There is a fantastic rush that comes when you see your brand new website for the first time. Your mind will probably racing as you think of all the possibilities, WordPress makes it as easy as possible to turn your ideas into reality. But after your initial burst of creativity you may find that it gets harder and harder to come up with ideas for new website content.
This is a struggle that just about everyone with a website runs into. It’s the reason why the vast majority of blogs are left to gather dust in less than a year. There’s no shame in getting bored and moving onto something else if you’re just looking for some fun but if you’re more serious about using your website to its full potential then you need to learn how to beat the website version of writer’s block.
We are going to be looking at three strategies anyone can use to come up with ideas for their site. Whether you’ve got a blog or not you can use all of these techniques to keep your site full of new and interesting content that will keep visitors coming back.
Consider Multimedia
When you think about what content for a WordPress site looks like what comes to mind? If you’re like most people you’re thinking of blog articles. It’s a natural place for your mind to go, WordPress was designed as a blogging platform and the majority of WordPress pages are filled with text. But in this day and age you don’t have to limit your site to just words.
Today web users are used to websites that are rich in multimedia. Think images, videos and interactive content. If you’re the type of person who has trouble finding the right words but has a natural way with a camera then you might think about adding pictures to your site that can either get your point across or make articles more interesting and informative.
If you use multimedia correctly it can be incredibly powerful, but it should be noted that it takes a decent investment of cash or time to get professional-grade images or videos. If you have a passion for design or videography then you should definitely try to find a way to use your skills, but if you are just starting out in the field of design make sure that you don’t upload anything that looks cheap enough to hurt your site’s overall image.
Learn From Other Sites
There’s a saying that says if you want to make a car you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Many people feel that in order to be truly original they have to avoid the work of others and try and rely on their own imagination and ingenuity as much as possible. While this may be admirable it isn’t practical, every great artist, designer and Webmaster built their career on the foundation laid by those who came before them. So feel free to look at sites that are similar to yours and see if they have any ideas you can make your own.
Some of you might think of this as cheating, a sort of digital plagiarism. If you just go to another site, copy their content and post it on yours then that’s exactly what it is. But this is not what we’re talking about. An example of taking proper inspiration is going to the site of a competitor, noticing that they have an interesting page with biographical information of their employees, and then going back to your site and creating a similar page. Are you just going to steal the information from their site? Of course not! Instead you’re taking a rough idea and turning it into something specific and unique to you and your site.
You probably spend time every day on the web, why not make your browsing time more productive by keeping a file or notepad full of cool and useful things you notice on other websites. No one can say when and where inspiration will strike.
Browse The WordPress Plugins Database
A webpage can be as simple as one image or as complex as a sophisticated program that turns your site into a powerful tool that users will want to use again and again. Many people dream of the second type of content but for years if you wanted something like that on your site you needed to be an expert in coding or spend a lot of money hiring someone who was. Now you can add new functionality to your site with just a few button presses.
WordPress is designed to be as flexible as possible and one of the tools designed with this in mind is their plugin system. This powerful option allows users to add programing to their site as easily as they might add programs to their computer or design programs from scratch to run on their site. You can find thousands of plugins on the WordPress plugin directory that can do almost anything from disabling user comments to adding an online store to your site.
You don’t want to go overboard with plugins, even though it’s tempting given how many there are and how easy they are to download. Ultimately if you want your site to be stable and secure you should only download plugins you think you’ll actually use and that have good reviews. WordPress can’t test every plugin uploaded to their site so you want to turn to others for help deciding if a plugin can be trusted or not. Take some time to browse the directory and see if adding new features to your site might take you in interesting new directions.
Going From Idea To Action
One of the top causes of writer’s block and similar problems is perfectionism. If you sit down and try and come up with a “perfect idea” then you probably aren’t going to come up with anything. To start out you should give yourself permission to come up with bad ideas and simply start writing down anything that comes to mind. Whether you’re thinking visually, browsing the web or looking at plugins keep something nearby that you can use to keep track of your ideas and inspiration. Copying images, saving links and taking notes can all help.
Even if you think you’ve come up with a great idea don’t stop at one, keep going and see what you get. The more ideas you can come up with the better, and if you have a variety of options you can pick one to start with and save the rest for future website updates. When you plan ahead you can make your life a lot less complicated.
Believe it or not you have creativity within you. Start looking for inspiration and stop censoring yourself and before long you’ll have plenty of ideas to work with.
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