I Can't Think of Anything to Write

I can’t tell you how often I hear people tell me that their product or service is:

• Boring
• Stale
• Not interesting
• Nobody cares about it

I hear that all the time. They also tell me things like:

• The person who knows everything is too busy to write content.
• The owner of the company has attention deficit disorder.

Let me deal with each of these individually.

First, for the people who think their product is boring. A) If your product is so boring, how is it that you get anyone to buy it? Your product is probably not a life requirement. People can probably live without it just fine.

But I bet if it is a life requirement, it’s extremely interesting. Things that come to mind are:

• Water treatment plants
• Electric providers
• Gas providers
• Road construction

I mean, who wouldn’t be interested in knowing how all that stuff works? How much city water do I just gulp down and assume it’s clean. Who cleans it? How does it get clean? How do you make sure it stays clean? And who decides what goes into city water?

I would love to know those things. It’s an endless series of blog posts and videos.

B) If you aren’t one of those people, I suspect we could either do without your product or buy someone else’s version of it. Why do we buy it? How have you managed to stay in business as long as you have? Seemingly boring and discretionary products and services includes things like:

• Batteries
• Accounting
• Light bulbs

If you are in one of those areas and you think your offering is boring, you are crazy! How the heck does energy come out of a battery? Why doesn’t it shock me every time I touch it? How do accountants keep up with all the endless tax changes? What makes a good accountant? How will I know I have a good accountant? What is the future of light bulbs? How does a light bulb actually light? How do you make light bulbs?

All of these questions are just off the top of my head. I could probably come up with a list of tons more. I challenge you to come up with a truly boring product or service. If you think you have one, put it in the comments below. I bet I can find something interesting about it.

Now…on to the people who don’t have enough time. This is actually a serious issue. But I have an easy answer: follow them around with a recorder. Get five minutes with them and ask a question about the business. Maybe even have a brand new person at the company ask the questions. The less they know about the company, the better. Because your customers know even less than the guy that just started with you last week.

Start from the beginning:

• How did the company start?
• Why did you pick this product?
• What do you like most about your product?
• What’s the future of your product?
• How do you deal with competition?
• Why is your product the best?
• Why should someone buy from you?

You get the idea.

Then get it transcribed. I’ve used Verbal Ink and had a lot of success with it. It’s fast and cheap.

Then you’ve got all the content you could possibly want straight from the person who is the expert.

Here I am at word 575 and I literally started this column with the title “I Can’t Think Of Anything To Write.” All I did was imagine what other people must feel like when they sit down to a blank piece of paper and are faced with getting content out onto their site. This happens to everyone. But it’s pretty easy to overcome. Just start typing. You’ll have an interesting piece in no time.

Also, I really want your feedback. Do you prefer if I write my articles or do videos? I like doing both and am happy to go either way. Put your thoughts in the comments below.