It’s hard to face that blank page, that blank blog post page that you should be writing today. Yet it’s just one of the million things on your To Do list but it’s just too hard to face. You know you should be writing; not looking at your work email. You know you should be publishing the next post in your series, not checking in on your monthly reports. But it’s just so hard.

I feel your pain. Sometimes starting to write is hard for me too and I do this professionally for a living! The secret for me is knowing it will pass, so I am able to push through. Not you. You’re a talker, a doer, a boss, a colleague…anything but a writer. This is when you put on your thinking cap and get creative. Your tech audience is ready to hear more from you (they may even be asking to hear from you more often). Are you ready to deliver?

Check out these 5 ways to create content and avoid writing. See what fits best with your tech business and just start! Your ideas are too important to keep to yourself.

1. Start in your comfort zone

Your first instinct will be to avoid writing altogether. In fact, that’s why you’re even willing to do the most arcane and banal items on your To Do list instead of writing. Instead, why not do something you’re comfortable with in order to create your content?

• If you enjoy talking, film a short video about your latest trade event, news item, or something product-related.
• If you’re a numbers person, gather some stats about your products, market, or industry and publish that.
• If you’re still at a loss, take an old post and refresh it. Update the stats and images. Revise the introduction and make it more relevant to your market. Add internal links to your website on 5 old posts. (Internal linking is great for SEO and search engines as it helps them to assign “equity” to your site and those linked pages.)

2. Repurpose existing audio/video

Now you’re on a roll, thinking like a tech content marketer. Take a look at your content stash and see how many videos, webinars, podcasts, audio interviews you have. Let’s use that to get your content in front of more people. After all, not everyone likes videos and podcasts, so they missed your awesome words and ideas the first time around. These people are into your content for the value you’re giving them. They want to hear about you and your products, so give it to them!

You can reach these members of your ideal audience by repurposing your audio/video content into written content like blog posts, opt-in reports, How To guides, one-pagers you can attach to emails or hand out at conferences, and more. With no writing involved.

Yes, you read that right. You’re not writing anything. What you do is hire a writer like me to repurpose your content. You hand over the content to me (be it a video file, URL to the webinar or podcast episode, etc.) and I’ll repurpose it into written content that’ll attract and please the segment of your audience who likes to read. I created my repurposing service just for tech marketers like you because I know you have a lot of useful and helpful information to share. With my help, you’ll share it with more people.

3. Create transcripts and show notes

If you want to create new content without writing it, there are a few creative ways to do that too. One way is to record yourself and have it transcribed. Then you publish the transcription as a blog post. If you’re going to do this, it helps to have your thoughts organized beforehand, so write a quick outline to keep you on track as you speak. Send it off to a transcription service like Rev or use transcription software like InqScribe.

Publish the transcription by itself or as a series of blog posts. You can use a podcast or interview transcription as the shownotes in a blog post, where you link or upload the audio/video and then provide the transcription below.

4. Ask for content help

Sure, you could hire an outside writer like me to help you with your content efforts or you could also see if there are any budding writers in your organization who could help. You may be surprised at just who you find out there that is able to write well. Give them some direction on the topics they should write about such as:

• a day in the life at their job
• a summary of a big project win in their department
• a recap of the latest conference or event they attended

Make sure to tie in this content to your overall intent for the blog or the piece, but otherwise, let your colleagues have at it. All you need to do is act as the managing editor and keep track of the work. Much easier than writing it all yourself, isn’t it?

If writing isn’t your thing and you’re having trouble finding others to help you, give me a shout. I’d love to talk with you about your technology company and products to see how we could work together.

5. Just do it and edit later

Sometimes the best way to avoid writer’s block and get around the threat of the blank page is to simply start writing. That’s right, the secret to avoiding writing is to just write. Sounds counter-intuitive, but it really works. One of the reasons that blank page is so scary is that you start to over-analyze your thoughts and ideas and think they’re not good enough. You become paralyzed at the thought of seeing your words out there because you’re worried about how they’ll look or sound.

Send that doubt and dread packing by doing a brain dump. Just open a text file and start typing. Write a list of all the ideas you had for the post. Open an email and start typing the headline idea you had while riding the elevator to your office. Then let it sit. Don’t look at it for a while. Come back to your words later and edit them. Sort them into coherent sentences and paragraphs. Add some headings and bullets. Maybe even an image?

There you are, 5 ways to create content for your tech business without writing. Sure, some of them involve a bit of writing, but for the most part, you’re able to create without it. It just matters what you’re comfortable doing, what you have time and budget for, and you can do it. So get out there and start creating content!