9 tips on how to create content from nothing

Whether you’ve hit a creative slump or you’re going through the motions of a grey area in your content creation, all is not lost. Get yourself out of a production funk by following a couple of these tips on creating creative and interesting content when you can’t think of anything – content from nothing!

Be practical

As a general rule, content that has a practical use is naturally, and effectively, more interesting than content for-the-sake-of content. Focus on subjects that your readers can put to use in real life. Think Practical: What problems are you solving with your content? Why are people engaged in what you do? Think about what value you present or offer to your audience. Focus in on this problem-solving element to plan future content. Instead of producing from your own perspective and constantly trying to come up with novel, new ideas, flip it and put yourself in your audience’s shoes.

Get creative

Change up how you deliver content. If you’re a blogger, switch to Instagram Stories to tell a story visually. For writers, start a thread on Twitter about an interesting area of your own expertise or something you want to share that you have knowledge on. For photographers, get onto YouTube or IGTV and experiment with video. By changing up how you deliver or produce content, it will likely give you a spark and a boost of energy to understand and excel at a new approach or avenue.

Curate content

Instead of creating something groundbreaking and new, curate something. Do a round-up of your favourite products, artists, designers or websites, communicate why you personally enjoy them and what about them makes them stand out. Look outward and feature other creators or brands to demonstrate how you derive inspiration by shouting out and spotlighting.

Successes and failures

Instead of keeping your content general, talk about your personal journey with content creation or your career. What’s been your big successes? Better yet, talk about your failures. Share what you learned about failing and how it impacted on how you approached things afterwards. People love to hear both the highs and the lows, so delve into what has and hasn’t worked for you personally.

Delve into archives

Instead of creating something new from scratch, why not take time to update what’s come beforehand? Go through your archives and do some updates. Freshen up stale content. Consider your portfolio as a whole and ascertain whether it all works together or you may need to add and subtract certain elements. All of us are constantly up-skilling and sometimes cringe at what we shared a couple of years ago that felt fresh and cutting-edge at the time but hasn’t aged too well. Before going forward, flip backwards for a moment.

If in doubt – ask! …

1) Ask the audience
This doesn’t need to be a straight forward ‘help me’ plea or anything as obvious as that, but it can be subtle and seamless. Delve into your audience and find out what they like about your content most, and maybe what they don’t particularly engage with. Take a straw poll or dig into the specifics with your audience to tailor your future approach. It may surprise you – what you think works well may not be what your audience appreciates the most, or indeed knows you best best for.

2) Ask a friend
If you’re low on ideas, then reach out to a friend of confidante. If you’re not comfortable asking the audience, rely on a friend, family member or colleague to give some feedback or to help spark some ideas.

3) Ask the expert
Profile someone more knowledgeable. Delve into an area you don’t have expertise on but which would be relevant to your audience. By you learning, chances are your audience appreciate the opportunity to up-skill too. This is also an effective way of using your time – you simply ask a few questions or investigate a particular area or niche and your subject can elaborate, explain and teach. The content ultimately creates itself.

4) Ask a guest
Accept guest posts by using your platform to offer exposure to someone else in your field. A guest post or takeover entirely will switch up your content, offer a different voice or perspective for your audience and also take the focus off you for a brief period so you can focus on coming up with new ideas.