The challenge today tackles a question that many bloggers face once they've been blogging for a while - "what do I write about?"
Bloggers block strikes even the best of bloggers - today I share a technique for coming up with loads of post ideas.
I'd love to hear how you go with this exercise below.
What other ways to do you use to come up with post ideas for your blog?
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I check out websites like Yahoo Answers to see which questions in my niche regularly return.
Another thing is to watch Google Trends, and see what is hot in searchworld :-)
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Gosh Darren, they're coming thick and fast, I can barely catch my breath! Thank you so much for doing this for us.
Your mind mapping technique is a great one and something I need to do, stat. I'm starting to look at which of my posts are popular (or not) and will start from those and extend outwards.
I get ideas based on what I'm cooking, the newbie cooking questions that friends and family ask me, news and current events (although I don't blog about them directly - and I know it would improve my traffic if I did), seasonal stuff and so on.
Off to do my homework!
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The mindmapping technique worked really well, Darren and I now have about 12 post ideas, including one that I hope will generate some guest posts for the blog.
For some reason, I did not receive the email for today's assignment. HELP!
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lunaKM
Member
I use mind-mapping, list brainstorming and I keep a notepad with me all the time for ideas (since they pop in whenever). I also take topics from posts on my blog and think about what more I could write about to expand the topic. I like to read blogs in my niche and jot interesting topics down to cover on my own blog in a different perspective.
We are the masters of words we've never spoken and the slaves of the ones we have. -- Sandra West
I read magazines! I find that I get into a relaxed state and something in them will spark off an idea of my own to do with green living or natural health.
I love the mind mapping post today though and will try it out!
Since I write about my life as a mom and about my son's development, I try to keep a notebook handy at all times. Then, if Jude (my son) does or says something interesting, or if we have an adventure together, I can jot some quick notes down so I don't forget the amazing details of our days together.
If I'm stuck for ideas--that is, if life hasn't been particularly amazing--I head over to parenting forums to see what topics are hot; I read other Mommyblogs for inspiration; I sit and reflect on life. I also review products on my blog, so if I need a go-to post, I can evaluate if any of our acquired items would make for an interesting review.
and other times...
A mother, wife, and chocolate lover. Wit and snark included at no charge.
Largely from my twitter stream,and in part from my email stream, and also from personal connections. Listen to what people are complaining about (particularly where it fits into your specialism). One other area that I have found useful is LinkedIn Answers pick on a question with many answers, and leverage the salient points.
In part I find new material by reading articles (particularly if the author has non understood the subject they are writing about). One trick that I have adopted is not to read articles today, but to put un-read material aside for later reading. An idea can be triggered when reading that stack - especially since the old article has brobably been forgotten about by now.
i replied in the comments on todays task but forgot some of the other things i've tried.i doodle bubbles but also make lists of posts. on really ambitious months i pull out my excel spreadsheet that has ideas per month. a lot of my random posts come from bizarre things that happen to me/someone nearby.
one of the reasons i signed up for this is i was getting carried away with the little posts (word/quote of week, picture of the week, life lessons...) and not focusing on the bigger posts sitting in drafts. i think the mindmapping with really help get me fired up again!
thanks
C.McKane | Opinionated Ant
While I did a lot of research in advance of setting up my newish blog this exercise sets a different frame ie mind set for what has been written and what I intend to write. So thanks Darren - again. These days I dont write every day though for a lot of good and bad reasons.
I am not a person interested in Facebook particularly and as yet no one has come up with a good enough reason for being there. But I have found my way to StumbleUpon which I like a lot and I am on several forums and have extended this with great results. So feel that alone will stimulate my long list of subjects.
I found this really helpful. I have a few half-written draft ideas hanging around in my blog - some take a little time to put together and others never see the light of day. I like the idea of continuing recent posts though - I gave this a go and have masses of ideas now! It's just a matter of actually writing.
I have some good plans for this Day 11 exercise of the 31DBBB challenge. Since I recently wrote about film festivals, maybe I can do a list of festivals by state or film festival resources that readers can find useful. I also have another series on my blog that could possibly be expanded before the end of this month.
I like Cathy Stucker's comment on Problogger.net about expanding on list post ideas. I may try that one and create a general list post template such as "10 Items you Must Have to...." etc. or something like that to expand on but I'll have to figure out a way to make it relevant to the topics featured on my blog.
Your Day 11 exercise of the 31DBBB challenge to Come up with 10 Post Ideas may finally be a great way for me to expand upon the series posts that I have on my blog. Right now, I have two Series, which is a film festival series and an actor series so this is a great opportunity to make come up with ideas for those and keep them flowing on a steady schedule.
I have not used mind-mapping diagrams too much but have spent some time brainstorming ideas when I came up with my list post that was later published for one of the 31DBBB assignments last week. At first, I thought that since I already came up with some post ideas within the last few weeks, I can skip this task, BUT I changed my mind because coming up with 10 more blog posts can only benefit my blog in the long run, especially if they are related to previous posts.
I like your idea of coming up with post ideas that tie into a central theme or topic on blogs.
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Awesome task thanks! In 5 min I've got 15 post ideas!
