It’s painfully easy to believe that there’s nothing new on the internet.

A vignette of adorable, striped clothing we can’t afford? Seen it. 
A numbered list of ways you can improve something? I WRITE THOSE ALL THE TIME. 
Interviews? Dur. A bunch of curated links? Hell, I tell all my clients to do that (because those posts are incredibly effective.) 

But occasionally I stumble over something new and head-turning on the internet. Something that makes me think “Well, aren’t you clever?!  I think you might have just reinvented the wheel! Or at least framed something in a particularly awesome and new way.”

And then I add those blog posts to a folder titled ‘non-boring post inspiration.’

If you’re looking for a bit of motivation or just some reassurance that blogging is more than product roundups and personal essays, look no further.

Here are 7 I’ve-never-seen-that-before, interesting blog post ideas, just for you!

1. Taking stock

Posted by: Pip of Meet Me At Mike’s
Why it’s innovative: It’s community-building and meme-worthy. Lots of bloggers create posts that consist of their Instagram accounts or occasionally tell us what books they’re reading, but Pip’s 36-item list gives her readers an easy to digest but close look into her life - which readers usually love! It’s short, easy to read, and oddly fascinating. It’s also totally meme-worthy and I could see lots of other bloggers using this template and linking back to her.

Your spin on it: If you write a topic-specific blog you could create a list like this for you and your readers! If you’re food blogger it could be things like: currently eating, new recipe I’m trying, seasonal food I can’t wait to stock up on, latest kitchen purchase, cookbook I’m currently obsessed with, super unhealthy thing I love. You get the idea!

2. Links visually arranged by theme

Posted by: Brittany of The House That Lars Built
Why it’s innovative: This is really just a link roundup (and you know how I feel about those) but it’s been framed in a fun, thematic way. Readers are much more likely to click on those links and showcasing other bloggers’ work in such a pretty, professional way is incredibly flattering.

Your spin on it: Wouldn’t this be a cute, click-catching way to arrange links for a topic-specific blog? If you’re a beauty blogger, you could round up DIY beauty treatments for hair, face, hands, and feet. If you’re a fashion blogger, you could round up accessories for head, ears, neck, wrists, and feet.

3. The world’s shortest, most engaging travel post

Posted by: Amber of Code for Something
Why it’s innovative: It’s a short, engaging way to catalog memories of a specific time + place and share your travels (without boring your readers). If you’ve ever returned from a long, exciting trip and tried to tell your friends about it, you know that people have a verrrrrrry short attention span for travel stories. They weren’t there. They don’t care about squat toilets.

The same goes for blog readers. They probably just want to see your photos and read the extremely abridged, bullet-pointed version of the trip. This post communicates novels of insight in just a few words.

Your spin on it: Tune into your senses when you’re someplace new. And then (succinctly) tell your readers about it.

4. A visual link roundup for an imaginary event

Posted by: Kelly at Design Crush
Why it’s innovative: Again, it’s pretty much a link roundup, but it’s organized in a gorgeous way that’s helping readers accomplish something specific. Like, lots of readers probably saw this and thought “Oh, me too! I’ve been wanting to throw an appetizer party! And lo, now I have all the resources!”

Your spin on it: You could do this with just about anything - recipes, products, and resources that will help your readers plan an awesome camping trip. A roundup of useful things that would help someone with a cross-country move. A collection of things for new moms. Possibilities = endless.

5. 10-second video tour (using still photos) 

Posted by: Designsponge*
Why it’s innovative: We’ve all seen video tours of spaces or photo tours, but this is the first time I’ve seen still photos turned into a mini-video! It’s great for those of us with short attention spans and it’s a fantastic way to showcase something even if you’re not a super experienced videographer.

Your spin on it: The possibilities are endless: A tour of your space! Super simple DIYs! Recipes!

6. Audio-ified posts

Posted by: Esme Wang
Why it’s innovative: Everyone and their brother has a podcast, but what about blog posts? If you’re an aural learner, dyslexic, or you like to cook and clean while absorbing lovely content, the audio versions of blog posts are super useful. It would be particularly fun to listen to blog posts read by your favorite bloggers who have regional accents!

Your spin on it: I’m not sure there’s a way to spin this - just give it a try! Maybe go through your archives, make audio versions of your best stuff, and then tell your Twitter friends to check out your new and improved blog posts.

7. Glorious promotional Instagram photos

Posted by: Elise Blaha of Elise Joy
Why it’s innovative: Obviously, this isn’t so much a blog post as a way to promote blog posts - but it sure is clever, isn’t it? I’ve struggled to find ways to promote blog posts on Instagram, usually settling for one of the photos I use in the post. Which isn’t particularly engaging. This is so much more interesting!

Your take on it: Think about how you can use handwriting, actual photos, post its, tape, or even gift tags to create images that promote posts.

What are some of the most interesting, unusual blog posts you’ve seen lately? Leave links in the comments!

P.S. 4 questions to ask yourself when you don’t know what to write about

Like most people who make a living by stringing together sentences, I’d like to improve my writing.

But I also like to go to parties, road trip around America, and catch up on Empire.

What. to. do.

Lately, I’ve been trying to toe the line between proactive self-improvement and cutting myself some slack.

Want to improve your writing without devoting two hours a day to free writing? These tips are for you.

