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Imagine a situation. You are about to write your next post on your blog. You prepare yourself and place yourself in front of your computer.And suddenly you experience a total mind block. You have no idea what and how to write. You try hard to write something only to make situation worse. You start banging your head on the wall but this doesn't help as well. You have no clue what has gone wrong with you and how to combat it. And then after sometime (usually after 2-3 days) everything becomes fine.

Have you experienced such thing while blogging? Well, I am sure you have. This is called blogger's block and is a normal thing and happens to every blogger including the top tier bloggers.

I was going through the same shit for last few days. I spent hours in front of screen and produced nothing. I am writing this post to help anyone who experiences or has experienced blogger's block while blogging.Although a lot has been said on the subject on many blogs but I want to add fresh perspectives to it.

What causes blogger's block?

Blogger's block can be compared to a similar situation occurring in writers called writer's block.The causes of these two similar phenomena are also same.
According to wikipedia the most common cause of writer's block is stress, anxiety or fear. Here are the lines I have quoted from wikipedia-

Writer's block can be closely related to depression and anxiety, two mood disorders that reflect environmentally caused or spontaneous changes in the brain's frontal lobe.
Source

Apart from stress , partial or no research on the topic , monotonous life styles and loss of motivation may also lead to blogger's block. Other less important cause is blogging in a niche that is not of your interest.( I say it less important because most of the bloggers blog in their area of interest)

I am telling you all these things because it is necessary to identify the cause in order to beat the blogger's block phenomenon. With this said, let us now head over to the steps to follow to beat this.

How to beat blogger's block?

The things you do while going through this phenomenon can either make things better or worsen it. For example, getting panicked in this situation can worsen it.So ,it is necessary to face it in tactical way to get rid of it at soonest possible. Here are some of the tips that you can follow to beat the blogger's block phenomenon.


Don't panic just relax-

As I have said earlier,stress and fear are the triggering events of blogger's block. More fear and stress will make the situation last longer. Relax yourself. Do the things you love to do. Play your favorite game or watch TV and movies or go out for a walk or eat your favorite dishes in your favorite restaurant. Just do what you love to do. This will dispel your fear and relieve the stressed situation to some extent.

Change environment-

I live in a flat located in the heart of my hospital campus. So, there is much din and bustle going on near me everytime. Although I am accustomed to it but sometimes I am not able to concentrate in this surrounding. This is the time when I go out in a peaceful environment with my laptop.
Your surroundings has direct impingement on your brain's activity.Changing your environment has a positive impact on your mind. This freshens your mind and you can concentrate better in the new surroundings.

Change your writing schedule-

Mind works at different pace at different times in a day .Normally, brain slows down after long day's work and it works most efficiently when you have just woke up in the morning. You should select a time that tunes up well with your brain's activity. For example, I work most efficiently during night when everything around me has calmed down and my mind works well in this environment. Most others feel energized in morning when they are fresh like morning petals.

Just think when your mind is fresh and you feel like you are energized from within. This is the time when you should start writing your posts.

Prepare yourself beforehand-

Blogger's block is like Tsunami, you never know when it appears before you. It is nice to plan your future posts beforehand. So that, you have ample ideas to work on with even when you are going through blogger's block kinda thing.

Always take a pen and a notebook with you ,so that, you are able to note down every idea that comes to your mind. It is easy to lose future post ideas just because you were not able to note it when it came.I have lost many ideas by not doing this.

Now just start looking into your notebook when you experience blogger's block. The ideas noted down in your notebook can help you break loose of mind block. This can help you craft a post even when you are going through blogger's block.

Engage youself in free writing-

Free writing is a writing technique in which a person impulsively write whatever comes to his mind for set period of time without regard to spelling, grammar or topic.A brief period of free writing helps fight blogger's block and helps the brain to tone up. Free writing can be regarded as an exercise of mind.

Schedule a time for free writing session on a daily basis. You don't have to do it for hours, a 15-20 minutes session of free writing is enough. Apart from beating blogger's block it also helps in preventing it and sharpening your writing skills.

Read your favorite blogs and visit different forums of your niche-

If writer's block comes from a lack of new ideas, attempts to spark creativity by visiting your favorite blogs and different forums of your niche can be useful.The posts on blogs and forums can trigger new idea formation. This has happened to me time and again.Many of the ideas on this blog has emanated while reading other blogs or feeds in google reader or forums.

Ideas need a triggering event to come through. Of course ,sometimes they may come spontaneously but most of the times they are result of some event like, going through a post on a blog or a thread in a forum.

Throw negative thoughts out of your mind-

Blogger's block also occur due to too many negative thoughts hovering in your mind.If this is the case with you ,you have to get rid of them as soon as possible.I know getting rid of negative thoughts is easy said than done. But some of the things that you can do to throw out negative thoughts are-

• Focus on the good things that has occured to you. Has a reader appreciated your work or did you get many votes on some of your posts in social media sites?Just remember those moments and soon you will start thinking in positive way.
• Read the top posts you have written. What are the posts that got maximum coments or managed to get extra votes on social media sites? Read out your own posts loudly and soon you may start feeling flow of positive energy in yourself.

Research if you already have an idea-

Sometimes blogger's block doesn't occur because of lack of ideas but because of failure to expand upon the existing ideas to make up a post. This usually points lack of research.In this case you have to do a thorough research to beat the blogger's block. Google the topic ,read relevant articles and visit different forums and sites to make an in depth research.

