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5 Ways to Keep Writer's Block From Hurting Your SEO Efforts

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There's nothing worse than that big blank page on your screen.

It sits there, taunting you, daring you to come up with those words that will attract readers, entertain them, thrill them with your knowledge, and enchant them with your charm.

Some days, the words come easily. You're full of inspiration and hope and you churn out written gems like you're going for the Pulitzer.

Then it dries up. Maybe it's winter and the back-to-back snowstorms have you frozen in your easy chair, eating miniature chocolate bars and watching bad romantic comedies. Or maybe you've noticed that the last couple articles you've written haven't gotten any comments or re-tweets, so you figure nobody's reading them anyway.

Let's face it, you're in a funk that can become a creative Bermuda Triangle. If you don't take the proper steps, you might come out of that funk long enough to pull some articles together, but your writing style can really take a hit.

And when your writing starts taking that creative dip, you could find yourself writing something to get your words out there - but if they're not your best words, you might find that your article marketing efforts are being wasted and your potential readers are looking for their inspiration somewhere else.

So how do you nip all this in the bud, before everything starts taking that downward spiral? Here's five good ways:

1. Chill out. While you're presumably a good writer, or you wouldn't be doing this to make money in the first place, sometimes you just have to put aside your worries. Don't sit there and stare at that blank page. Do something else and come back to your article later.

2. Don't worry so much about the keywords. While keywords are an important part of article marketing and SEO efforts, effective, interesting copy that gets read is even more important. Don't stress out so much over writing something that includes keywords and just write something that makes you happy and that you would be interested in reading yourself. You can always go back and plug in the keywords later.

3. Get some new ideas. When you've been writing a lot, you may find that your articles are starting to sound repetitive. If that's happening, get on the computer and go surfing for other blogs on the topic you're writing. The idea isn't about copying those blogs and trying to pass them off as your own - that's plagiarism and it's repugnant. The idea here is to see how other bloggers are writing about the things you are and use their ideas for inspiration.

4. Don't just read blogs. When you sit around reading only blogs, that stifles your growth as a writer. You can find inspiration in the hard news of the day, the celebrity gossip sheets or even in a good editorial cartoon that could get you past the worst writer's block.

5. Revisit some of your past writing. This isn't only to reassure yourself that you know how to write - although it does help with that. It very well could be that you have written some blogs in the past that could use a good follow up and updating. Technology and the Internet change all the time, and following up one of your more popular articles could attract some of the followers who enjoyed your work all over again.

So what are you waiting for? Let's put some words on that blank page!