’t know where to start. Writing an outline will help you get the ideas down on paper and see how they flow together. After writing an outline, the actual blog post will be easy as it is simply filling in the blanks and digging a little bit deeper into the ideas.
• Steal a first paragraph. This is one of my favorite writing exercises. Take the first paragraph (or first line) of a post that somebody else has written on the topic you want to write about, and copy and paste it directly into your text editor. Pretend that you wrote it and go from there. What is the next line you’d write? The important thing here is to forget the rest of their post. You don’t want to paraphrase them for the rest of the post, you want to use that first paragraph as a jumping off point for your ideas.

Write. Get it down. Write first, edit later.

When you feel like you’ve finished writing, look at that first paragraph that you’ve borrowed and either A) erase it, or B) quote it and cite your source.

Often, using this exercise I’ll end up erasing the paragraph that I borrowed and sometimes write a new opening paragraph to go with the post that I wrote. Because by that point, it’s become my own.

• Change your format. The great thing about blogging is that there are so many different formats you can use. In that respect, blogging is a lot like poetry in that you can change the format to suit the topic. But also, if you’re stuck on an idea, sometimes changing the format of the post itself will let that idea flow a lot easier. Let’s say you’re stuck writing a post about your favorite food - the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You could make a list, write a review, write a ‘how to,’ write a recipe, write a listing of PBJ websites, write about the history of PBJ, etc…

If all of your posts look the same on your blog - challenge yourself to write a different kind of post. It might help to get you jump started again.

• Eliminate distractions. Blogging is an intellectual exercise. It’s not always easy to do if you’re constantly interrupted or distracted. Turn off the television. Don’t answer the phone during your blogging time - you have to put yourself into a blogging mindset - so if you’re constantly distracted by the phone, you’re going to have to reset every time you begin again. If you’re at the gym playing basketball, you’re not going to be playing very well if you’re constantly stopping to answer the phone.

Blog someplace else besides the computer. I have a laptop that isn’t connected to the internet. I’ll often use it to write blog posts so that I don’t get distracted. It is too easy to do something else if you’re having trouble writing.

The most important thing about blogging is to actually do it. Blog. Give yourself time to do it. Set a schedule. Stick to the schedule. Don’t put things off because the longer you put it off, the harder it is to come back to it.

If you set a schedule and stick to it, blogging will become such a habit that you won’t experience blogger’s block. And you won’t have to write that blog post that goes something like this:

Well I know I haven’t been posting in a while, but I’ve been really busy and things have been hectic. I really want to keep updating this blog and I’m going to try to keep blogging…blah blah blah.

Here’s a few ideas to help you spend that hundred bucks from How2Blogger’s Super Sexy Holiday ‘How To’ Contest.

1. Buy one hundred and one(!) Wendy’s Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers! Yes, with a hundred bucks, you could buy 101. Not 100. Because at 99 cents each, 100 cost 99 bucks, leaving you with 1 more dollar which you can then buy your one hundred and first Junior Bacon Cheeseburger.

2. A half tank of gas.

3. For $24.95 you can buy this frame from ETCTrade.com - how awesome is that? You could give it to your friends Steven and Amanda! (And you’d still have enough for 75 Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers)

4. A nice sweater perhaps.

5. You could take your mother out to dinner.

6. Buy 4 cases of Budweiser or 7 cases of Natural Light. Invite a friend over. Or your mother.

7. Put on your bikini and reinvest your big winnings by holding your own blog contest! Brilliant!

Ever wish you had some cool buttons or a custom logo or even one of those little thingamajigs that goes on the tab in the browser (favicon). Well now you can.

There are all sorts of web 2.0 generators out there that will generate buttons, badges, logos, templates - anything you need really with just a few clicks. So even those of us that admit to not being the most geeky or technical can be cool just like everybody else. Here’s a few of my favorites.

1. Favicon Generator - This generator from Dynamic Drive is great. It took me all of 1 minute and 17 seconds to create a favicon, upload it, and insert the code for my favicon. You can see my new favicon up top!

2. Button Maker - You’ve seen the little 80 x 15 buttons that the cool kids have on their sites. Well now you can have one too using the button maker from Blog Flux.

3. Loading Gif - I don’t even know what I would use this for, but at least I have one.

4. Custom Buttons - Use this one to make some cool graphic buttons. You can put different icons inside the button or not have an icon at all. I like this one because it gives you a lot of options.

5. Badges - Perhaps your blog is still in Beta. You could let people know with this badge generator.

6. Web 2.0 Logo Generator - What I really like about this logo generator are the icons that you can choose from and put in the corner of the logo. You could, if you wanted, place an octopus like mine on your logo. Other choices include a Beta tag, a shark, money, a shield, blob people, and a toaster. It was a hard choice to go with the octopus over the toaster, but as you can see, I think I made the correct one.

These are just a few of the available generators you can find online. A more complete and much longer list can be found at AjaxFlakes. The great thing about these generators is that it literally takes a minute to create something, of course, if you want it to look good, you might want to spend a little more time than I did playing around with them.

Seeing as how it’s the holiday season and How2Blogger’s main goal is to help people out, I’m launching How2Blogger’s Super Sexy Holiday ‘How To’ Contest.

