Feb
7
Whenever I want to write a blog post, the first thing I do is to ask myself if there’s a topical issue that I currently want to discuss on my blog. If there’s not, the next thing that I do is go to my blog post notebook and search through the ideas I have compiled there in order to find a blog post that suits my current needs. That notebook is something that I put together as the result of several “blogstorming” sessions and it has never failed to be useful to me when it has come time to write a blog post.
Here are the steps I took to create a notebook full of potential blog post ideas:
• Set aside a chunk of time. I actively engaged in the process of blogstorming by setting aside a chunk of several hours in which I planned only to focus on coming up with a notebook full of ideas for future blog posts.
• General blog post brainstorming. I simply sat down and wrote out a list of all of the things that I could think of which would possibly make great blog topics. I attempted not to censor my ideas during this process.
• Organization. I then took each of these ideas and organized them into a series of topics so that I could see what areas I was focusing on in my brainstorming. As I did this, I came up with other blog ideas that fell under these same topics.
• Brainstorming topics. Once I had organized the entire original list, I did another brainstorming session. In this one, I brainstormed ideas for topics instead of for posts themselves. For example, my original set of blog post ideas resulted in broad topics including “writing tips” and “reading for writers”. In my topic brainstorming session, I added things like “being a green writer” and “how to find writing jobs”. I didn’t yet have any posts for these topics but I had the general idea down on paper.
• Brainstorming posts for these new topics. You guessed it, once I had new topics I had to start filling them in with ideas about what to post under each of these topics. I added things like “eight ways to be a green writer” and “how to find freelance jobs in your own community”.
• Inspired brainstorming. Once I had exhausted every post idea that came out of my own brain, I turned to my favorite bloggers for inspiration. I went to the blogs that are about topics similar to those on my blog and started reading through posts. As I read, I got ideas about posts that I’d like to write inspired by what they’d written. I jotted these down. When I was done, I went ahead and organized these ideas into the topic categories that I’d created before.
• Group brainstorming. After this was done, I got together with a group of writer friends and asked them to assist me in developing the list. Through discussion, we added new topics and new blog post ideas. (We eventually did this for everyone in the group.)
• Keyword lists. The final phase of my brainstorming session was to go through the list and to come up with a whole slew of keywords related to the topics and posts that I’d brainstormed. Once I had a keyword list, I looked at it to see if there were any additional keywords that I wanted to touch on but hadn’t. Surprisingly, “web 2.0” wasn’t anywhere in my initial set of post ideas. I added that as well as some others. As you might guess, I then generated topic and blog post ideas based on these keywords.
• Turn it into a notebook or spreadsheet. In order for this to be useful to me, it had to be organized. I originally created a spreadsheet which showed the categories I was interested in and then listed the posts within those categories that I wanted to write. I added a section for the keywords that I wanted to consider in each post. I later turned this into a handheld notebook because that was easier for me to flip through and use to my advantage.
• Rest and revise. I’ve gone back and done this process on two other occasions now in order to generate fresh ideas and expand what’s in the notebook.
Having a notebook filled with the ideas for my blog posts has helped me out as a blogger in a number of different ways. First of all, I’m never lacking for something to write because there’s always an idea I want to develop. Secondly, I feel that I am able to be more organized because of the organization I put into this notebook. I can easily see what topics I have dwelled on and which haven’t gotten any attention. This lets me broaden what I’m writing about on a regular basis and keep the general blog balanced for my readers. Additionally, I find that this notebook has helped me to write more about topics that truly motivate me. In the past, I would just write about the first thing that came to mind. Now I make a conscious decision about which of my ideas to develop next. As a blogger, I firmly believe that taking the time to do “blogstorming” on a regular basis can significantly benefit your work.
Related links: 101 Great Posting Ideas @ IHelpYou Blog, 10 Killer Post Ideas @ Peformancing, Places to Get Ideas for Blog Posts and 23 Great Ideas for Blog Posts
Question of the Day: What techniques do you use for coming up with blog post ideas?
You know as an ex-public school teacher, you would think I would practice what I had taught. Brainstorming was always one of our recommended pre-writing activities that I have forgotten to do myself.
I get a lot of ideas about blogging from other media sources such as magazines, social networking sites, and the front page of news sites.
It’s true that we often forget to do what we recommend that others should do with writing. I think it’s just because we get into our own habits and ways of doing things and forget to implement the other tools that are available to us, even if we’re perfectly aware of how important they are.
Thanks for mentioning magazines. I always forget to add them as a source of inspiration but I actually do have subscriptions to several of them and each issue is dog-eared as I read it because I get ideas for blog posts and articles while I’m flipping through them. That’s the most useful thing I’ve ever found to do on an airplane trip!