1. Improve your writing by listening to writing podcasts while you do other stuff

As I’m assembling a salad or grilling a quinoa burger (or eat a giant bowl of popcorn), I’m listening to I Should Be Writing or The Writing Show.

Don’t worry about taking notes, don’t pause the podcast if you have to pop out to put in a load of laundry. Just 80% listen. Have faith that if an idea is good enough, it’ll stick. If doesn’t stick, you’ll probably encounter someone else talking/writing/tweeting about it in the near future!

2. Get inspiration by reading authors who write the way you (would like to) write

If you write for a living and spend a lot of your free time reading, you might do the same ridiculous thing I do: inadvertently start writing like the book you’re reading.  I DO THIS ALL THE TIME. In fact, if you look carefully you can probably tell which blog posts I wrote while reading Annie Proulx.

But I’ve decided to stop fighting it and start leveraging it. I have enough awareness of my own writing voice that I know a (much more talented) kindred spirit when I read them. So if I’m going to be writing like the people I’m reading, I might as well be reading people whose writing gently nudges me closer to a better version of myself.

Because I’ll never, ever be able to write like Paul Harding
“And as the ax bites into the wood, be comforted in the fact that the ache in your heart and the confusion in your soul means that you are still alive, still human, and still open to the beauty of the world, even though you have done nothing to deserve it.” 

But there is some hope that someday I could write like Bill Bryson
“As my father always used to tell me, ‘You see, son, there’s always someone in the world worse off than you.’ And I always used to think, ‘So?”

Of course, I’m not going to strictly limit myself to humorous, first-person writing but in those moments when I’m aimlessly casting around for something to read, I’m making an effort to choose people whose style is like a much, much better version of mine.

3. Upgrade your skills by keeping a writing ‘swipe file’

In the marketing world, a swipe file is a collection of tested and proven advertising and sales letters. YAWN.

My writing swipe file is a document on my desktop that consists of links, paragraphs, words, and turns of phrase that have caught my fancy. It’s the sections I’ve underlined in novels and copy-n-pasted bits from blog posts that made me laugh out loud.

If I’m looking for inspiration or trying to phrase something better, I paw through this file and I usually emerge wittier and better prepared.

4. Jump start creativity by reading outside your area of expertise

If I’m not careful, I could spend the next five years of my life reading blogs, first-person humor essays, and Oprah magazine. If you’re keeping track, all of the above are written in a pretty similar manner, using pretty similar writing voices.

Let’s stretch our boundaries and read outside of our comfort zones: academic essays, long-form investigative journalism on a topic we know nothing about, pieces that have been translated, things written by people who are very, very different from us. We will learn things by reading these pieces.

5. Enhance your writing by letting it rest + then printing it out

I am consistently floored by the difference a good night’s sleep makes. In the harsh light of day, what seemed witty and tight seems try-hard and exhausting - or maybe vice versa!

Whenever possible, I like to let my writing ‘rest’ for at least 24 hours and then print it out and edit it by hand with an actual pen. Not only is this incredibly gratifying, it’s nice to hold the thing you created in your hands rather than just staring at yet another screen.

Weird suggestion: find a brightly colored pen that’s a joy to use. I love this pen - it has 88 five-star reviews on Amazon!

Now I’d love to hear from you writers! How do you improve your writing without making writing-improvement a full-time job?

P.S. The DIY writing retreat I do every month that has totally revolutionized my life + business

“Shut UP. What? I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. UGH. My online life will now be divided into Before I Figured That Out and After.”

These are the sorts of things that you want to say over a coffee with a fellow self-employed type. So let’s spend the next five minutes pretending we’re at Nina’s (in that weird little elevated section with the two chairs) nursing our lattes. Imagine me leaning in and telling you the little, surprisingly effective tweaks I’ve been using, with awesome results.

1. Adding P.S.’s to my blog posts
Like other things I suggest to clients, I realize this sounds like a copout. BUT IT TOTALLY ISN’T. Adding a P.S. is a proven copywriting strategy and it’s a great way to integrate internal links to related content. I know a lot of people use plugins that automate related posts but
a) those create more visual clutter than I’m interested in
b) they don’t show up in RSS feeds, where 90% of my readers are

And when you go a’ searching for those old related posts, use it as an opportunity to optimize, beautify, and re-promote ’em.

2. Relabeling every photo I download and use in a post
I have lots of sources for photos - YAY, Unsplash, Flickr Creative Commons (sorted by ‘most interesting’) - and when I download them, they’re frequently titled something like “177nadlid01.jpg.”  Which, shockingly enough, is not very SEO-friendly.  So if it’s a photo of a Florida tiki bar, I title it that way. That means my photos are much more likely to show up in Google image searches, which leads to more traffic, and (hopefully) more sales.

3. Using images in my Twitter feed
Every time I publish super visual blog posts (like my Real Life Style Icon interviews, Mini Travel Guides, or anything food-related) I take the time to create a Twitter-specific graphic to include in my tweet. It increases click through by a lot (super specific measurement) and helps your tweets stand out in a sea of mundane updates and hashtags.

As a head’s up, make sure you resize your photos to 440×220, or you could end up with an awkwardly auto-cropped photo.

What little things are you doing that are making a big difference? Share your insights in the comments!

P.S. Did you know that when you sign up for my newsletter and send me your URL, I’ll give your site a once over and send you three, specific-to-you suggestions to make your online space more polished, trafficked, and money-making?