Whether you own a business blog or you’re a ghost blogger doing the dirty deed for a paying customer, odds are you have found yourself sitting in front of your computer thinking, “How in the hell am I going to write another post about [insert your relevant keyword here]?!”

Let’s face it, sometimes the well just runs dry. And since the majority of my business is blogging in the name of other people — as you might imagine — I’ve hit this wall often.

So what can you do to keep going? If it’s your blog, you can’t just walk away, as much as you might feel like it. The benefits of regular blogging are just too many.

And if you’re a ghost blogger, you can’t just email your client and say, “Sorry, Bub, I can’t think of anything to write about.” That’s what they’re paying you for.

So how do you write about the same phrases over and over and over and over without getting completely stale — much less not getting dinged for duplicate content? There’s no easy answer. BUT, I do have a few pointers that come directly from personal experience.

Walk Away

First things first. There comes a time when sitting at your computer becomes counterproductive. You know, when you sit and stare until your eyes feel as if they’re bleeding. Let’s be frank — at this point all you’re doing is wasting time. And time is money and all that jazz…

Do yourself a favor, close that laptop and do something else. It could be business related. Or better yet, take the rest of the day off. After all, we small business owners don’t get many of those, right? Even our days off are usually filled with…well, writing.

Give your brain a little time to relax. I know it seems simple enough, but how hard is this to do? Extremely. In fact, even on my supposed days off, I have trouble not sitting and staring at the TV while my brain is thinking up blog post ideas.

So perhaps the whole walk away idea isn’t the best, but it can’t hurt. Maybe take it up a notch and go take a yoga class. You know, quiet your mind and stuff.

Then What?

I know exactly what you’re thinking right now. You’re thinking, “Hey Chris, thanks for nothing.” Because the advice I’ve given so far really doesn’t solve anything. Sure it may offer temporary relief, but it only does so by circumventing the problem.

And you’re right, sort of. Yes, even if you take the day off, you’re still going to be sitting at your computer the following day trying to think up an idea for your next business blog posting. But I’d argue that you’d be doing it with a clearer head.

Either way, you still need a way to generate some new ideas. Bear with me, I’m working on it. Here’s what I’m going to do. I want to take a look at a company I provide ghost business blogging for. Names and keywords will be changed in order to protect the innocent, so to speak.

I’m going to give you their primary keywords, and them I’m going to list out some of the titles I have used for their blogs. Look closely and let’s see what I’ve done. Ready?

My Mini Business Blogging Case Study

Let’s call the company “Texas Roof Repair.” Their primary keywords are:

• Roof repair(s)
• Roofing repair(s)
• Roofing contractors
• Roof repair contractors

The rules: One of the keywords has to appear in each blog title.

Not a whole lot to work with, right? All the keywords are practically identical. Yet I have created well over 100 blog posts for them based on the keywords. Let’s take a look at the titles of some of them:

• 4 Roof Repair Myths Exposed—Ah the old “myths about your keyword” article. I promise you—you can find myths about your keywords easily enough. Just look at the facts about your service or product and twist it into how someone could misunderstand it.
• How Do Different Roof Repair Methods Work?—Pick a few of the services you offer and explain them. Nice and straight forward. Although, I wouldn’t use ALL of them in one post. Save some for later.
• 5 Reasons You May Need to Call a Roof Repair Contractor—There’s always a reason to acquire a product or service. Get creative and you can come up with 100 of them. Divide that by 5 and you have 20 posts.
• Roof Repair to Prevent Mold Growth—Hone in on one benefit of your product and explain it in detail. I look at this almost as ad copy. Although, technically I view all business blogging as a form of ad copy.
• Why You Should Hire a Professional for Roof Repair—If your business offers a service, you can always benefit from explaining why someone should hire you or another professional to perform the function instead of doing it themselves. Think about it: if you’re a financial advisor, people can benefit from hiring you instead of losing their money investing themselves. If you’re a plumber, people can benefit from hiring you do a job in 20 minutes that will not only take them 4 hours, but also be really freaking disgusting.
• Roof Repair—It’s Not Something to Take Lightly—This is one of those “oh if you don’t purchase this then DOOM AND GLOOM” sorts. Hey, it works for some people.
• How to Determine if a Roof Repair Contractor is Legitimate or Not—You can write this one a million different ways. But bottom line, you’re explaining how to find a good service provider by highlighting all the things you do right.
• Need a Reason to Get Roof Repair? Here’s a Great One—Again, focus on one reason rather than many.
• What Happens if You Don’t Get Roof Repair?—Spin it on them. Instead of saying why they need your service or product, explain to them what happens if they don’t purchase it. Go worst case scenario here.
• An In Depth Analysis of Roofing Repairs—This is another way to describe all the methods and facets of your service. Except this one is written more like an official report.
• Pros and Cons of Roof Repairs—Don’t be afraid to admit some of the downsides to your service. However, turn them into positives along the way with the Pros. Example:

Con: It costs more to hire a professional.

Pro: It keeps you from having to take a day off to try and fix it yourself.

• The Truth about Roofing Repair—Similar to the Myths one. Kind of an exposé sort of deal. I have fun with these types.
• Signs That Should Leave You Searching for Roof Repairs—Again, why might someone need your product or service?
• What Roofing Repair Contractors Can Offer You—Highlight the benefits that result from having a professional do the job for you.

Let’s Stop There

Look, I could go on all day. There are 14 of like a million. But the bottom line is this: there’s always another way to look at a topic. You just have to get creative and approach it from a different angle. Do you ever touch on an idea you explained before? Of course you do. It happens all the time. You just try to add a little something different each time. And space out similar ideas so that they aren’t still fresh on readers’ minds.

Still stuck? Take one of my ideas, mix it up again and insert your keywords. It will work!

But what about when you exhaust all the ideas I presented in my mini case study? Good question. Remember how I said I have a million more title ideas but I don’t have time or space to put them all here? Follow me on Twitter (Chris_HELP) and once this post goes live I’ll start tweeting out new versions of titles for the same keywords.

Hope that helps and I look forward to hearing from you guys!