Organise the points once you are finished researching.Many a times you are not able to write just because you are not able plot your post. Organising your points can help you to beat the blogger's block in this case.

Chat with other bloggers in your niche-

A nice and productive chat with other bloggers can trigger your idea engine to get some ideas. Recently I had a nice chat with one of my friends (who is also a blogger but doesn't blogs in my niche). We were discussing the cases where bloggers were sued.It sparked of an idea and I finished writing the post- "How to blog without getting sued?"

So, getting involved in a chat does help in beating the blogger's block. Apart from triggering your idea engine it also helps in relaxing your mind.

Is there anything to add?

Everyone has different tactics to get rid of blogger' block. Things I discussed above are the ones that I practice. I know many of you can add some more tactics to beat blogger's block. You are most welcome to discuss it if you have one. It is highly appreciated.



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Internet used to be the playground of a few handful of people a few years ago. But now everyone has their say, thanks to blogs and social media sites. Social media sites in general and blogs in particular has transformed internet into a democratic media. The 'freedom of speech' that everybody talks about can now be seen on virtual world of internet as well.

Although this advancement has been quite exceptional but the so called 'freedom of speech' has also created situations where bloggers got sued because of it (mostly due to misuse of it). The fine line between being critical and being defamatory is obscure and has added to the plight of bloggers. As a result, the cases of bloggers getting sued has been on rise since last couple of years.

For past few weeks I have been studying some of the cases where bloggers were sued and came to a conclusion that in most of the cases a blogger can avoid the trauma of getting into the courtroom by following some simple steps. This is what I am going to talk off in today's post.

Take care of following points while blogging to avoid getting sued-

1) Don't write defamatory posts-
While as a human being every blogger has right to criticise a person or a company ,criticism based on false facts is something you should refrain from doing. Furthermore, if you are criticising someone and some company time and again on your blog, you are inviting a problem.

In 2007, a blogger named Joe Albero was sued because he made fun of Salisbury police chief time and again in his blog ,Salisbury news blog. Police chief, Allen Webster sued him because he repeatedly made fun of him sometimes calling him "Chief Jack and coke". (Source)

Take another example, in July 2008, one of the blogger from Malaysia, Raja Petra was sued by two army officials when he declared the officials to be involved in murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.The blogger made this statement without backing his statement with citations and proofs from reliable sources and did it repeatedly on his blog. He was charged RM 1 million in damages. (source)

In both these cases bloggers were sued because they criticised someone and the statements were based on either false facts or without citations and proofs from reliable sources.Furthermore, they did it repeatedly on their blog.

So, to not get litigated for defamation you need to-

1. Criticise someone only when you have solid backings in the form of solid citations, quotes or proofs from authority sources.
2. Refrain from criticising someone repeatedly on your blog.
3. Refrain from making false statements on your blog.

Don't infringe copyright policies-
While researching the topic last week, I found copyright infringement to be second most common cause of getting sued.

The hottest example of this would be perezhilton.com. The author was sued by a Los Angeles based photo agency company, X17 Inc. for illegally using some of the photographs on the blog. The company charged the blog author, Mario Lavandeira with accusations of using 51 images without permission , payment or credit. (Source)

Another example, Britney spears' label record sued a Los Angeles based popular gossip blogger for illegally posting tracks from her album even before it was released. The company demanded unspecified damages plus legal cost for this copyright infringement. (Source)

The lessons to take from these two cases are-

1. Read the copyright policies before using any rich media on your blog.
2. Don't indulge yourself in plagiarism.
3. Take permission of copyright holder before using something in your blog.

Don't disclose other people's secret-
While it is OK to break news of your niche, it is not good to disclose secrets of either an individual's personal life or a company's policies or product secrets.

There was a case when the computer giant company, Apple charged an owner of blog to divulge secrets of the products even before the products were officially launched. Although the company and blogger agreed upon a settlement after 2 years but the mental trauma that the blogger would have suffered during these two years can be imagined. ( Source)

Although divulging someone's secret can give you overnight popularity but it would be nice to not indulge in such things to avoid future problems.

Take a close look at the comments appearing on your blog-
Once the famous blogger, Aaron Wall of SeoBook.com was sued for the comments that appeared in his blog. One of the Las Vegas based company, trafficpower.com charged Aaron Wall because some of the comments submitted by readers were defamatory for the company.

Some visitors to Mr. Wall's blog had posted comments complaining about what they said were unprofessional business practices by Traffic-Power.com, while others said they didn't think the tools sold by Traffic-Power.com were effective in boosting search-engine rankings.
Source

As a blog owner you are responsible for the things that appear on your blog (including comments). So, to avoid getting sued for comments appearing on your blog you should-

1. Moderate all the comments that are inappropriate or possibly defamatory and harsh.
2. Disallow anonymous comments on your blog.
3. Make a comment policy for your blog stating the types of comment that are allowed or not allowed on your blog.

Don't write anti-government posts if your government forbids it-
There has been cases where bloggers were sued and tried for writing anti-government posts. While it is allowed to criticise government policies in most of the countries, it can't be said for all countries of the world. If writing against government policies is not allowed in your country , you should not write about it to avoid getting into a problem.Please make a note that the freedom of speech I talked about earlier is not followed in all countries of the world.


Although there has been situations when bloggers has been sued for quite absurd and obscure reasons but by following the points I discussed above you can avoid running into a problem in most circumstances.



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