How important is inspiration? I asked myself this question on a gloomy day when I could not meet one of my deadlines just because my brain went blank. I believe many of you have shared the same experience once, twice or many times.

From that moment on, I have set out on a journey to find inspiration for what I was doing with WordPress. Not long after, I came across this line that describes the importance of inspiration in an article of Harvard Business Review which I think applicable to some extent:

“Inspiration awakens us to new possibilities by allowing us to transcend our ordinary experiences and limitations.”

Vital, isn’t it? It acts as a bridge to link what we know in our minds with what we give out to the world. Without inspiration, creativity would suffer and writers like us would be nothing more than writing machines repeating the same old stuff. WordPress blogs for example. Without inspiration, no new content would ever be born!

Knowing the importance is just one part of the story, however. Inspiration was never an easy thing to obtain, especially in the bleak society of today. Then we come to the next question: How to Get Inspired for Blog Posts?

Come and I’ll show you how!

1. Procrastination: The Enemy of Blog Post Inspiration

Many people, including me, like to do this thing called procrastination.

And I warn you: do not do that! Or if you’ve been doing that the whole time, stop at once! Procrastination may feel good until you come near to the deadline. That’s when the disaster strikes. You won’t be able to think clearly, so of course, no time allowed to consider and choose among ideas – you don’t even have anything to choose from. Consequently, the quality will surely go down, damaging your reputation. Or worse, you won’t be able to meet your deadline.

Working under pressure could create adverse effects in some cases, but not for inspiration. Remember, the first and foremost element needed for inspiration is Time. The less amount of it you have, the less inspiration you generate.

2. Refresh and Relax, Too

Mental health is another important factor when talking about inspiration.

We have all undergone stress at some point in our lives, haven’t we? Stress limits us in every way possible. It threatens both our physical and mental well-being even when we do not recognize it. The combined force is unimaginable and will wear out our ability to think. So, don’t force yourself with anything. If you feel like you cannot sit in front of the laptop anymore, turn it off. Get up and do a bit of exercise, take a warm bath or read a good book – anything to relax your mind and body before you could restart. When you feel comfortable again, make yourself a nice cup of tea, sit back, gently take a sip and press “resume”.

As I said, make time to work as planned, don’t wait until the last minute. Give yourself all the time you need so that you do have to rush and get stressed out.

Understood it clearly, we shall now come to …

3. WordPress Blog Posts Inspiration Sources

As you have a clear mind and  plenty of time, here are the sources you could come by to find inspiration:

1. Books for Blog Post Inspiration

For hundreds of years, books have not only been an endless source of knowledge, but also a priceless source of inspiration.

Somehow, WordPress bears a lot of resemblances to real life, don’t you think? We’re just like a big community, with stories to tell and problems to solve. That’s why ideas for WordPress blog posts can come from ordinary books too! It doesn’t need to be a website or WordPress-related books. It can be any kind of books, novels, science fiction, guidebook, etc.

If you’re looking for a less costly alternative, Amazon Kindle bookstore’s preview feature is the one! It gives you the main look into the book, and in most cases, it could be all you need for inspiration!

2. Google Supporting Tools

By supporting tools, I mean Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner, to be specific.

Nowadays, Google Trends lets you know what people are looking for so you could write WordPress content of their liking. Also, you could check the performance of specific keywords before drafting up any article.

For Google Keyword Planner, it’s very much the same for keywords, but more details. You can see the volumes of targeted queries and decide if you should write about them. What is more, this tool displays related keywords too – another valuable source for inspiration.

3. WordPress Community

Like any community, the WordPress community comprises many people from all spheres of life. The difference is that these people are interested in one thing – WordPress. Although not all of them write, they have numerous ideas that can be good for WordPress blog posts. Thus, you may come by relevant online communities on such platforms as Facebook, Twitter, Quora or industry forums to see what they are talking about.

You can also gain ideas from members of the WordPress community right from your website by visiting the comment section. User comments contain a lot of things you can get ideas from – counter-arguments, new points of view, relevant questions and information on the topics, etc.

4. News Outlets

Staying updated is another way to get inspired.

News comes out every day, and so do new ideas for blog posts. Ideas could be generated from anything. Relating to WordPress, for example, just a version update or a bug fix is enough for you to write about.

5. Your Competitors

Wondering why your competitors could be a source for inspiration too?

This is a piece of advice for those who are working in a WordPress business with fierce competition – take any opportunity there is to surpass your rivals. This is one of them – taking a look at their archives, social media and mailing lists. While archives help you understand the type of content trend they posted in the past, social media will give an overview of what they are doing in the meantime – not just articles, but also their recent activities. Subscribe to their mailing list, too. Many WordPress websites send exclusive content they don’t post widely to a mailing list. Make sure you are included!

The idea here is that if you know what they have done and are doing, you can predict their future moves and “leapfrog” – start later but stay ahead.

Find Your Blog Post Inspiration

So that’s how you get inspired for WordPress blog posts of any kind. Easy and not time-consuming at all, right? In fact, all of these practices could be done daily, at the start or the end of your working day. If you wish to know further and dig deeper into specific ideas for blog posts, be sure to come back later because I will cover that in another article!

Now, go practice my suggestions and tell me the results, will you?