Are you a blogger? Do you have trouble coming up with ideas for your blog posts every week? I’ve struggled with this in the past, but I’ve been reading on how to find ideas.

So, I’m sharing how I find ideas for keeping my blog posts fresh and for keeping the ideas flowing.

1. Read other blogs

I spend one day a week, usually Mondays, reading blog posts from my writer friends. I try to comment on the post if I can relate to it and see if there is an idea I get write from a different angle.

Of course, I wouldn’t want to use the same idea, but every blog post or article always has different angles a viewpoint can be told. You have to find it.

2. Use writing prompt books/websites

For half of my ideas, I’ve found various websites and even some writing prompt books with some great ideas. Sometimes I can even tweak the ideas a bit to make them fit me, but usually I can make them work in some way.

3. Look at Quora

If you’ve never looked at Quora, you’re missing out. This website is full of questions about every topic you can think of. I’ve gotten quite a few ideas for this website on there, especially the ones about freelancing.

All you have to do is type in a topic you want to find, and it lists the questions associated with what you typed. You can even read the answers to give you some ideas about the topic, too.

4. Read everything

Writers should be readers, too. I will say this over and over. As a writer, I read as much as I can to learn about my craft. But I try to read articles that mean something to me, like health issues I’ve been dealing with.

If we’re going to pitch ideas to a publication, a magazine, or other blog, we need to read those anyway. We can’t pitch ideas to a publication if we haven’t read the articles and gotten to know the style.

The more we read the more we learn and know. In turn, we should have plenty of ideas for our own blog posts.

5. Write a review

If you’re really stuck on ideas, write a review. Remember all that reading you’ve been doing? Write a book review. Share what you thought about a book.

Maybe you’ve used a new product that helps you with your freelancing or even a new product for your family. Write a review about the product.

I’ve written a blog post about Scrivener — the best parts about it. I’m sure I could even write more about it if I thought about other angles.

6. Use journaling

I’ve kept a journal off and on since my college days. I’m sure if I went back and looked I could find ideas that I could easily turn into blog posts.

The blog post wouldn’t have to be too personal, but it could be something like an issue or experience you’ve had. For instance, maybe you’ve journaled about a trip to the beach. Write a blog post about how the beach helped you overcome your writer’s block or how it inspired a travel feature for another blog.

7. Invite guest posts

I’m always willing to let someone write a blog post for me so I’m open to accepting guest posts. I can’t pay right now as much as I would like to reward someone for their willingness to do write a blog post for me.

Many times the other writer can give a different perspective on a topic or has an expertise you may not have. I’m open to hearing those viewpoints.

Where do you find your blogging ideas? I would love to add to my list!

The post 7 Ways to Find Amazing Ideas for Your Blog appeared first on Beach Girl Publishing LLC.

Have you added blog plugins to your WordPress website? If you have, you may be using some of the best plugins there are. If you’re not, then you will want to take a look and see which ones to add and make your website run the best.

The majority of these I’m either using right now or have used in the past. The couple that remain are ones I would like to use in the near future and make my website the best they can be.

1. Yoast SEO

This plugin handles all of the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for you. As you type in your blog post, you can fill in the keyword, and it gives you the items you need to make the SEO the best it can be. Yoast SEO is free.

I have used this app almost since the beginning of my website, and it’s easy to use. At first it was hard getting the right words so you get the green light, but the more you use it the easier it gets.

2. SumoMe

SumoMe has several different tools to help you make your website a great one. It has social media share buttons as well as image sharing. It helps you build an email list and helps generate leads. This plugin is free, but for more options, there is a premium version which is a monthly fee.

I started using this plugin a few months ago after learning about it during a webinar with Jeff Goins. He taught the step-by-step process of how to set it up and touched on how to use it.

3. Wordfence

Wordfence is a basic security plugin that keeps people from hacking your website. It also blocks the IP addresses of bots. This plugin is free.

I’ve used this one since the beginning as well to protect my website from hackers as much as I can. I’m glad I use it because I get emails quite a bit saying someone in France or even in Ukraine has tried logging in. I can’t imagine what would happen if they actually succeeded.

4. Google Analytics

This plugin gives you basic information about your website, such as page views and which posts get the most views. It’s free.

Google Analytics is one I’ve started using in the last few months after I stopped using Jetpack. I don’t pay attention as much as I should to what’s going on, but I’m working at being better.