Ok, I know you’re saying “How2Blogger, we understand “Super” and “How To” and “Holiday,” but how is this contest “Sexy?”

Well, it’s not everyday that I wear a bikini. So enjoy.

How To Win $100 In How2Blogger’s Super Sexy Holiday ‘How To’ Contest

1. Read these instructions carefully. Might want to do it twice - cuz we’re going to find out who’s nau…

2. The winner of the $100 dollars in the Super Sexy Holiday ‘How To’ Contest will be determined by a random drawing on Dec. 29th (which happens to be the same day as How2Blogger’s birthday (pure coincidence) ).

3. You can earn entries into the contest in the following Super Sexy ways:

• 10 Entries - Write a ‘How To’ article on your blog. The ‘How To’ article can be about anything your little heart desires. Possible ideas, I’m just throwing these out here:
  • How To Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
  • How To Play Greensleeves on the Flute
  • How To Make Money Online Without Removing Any Clothing
  • How To Survive in the Wilderness for 2 Weeks With Only A Pocket Knife and Ball of Silly Putty
  • How To Draw A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle in Photoshop (I only put this one on here because I’ve been having the darndest time with this one).

  Now, like I said, your ‘How To’ post can be about anything you want. It doesn’t have to be about any of the above topics. But! It must contain the following sentence at the beginning of the article:

This article is part of How2Blogger’s Super Sexy Holiday ‘How To’ Contest which you can see at How2Blogger’s ‘How To’ site.

Please link to How2Blogger’s Site and contest post. If you’re still confused, here’s an example of a ‘How To’ Post by a reader and one by me, and another by me.

• 5 Entries - Subscribe to How2Blogger via RSS or Email. I think we all know how to do this - if not, leave a comment and perhaps we’ll set up a private tutoring session for you with How2Blogger and his bikini.
• 3 Entries - Stumble this post.
• 3 Entries - Stumble your favorite post on this site besides this one.
• 2 Entries - Leave a comment on a post besides this one.
• 1 Entry - Call your mother and tell her about How2Blogger.

4. Leave a comment on this post about your entries, link to your post if you like. We’re going to be going on the honor system as far as the stumbles, subscriptions, and calling your mother. So if it seems as though people might be fudging entries I might actually check up on those things. So you might need to leave your mother’s number as well.

5. After a few entries have come in I’ll be putting up a post listing the ‘How To’ article entries. So if you think about it dude, nobody loses! We all can’t be $100 dollar winners, but at least you’ll get a stinking link out of it!

6. That’s it. Get to it.

Every once in a while it’s important to show the people in your life just how important they are to you. You could make their favorite meal or give them an extra hug, maybe write them a card. Or, you could do something really awesome and buy them something they probably never knew they needed.

It’s lucky Christmas was invented just for that reason.

So, without further ado - we give you How2Blogger’s Super Special Blogger Christmas List. Put together especially for that Super Special Pajama Wearing Ramen Eating Mountain Dew Drinking No Leaving The Computer Except To Pee Pee Blogger in your life.

1. Does your blogger have problogger aspirations? Do they hope to someday buy a house or a car with the money earned from blogging? Then they’ll especially love this USB R/C Mini Car with Garage for $29.99. No worrying about car payments or insurance - and washing it’s a breeze. And with this car, your blogger won’t even have to leave the computer to take it for a spin.

2. Growing up did your blogger own the calculator watch? Or rather, is he still wearing it today?

Probably.

If that’s the case, it might be time to upgrade. Here’s two great options for the Calculator Watch Guy in the 21st century.

First, we have the Touchscreen Cell Phone/PDA Wristwatch for $249.99. How awesome is that!? Not only is it a phone, but you can tell the time with it as well! What will they think of next? And look at all the awesome stuff it comes with:

Or, if your blogger already has a phone or a watch or both - think about getting them this one:

It’s the Hero Digital Wrist Camera for $139.99. Unfortunately, the Wrist Camera doesn’t have a “tell time” function just yet, but perhaps the next model will have a built in watch as well! We can only hope. For now though, your blogger will be the coolest kid in the class when he shows up with his Digital Wrist Camera.

Who knows, maybe by next Christmas they’ll have a Camera Phone on the market.

3. Perhaps you’re looking for something a little more practical for your blogger. In that case, consider purchasing the USB Desk Vacuum for them. For $19.99 you won’t ever have to worry about cleaning up after your blogger again following a late night blogging session. And no more worries about crumbs from sandwiches or chips or other dinner items getting on the keyboard or desk. All they’ll have to do is plug in their USB Vac and voila! Clean as a whistle.

4. Does your blogger get picked on more than his fair share? Are self-defense classes not an option? Help your blogger protect his workspace with the USB Laser Guided Missile Launcher for $39.99. Yes, I said Laser Guided. Not one of these chintzy missile launchers, but a Laser Guided Missile Launcher.

It’s great for shooting friends or the dog. Or even changing the channel on the t.v. if the remote is out of reach. Dude, did I mention it was Laser Guided.

Hope these help with your shopping this year, and good luck finding the perfect gift for your blogger friends!