I am really excited about this assignment. I have lots of ideas already, but they are not so organized. I do a lot of fun ideas for families, and sometimes I'll write a post about collecting the ideas, or storing ideas and come back the next day with ideas for their books. In perusing my last few titles this morning, I was reminded that I wrote a post on teaching home making classes to young kids and I said in the post that I would come back with specific class outlines. But I never did! So that is one of the 5 titles I'll map today.
I am a fan of pen and paper, but I have too much paper already, so I am using my new one-note software which is basically like a notebook in my laptop. You can type or even write anywhere on the page, so I will try to do this. But part of me really wants to take a pen and just go for it.
Anyone else use one-note?
Sometimes you just can't beat pencil and paper, but I also use FreeMind mind-mapping software and a Moleskine notebook. In a pinch, I'll write notes in the Notes app on my iPhone. However, I try to keep my Moleskine with me - it's sometimes easier to grab a pen than mess with a digital mini keyboard. I have it separated into two different series I've been working, and I storyboard ideas out from there.
I also keep FreeMind open on my laptop. Then, when new ideas come, I can flip over to it rather than try to recapture it later. I'll likely take my mind-map on paper from today and convert it to a digital format in FreeMind that I can easily extend as new ideas come to me.
I too did not get this until much later in the day than normal .. although it was sent to me by a freind..
looking forward to doing this to bring some light structure without being too constricting
perfect
Thanks
vdchitnis2000
Member
Hey,
Dareen just worked so well ... i now have like 10 to 15 ideas for the next the topics of my blogs .. pen and paper works always for me ..nothing else ...It was intresting brain storming activity for me for the one hour of fun i had .. thanks ...
Regards
Sudeep
I just finished the task and came up with 12 blog posts based on the previous five that were already published. This was not as easy as I thought it was going to be. However, two or three of those posts can actually turn into a series of blog posts or at least Blanket titles that allow me to change the subject but keep the central theme of the title, which may be helpful.
The mind map is not what I used. I just pasted my most recent headlines into a word processing program and entered as many relevant post ideas as I could under each headline. Some headlines were able to generate more post ideas than others but it all worked out.
This was probably the most worth-while exercise of the project for me so far. I would mostly come up with post ideas one at a time. As they came to me randomly I would jot them down. I will definitely be repeating this exercise frequently.
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I think Google Trends is the one of the best softwares from Google. Checkout hot trends for immediate reactions :)
While we're using mindmaps, it's also great to draw some lines out for the social media possibilities for each blog. Think of what you'd post on Twitter to intrigue people to come read, and how you would engage Facebook folks to come read your post. (And remember, automation is not always the best thing. If your Twitter posts automatically go on Facebook, that's one less "personal" moment for you and your audience.) I find it is much more effective to write different short lines for at least Facebook and Twitter when enticing people to come read a blog post.
And for more post ideas, it's fun to include some wild ideas for people to interview. If the person seems too famous or far-reaching to get an actual interview with, you can also write a post about why you admire that person and what they've done. I've had some sweet responses from people I wrote about on my Examiner column, which then led to more opportunities.
Suzanna
I like the mapping strategy but have used it in a more consoldated fashion where I blog about something in-depth for five days or so with different slants. For example, I did this with the recent chimp attacks.
I'd like to know what other members of the forum do and if anyone else has tried a weeklong focus with success.
hmmm..so far I only could develop one new post from each recent post I have....:(
I am so stuck here. I have too much to say and it's all without any organization so I end up not writing anything.
Overwhelmed much?
I carry a notebook with me at all times and there is one with me in my computer. And everything and everyone is copy. I read over 150 blogs, and I look for trends and unique ideas that I can pull my own original ideas from. If I'm ever talking to someone and I mention a story or something I do and they say "oh that's such a good idea," I think, "hmm, but is it, is it blogworthy?"
It all gets starred and goes into the notebook. When I look through the notebook, I have a lot of ideas that I can compile into posts.
Natalie
Mind mapping on paper can be much more productive because you're focussed purely on the thinking and aren't distracted by things on your computer like email, Twitter, RSS, IM etc. For example, take a notepad and pen to a coffee shop and sit and think of ideas. The first idea might take 5 or 10 minutes to appear on the page but the rest quickly follow. This also helps interlink your posts because you can draw arrows between ideas so you know to link them later. Soon as you get home dump them all into your blog as drafts and then start writing one or two of them.
I generally have 6-10 "ideas" in my WordPress drafts at any given time which really helps keep a blog going.
For this exercise we found a whiteboard a great tool for brainstorming. Small whiteboards are very reasonably priced these days. You can install it on a wall near your desk so it is always visible for quick reference.
We are still sorting out our brand and monetization. So we used the "website content" option in the google external keyword tool to see what google thinks our site is about. Unexpectedly "goals" and "healthy foods" came up for our site.
"goals" and "healthy foods" is not the exact branding we wanted, so we looked at all the previous posts and also at google external keword tool to come up with some better categories. We looked for "phrase based" keywords that met the following criteria
As a result came up with the following new categories
Now we can be a lot more passionate about and get more ideas on what to post about. After a month or so we will recheck our "website content" with google to see if this re-branding excercise worked.
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Hi Darren,
Great activity-will do asap -I'm a little behind, since being sick with the flu.
Keep smiling! @ Coolwired
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