5. CoSchedule

CoSchedule helps you plan and schedule your blog content. You can also schedule your social media, such as Facebook. Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn. While the plugin is free, CoSchedule does charge a monthly fee.

I haven’t used this plugin yet, but I do use the free headline analyzer for every blog post I write. I also read their blog because they have some great ideas on how to run your website and how to market.

6. Akismet

If you want to keep your comment spam to a bare minimum, then you need Akismet. This plugin gets rid of the comment spam and is easy to use. It’s also free.

Askimet was one of the first plugins I got, and I don’t have to do much once it’s set up. It keeps the spam down to almost nothing.

7. Social Media Widget

The Social Media Widget is a great tool if you want to share your blog posts. You can add links to all of your social media and can customize the widget from three sizes and four icon styles.

I used this plugin before I discovered SumoMe. It’s a great plugin if you don’t want to mess with SumoMe.

8. WP Rocket

This plugin is one of the main ways to speed up your website’s loading time. It’s easy to configure and can be done in less than five minutes. An alternative to this plugin is W3 Total Cache.

I haven’t used either of these plugins, but I’ve heard great things about W3 Total Cache. However, when I discovered it’s hard to configure, it makes me wonder if the fee for WP Rocket is worth the money.

9. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a great plugin for selling things on your website. I haven’t used this one, but if I ever decide to sell things, I would use it.

10. Revive Old Posts

Revive Old Posts was once known as Tweet Old Posts. This plugin helps you repost old blog posts. You choose the time interval and the number of posts to share. You can add hashtags and include links. You can also use it with Facebook and LinkedIn.

This is another plugin I haven’t used before, but I like the idea that I can do this easily. I have several blog posts that I would like to tweet again so this plugin looks like it would do the job easily. And it’s free.

WordPress has plenty of other plugins that are useful for various things depending upon what you need. I’ve included the ones here that I found to be the most useful to me or the ones I would like to use in the near future.

Please feel free to share plugins you are using and you’ve found to be useful. I would love to hear about them!

The post 10 Useful Plugins You Should Have on Your Website appeared first on Beach Girl Publishing LLC.

When I first got the idea for the website, I didn’t plan on having a blog that I posted regularly. The idea for it came about six months later. And I named the blog, Writer Notes.

Beginning of the blog

Back in March 2014, Beach Girl Publishing started as my freelance editing website as well as a way for me to share my own novels. When I first started the website, I usually posted on my blog once or twice a month. I didn’t plan on a weekly post because I wanted to focus on my other writing.

With this website, I wanted to coach other writers or eventually become a small publishing company. Of course, these were only dreams for what I envisioned in the future. I did create a resource page for writers, which included links to various websites that I found helpful.

Switching things around

At the beginning of the summer 2014, I shifted the freelance editing to my author website. This move left Beach Girl Publishing with no idea what to do. I wasn’t ready to do the coaching or publishing so it sat without much being done for a couple of months.

Keeping my novels separate from the freelancing, I moved them to yet another website — a new author website. But I soon figured out I couldn’t keep up with three websites. I also realized that my readers were confused at this point by my author website going to a freelance one.

So I switched the websites back. The freelance website once again became my author website, as it was before. Beach Girl Publishing became my freelance editing website once again, and Writer Notes was born.

Trying different ideas

I’ve built up a routine to writing one post a week for the blog. I had done some research and got an idea that I decided to try.

Over the last few months, I tried doing a weekly review with some links to other blog posts on Sundays plus the normal post on Thursdays. That became too much, especially when I have another blog. I then only did the weekly post on Sundays but decided I didn’t want to do that either.

Over a month ago I joined a freelance challenge and changed the direction of Beach Girl Publishing once again. The focus is still on editing, but writing has been added in once again. I added a portfolio and testimonials to show off my freelance work and updated my home page. The feedback from the group I’m in for the challenge gave me some great comments.

Doing a giveaway

I’m proud of myself for what I’ve accomplished so far. But I would like to see more readers for my blog so I’m doing a giveaway to celebrate two years.

Enter your email so you don’t miss one of my blog posts and have the chance to win a free edit of your choice up to 1,500 words. This could be a couple of blog posts or a few pages of a novel or whatever writing you’re working on.

And if this proves to be successful, I’ll keep doing it as a monthly contest! What do you think?

The post Free Giveaway to Celebrate Blog’s Two-Year Anniversary appeared first on Beach Girl Publishing LLC.